steve-o
Introduction To The House of Carr
Introduction To The House of Carr

My Boring Life

100k

I'm a dork— I get it. So no need to remind me as I post a pic of the Explorer crossing 100,000 miles.

Pulling over on Highway 52 heading to New Richmond this morning just to snap a pic of the odometer might seem a tad juvenile, but I've never owned a car as long as I've owned this one; we have history. Of course, only 80,000 of them were put there by me, as I bought it used. And the rebuilt engine only has about 60,000 miles on it. So it's my not be a legit 100k, but that's what it says.

Moving to the city and losing a commute has definitely slowed down the aging of this rig. And since I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy a used SUV with gas being so expensive, I imagine that we'll be together for a whole lot longer.

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Me VS Tiger [It Begins]

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While I was kinda pulling for Rocco Mediate to keep pushing the US Open to even more play-off holes, I must admit that I was pulling for Tiger Woods to win yet another Major Championship today. As I've mentioned before, Tiger and I share the same birthdate [December 30, 1975]. So whenever people rave about how amazing he is, I'm forced to compare my accomplishments with his because we've had exactly the same amount of time to get things done. For the longest time I've felt unworthy, but then I realized that it's all because the scoreboard has gone only one way.

So today I decided that I am going to enter the fray and take on Tiger Woods in the official "Me VS Tiger" competition.

We will go mano-a-mano, comparing each of our life's accomplishments to see who ends up on top. This will account for 50% of the scoring. The remainder will be based on an actual head-to-head match-up in a competition decided by Tiger himself [he'd better pick golf, otherwise I'm kicking his ***]. The competition will carry on until the in-person competition takes place. The scores will then be combined and a winner will be declared.

Tiger, be advised that this is your public challenge. I know you'll have downtime to troll the internet now that you're resting the knee until the British Open. Once you come across my blog you can drop me an email and we'll set up the match-up. Otherwise I'm going to have to take you down in a long, drawn out, merciless way.

As we begin the competition, the first comparison will be Golf Major Championships. Tiger now has fourteen in his professional career. Although I have watched many majors on television, I have yet to win one. I did, at one time, own a green windbreaker jacket, but I'm not sure that it counts. So since I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be able to string together fourteen Majors in the next few decades, I will concede and give Tiger this category. So the official scoreboard now stands at . . .

ME= 0

TIGER= 1

Well played. Well played.

Rehabbed House

Just wanted to get up the new blog look since I have most of the redesign finished. Most noticeable is the new front page [RSS subscribers will have to click over to see it] that is image-based. Those catching the blog straight from the interwebs will get to continually see a new front door.

Like I said, I'm not finished yet, but this gives you an idea of what I'm working toward. Wordpress rocks.

Trying to Transition

I've sung the praises of Wordpress and have thoroughly enjoyed using it as a blogging platform. While I've enjoyed this current layout, I'm ready to change it again. My reasoning is twofold: 1) I [finally] admit, it's not the easiest to read. People who catch the blog via RSS don't necessarily notice, but if you read straight from the website, the text is a tad tiny.

2) I get bored easily. So even though I've only had this theme for about a year, it feels like time to change.

The new theme I'm working with is pretty sweet, nothing like anything I've seen. But I'm still tweaking the code so I might not have it up for a little while. So depending on how fast I can work on it, I might be on a little hiatus. So be patient, and we'll get this up as soon as possible.

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More Crazy City Livin'

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Went to bed late on Friday night, woke up for a 9am soccer game, and the returned to notice my neighbor's car was rear ended. Then I realized from the car parts strewn along the street that something bigger happened. Apparently at 3am early Saturday morning, a Nissan Maxima was flying up the street and rear ended a truck parked in front of our condos. It started a chain reaction, hitting the car of a guy from Saint Louis, which in turn hit the car of one of my neighbors. The driver of the car was able to continue going up the street before leaving the car and running away. That leads us to believe that the car was stolen and as of 4pm today, the perp has yet to be caught.

