Brightrock

When traveling in both the U.S. and Europe, I've been a big user of public transportation, but I've rarely used the bus or train in Houston.  In most cases, my excuse has been that the Houston mass transit system just doesn't go where I need it to go.  It's hard to justify taking a 2 hour bus ride with 3 transfers as an alternative to a 20 minute ride in the car. 

Having said that, I'm a big fan of the concept of public transportation.  On Monday, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and take the bus to the ballgame to see the Astros play the Dodgers.  The #50 bus picks me up about 2 blocks from the house, costs $1 ($2 for a round trip), and drops me off right in front of the stadium.  The trip takes about 25 minutes, only a little bit longer than it would take me to drive, especially if I figure in the time I would spend finding a parking space.  Even if I end up taking a cab home instead of the bus (service ends just after midnight), I still save a bit of money when I figure in the cost of gas and parking if I drive myself. 

So, last night I apparently didn't do a good enough job of hiding the faceplate for my car stereo.  They not only got the stereo and the faceplate, but they also found the instruction manual for the damn thing in my glove box.  I suppose I'm lucky that they didn't bother to ransack the rest of the car - they left behind a couple of pairs of good sunglasses, for example.  *Sigh*  I guess I was going to need a new one in ten years or so anyway.   

I was already a bit annoyed by the whole stolen-car-radio incident (not to mention the looming tax bill), so I wasn't in the best of moods when I stopped to top off the air in my tires at the Shell in Hockley and  was told that the device that allowed them to turn on the "free for customers" air and water had been broken for a year.  Now, if it were my business, I would have either fixed the switch or changed the sign by now.  This kind of minor fraud really annoys me.  So, needless to say I won't be doing business at the Shell station in Hockley anymore, but I doubt that my business will matter much to their bottom line.  I suppose it seems silly to make a big deal about the $0.75 I had to pay, but that's part of my annoyance. 

Google Calendar is now live.  I've been missing having access to a calendar server.  I'm going to have to give this a test drive.  I've been meaning to install a calendar server on Brightrock.com for quite a while, but it's a non-trivial kind of project.