UPS = FAIL

Once again UPS blows another scheduled delivery date. You would think that they could manage to make the 321 miles between Spokane, Washington and John Day, Oregon in two days.

Turns out it took them 2 days to get to Hermiston (173 miles) and will take them another day to go the remaining 148, if I'm lucky that is.

OPB TV Translators and Digital

Oregon Public Broadcasting's web page for rural translator users still doesn't show any translators being converted to DTV so I decided to check up on them.

According to FCC records OPB has only gotten permits for 4 out of 40 or so translators to convert to digital. They are:

• K17GK - Arlington


• K23GK - Astoria


• K26FQ - John Day


• K28JC - Enterprise

I wonder why those four? Good to see John Day on the list but then again those permits are good for 3 years.

Red Lion Hotel vs License Plate

If getting a cold while in Austria wasn't bad enough, a construction crew working at AirPark ripped off my front license plate. They must of hit it with some equipment because there is paint missing from a couple of the letters and it was bent in some. They shoved the plate into the front grill and the lower frame bracket was left dangling:


My truck was parked at the Red Lion Hotel Portland Airport which has long term parking, the area I was parked was adjacent to AirPark. The hotel called AirPark and asked them about a license plate on a red F-150 and they know about it.

I'm going to send Red Lion an invoice for the $13.30 for the new frame and $5.00 for labor and see if they have enough class to pay.

Spanish Riding School

On Saturday I went to a performance of the Spanish Riding School. Even though I bought my ticket 5 weeks in advance all I could get were the shit seats 2.5 stories above the horses and along the long edge so I could only see half the performance area. If that's all you can get, don't even bother.


I would have to say I got a better show at Herrmann's Royal Lipizzan Stallions in North Hero, Vermont. Not as flashy but at least you could see the horses.

Conrad Observatory

During the Quanterra Users Group meeting in Vienna we took a bus ride (actually two buses - one for highway, one for mountain climbing) up to Conrad Observatory. The area reminded me a lot of Vermont. The observatory is build into the side of the mountain for maximum stability, front view:


They must get some extreme weather, note the diamond plate shutters and doors: <

George Bush declares martial law

Quicktime Movie

Retro iPhone

OK, I was bored. Saw this hack someplace on the web and just thought the iPhone was too modern and needed to be brought back to earth. The old payphone dialer:

Three Day Event

Actually it was a 2 day event at Tauherenikau racecourse. Dressage on Saturday then the cross country and showjumping on Sunday. I watched the last of the cross country and one round of showjumping.

Haven't been to one of those since I lived in Vermont and used to work as a fence judge.

Security Theater

Saw this on Fark.com and thought it was appropriate considering my trip to New Zealand next week.