Kelly and I were surprised that even with Kaelyn's baby monitor on, we slept through a huge collision and the arrival of police/fire department folk immediately in front of our condo. Only one of our neighbors woke up to witness it in action. I guess we're heavy sleepers.

My neighbor has a little more of the story with a picture [plus a little college basketball talk] but the thing that left my grateful is that I was parked immediately in front of the three-cars that were damaged. And the two cars behind me [thankfully] had their emergency brakes on. Otherwise the Exploder would've been hit for sure.

Just another thing that keeps us connected to our neighbors.

What I Found

So I woke up early today to go work out. We've had some stormy weather the past two days so it was crazy humid this morning. There was a layer of condensation on my truck window, which I normally wouldn't have noticed except that someone used their finger [I hope] to write on my driver's side window. The message left for me: "LOST"

All day I've been wondering what it meant.

As a minister am I could interpret it as a spiritual message. You know, "there are plenty of lost people in this city, so as you begin your day, remember who's out there."

Sorry, I don't think it was a mission from God.

I guess it could've been someone from the westside of town who mistakenly took a wrong turn and ended up in Eden Park. As they traversed the steep hillside they wanted to make sure that someone knew they were "lost."

I doubt it. Like any self-respecting westsider would go east of 1-71.

Then again, it could be a viral marketing campaign to boost ratings for ABC's hit show that seems to get weirder by the episode.

Not buyin' it. I guess it makes sense since we don't watch Lost, but we never will. By the way, did the season really end with some guy turning a wheel to submerge the island into the ocean?

I believe the real message takes a little more investigation. And I think I finally figured out what it means. It's a message from myself . . . from the future. In the year 2018, when time travel finally becomes the norm, I traveled back in time to 2008 to warm myself of an imminent assassination attempt.

So, obviously, "Lost" is actually an anagram for "Look Out, Steven Tyler!"

Why someone would be so cruel to kill the lead singer of Aerosmith, I don't know. Like I've always planned, in the year 2015 Steven Tyler ends up living in Cincinnati, we run into each other on the street, and I sing Aerosmith's greatest hits to him. He is so impressed that we become best friends. Then, in his later years, I pen an epic biography of his life that wins me many accolades and phat [emphasis "p-h"] cash.

Oh, and I grow a handlebar mustache, but that doesn't factor in to this story.

But I know what you're thinking: why, if you're going to take the effort to travel through time, just leave an arbitrary note on a window when I could just make contact with myself? The reason why, is because it would be too dangerous. Future Steve wouldn't have been able to talk to Current Steve as, anyone who has ever watched VanDamme's cinematic masterpiece Timecop knows, we could touch and since the same matter can't occupy the same space simultaneously, we'd both blow up. Duh. Yes, I am the only one who can save the future of America's greatest Boston-based band [sorry New Kids On The Block]. I . . . am . . . Livin' on the Edge. I am worthy of the task set before me.

So Future Steve, if you're reading this ten years from now, I'll be checking my car window again tomorrow for another message. Or, to save me from having to clean my window, leave a note on my windshield instead.

I don't do so good with hidden messages, anyway.

Catching Up

I'm finally coming down from a three week marathon where we've been moving non-stop. Life is definitely good, but I enjoy it better when breathing. That said, here are some things I think you need to know:

*I stayed up to watch triple-overtime hockey last night. It goes to show you that Gary Bettman is the worst commissioner in all of sports. I'm not saying that hockey still holds the same place in American sports, but it's definitely too good to be relegated to the Verses network.

*Speaking of hockey, the Cincinnati Cyclones are coming home 3 games to 2 verses Las Vegas, poised to bring our city it's first sports championship in eighteen years. I guess that's good news.

*A little late here, but how about Journey's new lead singer? The last guy they had sounded a lot like Steve Perry but the new guy is a dead ringer. Oh, and the new guy's a Filipino who speaks broken English. I guess this just proves that we're all replaceable.

