Snowy Dog Park

The winter has been very warm and dry here in Denver, for the most part. Just when when Conan and I had gotten used to running around the local dog park in a t-shirt (me, not him...), things got nasty. Several winter storms in a row, with lots of snow and sub-zero temperatures. We never let a little weather get us down, though. One of Conan's very favorite things is to running around in fresh snow!

New Toy, Cont'd

Had a great time working on the odd little car over the weekend, with freaky warm weather. Almost February, and I was with Conan at the dog park in jeans and a t-shirt, wishing for shorts! Spent some real zen time taking the new little car apart and moving toward getting it running. Gunther and Jimmy watched from the dining room window, and Conan was tied to the porch during the great weather. The weather took a wicked turn, and it's crazy cold and snowy now. My usual 25-minute commute was over an hour coming home on icy roads today.  We've had a very summer-like winter so far, so I'm not complaining.
The little car is an interesting story. The seller is involved in software testing, like me. He drives a Jetta, like me. I used AAA to tow the car over to my house (five blocks, free). The tow truck driver noted that the little green car has a 'Ceasar's Auto' decal. He said that was the first dealer where he ever worked as a mechanic. Now defunct, it was about seven blocks from my house. It also came out that he drives the same kind of daily driver as mine-- a VW turbo diesel Jetta. That's a pretty exclusive, tight-knit group of car geeks, for the most part. He gave me a couple of tips about my car, and I told him about the work I had been doing to mine.

The paint job on the little car is a bit odd. It's dark metallic green, with a white faded front end, with pretty intricate, multi-toned gold maple leaves all over it. I wouldn't have paid good money to have that put on, but it's a pro job. The interior is in almost factory-new shape. Not sure how that happened, sitting in the hot sun for seven years and all.

New Toy

I've been getting back into an old mode of appreciating and modifying cars lately. With all my travel to the Antarctic, and other places around the world, my life-long interest in cars has been offline for a while. With a really fast motorcycle, the cars went even farther into the background. With Conan constantly with me, the bike has gotten pretty much zero time.

Now that I've gotten a cubicle job, and haven't had much use for the bike, I've gotten the car bug again. I've put as much money into my VW TDI as I plan to for a while, so I've got some extra energy for projects.

There is a great dog park about four blocks from my house, that Conan and I frequent practically every day. There was this little old Honda CRX parked in a yard just outside the dog park. I spied it from our dog park outings, and wondered if it might be a fun car to fix up. This is a high school kid's dream car, so I figured that they were hanging onto it. I couldn't imagine that they were open to selling it, and it still was there. I stopped by just after dark one day, and let them know that I was possibly interested.

Long story short, I picked up the car for $300! It hasn't run since '04, but it looks good. I've been spending the last couple of days working on the (seized) brakes, and scraping the nasty amateur tinting from the windows. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this car, but I love it to death. I've always wanted one of these. So far, I have less than $320 invested in it, and I'm guessing I could sell it for parts for $500, or running for as much as $1500. More to come!

Buddy, Betty, Jimmy, and Gunther

Well, since my new cats are now about 14 weeks old, it is definitely time to get them fixed. Just to have a bit of fun with the folks as the Dumb Friend's League, I let them keep the original names of records for the kittens, Buddy (black tabby), and Betty (brown tabby). It was immediately evident on taking Buddy and Betty home, that Betty is, in fact, a boy. Not sure how that got past the highly competent vet techs at the buddy center... While they were getting altered, I took my new-to-me Jetta Turbo Diesel for a highway fuel efficiency test. I drove from the Buddy Center down in Castle Rock down to Trinidad, CO, and back without stopping. 45 MPG+ for the round trip! Not bad. I love the car. I'm just trying to resist spending a bunch of money making it faster-- rather reserving it for a high-fuel-efficiency commuter car. On my test lap, I went around 360 miles at 70-80 MPH without stopping. Took a little over half a tank. These little TDIs are really amazing. Here are some pics of the kittens getting bigger-- taken a week or so before I took the little buggers in to get 'altered'. By the way, they didn't seem to be too bothered by having their manly parts removed. I had hoped that it would mellow them out for a day or two. Yeah, right. I got the four AM face pouncing just like I always do. If they aren't trying to rid the world of imaginary eyelash spiders, they fancy a bit of a drag race across my countenance each morn. Bitches.

By the way, I've decided that Buddy's real name is Jimmy, and Betty's name is Gunther. I've tried all other names, and they just don't stick. Betty was to be Brutus for a while, then Bruno. I couldn't remember the names, which told me that they were not right. Gunther, though, is right. Not sure why. If any of you have good name suggestions for the cats, bring it on. I'm flexible, and the cats don't care what I call them.

