02 May 09 08:03, Roger Nelson wrote to Roy Witt:


 RW>> I wonder that every time I have to go down there.

 RN> And people complain about the cost of insurance without realizing
 RN> what you and I already know.

Mine comes up for renewal this month. If they don't lower the premium, I'm
moving on. Already have a quote for less.

 RW>> I-35 N Exit 189 >__________________________________>I-35 N Entrance
 RW>> Frontage RD Traffic lane___vvMerge
 RW>> herevvvvv^^^^^____________________> Frontage RD Traffic
 RW>> lane_____________________________________________> T right turn only
 RW>> to frontage rd My Street__________________|

 RN> Nice drawing.  Now I understand, even though someone in the house was
 RN> up at 02:30 frying bacon.  (-:

I don't eat the stuff, so that wouldn't bother me.

 RW>> RN> I believe it was a race to see who could get to the Lake
 RW>> RN> Pontchartrain Causeway first.

 RW>> Sounds similar...

 RN> Although people are vastly different, they seem to become a singular
 RN> person behind the wheel of a car.

And a lot different person than they were on foot.

 RW>> I'm used to California, where traffic on the freeway has the right
 RW>> of way and any merging traffic must yield to it  - and the traffic
 RW>> off the freeway has the right of way and exiting freeway traffic
 RW>> must yield to it.

 RN> Right, with the exception that many exits off a freeway have stop
 RN> and/or yield signs on the bottom of the ramp at the intersection.

Not here...the stop or yield signs are for the local traffic.

 RW>> The former usually doesn't have a problem merging, as California
 RW>> freeways have clover leafs and merge lanes.

 RN> I'm trying to remember the highway structure during my one week stay
 RN> in Houston back in the Sixties.  Superslab just about everywhere you
 RN> wanted to go.

And a crazy place to have to drive.

 RN> At the time, it rained every day and it was costing $10,000 per day,
 RN> from what I was told, to pump rain water out of the hole in the
 RN> ground where the Astrodome was being built.  That seems like an
 RN> extreme amount of money just to run some pumps.

Union labor...

 RN> I came back here after realizing I was out of place there.  I did
 RN> meet up with a couple of female friends while there.

I was there for only a couple of hours and figured that out. Another Los
Angeles I don't need.

 RW>> The latter allows traffic to flow on either roadway, while here, it
 RW>> just jams up the local traffic lanes. This is an even bigger problem
 RW>> in San Antonio.

 RN> It's about the same in New Orleans.  Not so much here because we
 RN> don't have quite the population or the culture centers that N.O. has.
 RN> I'm often tempted to go back for a visit just to see what Katrina did
 RN> to the two houses I lived in near the lakefront, but so far have
 RN> resisted the urge.

Last time I was in San Diego I asked myself, what am I doing here?

 RW>> They've just recently been made aware of that by the implementation
 RW>> of radar units now sitting in the parking lot next to my street
 RW>> entrance. My complaints didn't fall on deaf ears afterall.

 RN> Justice came to you after all!  (-:

Yeup...out of curiosity at first sight, I stopped and asked what they were
allowing and what they were ticketing for. Allowing 85mph on the freeway,
65mph on the off ramp and 55mph in the 45 limit. Then later, it became
45mph in the 45 limit zone.

 RW>> To New Braunfels? He's from Germany, she's a Texan. She went to
 RW>> Europe to attend college and met him there. With his help, she
 RW>> became a quick learner and her college language course was easy.

 RN> I suggested that because I've been told that there is a large German
 RN> community in New Braunfels.

Yes it is and they keep a tradition going all year long. The town began as
a German immigrant settlement, funded by a German Prince, named Solms. I'm
told that up until the 1960s, everyone spoke German here.

 RN>  I almost went there once to escort some high school kids on a one
 RN> week field trip.  The guy who took my place died a few months after
 RN> their return.

Not from something he got here, I hope.

 RW>> Austin is 45 from here, SA is 25 from here. 70miles or so. At
 RW>> freeway speeds of 70mph, that can be less than an hour.

 RN> I'm just guessing, but I thought Austin would have been closer to 100
 RN> miles from S.A.

I suppose it could be if you're starting out from the south side of SA.

 RW>> Like me. Sometimes I just go for a ride during the day, just to see
 RW>> what's happening around town. Maybe take the dog and walk in the
 RW>> park, or next to the river.

