Saturday, February 29, 2020
What will Boris name it? Yuri? Dmitri? Vsevelod (my choice, should anyone ask me)?
Give Boris some credit. As doughy and disheveled as he is, he attracted a reasonably good looking gal, and convinced her (or she convinced him) to have a baby. Imagine having Boris Johnson as a dad!
He'll probably still be pumping out the kids when he's 80. The proverbial fertile octogenarian! This is his sixth child - that he admits to.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds announced their engagement and expectations of a baby on Saturday.
The couple is expecting the birth of their first child in summer, according to a spokesperson, NBC reported.
The two have lived at 10 Downing Street since Johnson took office last July. In a series of firsts, Symond is the only unmarried partner of a British prime minister to live in the official residence.
Additionally, Johnson, 55, will be the first British prime minister to marry while holding office in 250 years, although former prime ministers have had children born while in office. He has four children from his second marriage, according to CNN.
Symonds, 31, worked on a campaign team helping Johnson gain re-election as mayor of London in 2012.
Reddit insider joke, but pretty funny
"Spez" is Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit. "He" has the same complexion and appearance as this chick in the meme.
Just about the largest sub-reddit was The_Donald, where the supporters of the president came to play. Over the past months, the management of Reddit has basically shut down free speech there, because they are progressive (or in this case, regressive) in their political affiliation.
Currently, the entire population of The_Donald is migrating to a free forum called TheDonald.win, which is uncontrolled by Reddit.
Took the Beast on a drive with Mrs CW
First, lunch at the Old Mill Eatery and Smokehouse in Shasta Lake, just up the road from Redding.
It's a family style place with super friendly waitresses that are happy to banter back and forth with you. In addition to lunch, we got a couple of pounds of pulled pork and brisket to eat later. Good stuff.
Then, we rolled out of town and east up 299, into the pines, and then south-west on Oak Run Road, which is a rural road that winds its way through hilly oak/bull pine country. The grass is nicely green this time of year. The creeks have water. A nice scenic, windy road to test out the Challenger.
So, with the wide tires, it holds the corners well, even on a bumpy, country road like this one.
At one point we were whipping through the corners, when Mrs. CW suddenly started shouting, "twenty, twenty, twenty!!" from the passenger seat, in a robotic, computer style warning tone. It seems she did not approve of the high speed which the orange wonder car was approaching the next 20mph corner.
Now it's our inside joke. Shouting "twenty, twenty, twenty," will mean, "slow yourself down right now or we die an awful, fiery death."
It must be fixing to rain here in Redding because they were doing a rather large controlled burn north of 299. The country is brushy, so burning some of that out before it gets hot would certainly be a good thing.
Oak Run was a fun road for practicing turns and corners. Mrs. CW had a pretty good time. She told me again never to buy another sports car, but that this one was going to bring a lot of smiles. I think I'm off probation.
Double Heljestrands
Because if one is good....
They're model number 4's
I got mine from Stefan. He sharpens his stock to the molecular level! It's quite impressive.
Friday, February 28, 2020
Well, I did it
The Charger was 12 years old and getting threadbare, although still running well. Traded it in on a Challenger R/T Scat-Pack Wide Body. The Beast.
The local Red Bluff Dodge dealer was very happy to see me, and Brandon there did a good job dealing with my penchant to over bargain on everything. Overall it was a pleasant experience and I think I got a decent deal. When I need another car I'll be back.
Driving back to Redding, it was certainly more responsive than the Charger, almost twitchy. It'll take some getting used to. There's a long, sweeping curve during one of the freeway transitions on the way home, and since there wasn't any traffic when I happened to go through, I gave it an extra gulp of premium and held on. Those extra wide Pirelli's (305's) are definitely going to be my friends - the Beast was glued to the road.
Mrs. CW doesn't know I did this, and she's getting ready to go to work now. She'll see the orange Beast parked in the driveway when she pulls out of the garage in her Prius. Let's see what she says.
And old friend, and a new one. Life is short. Live boldly.
The local Red Bluff Dodge dealer was very happy to see me, and Brandon there did a good job dealing with my penchant to over bargain on everything. Overall it was a pleasant experience and I think I got a decent deal. When I need another car I'll be back.
Driving back to Redding, it was certainly more responsive than the Charger, almost twitchy. It'll take some getting used to. There's a long, sweeping curve during one of the freeway transitions on the way home, and since there wasn't any traffic when I happened to go through, I gave it an extra gulp of premium and held on. Those extra wide Pirelli's (305's) are definitely going to be my friends - the Beast was glued to the road.
Mrs. CW doesn't know I did this, and she's getting ready to go to work now. She'll see the orange Beast parked in the driveway when she pulls out of the garage in her Prius. Let's see what she says.
And old friend, and a new one. Life is short. Live boldly.
Update: She got halfway down the driveway before she noticed it, then stopped the Prius, got out all giggling, and feigned beating me. She's delighted. Plus, I've cemented my reputation as an uncontrollable and unpredictable husband. Got to keep the spouse nicely entertained or she might wander off and find someone more interesting, especially since, like the Charger, I'm getting a bit threadbare as well.
Threadbare or not, the next few months should be fun getting to know the Beast and it's ways.
