CruizerBlog

Atlantic City

I will be flying out to Atlantic City, NJ VERY EARY Monday morning, and returning VERY EARLY on Friday.

Atlantic City just sucks to get to. There are pretty much NO direct flights there. And none are at a very convienent time. Ugh.

It could have been better

The murders yesterday at Virginia Tech were a real tragedy indeed. It is horrifying to know there are people like that out there, who for no good reason just go someplace loaded with firearms and kill people. I couldn't even imagine what that is like facing someone in a rook, firing off rounds, with no place to go...

Although the intermittent facts of the story come in differently depending on what news station you watch or listen too, we do know that the first shots were taken two hours before the gunnman entered the classroom itself. It pains me to know what or why nothing other than an email was sent to the students warning them of the shootings. And I also wonder, if the classroom where the gunnman shot at was only 10 minutes from the droms, where was he at for the other 1 hour 50 minutes?

No matter this madmans itinary, incidents like these could have been better. My understanding is that earlier this year the Virginia General Assembly failed to act on a Bill (House Bill 1572) that would have allowed students and employees to carry firearms with appropriate permits. The quote I read today from Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker regarding that matter at the time was this: “I’m sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly’s actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus.” I reiterate part of that quote, “feel safe on campus.” And we have to ask ourselves now, how many lives would have been saved by a few armed faculty members and students proficient with firearms? Especially since this was the second incident of a shooting at this school within the last year!!

And before you go off on a rant about how guns are bad, and guns kill people, you are wrong. Guns are not bad, and guns don't kill people, people kill people. The gun didn't make this guy, or any other person in histroy just start firing off rounds. Guns, carried by law abiding citizens are used for protection and for sport. Guns by non law abiding citizens are used for everything else.

And before you think taking ghuns away from people is going to make this country a safer place, just think about who your making is safer for: the law abiding citizen who can no longer defend himself, or the criminal who is pointing an illegal handgun at you?

It's April!!!!!

And I woke up this morning to an inch of slush and snow. Getting to work took me 20 minutes longer than usual. 49 was almost at a stand still. Good think I have my truck back, as I was in four wheel drive the whole way in.

Now the snow has turned to rain. And tonight the rain is supposed to turn to snow, and we'll have a repeat of today, tomorrow.

Fun.

Three weeks, worth the wait

After my accident, I decided my truck needed a little extra work. See, I am what you may call a perfectionist. I can tell when something is out of place, and it really really annoys me. I really don't care how good of work you do, when you feather new paint into existing, I can always see it. My Corrado is 7 different shades of yellow, and I could point out every one to you. So while my truck was in the shop, I had them do an estimate to repair a couple dings and dents, as well as some rust on the drivers' door. The shop called me back a few days later informing me I had hail damage. I knew I had a little, from the hail storm back in August, but I convinced myself that it wasn't enough to bother with. "No," he says, "it looks like your truck was pounded with a million golf balls." So the insurance I called, and an estimate was done. At this point I asked him how much of the truck is not going to get painted. About a quarter of it. "Screw it," I said, "finish painting the whole thing, put ghost flames on it while you are at it, and remove the original decal, and keep all the badges off." So they did. Of course I had a lot of say in the flames. I had a graphics design friend of mine sketch out a few different designs, and I picked one I liked. Then the body shop used my old wrecked door and painted some examples on it (I kept that, btw.) I picked out what I liked, and made a couple changes to it. Then on Friday, they called "Your truck will be done at 4:30, aside from the stepbars." Apparently they don't make stepbars for my model and year anymore. The ones the body shop ordered were the wrong ones. They did some searching and found the right ones; they should be in this week. But instead of delaying the delivery of the truck, I will just have one stepbar for a little bit.

Three weeks of waiting was completely worth it! The flames are perfect! Most people have to take a second look. "I thought you were getting flames? Oh, look, there they are." Everyone I have shown or talked too agreed the new flames are better than the old flame decal. The truck looks brand new, aside from the rims. The color was coded to Dodges original Angel Fire. And I couldn't be happier!

Click on the picture for the full set.

Freezing Flames

So last night the bottom dropped out. Yesterday was 67 degrees, todays high, which was reached at approximately 6AM this morning, is 34. We're looking for a highest of 44 for the next week. Welcome to Indiana.

So the body shop called yesterday. I went and looked at some flame designs they painted for me on a piece of my old door! They all looked awsome! I picked out the one I licked best, which jsut so happen to be the original design I wanted anyways. We discussed making it a bit lighter, a bit thicker, and adding a little pearl essence so when the sun shines on it, it'll be just wow! As it was, since I am getting ghost flames, I couldn't even see them in the shop. We had to take the piece into the sun for them to be visable! It was awsome!!! My truck was currently in the paint booth, about to be painted. They were finishing masking it off. I should have my truck Friday!!!!