Friday, November 14, 2008

A couple of successes, but lousy weather

I’m not too happy with this weather. I understand it is rather typical for November, but that doesn’t make it any better. And the weather people on the TV hint that we could have snow by Thanksgiving. I’d just like some warmth and sunshine. The temperatures have been in the mid 40s although it’s 51 degrees at my house this morning, which three months from now would cause us to be thrilled at the warmth. The 40s we’ve had for the last couple of days have been downright cold.

Here’s another very, very short unauthorized commercial for Prime Toyota in Saco. I had my car inspection yesterday. I take my car to the dealer for one very simple reason: I’ve never been cheated there. They’ve earned my business and they get it. Yesterday was no exception. I went there knowing since last summer I needed tires to pass inspection. I also mentioned to them, tell me this isn’t an open invitation, that my brakes were “spongy.”

Since it was just lying there, I read the newspaper for the first time in a very long time. Yes, I know I mention the Press Herald here occasionally and even link you to a particular story, but that is always the on-line version. It was easy to see why the printed version might be losing readership. I tried to watch Rachel Raye on the big screen TV. To say that was boring would be an understatement.

Then the customer guy came looking for me. The brakes had been examined and adjusted. I only needed two tires. The rest of the inspection was flawless. I left for the price of two tires and the state inspection. Now that isn’t bad for a nine year old car, especially considering all I’ve read about super inspection ripoffs. Once again, Prime Toyota has a customer who definitely will return.

That success and surprise pumped me up so much that Gator Wife and I went to Best Buy in South Portland and bought a new camera. My old cheap point and shoot Olympus totally expired a day or two ago. Now I have an inexpensive Nikon Coolpix. It did cost just a bit more than the $25 I had wanted to spend. I haven’t mastered the thing yet, but here’s a close-up picture showing some of the detail in our Village pieces. As you can see, I’ve got to learn to keep the camera straight. The picture isn’t here isn't straight, but I wanted to publish this new camera’s first attempt on our project.


For all of my picture taking life, until yesterday, I’ve used the view finder on the camera. This new one doesn’t have an eye view finder and I have to frame my picture using the screen on the back. As you can see, I need some practice.

The weekend is upon us tomorrow. We’ll be working on the second section of the village and camera and I will have some progress pictures for you Monday.

GiM

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