Chad gets a new number

At least Chad COULD get a new number if I can ever figure out a way to get the old number off.  I don't know what exactly the rotation is but every few years new license plates are issued.  I went over to the license bureau and only while at the counter discovered that the rotation is complete for the car formerly known as Chad.

Those license plate bolts look awfully rusty though.  So far I can't budge them even a teensy tiny bit.  Rusted hard, absolutely rock hard.

But I went out to the auto parts store this afternoon and got some stuff which has a theoretical chance of loosening the bolts.  The truth is though that the auto parts guy said I would probably have to have them drilled out.

There is a serious flaw here somewhere.  The car is going to last long enough to require new license plates but the license plate attachment system isn't going to be functioning at the moment when the new plates need to be attached.

Stay tuned.

TOPWLH said she wished she could have gone on yesterday's ride.  She was guest riding today, the wind conditions were similar to yesterday, we took most of the same ride.  Here she is posed in front of the Emily tree.

We turned back at Summit instead of Highland Parkway, knocking several miles off the ride distance.

It turns out that distance wasn't the biggest problem today.  Mostly today it was TOO HOT.

And TOO WINDY.

We rode past Merriam Park on the way home.  I had not been past this park since the big storm.  Merriam Park is a grassy knoll with a nice stand of aged oaks.  As of today it has two fewer oaks.

This wreckage is striking because all of the other trees we have seen come down came down as a result of the ground being saturated.  The trees were all blown over root ball included.  These two large oak trees were broken off a fairly large distance above the ground.

Stuff goes on here, the washer and dryer got maintenance today, the generator guy came out and made a preliminary assessment of what we need, and I bought a beanie baby book.  We have quite a few beanie babies as a result of having had a child.  She doesn't want them, they were in storage in the basement, the recent basement issues has resulted in an assessment of every thing formerly in the basement.

We were going to perhaps throw them away, or perhaps give them to Goodwill.  Today I bought a beanie baby book.

The dog on the left is named Spot.  He has his "tush tag" but is missing his ear tag.  If he had the ear tag he would stand a chance of being worth about $900.  With the missing ear tag the value is reduced by at least half.

Still, a few bucks for Spot would certainly pay for the $14 beanie baby book.

The brown bear is Cubbie.  The book spends a lot of time on identifying the "generation" of the toys based on the characteristics of the "tush tag" and the "ear tag".  Cubbie seems to fit all of the characteristics of a "2nd generation" beanie baby.  A 2nd generation Cubbie is listed by the book as having a value of $300.

We have 13 beanies with the crucial ear tag, most are worth less than $10.  We have another 10 or so beanies without the tag, Spottie is the most valuable.  But we also have Patti who depending on her color could have been worth $2,800 with the tag, still quite a bit without.  It all depends on whether the color we have is "raspberry" or "fuchsia".

Of course, this is all very speculative at this point.  They will probably end up being worth little or nothing at all.  But, we were going to give them away, instead we will be looking into finding a professional appraisal.

So that was fun.