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    postRejoice!

    After several months I finally have a working CD player installed in the van. It turns out I was just missing a lead to tell a remote amp to turn on, as I had suspected.

    It wasn't all that easy, though. The adapter kit added so much extra wire that the new radio didn't want to fit in the dash. Trying to work the wires slide back further in to make room I busted a few wires off of one of the connectors, and ended up having to route around the connector. This means I won't be able to simply put the old radio back in one day. Not only that, but I blew a fuse when the connection broke, because at this point I had already hooked everything back up to make sure it worked.

    That's all taken care of now, but I'm still not done. This model van doesn't have a nice generic faceplate you can just pick up anywhere, and the radio still doesn't fit well. Fortunately I have seen kits online for a reasonable price that I should be able to use, but I'm gonna wait to buy one until after I figure out a way to anchor the radio in a little better.

    FYI, the post title has a double meaning, as Rejoice by Audio Adrenaline was the first song I heard on the new radio when I finally got everything put together.

    cars | joel
    posted by Joel Coehoorn on March 31, 2009 at 07:21 AM    Comments (1)

    postGas Prices, Part 3

    Oil fell by $5 over the weekend. According to my previous observations I should be predicting gas to fall by a dime in the next few days, but I'm not going to. (Incidently, it's up a nickel today.

    I have two reasons I won't make that prediction just yet. The first is that gas normally goes up a bit this time of year as demand starts to increase and refineries switch to their summer mixes. The other is that while I haven't been keeping formal statistics, my feel of the data is that the price doesn't fall quite as reliably as it rises. It will fall, but it might need to wait for oil to fall another $5 and then gas will drop $.20 over a couple weeks. Or it might need to stay this low for a few extra days before speculators settle down and allow it to fall. Or maybe oil companies are just a little greedy or careful about not lowering the price as quickly.

    But again, my feeling here after watching the price for a while is that I can't make a good prediction on this one just yet. Not that it won't drop, just that I can't predict it.

    joel | other
    posted by Joel Coehoorn on March 31, 2009 at 07:16 AM    Comments (1)

    postUnderstandably a bad dog

    We're trying to housebreak Roxie. And for the most part she's getting it. However, she does not like the snow. And since we got a couple inches on Saturday and Sunday, she decided that she didn't want to go outside to do her business - even after the snow started to melt.

    melody | Roxie
    posted by Melody Coehoorn on March 30, 2009 at 11:09 PM    Comments (0)

    postAlicism #4 - Pronouns can be confusing

    "I need to listen to you." Translation - Listen to me.

    Alice | melody
    posted by Melody Coehoorn on March 30, 2009 at 11:07 PM    Comments (0)

    postNew Toy

    I still lack a portable music player (aside from cell phone, which is cumbersome to use and won't attach to headphones), but now Melody at least has one.  We found an 8Gb Sansa for $45, and Melody bought it with some leftover Christmas money.

    joel
    posted by Joel Coehoorn on March 28, 2009 at 08:51 AM    Comments (1)

    postBad Dog

    We were going to have pizza for supper tonight.  Melody turned on the oven to preheat, got a couple frozen pizzas out of the freezer to thaw and unwrapped them, and then left for a few minutes to take care of something else. 

    Roxie siezed the opportunity and pulled one of the pizzas off the counter.  For her trouble she spent some time tied up outside.  We made other plans for supper.

    joel | Roxie
    posted by Joel Coehoorn on March 28, 2009 at 08:49 AM    Comments (0)

    postAlicism #3

    Canon in d == Candy

    Alice | joel
    posted by Joel Coehoorn on March 28, 2009 at 08:47 AM    Comments (0)

    postGas Prices: Redux

    On Monday I made the prediction that the price of gas in my area would rise from $1.999 to $2.099 by the time I drove home from work on Thursday, if not sooner.  So, it's Thursday evening.  How'd I do?

    Not too bad.  The current price here is now $2.089, a mark it reached yesterday.  So it only went up $.09 instead of $.10. In other words, my timing was spot on and I was only off by a penny.

    I think I did very well, since the oil price was just a hair lower than my $5 per $.10 rule of thumb and actually spent part of the week even lower.

    joel | other
    posted by Joel Coehoorn on March 27, 2009 at 05:13 AM    Comments (0)

    postGas Prices

    I put an Oil Price widget on my home page a while ago.  I'm also considering writing a little program that checks the closing oil and gas prices every day and saves them, so that later I can go back and do some statistical analysis.  That hasn't happened yet.  However, after frequently eye-balling prices for nearly a year (including the fall from the $140 high to it's current near-50 level),  I can say that all else being equal, a $5 change in the price of oil equates to a roughly $.10 change in the price at the pump. 

    Of course, this is highly un-scientific.  At best, it probably only holds in my local region of the country, and other forces often have a greater impact on the final price.  However, it's worth mentioning now because oil has risen about $5 over the last few days.  It's might be worth-while to top off your gas tanks in the next couple of days.

    The current local price is $1.999 per gallon.  If I'm right and if the price of oil holds steady, it will be $2.099 by the time I come home from work Thursday if not sooner.  I'll post back then and see what happens.

    joel | other
    posted by Joel Coehoorn on March 24, 2009 at 03:12 AM    Comments (0)

    postPiano

    Back at Christmas time my brother thought he had a piano lined up for us for Christmas, but it fell through at the last minute.  He kept looking though, and today he finally tracked one down — free to the first to come haul it away.  We rushed over to get it, and there is now a piano in the dining room.  It looks and sounds great.  Thanks, Jacob!

    house | joel
    posted by Joel Coehoorn on March 22, 2009 at 07:43 AM    Comments (1)

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