 RN> I have to take my Lincoln in next week to find out about the problem
 RN> I'm having with the steering.  I looked through the owner's manual
 RN> and it states "Do not hold the steering wheel all the way over to one
 RN> side or another for more than 5 seconds as that would damage the
 RN> steering assembly (rack and pinion)."

Yeup, the extra pressure could blow some seals. That happens on regular
steering as well, just not as easily.

 RN> What a piece of junk steering to put in a luxury car! Makes my blood
 RN> boil because at times you have to hold it that long or even longer.

I 'bounce' the steering wheel off the stop in those cases. You can hear
the difference where you're on the stop and the pump is working harder
than it would be if it weren't against the stop.

 RW>> Kinda like being in the service and stationed in a remote area with
 RW>> no place that you can go.

 RN> It would be almost as bad as Adak, Alaska.  So far out in the Gulf on
 RN> a rig where you're subjected to bad weather, a dangerous work
 RN> environment, being quartered with a bunch of nut jobs who stay up
 RN> till 2 or 3 in the morning playing cards and I'm in my bunk nearly
 RN> freezing becaause the sweathogs have the thermostat as low as they
 RN> can get it and then getting up to go to work at 5am until 5pm with
 RN> these same guys really kept me on my toes. After the third month, I
 RN> told the boss I wasn't coming back and I fell asleep on the
 RN> helicopter ride back to civilization.  Got a nice job on the
 RN> riverfront after that, thanks to some friends.

Not something I would enjoy...but the riverfront job might be.

 RW>> I used to with nothing to eat...then I began having stomach acid
 RW>> probs. These days I have a maximum two cups of coffee with my
 RW>> breakfast and nothing more.

 RN> I have four cups in the morning.  Sometimes I'll make a second pot,
 RN> but that is rare.  At least I now know why breakfast is the most
 RN> important meal of the day.

Heh! We still have half of half a pound of coffee given to us when we
moved in this house. That was 2005. Pulled it out of the refrigerator for
Thanksgiving and it was still good stuff.

 RW>> That was a 1964 El Camino in 1976 and he was 5 or 6 years old...

 RN> I've been looking all over for an El Camino in good shape.  I found
 RN> one locally, but the guy won't part with it and he doesn't even use
 RN> it.  It just sits in his garage.  I may ask him again.

A friend of mine who owns an alignment and muffler shop here has a cherry
1966 El Camino with the buckets and console in it. He wants to trade it
for my 98 Z28, but I'm reluctant to do so. His son owns a body shop, so
there's nothing wrong with the car, even has a rebuilt 350 in it, but I
don't want an El Camino. I sold mine and replaced it with a pickup and
never looked back.

I would trade my Z28 for a 1966 Chevelle SS though.

 RN>   That would be a perfect car for me at this stage, although I hasten
 RN> to add that owning any GM product now would leave a bad taste in my
 RN> mouth and I've owned Chevys most of my life.

Owning a classic GM product shouldn't bother you...they have nothing in
common with the company today, save for the name.

 RN> What those guys are doing now is silly to me.

They screwed up by asking for government aid...you'll notice Ford wasn't
that stupid and is doing just fine without it.

 RN> I haven't been able to find a Ford Ranchero, either.

They're around, you just have to keep looking. Although, they were
uni-bodies and may not be as stout as the El Camino with a frame under it.

 RW>> I haven't heard that. We don't have DirecTV, we have Dishnet...not
 RW>> that it would make any difference if they wanted to increase the tax
 RW>> on sat TV.

 RN> My take on it is that DirecTV made some enemies in the satellite
 RN> industry where TV is concerned and someone or some entities are using
 RN> their political muscle to put the hurt on them.

That figures...I wasn't a fan of theirs when I had their service in San
Diego.

 RN> I noticed some ads running recently by Dishnetwork stating how much
 RN> cheaper it would be to switch to them at just 19.95.  The catch?

The catch is that for the price, you only get the basic channels, 100 of
them.

 RN> There is more than one, but that is the rate for 6 months and they
 RN> won't advertise what the rate would be after that.

We have their 200 channel package for $49.95/mo, no premium movie
channels...they also offer 250 channels, including all of the premium
movie channels, for $99.95/mo...I block quite a few of the channels that
don't appeal to me, such as CNN, MSNBC and all of the religion and auction
channels. I wish they'd offer a pick and choose package, because I can
probably put all of the channels we watch into a 100 channel package.

                R\%/itt




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