*They might close down Western Bowl and put in a strip mall. Yep, the end of the world is at hand. To me, Western Bowl is the westside. The even more important question is: whatever happened to Doc Holliday's [I realize these comments are irrelevant to non-Westsiders, but Google it and see what you come up with]?

*The governor is hosting a state-wide Cornhole tourney and not coming to Cincinnati. Even more Westside outrage.

*I'm thinking Hillary will be out of the race by Thursday. I just can't see her admitting defeat tonight [following the final two primaries] or the day after.

*I guess Chad Johnson is going to play this year. I'm sure that'll work out.

*Euro 2008 starts next week. I'm disappointed that England didn't qualify, but will still watch some of the games. Tough to predict the outcome, but I'm thinking Portugal over Germany.

*Quick story: had the Carr Electric HVAC unit out yesterday to recharge the heat pump. Our neighbor's fan motor had locked up this weekend, so I had them look at ours to in order to combine trips. The neighbor collects snakes and keeps them in the laundry room and, when I went with the tech to check out their furnace, his wife informed me that she couldn't find one of them. I'm not Indiana Jones or nothing but it freaked me out, especially considering that our condos share a wall. Upon further inspection the snake was hiding incredibly well in his cage and I didn't die.

*And thinking about this incident yesterday made me think of this. Thanks, John. It's still fun.

Drive By

Still behind on my workload, so I haven't posted since the weekend. Just so interest doesn't completely fade, here are some tidbits to keep you reading.

  • Dave Milam, a ministry friend and church planter in Charlotte, had their church's trailer stolen a few weeks ago. They reacted by trying to get the perpetrator to come forward. Check out their efforts here. FYI, they rented out a billboard and used the word "ballsy" in one ad.
  • We rented Walk Hard and will view it later this week. Will we enjoy it?
  • Check your local listings for Fox Sports Ohio as Johnny Cueto pitches again tonight.

I really have some interesting posts in my mind and promise I'll bring the heat later this week.

Gots'ta Get Money

With the car needing repairs, we were looking for the funds to get it fixed. Fortunately, we like tax time around here and the federal and state refunds we're due will take care of most of the costs. But still looking to defer a little more of that bill, I finally decided to get some of my money back from the state of Ohio.

When I was in high school, my father, an independent business owner, made sure his kids had their own car insurance policies. He was afraid that we'd get in an accident and someone would try to sue to get at the assets of his company [true story: my brother Chris was in an accident with some Iranians, one of which sued him for making him impotent. I guess my dad knew what he was doing].

The one thing that sucked was that, as a sixteen year-old male, the insurance was expensive. Fortunately, dad took care of the gas because the premiums were steep. As I've come to realize now, every now and then you're insurance company will kick you back some money because the company did better than they thought. Apparently, when I was not yet an adult, that money never made it's way back to me and went into some State of Ohio fund. This was one of those many "unclaimed funds" you here about the government having.

I've known a few years about this cash, a couple hundred bucks, that I never got around to claiming. But when I came across the Missing Money website, I finally got the process rolling.

But let me tell you why those funds go unclaimed: because the government makes it ridiculously difficult for you to get at it. In addition to regular ID I had to get proof of my old address [from 15 years ago], a memo from my insurance company that I was indeed insured through them back then, and get a Notary to sign off on my assertion that the money is indeed mine. Fortunately our friend Sheryl is a Notary, so she helped there, and I'll pick up a letter from my insurance company tomorrow. I'll drop it in the mail and [maybe] have that cash in hand in a few months.

Add that to the IRS letter telling me that the IRS will send me money in a future letter, and I say that I loves me some bureaucracy.

Gots'ta Get Money

With the car needing repairs, we were looking for the funds to get it fixed. Fortunately, we like tax time around here and the federal and state refunds we're due will take care of most of the costs. But still looking to defer a little more of that bill, I finally decided to get some of my money back from the state of Ohio.

When I was in high school, my father, an independent business owner, made sure his kids had their own car insurance policies. He was afraid that we'd get in an accident and someone would try to sue to get at the assets of his company [true story: my brother Chris was in an accident with some Iranians, one of which sued him for making him impotent. I guess my dad knew what he was doing].

