Dan over at SK8 Jesus has a well-written recap of a drive he took the other day.

I can totally empathise with the feeling: “no matter how lonely or depressed I might feel, there is always one thing that will cheer me up: Racing someone…”

I don’t get to do it much anymore on account of all the kids I’m usually carrying, but I sure do remember that feeling.

Here in Richmond we got 11 inches of rain in 9 hours yesterday from the remnants of Hurricane Gaston. There was major flash flooding all around the Richmond area with the bulk of the rain falling during rush hour. My normal 20 minute commute home took 3 hours; and I was lucky. No trees fell on my house and I had power when I got home. Shockoe Bottom was completely flooded out. Water was shooting a foot up into the air out of the storm drains in the parking garages. Manhole covers were pushed up out of their holes. Do you know how heavy a manhole cover is? It was ridiculous.

5 feet of water in the 1st floor of Bottoms Up Pizza. 8-10 feet of water at the Bottom’s lowest points. They had a mandatory evacuation of people downstream of the Falling Creek dam (on the Southside of town) because the water in the reservoir was at an historic high level. People had feet of water in their basements and homes. We got home a little soggy and tired and we had power. We lucked out.

Of the 7 hurricanes so far this season, I’ve gotten wet from 4 of them. And the fiasco from Isabel is still a little too fresh in my memory.

Note to Mother Nature: I get it. Hurricanes are dangerous. Can you send a few back out into the Atlantic for me? Thanks.

9/11 toy found inside candy bags

“I hate to blame the importer. He probably did not know what he was getting. He brings them in 40-foot containers. But whoever made it knew exactly what they were making,” Pedron said.

Pedron said Lisy did not notice the small plastic figurines until two people complained, but there is no mistaking what the toys represent: At the bottom of each is the product number 9011.

Nicked from CNN

I will never, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever jump out of an airplane.

Skydiver survives 11,500-foot plunge.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – A South African skydiver survived a 11,500-foot plunge after her parachute failed to open and lines broke on her reserve chute, a local skydiving club said on Monday.

The Johannesburg Star newspaper quoted McKenzie, an experienced skydiver, as saying from her hospital bed, “I’ll jump again.”

[from MSNBC]

Chinese kidnapper shot by cop (here’s a link if you can read Chinese).

[found the link at Boing Boing]

Campaign Songs is the work of an anonymous Congressional staffer. Near as I can tell, it’s Presidential campaign samples over electronic beats. I’ve only gotten to listen to bits of some of them since I’m at work and I am intrigued enough to give all of them a full listen at home.

[found the link at Boing Boing]

Nothing says “I love you” like a pair of retro NES controller hotpants.

Nicked from Engadget

This is it.

Hopefully I’ve gotten it uploaded correctly.

If you have any trouble with it let me know.

If this one works I’ll get right to posting all of those songs I’ve been promising.

This has had me giggling all week. I know, I am simple.

[photo by Mike over at Satan's Laundromat, a terrific photo blog]

I was away on a golf trip from Wednesday to Sunday last week. The Dumpitational (I didn’t name it) is basically a golf trip for 16 guys, we just spice it up by splitting into teams and making it a sort or Ryder Cup-esque competition.

For the second time in as many weeks my “relaxing” time away was fouled by a hurricane. This time it was Charley. We had scheduled Thursday-Friday-Saturday to play 18-36-18 and I really thought we would have a chance to get them in this year. I was wrong, again. I’ve never been on this trip and played all of the golf I was supposed to. We got through 14 of the first 18, all 36 on Friday and then none on Saturday. The hurricane made landfall right on top of us Saturday afternoon after a morning full of heavy rain so the courses didn’t even open. We did make lemons out of lemonade by taking a bunch of balls out behind the condos and then hitting them up into the gale-force winds. So, we had that. And poker. Lots and lots of poker. Plus there was beer there. A lot of beer. I think most of it is finally out of my system.

As for the golf, I’m not very good so I end up taking a lot of swings in a normal round. Combine that with the fact that I only played 36 holes all year before this trip and the idea of nearly three rounds of golf in two days; it all adds up to a creaky old-man’s back. I may not play again until 2005. I need to hit the range. Badly.