The Wandering Minstrel

I estimate that this magnitude 6.9 quake epicenter was over 250 miles from here. It made the ground bump and roll slightly and the wind chimes sounded as well as all hanging chandeliers were wobbling. Looking at the fault map, I believe this was along the southern San Andreas fault group. There is a Mexican village called Guadalupe Victoria about 16 miles away that probably got it pretty hard. Moderate to strong shaking and damage reported in Yuma, AZ.

A strong earthquake occurred at 3:40:39 PM (PDT) on Sunday, April 4, 2010.
The magnitude 6.9 event occurred 26 km (16 miles) SSW of Guadalupe Victoria, Baja California, Mexico.
The hypocentral depth is 32 km (20 miles).

Update: USGS now says magnitude 7.2.

Now that the Obamination has taken over General Motors, the GM management is embracing the sort of horseshit near and dear to the left. As a consequence, their sales have fallen off dramatically in spite of the Obamination’s attacks on Toyota. GM’s latest entry into the auto sales fray is a two-person electric piece of shit - not unlike the Segway®

“We were the S.U.V. company, and we accept that,” said Larry Burns, vice president for research and development and strategic planning at G.M. at the time. “We want to become the U.S.V. company — known for ultra-small vehicles.”

U.S.V., also known as “Un-Safe Vehicles.” Imagine a collision between the POS above and the SUV below. Which one would you like to be in?

Reportedly, the SUV market is playing a big part of Ford’s success. Their SUV and truck sales have topped new vehicle sales across the board, with Ford’s F-150 trucks leading the way.

Automotive Sales:

On Tuesday, the Ford Motor Company announced that its sales rose by 43 percent in February, enabling the automaker to outsell General Motors and become the best-selling carmaker in America for the month, but not by a lot.

Ford sold 334 vehicles more than G.M. Ford’s Mercury brand sells roughly that many vehicles every day. In 2009, General Motors outsold ford every month by an average of approximately 33,000 vehicles.

G.M.’s sales also increased, 12 percent from the same month in 2009, and 32 percent for the four auto brands G.M. is holding on to: Cadillac, Chevy, Buick, and GMC. Nevertheless, it dropped behind Ford, which announced a 54-percent increase in the sales of passenger vehicles.

Thus far in 2010, Ford’s sales are up by 34 percent, compared to only 13 percent for General Motors.

Via Planet Gore

A couple of weekends ago, I barbecued a rib roast on the outdoor grill. I made the mistake of walking away from the grill while it was cooking. The unusually thick fat cap began dripping into the coals and a fire within the grill flared up. By the time I got there to put out the fire, the meat was fairly well seared. I managed to salvage the roast, but the aged burner-under-briquette BBQ (had it since 2002) was toast.

I managed to milk a few extra years out of the old rig before incinerating it. It already suffered from rust, the piezoelectric igniter was shot and the grill was in poor shape for the last couple of BBQ seasons. It was pretty decrepit and should have been replaced already.

The Better Half and I went to Lowe’s today and bought their house brand BBQ Grillware 3-burner grill. We figure it only has to last a couple of years, so we went cheap. When we leave Kalifornistan, we’ll just donate it to the Salvation Army and write it off.

BBQ Grillware model GGPL-2100DW

Grill Width (Inches) - 52.4
Grill Depth (Inches) - 23.0
Grill Height (Inches) - 46.0
Porcelain coated cast iron grate
141 sq. in. warming rack
28 1/2 Lb. burger capacity
Porcelain coated lid
624 sq. in. cooking surface
Electronic ignition
Liquid propane fuel system
5-gallon tank capacity standard
3 stainless burners plus side burner

Never mind the man behind the curtain . . .

Dear Customer:

On Saturday October 17, 2009 at 10:00 am PDT we will be migrating all MySQL databases to a new server. The new server is to alleviate recent issues caused by high load on the current server as well as to upgrade to MySQL version 5.1.

The procedure we will use to migrate will ensure the least amount of downtime per database.

The window for this maintenance is 2 hours. During this time there will be periods of intermittent connectivity errors to MySQL.

Thank you,
Omnis Network, LLC

On Interstate 10 just east of the state line, we passed an accident site. We briefly had to wait while the authorities got the number one lane cleared for traffic. When I drove past the site, the Better Half captured several images, including this one.

Fender bender? Not exactly what you might think. When the little red car got tangled up with a cattle truck, its fender wound up in the left rear set of duals, all bent to hell. Well, the entire vehicle was bent to hell, but I thought the fender in the wheel wells was an interesting touch.

I don’t believe that any livestock were killed or injured in the making of this film. I like my beef tender, but . . .

. . . with a refreshing Poopcicle.

Imaged by The Better Half last winter in Northern Arizona. Some careless pet owner left this to freeze overnight in the campground.

The Better Half and I were out shopping this afternoon. We paused briefly near the Torrance (California) Airport, Zamperini Field, where she took this photo of a massive brush fire in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, near La Cañada, about forty miles north.

The convective force of the fire is elevating the smoke that combines with atmospheric moisture to form this smoky cumulus build-up that resembles a nuclear cloud. Clickable image.

Kennedy was no friend of the Second Amendment. He was always a solid F-minus with the NRA. Forget all the platitudes and adoration from the far left politicos and media morons - consider some other, realistic points of view from those not as enamored of the late ultra-liberal:

“There is a lot one could say of Senator Kennedy — positive from supporters, negative from critics. They say one should not speak ill of the dead. True. But I am of the view that one should not lie about the dead either.” –political analyst Bill Bennett

“[Ted] Kennedy left the scene of a fatal accident for which he was at least partly responsible. Then he used his extraordinary power to get off, spending the rest of his career in pseudo-remorse, playing the most liberal of Senators. It was always an act to me, even when I agreed with him politically. This was not a life well lived.” –author and screenwriter Roger L. Simon

Hat tip Patriot Post for the quotes.

Oh yeah - and then there was the McCain-Kennedy Amnesty Act to legalize millions of criminal aliens . . .