Energy Issues ... on my truck

Weird stuff going on with my Ford F-150 pickup last few days. The last few afternoons when I would go to start my truck and drive home from work, it would crank and start fine, but would immediately die at idle. Interesting side note: it is quite challenging to try to drive home on an interstate in rush-hour / stop-and-go traffic without ever letting your engine RPMs drop to a full idle! Coming to a stop required a combo of braking with slight foot on gas to keep engine from dying.

I thought maybe my battery was going bad, but took it in to an Auto Zone last night and they said it was OK.

I also had noticed that the charging system indicator light came on. So I took it to my local garage (Southwest Automotive) this morning, and they explained that that light explicitly means that the battery is fine, but most likely a bad alternator. In fact, they just called me and said the alternator is indeed the problem and needs to be replaced ("only" $450 -- sigh). So of course, what does that warning light that means you have a bad alternator and NOT a bad battery look like?

Like this:

Feeling the Pain

Oh, man, am I glad retirement is a long ways away. I really hope some of these mutual fund managers I have money in in my 401k (I guess yesterday's joke about a 101k is now down to about a 094k) are getting finding REALLY good deals.

Unfortunate company name

I was driving home on I-35 after work last night and passed a work truck with the following company name: Moore Erection, L.P. Link here.

If you hire this company and you experience a job that lasts longer than 4 hours, you should contact your physician immediately.

Vote early and often

OK, in Hays county, TX, I can vote early (link here for info). As for "often", I have not yet found a link with info on how to do that...

Texas / OU

So I hear that there's some college football game coming up this weekend? In Dallas?

Seriously, I really want to beat OU this weekend. Somehow this game has always felt like a slight road game for Texas lately. It seems like OU is more ready to get their fans more fired up, seem to be hitting harder, etc. Hell, this game is in OUR state, and our fans need to act like it.

Here are Eric's Keys to Beating OU:

1) Can Texas get pressure on and sack Bradford?
In last few losses to OU (and A&M for that matter), Texas has not been the aggressor physically. We need to come out HITTING and lay the lumber to the Okies. Bradford needs needs to begin to fear Orakpo's footsteps comin'! Make the sooners realize early that they're in for a tough one.

2) Can Texas establish the run?
Texas O-line will need to prove they can move the ball, push Oklahoma back, and keep OU defense "honest". Texas offense can't be one-dimensional. If we just try to throw and OU d-line can just pin ears back and go for sacks of McCoy, UT is probably screwed. Hopefully McCoy can channel Peter Gardere or Major Applewhite instead of Chris Simms...

Statesman says that the key to the game is neither of the two things above. See here.

Man, how cool would it be if Texas came out and laid a 63-14 type whippin' on them like OU did to Texas a few years ago? Well, a guy can dream...

It's 3:07pm, and OU STILL SUCKS!

Dinner with good friends, Hendrick's gin, plugging their blogs

As kind of a bright spot in a rather rough last few weeks, Natasha and I had good friends Wes and Corey over for dinner / drinks Saturday night. Because of economic issues, I didn't make a bunch of 100% agave margaritas and steaks, but kept it to gin-and-tonics (my recipe here), Izze-politans (see here), and pizza, and we also had the wine they brought.

We had a really nice visit, especially after our kids went to bed (our kids were kind of loud and hyper having company over and made it tough to relax and visit earlier). We'd all been so busy lately that we had not visited much the last 4-5 weeks, and we'd missed it. I also used the occasion to get rid of the last of my Hendrick's gin -- it's good quality stuff, it just has some unusual flavors that I don't quite like in my gin taste. In fact, the label on the back of the bottle even says that it has some unusual flavors compared to more traditional gin and that "IT IS NOT FOR EVERYONE" (it's in all-caps on the bottle). I find this statement to be true. Link here for more info. So I made gin-and-tonics for Wes (who'd recommended the Hendrick's) and Corey, and all were happy.

Wes said they had tried making a tequila-and-tonic on a lark and really liked it -- I'm not sure that I'm willing to try that yet with my good tequila ... maybe I'll try it with some Hornitos someday.

See here for Wes' blog, and here for Corey's.

My 401k is now a 101k

Joke in the title courtesy of my colleague David Clegg. OK, so now this market feels EVEN MORE like a bottom from earlier in the day (as of this posting S&P 500 is down 8.0% just today). The run of difficult challenges in my life the last few weeks is getting a little comical. To wit:

-- Got put on to a crisis project that has me presenting in front of corporate officer level people (although this may work out to be really GOOD news if this visibility resulting from this helps my career or keeps me from a layoff...). But still stressful.
-- Recent church conference during work week was fun, but very hard work and taking long time to "recover" from. Had nice visit Sat night with good friends Wes and Corey, and they felt the same way after that conference.
-- Drummer leaves the band for indefinite leave.
-- Everyone in our family deals with a horrible stomach virus.
-- I get serious migraine that takes me out for 2-3 days.
-- Worst stock market in 20 years.
-- Obama up in polls, McCain not doing anything about it (he seems to forget that this election is a competition against an actual opponent who wants to beat him).
-- Freescale selling off or curtailing about 20% of its business (cell phone chips). See link to story here. Possible risk of layoffs?
-- Have to stop eating out (money issues).

This last one is a recent realization on my part. This is kind of tough, because eating out is one of our big stress outlets and entertainment options right now, and one that our two small kids enjoy. But I don't want to put car or house repairs on a credit card, so something's gotta give.

But, hey, at least I still am likely to have a job (the cuts at Freescale are not in the business group I support) and we're all healthy at home now. So I'm optimistic that the above bullets are just the darkness before the dawn!