Over the last twelve years I have owned several pairs of Oakley Zero’s. My favorite style is the 0.4². They are so light that you hardly notice them when you are wearing them. The last pair I had were given to me by the Coolest. He received them from Marlboro when he won a trip to race cars in California. About a year ago they finally broke in half. The Zero’s are known to break at the middle of the nose from just normal wear and tear. It has happened to me more than a few times but the glasses are so cool I keep going back to them. 0.4²‘s where discontinued in 2004 so I am unable to purchase a new pair from Oakley directly or from any authorized dealers like Sunglass Hut.

Lately I have been scanning Ebay for a new pair. I had no idea there was such a huge secondary market for these glasses. They are still going for their full retail price if not more. I lost 8 auctions before I finally was able to place a winning bid. Unlike me, most people are uneducated on the history of Oakley’s Zero line and I would realize this when I opened the box I received a few days later after winning my first auction. I was so excited when my package arrived but that didn’t last long. I thought I purchased a pair of 0.4²‘s but what I received was a pair of 0.7’s. the 0.7’s are similar but are much smaller in size than 0.4²‘s. Guess I’ll be putting those back on Ebay with the proper description. Rats. Round 2. On my second go round I thought for sure that I would get it right. I chose “Buy It Now” on a pair of glasses that were described as 0.4’s. When I received them they were definitely 0.4’s but they were not 0.4²‘s. 0.4’s are also similar to 0.4²‘s but are also smaller in size. The 0.7’s and 0.4’s look funny on my fat head. Oh well, round 3. After failing to acquire the glasses on my first two tries, I figured the third time would be the charm. This time I did a very specific search for the 0.4²‘s. The only auction that turned up was for a pair of FMJ 5.56 0.4²‘s. I have only owned black ones in the past but I decided to take a chance on these. On this particular auction I was able to negotiate the price and I was able to pay what I thought was fair. When I received the glasses (the next day in fact) I was very hesitant about opening the box. I didn’t want to be disappointed again. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found in the box. The glasses were definitely 0.4²‘s and were in perfect condition. The only bad thing was that they reeked of cigarette smoke.

Now that I have had a taste of success I want a black pair and a platinum pair. Amazon.uk has a few pair but I can’t get them to mail to my address. I eventually found one site last night that claimed they sold what I am looking for. sunglassplanet.com. They didn’t look trustworthy so I did a little research. I pulled their “claimed” address in Texarkana up with Google maps to see if they were in a residential neighborhood or an industrial area. It looked like they were located in a business park. I also checked the BBB. No info, good or bad. I also did a few google searches for any information about them but couldn’t find any. Eventually I sent them an email asking if they were still in business. I received no reply. This morning I called the number that was listed on the site. OMG! I called the number from my office at work while on speakerphone. All of the sudden some women starts moaning and groaning over the speaker telling me how bad she wants me. Conversations carry through my area so I couldn’t pick up the handset fast enough. I couldn’t believe it, all I want is to buy a pair of sunglasses, not carry on an erotic conversation with some unknown siren in Texarkana. Jeez.

I’ve left my name and number with the Oakley outlets here in Houston just in case any come in. I recieved a call today from the location in Cypress, but they just wanted to know exactly what I was looking for. Oh well, the quest continues…

When I returned home today I noticed something very cool had been done in my absence. AT&T finally deployed Whole Home DVR (WHDVR) to the Houston area. This is really neat. When I was a DirecTV customer I had multiple TiVo’s around the house and WHDVR was enabled. I hacked them with the InstantCake image so I could have access to the network features that become available. On the hacked TiVo’s I could record a program on any receiver and watch it on any other receiver in the house. I also could stream video, music, and pictures from my media PC to all of the TiVo receivers. I really liked the way things were set up. But eventually DirecTV and I had to part ways because of the Houston area Comcast/Time Warner swap. Time Warner was my broadband provider at one time but my area was eventually taken over by Comcast. Bleh. I began looking for alternatives immediately and ran across AT&T’s U-verse offering. I was able to combine my broadband and cable TV service for a cheaper rate so I made the leap to IPTV. I initially had some issues due to the service being so green but now that the bugs have been worked out, my U-verse service has been rock solid. Now that WHDVR is enabled I am starting to get some of the features that I coveted back. Hopefully I will be able to stream music to the set top boxes in the near future. I’ve heard (and seen) rumors of this functionality on the innerwebz since the onset of U-verse. AT&T also added “folders” to the RecordedTV tabs. This is another feature I had with TiVo. Now all episodes of one series are listed in one tab instead of one long list with all of the recorded content in alphabetical order. Very Cool.