Surrendered Man License

Well, I've had to turn my Man Card in. I am a member of a listserv of folks who have Cardigan and Pembroke Welsh Corgis. There is a "Secret Santa" list, and I signed up this year. Those of you who have followed my blog know that I'm really close with my Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Conan. I'd hoped to hook up with other like-minded corgi 'owners' in the area, since they are the best dogs in the world. I received my Secret Santa assignment, and decided to make some custom pottery doggie dishes for Forrest and Morgan, two older corgis living in the south. I actually spent a Friday night at a paint-your-own-pottery store in old town Littleton, stenciling little paw marks on semi-fired pottery bowls for my SS assignment. I knew that doing so would seriously endanger my Man License, but I didn't quit in time. After all, real men don't spend their Friday nights painting pottery, and they certainly don't paint little doggie pawprints and bunnies on some bowls for some unknown chick's dogs in North Carolina. I think I may have to watch Fight Club six times, or eat some nails or something to get my status back as a self-respecting American male. It is all just so embarrassing.  

Kittens!

I want to apologize to any folks that follow this blog for any cool Antarctica content-- not much lately. I'll continue to document the cool new stuff that is happening in my life, and I'll weave Antarctica content into it when I can.

I've had cats for much of my life, but have adopted out my favorite recent cats to friends in order to pursue ice jobs over the last few years. Now that I'm settled down, I have been thinking a lot about expanding the Lee/Conan household to include a cat... I've decided to lay low for Thanksgiving weekend, which gave me enough leisure time to browse some cat rescues and 'pounds' today. At the Dumb Friends League Buddy Center in Castle Rock today, I found my newest roommates. A couple of mutt cats. 'Buddy' was listed as a two-month-old black domestic shorthair, but he's actually a black tabby. I've had quite a few black cats in my life, and I've noticed with several of them that their hair actually has a tabby pattern to it, if viewed in the right light. Buddy is really about three tones of black in a stripy pattern-- very cool. Betty is the same size and age, though the paperwork didn't show that they were littermates. Just dropped off at the same time.

One of the reasons I've been thinking of getting a cat again is that Conan spends all nine or ten hours a weekday here in the house, just waiting for me to get home again. That usually means a trip to the dog park, and making amends for those hours of solitude. I thought if he had a cat (or two) bopping around the house all day, that might make the waiting more tolerable. He gets nearly no mental stimulation for the whole time I'm at work, and I can really see it in his behavior when I get home.

I picked up the kittens today, and they've been bouncing around the house with Conan all evening. He grew up with cats, so he's very respectful of them. I think there are memories of claws to nose that are keeping him in line. It's interesting-- cats are such incredibly smart and adaptive predators, but their 'smarts' are so different from dogs. This transition from thirty years of being a cat guy, to a dog guy, to a dog-and-cat-guy are showing me some interesting variations in the way we all think. Conan is a very bright dog, and he surprises me every day with his facility for language and memorization. That being said, I've got to witness today that a cat a tenth of his size (probably way less...) could figure out how to get where they wanted to go in the house in seconds, where he may have never worked it out. Math, though.... dogs are much better at math.

I hope to post some more pictures of the new house and expanded family soon. I've been having some technical difficulties recently, which have prevented me from posting great pics...

New Wheels!

Sorry Antarcticans-- no Antarctica content in this one. I'm getting more settled into my wee Englewood bungalow, and getting more used to the sub-urban (not quite suburban) lifestyle. Englewood feels a lot more like a small town than a suburb. I'm really liking it here. I still have about a half-hour commute to the office and back every day, and I've been doing it in my trusty old 2000 Tundra. Burning up a lot of gas, just commuting, and tons more when I visit friends in Montana and Arizona, and other road trips.

I've been thinking about getting a small car that gets good mileage, to take the heat off the ol' pickup, and to save bucks on gas. I've shopped the hell out of cars for the last couple of weeks, and found my ride. It's an '03 VW Jetta TDI (turbo diesel). It has nearly 100k on it, but it just got about three grand worth of engine work (new turbo/ manifold and new oil pan). These cars get about 50MPG in the city, and around 55MPG on the highway. I've had turbocharged cars before, so I know how to keep the car in its powerband and happy, so it's actually a pretty perky ride. It's not screaming fast, but I have a motorcycle for that. I can't wait to experience my first 600 mile tank! It's the GLS model, so it has the power sunroof, heated seats, heated mirrors, etc. Of all the options I would ever want on a car, heated seats are near the top. It's great to get in a cold car on a winter morning, and have a warm butt before my tires hit the street.

I've always been skeptical of VWs, having had a couple that were really crap. I'm willing to give them another chance here-- it could be that I've just driven them like a rented mule before, and broke them often. I'll try to be civilized with this one...