The one thing that sucked was that, as a sixteen year-old male, the insurance was expensive. Fortunately, dad took care of the gas because the premiums were steep. As I've come to realize now, every now and then you're insurance company will kick you back some money because the company did better than they thought. Apparently, when I was not yet an adult, that money never made it's way back to me and went into some State of Ohio fund. This was one of those many "unclaimed funds" you here about the government having.

I've known a few years about this cash, a couple hundred bucks, that I never got around to claiming. But when I came across the Missing Money website, I finally got the process rolling.

But let me tell you why those funds go unclaimed: because the government makes it ridiculously difficult for you to get at it. In addition to regular ID I had to get proof of my old address [from 15 years ago], a memo from my insurance company that I was indeed insured through them back then, and get a Notary to sign off on my assertion that the money is indeed mine. Fortunately our friend Sheryl is a Notary, so she helped there, and I'll pick up a letter from my insurance company tomorrow. I'll drop it in the mail and [maybe] have that cash in hand in a few months.

Add that to the IRS letter telling me that the IRS will send me money in a future letter, and I say that I loves me some bureaucracy.

Gots'ta Get Money

With the car needing repairs, we were looking for the funds to get it fixed. Fortunately, we like tax time around here and the federal and state refunds we're due will take care of most of the costs. But still looking to defer a little more of that bill, I finally decided to get some of my money back from the state of Ohio.

When I was in high school, my father, an independent business owner, made sure his kids had their own car insurance policies. He was afraid that we'd get in an accident and someone would try to sue to get at the assets of his company [true story: my brother Chris was in an accident with some Iranians, one of which sued him for making him impotent. I guess my dad knew what he was doing].

The one thing that sucked was that, as a sixteen year-old male, the insurance was expensive. Fortunately, dad took care of the gas because the premiums were steep. As I've come to realize now, every now and then you're insurance company will kick you back some money because the company did better than they thought. Apparently, when I was not yet an adult, that money never made it's way back to me and went into some State of Ohio fund. This was one of those many "unclaimed funds" you here about the government having.

I've known a few years about this cash, a couple hundred bucks, that I never got around to claiming. But when I came across the Missing Money website, I finally got the process rolling.

But let me tell you why those funds go unclaimed: because the government makes it ridiculously difficult for you to get at it. In addition to regular ID I had to get proof of my old address [from 15 years ago], a memo from my insurance company that I was indeed insured through them back then, and get a Notary to sign off on my assertion that the money is indeed mine. Fortunately our friend Sheryl is a Notary, so she helped there, and I'll pick up a letter from my insurance company tomorrow. I'll drop it in the mail and [maybe] have that cash in hand in a few months.

Add that to the IRS letter telling me that the IRS will send me money in a future letter, and I say that I loves me some bureaucracy.

My Ride

In 2001 I realized a dream and purchased a truck. OK, it wasn't exactly a truck.

It was a 1999 Ford Explorer. I bought it used with 20,000 miles on it.

But it's basically a Ford Ranger with a truck cap.

We've been through a lot, me and that rig.

Had some issues with the engine not turning over in cold weather and found out it [thanks to my mechanically-inclined friend, Micah] it was the IAC. They're substandard on the Explorer, so a few years later I keep a ratchet set in the car with me and you tap on it to make it run.

Making a left turn onto Tylersville Road one snowy day I was t-boned by a careless driver and had to get some major front end body work done on it.

Right after we sold our house and were living in a friend's basement, the crankshaft inexplicably fell out of the engine. Fortunately, for the first time in my life, I took the extended warranty out on it and they replaced it with a rebuilt engine.

But through three dwelling places and as many jobs, that car has stuck with me. And we paid it off a few years ago which even makes it nicer. So even though the temperature/compass console no longer works, and my washer fluid won't come out, I've grown quite fond of that vehicle.

