Month: February 2010

Tall Tales and Group Camaraderie

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on Tall Tales and Group Camaraderie
Miscellaneous

I thoroughly enjoyed the paddling trip with the Greenville Canoe/Kayak Meetup. However, it just wasn’t the same as paddling with some of my informal group of friends, or even with Lowcountry Unfiltered. Don’t get me wrong. This was a great group of people, and I loved meeting them. When we hit the river, it was … Read More “Tall Tales and Group Camaraderie” »

Paddling the Tugaloo River

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on Paddling the Tugaloo River
Paddling

Alan paddling

I hate that I missed the paddling trip down Ebenezer Creek with Lowcountry Unfiltered a couple of weeks ago. I really wanted to get on the water. So, when the Greenville Canoe and Kayak Meetup group sent out an e-mail notice of a trip down the Tugaloo River, I decided to join them.

Alan decided to come along, and I was happy to have at least one person I knew along on the trip.  We set out from Greenville and met the group at an Ingles parking lot in Westminster.   22 had signed up for the trip, and the collection of vehicles with boats on top indicated that this would be a large group.

A skeptical policeman dropped by and questioned our sanity for wanting to paddle in such cold weather.

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Adventures in Used Autoland

Posted on By Tom 2 Comments on Adventures in Used Autoland
Miscellaneous, Rants

I believe I mentioned that my truck died. The cost to repair it would have been more than I what I would pay for a new truck. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to replace the truck, but it was Laura who talked me into it, saying that she liked having a third vehicle available.  It just had to be a small one she could drive to get gardening stuff. So, we set a budget for that amount and decided to see what we could get.

I had already test-driven a couple of trucks and had some candidates in mind. I had looked through the papers, and I had checked several online websites. Having done my research, I felt like I had a fairly good grasp of the market for small pickups, so on Saturday I set out to see what was really available. I did get a truck, but I’ll save that for last

Used car dealers run the gamut, from cliched plaid jacket wearing caricatures to some decent folks just trying to make a living selling cars. I think I ran into just about all of them. I stopped at one place where the salesman puffed a cigarette the entire time. He apologized, saying that the only time they are allowed to smoke was when they were out on the lot with customers. What??? I left.

I stopped at several little lots along Poinsett Highway. On close inspection, the little trucks on their lots led rough lives. It was a good thing that no one came out to answer questions or let me take a test drive.  Eventually I made my way to Toyota of Greer.  This is where things really took a turn for the bizarre.

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Schwaben House

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on Schwaben House
Restaurants

Schwaben House

I was on my own for dinner tonight, so I decided to try the only German restaurant in town, Schwaben House.

Background

Annette Heilmann-Ferro and Karl Heilmann, a brother and sister team, opened Schwaben House a year ago in February of 2009.  It’s located on Pelham Road in what used to be the Kabob House.

Schwabia is a region of Southern Germany that includes Bavaria.  As its name implies, the restaurant features cuisine from this area.

Atmosphere

So many German restaurants have rich wood finishes and paneling for that “Bavarian” feel.  That’s just not the case here.  The walls are light with a aqua green wainscot.  There are bits of Bavarian decor, but these don’t dominate the place.

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Bing, Buzz, Bip Bop Boo

Posted on By Tom No Comments on Bing, Buzz, Bip Bop Boo
Internet, Rants

Social_Icons

What’s the buzz, tell me what’s a-happenin’,
What’s the buzz, tell me what’s a-happenin’,
What’s the buzz, tell me what’s a-happenin’,
What’s the buzz, tell me what’s a-happenin’,

Why should you want to know?
Don’t you mind about the future?
Don’t you try to think ahead?
Save tomorrow for tomorrow;
Think about today instead.

– “What’s the Buzz?” from Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Back in the Good Ol’ Days „¢, AOL had dominance in the online world. It started as a self-contained entity with its own news, shopping, and social interactions. The “Internet” was this other stuff that you had to pay extra to get to on a per minute basis, unless you purchased AOL’s more expensive unlimited plan. In fact, less savvy users often thought that AOL WAS the Internet, and couldn’t imagine accessing information through any other method. Browser? What’s a browser?

Fast forward a decade or so and we like to think we’re so much better off with so many options, especially within the realm of searching and social networking. However, there’s much evidence today’s social networking corporations have the same attitudes as AOL did. They only want you to play in their sandbox.

Bing

Let’s start alphabetically with Bing.com. While not a social networking site, they have inherited all of the exclusivity of their parent company, Microsoft. They have even invented their own malady, Search Engine Overload, to scare others toward their “decision” engine.” I think what sent me over the edge was when I tried to install their Bing 3D Maps, supposedly their answer to Google Earth. I go the following message:

Make Bing my default search engine and prevent other programs from interfering with my choice.

If I had checked that box I would have been locked into Bing permanently, I guess. The second part of that statement, “interfering with my choice,” is deliberately misleading. If you click this box, you have no choice.

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