My New Commute
Not the same as the old commute.

Nope, now I travel about 15 miles north on Highway 1 past the airport, past Rio Del Mar, past La Selva Beach, Aptos, Capitola and into downtown Santa Cruz.

Its certainly not a bad commute. Especially considering that most of my road pals still have another 25 minutes at least to get over the hill and to their Valley jobs. No, I'm not complaining. Except when there's roadkill that never gets picked up by anyone. Its pretty nasty to see the same carcass every day for a couple of weeks. And it gets far, far worse when that carcass keeps getting tagged by a car every so often. This morning, the deer that's been dead on the median for the last week had gotten hit at least one more time and it was a truly horrific and bloody mess.

It isn't like I want to look at it but its got some optic magnetism or something crazy and I can't look away. Maybe its the same for rubberneckers and why an accident on one side of the freeway will almost always create a traffic jam on both sides, one because of the physical blockage and the other side because people can't help but take a look, even if they don't have any desire to see nastiness.

Anyway, its a nice little commute and I'm looking forward to the days when its not raining or threatening. Then I'll be able to wheel out on the SV and get in some saddle time instead of cruising along in the little truck with diesel aspirations. And maybe it'll get me moving to sell the SV and get back to the Concours for comfort cruising at speed. The Concours will also make it far easier to bust up to SF for Giants games next season as well.

Old Apartment News
The old place is clean, cleaned out, cleaned up and in better shape than it was when we moved in because we've been hearing horror stories of security deposits eaten up by nickel and dime "cleaning and repairs". But not this time, this time they are getting an apartment that's almost pristine. I'm stopping by at lunch today to cut the banner poles in half and load them in my truck and then its done, the whole place is empty and we're out.

Now the property management company just needs to process some apps and get someone new in there and we can go on our merry way with February rent and our security deposit that will almost completely be used on the new house. Maybe I can work in a pair of tickets to Arizona for some spring training fun.

One quick question, why is it that some of the most interested walk throughs are the most screwed up financially? We had several people who were truly raving about the apartment put in applications that came back as very high credit risks and the like. Its like, why would you waste your time, our time and your $20 when you already knew that you'd be denied? Oh well. It'll rent, its a great spot.

And the combining of the keyring ritual will likely take place today as I've rid myself of three keys with a single key. The truck has three keys but I only know what two of them do. Life is good when you can reduce your key depencies.

By the way, if any of you were thinking about having grapefruit and coffee this morning, I think I can safely recommend something else instead. But grapefruit spoons are among the coolest things ever.

MyDoom Virus Count
I've already deleted 15 copies of this latest SCO/MS hatin' virus today. While I dislike SCO and could be considered to hate MS, I don't have any interest in viral assaults and would just as soon the writer be publicly humiliated and then thrown into a black hole for 30 years. [Update: Somehow I sent a copy of the virus to myself, an email from me was sent to me with MyDoom attached. Damn, I've gotta stop those GHB shooters in lieu of coffee breaks.]