Last Monday night I could really feel that the Explorer was shaking in the rear. It had been getting progessively worse the past few weeks, but I chalked it up to all the potholes around the city. I finally got it into the shop and it needed major suspension work, new tires, and some minor exhaust work.

And they weren't going to do the work for free.

We discussed the possibilities of going to one car, but it just isn't feasible now with Kelly working and me in school. We briefly pondered if it was worth the investment to fix this car or if we should get a new [used] one.

But, in the end, we decided to put the cash into the vehicle. So they fixed it up, we picked it up right before the blizzard, and it sat on a sidestreet for a few days. I finally drove it around on Monday and it rides like a dream.

I'm excited about a few more years of my and the Explorer traversing greater Cincinnati and beyond.

Will Work

The washer fluid motor on my Explorer doesn't work. I'd replace it, but I only need it occasionally, mostly during the winter [always make sure to use the free squeegee at the gas station]. Since it's not high on the to-do list, I carry a squirt bottle of washer fluid with me and apply when needed. This afternoon I stopped at a UDF and decided it would be a good time to rinse the windows down. I grabbed some napkins and my trusty bottle and went to work.

As I was cleaning a couple guys in a van pulled up next to me and got out. I didn't think anything of it at first until I realized how the scene must have appeared; I looked like one of those guys who wait until you pull up to the intersection and clean your windows for cash. As the guys in the van walked by, one of them couldn't resist and finally asked, "How much to do ours?"

We all had a good laugh about it but I later realized I missed out on an opportunity to make a little extra money.

Sun, Earth, Moon

Normally, I'm using this blog to evangelize to readers the benefits of urban dwelling. I'm here. You should be too. But I'm a realist. It's not all perfect living in the big city. And tonight, I admit one of those negatives:

Taking good pictures of the moon is nearly impossible here.

There's too much light around to get any good pics of the nighttime sky. Still, I had to try my hand at getting some shots of the lunar eclipse. I only had a couple even turn out. I posted them below.

It must be noted that a lunar eclipse is, most likely, the most unimpressive natural phenomenon. It doesn't look much different than regular moon cycles. Glad I stood out in freezing temperatures to witness it.

Beit Carr Word of The Day

I'm always working on expanding my vocabulary. I'll usually hang onto a word, use it consistently for a few days and see if it sticks. Sometimes it's months, even years, before it comes back and makes an appearance. The past few weeks I've brought back one of those words. Not quite sure when I learned it, but I've been using it in conversations recently.

That word: milquetoast.

Basically, it means "meek," and "timid." I used milquetoast to describe a singer tonight while watching a DVR'd American Idol. But after I made the statement, I told Kelly that I thought the word originated with a meal made popular in the Great Depression.

You can find an in-depth definition here. There was a comic strip character with the last name "Milquetoast" in the 1930's [at least I nailed the Great Depression]. The character was a timid guy. Like the word "wimpy," which was not a word but went mainstream because of the character in the Popeye cartoon, milquetoast entered the English language and stayed. Apparently, though, it is in no way connected to bread soaked in milk.

Anyway, good word. Feel free to incorporate it into your daily discussion during the remainder of the week.

I'm Not Good At Everthing

Pause to recover from the shock. Now we can proceed. My friend was in a bind today. He needed his car moved to a location a couple of miles away so I said I'd do it. And then I discovered it was a manual transmission.

I've never owned a stick-shift and haven't driven one since college. My dad had an old Ford Ranger for his business that I drove occasionally. I hated that truck because the clutch was like the brakes to the Flinstone's car [you had to practically shove your foot through the floor to work it]. Despite a 12 year hiatus, I figured it would no big deal.

I stalled it out twice before I got going. I must've looked awesome. Once I was on the road, however, I did fine. Well, except riding that clutch like it was a pony at the state fair.

I remembered why I love my automatic transmission: laziness. I'm sure driving a stick becomes second nature to those who own one, but I don't want to think any more than I have to. Two pedals and the letter "D" are just fine for me.