It's Friday again...

So you probably know what's comin'.



Plans are to head over to Salado and get my hair cut at about 4:30. Need to be purdy for the road. Actually, my usual 6 weeks are up and it's time to get sheared. Plus, I always look forward to seein' my cousin Peggy. She's a hoot.

After I get all cleaned up and sheared we'll drive up to Temple, pick up mom and head over to Dynasty for the big Chinese buffet feed. I haven't been there in a good while, so you know I'm lookin' forward to it.

Aside from all that, I got up early this mornin' to get out in the garage and install my new satellite radio before the temperatures climbed into the "Oh shit, it's hot" range. I just about made it too. I just got the whole thing finished and it's only 95.

My system is a Sirious InV2 radio, with an external FM antenna that's supposed to boost the FM signal going to the satellite radio. My car stereo doesn't have a plug in it to allow me to wire the thing directly into the system. I can't find my old cassette adapter, and I don't know how to wire the thing into the back of my stereo, so this is the way I had to go.

I got the thing installed, running the antenna wire through the window duct and through the trunk, up to the front dash. I mounted it in what seems to be the perfect place, just below the radio, with the mounting bracket stuck to the ash tray (which I use as a trash can). Mounting it this way means I can still use the ash tray, and I can still toss my cigar cutter and lighter and other sundry crap in the space on the dash below the radio. It's perfect. I'm proud of myself, the way I figured out how to hide the wires and all. I guess all that experience changing out car stereos and speakers in those old Firebirds and Camaros in the '70s finally came in handy.

Thing is, I'm havin' a hell of a time finding an FM channel around here to run the satellite radio through. It seems like ever tick of the dial has ether a channel or some bleed though from another channel. The lady on the phone from Sirious said I needed a channel with "pure static" Well hell, I don't think there is one! I drive around the neighborhood changin' the FM channels and resetting the Sirious receiver and the radio still has a little static comin' through. Drives me nits!

I'm hopin' that all of this will fade away when we get the car out on the open road. Maybe then the static will fade away and the thing'll work the way I expect it to. If not, hell, I'll just take it to some fuckin' kid at Best Buy or somethin' and have him wire the thing directly into the radio. Anyway, it should make the drives to and from San Saba a bit more interesting.

Did I tell you how I got the radio? Denise gave it to me for my birthday last year. Yep, it's been sittin' there since last November, waitin' for me to go out and put it in the car. It took this upcoming road trip to inspire me to go out and tackle the job. Now that it's done I'm pretty happy with myself.

Yep, road trip. The annual drive back east to see the folks is commin' up. There'll be more about that in Sundays post. Suffice to say that I'll be away from home for two weeks. It should be a lot of fun. We've got some good times planned. I'll be takin' pictures of it all, as you might have guessed, so you'll get a full report in the wake of it all.

So, it's time to clean up. Denise should be gettin' home from work soon, and then we'll be off to the shearin'. Then I'll see if I can dive directly into a vat of the Generals chicken. Hot, sweet, steamin' goodness. Mmmmm. You think they'll have me back after? We'll see. Cheers!