Before

My crazy “Ike” week finally ended on Friday and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The weather was fantastic and I had some work to do on the house. I went to Lowe’s Friday after work and picked up some 2×6’s and some flashing to fix the hole on the back of my house. The total ended up being $38.01. $38.01? It only took me 38 dollars and a little bit of sweat to recover from Ike. We are very fortunate.

On Saturday morning I was supposed to go bike riding with Stu down Buffalo Bayou but my jaw was hurting. I can’t decide if I got lockjaw from drinking the water when I wasn’t supposed to or I chewed too much gum on Friday. Probably too much gum… Later that morning, Terri and I went to family lunch with the Carrolls. We initially picked Luby’s in Deer Park but it was closed due to hurricane damage so we ended up going to Case Ole in La Porte. Once we were there my niece introduced me to “Ouch Charlie!”. YouTube it, it’s good for a quick laugh. After lunch my mother came over and helped me patch up the house. When got started my mother noticed that I didn’t purchase treated lumber. She suggested we go back to Lowe’s and get some. It was madness. It took us two hours to buy three pieces of lumber. After getting the wood home and priming it, we patched the hole in a few hours. We still had one more issue to resolve. I bought the wrong size flashing and it didn’t match. Knowing how obsessive-compulsive I can be, my mother agreed to accompany me to Lowe’s one last time. This time we were in and out in five minutes. Once the flashing was in place we were pretty much finished. I cleaned up while my mother caulked. Later Terri grilled up some hotdogs on the George Foreman and we settled in to watch LSU route Auburn. Terri kept telling me to use my “inside voice” but to no avail. I kept screaming like a drunken sailor every time LSU made a misstep or Auburn made a good play. LSU ended up winning so the night ended on a good note.

On Sunday Terri and I just lounged around and watched old episodes of “Cold Case”. I tagged a ton of mp3’s that I have wanted to import into my library. I am not anywhere close to being finished with that task. I just keep chipping away at it in small increments. Later that evening we went to Boudreaux’s for chicken fingers. After dinner we returned home and watched the new Louisiana vampire series, “True Blood”, on HBO.

After

He-Man references aside, we have power at the house. What a great feeling! My thoughts of the apocalypse have subsided a little. I feel bad for you guys out there that still have no power and I hope it is restored for you soon.

At work today, Stu and I had to run to Family Practice and check the temp in our network closets. Everything there was cool. Since we were so close to Chuy’s we decided to see if it was open. On the way there we noticed a gas station that just opened so we pulled in and filled up Stu’s box and my gas can that I just happened to have with me. After refueling Stu and I headed to Chuy’s. When we arrived it looked like it was closed but then we noticed some people inside. The people inside told us they would be open in a few minutes. We waited until 11:00 and then walked in. We where seated immediately and asked what we would like to drink. Stu ordered for himself and then I asked for a cup stuffed with delicious, precious ice and some Coke. When the beverages arrived it looked like the waitress stuffed as much ice as she possibly could in the glass and filled it with Coke. When the icy goodness hit my lips I thought I was going to pass out. It was almost too much to handle. It was the highlight of my day until I returned to an electrified home. I will probably never have a Coke again in my life that will compare to that one. It’s all downhill from here…

I took some photos on my way home today.

This is the Dodge dealership on 45 south at 610.

Gas station by my house

I gotz it…

Lots to do, will update later.

Sort of. Thanks to Terri’s brother we now have two generators and some gas. We can now make some ice, wonderful, wonderful ice.

I only had one beer and one chicken left so I made a beer chicken. Google it. I didn’t make it up.

These pictures were taken at 6620 Main in the Texas Medical Center.

Terri and I just finished a whole chicken. It didn’t stand a chance after all of the crappy carbs we had today. The power Is still off but we are seeing signs of life in surounding areas. Hopefully ours will be back on soon. Terri’s brother who lives nearby had his power service restored this afternoon. I traded some gas cans for some ice earlier so we are now able drink cold drinks, but only for a little while. A cold front blew in this afternoon which dropped the temp to 80^. Thanks for small miracles.

On a side note, I have had more candlelit dinners with my wife through this ordeal than the five years we’ve been married. Interesting.

We just got finished cleaning up the yard. We still do not have power. We do have water so I will be able to shower which is good for Terri. We are doing fine. My mother is stuck in Yellowstone because of the flight cancelations. She should be in tomorrow evening. Baylor is closed tomorrow but I am still reporting for duty at ten. Not much else to report except that I’m hot and not in the Paris Hilton way.

I don’t even own a pine tree.

Terri and I got up and drove to Clear Lake. We had a doctor’s appointment at the fertility clinic. We couldn’t reach anyone on the phone so we drove there. It was deserted like everything else here. We are now home and are being lulled to sleep by the generator next door while we contemplate breakfast.