Ryan Fields

Looking for a new truck

The last couple of weeks I’ve been looking for a new truck!  Chevrolet, of course!  I’ve become quite accustomed to extenda-cabs short beds.  A couple of years ago, you couldn’t have given me one!  But after riding in my friend’s truck several times I found it quite comfortable.  I’m quite partial to the color green, or dark blue.  My friend’s is gloss black and he has a diesel in his.  But I’m not sure I want a diesel, with the way the price of fuel continues to go up!  At one time, diesel used to be half the price of gasoline, now it’s about 60 cents more!  So I’m sure I’ll stay with a small V-8 gas engine, but it will be loaded with a new 5 speed automatic in it.

NFL Draft

Had the TV set on ESPN all day so I could watch or hear the NFL draft today. I’ve been following a couple of college players the past two years and was curious to see where they would end up. It’s not just about my favorite team, the New England Patriots, it is also about the players and the way they can fit in with the veteran players and help shape the new team.

The Patriots first-round draft pick was Jerod Mayo, a linebacker. I’m looking forward to see if he can be a play maker and help this team keep their winning record.

Power outage

Well, CMP has goofed up again!  There was widespread power outages in Belgrade and Rome earlier today.  Seems that they were scheduled at midnight to swap out a transformer; a process that should have only taken 5 or 6 hours.  The new transformer blew and they had to find a new one, which took several hours.  All in all, 11,000 people were without electricity from midnight Friday night until around noon on Saturday.

I’m really glad that we have an auto-start back-up generator for when we lose electricity!  I would be very ugly to be without power that long!  I love my electricity!

I’m glad the writer’s strike is finally over!

I am SO SICK of watching reruns and reality shows!  I’m really glad that I have a great selection of movies on DVD, but I really am glad that some new material is going to appear on tv soon!  I understand that the new shows will start in May, I can hardly wait!

Laser Printer

Picked up a little laser printer about a year ago and since it’s doing such a good job I thought I should try to get a second one. I’ve been searching on Ebay today but haven’t found the same one yet. The HP1020 Laserjet prints fast and cheap and it never jams. It’s a real workhorse for under $100, and the toner cartridges, which cost about $60 each retail, can be picked up at the recycling store for only $45.

The recycled cartridges don’t print as dark a black, but that doesn’t matter for the reports and letters that I crank out. I’ve been using 2 recycled cartridges every month for a year and have not had any issues at all - knock on wood. And I’ve saved about $30 per month, so if you need a cheap reliable printer that uses recycled cartridges well, try to grab this one up.

Mud Season

Mud season will be here before you know it, and I can’t wait to go to some Mud runs!  With all of the snow we’ve had this winter, we’re sure to have plenty of mud!  I really enjoy watching the competition; to see who gets stuck in the mud and who doesn’t.  I like the smell of the exhaust and the noise of the engines.  The louder the better as far as I’m concerned!

A great week!

What a great week it’s been!  The ten feet of snow we had on the front lawn is all but gone!  I can’t believe it!  My truck is running great, I got a raise at work!  My girlfriend took me out to dinner and I won three games of pool!  I call that a great week!

New Shoes

I needed something comfortable that looks good with jeans. I’m sick of Nikes and the whole expensive leather basketball or running shoe type of shoe. They are hot. They are heavy. They wear out way too soon for over $100 a pair.

Didn’t want boat shoes, but they were Plan B.

Ended up with a pair of Sketchers. Bungee laces so nothing to tie or drag around and trip me. Lightweight, machine washable, cool colors. Under $50.

Got them. Love them.

Flowers are popping up!

I just started seeing some crocuses and hyacinths peeking up out of the ground.  This is incredible!  It seems like just yesterday (although it was three weeks ago) there was over six feet of snow on my front lawn - not counting the snow banks where we piled the snow to get it out of the driveway!

Now actually, there are little patches of green grass, pretty soon there will be bigger patches and bigger still.  And I’ll have to get ready to fertilize, and eventually mow the lawn.  But for today I’ll be happy and content just to look at the little flowers coming out of the ground by the house!

New Browser

Some of my buddies were talking about using a browser different from Internet Explorer. I’ve never given it that much thought, but the way they were raving about it, I thought I should check it out. They gave me the link to download Mozilla’s Firefox. It has a lot of add-ons that you can pick and choose to make the browser work best for your own needs instead of the cookie cutter IE.

I want to learn more about the features before removing the Explorer browser, but maybe I can run both for a few weeks and see which one I like better.