Happy Valentine's Day!
It's six minutes to midnight as I type this - it's still technically Valentine's Day! ;)
It was a busy day, as is often the case with a Monday. I had to arrange to pick up the "new" truck, as well as get all of the insurance and registration paperwork done. Plus I had to get a down-payment and a blank cheque for the insurance on the new shop in to the broker as well. After breakfast and exchanging some little Valentine's gifts (chocolate hearts, of course!) Trixstir and I headed into town to take care of business. We stopped at the dealership first so that I could get the bill-of-sale, and then she dropped me off at the Credit-Union so I could deposit a cheque for the insurance I'd need for Iron Pony. From there she headed to the bowling alley for the Senior's afternoon league, and I walked over to the insurance office to get all the paperwork done. Once all of that was taken care of, I took advantage of the (somewhat) decent weather and walked back to the dealership. I thought that there was a by-law in this town that people had to keep their sidewalks clear of ice and snow; Obviously, a lot of people are ignoring it. :/
Here are a few shots of my newest "toy"... The truck is primarily for Iron Pony, since I must have a reliable vehicle to be able to get to my clients, and out here a 4x4 is really not optional:
The truck will go back to the dealership a little later this week to get a ClassIII/IV hitch installed, as well as an electric-brake controller and a few cosmetic touch-ups. While I was taking these pictures I noticed that the two rear lamps for illuminating the license plate are missing; The wiring is there, but the lamps themselves are missing. Also, the spare-tire is missing! I will have to bring these to the dealership's attention tomorrow, as those things are not optional! The tires are BF Goodrich "Rugged Trail T/A" LT245/75R17 tires, and they're in very good condition with plenty of tread left. They say that they are "M+S" which supposedly means "Mud and Snow" but I'm not sure if those are true Winter-Tires. Canadian Tire has the Good-Year Wrangler tires on sale this week, and they are true Winter-Rated tires. I've been using them on the Chevy 2500, and I really like them. I just don't want to have to spend almost another $1000 on tires if the BF Goodrich tires are just as good.
I watched Jeopardy tonight, as I often like to do, but tonight was extra-special as they're doing a 3-day special featuring their two top champions in an exhibition play-off against IBM's "Watson" Super-Computer. At first it seemed that Watson might start winning, but after a while the champions (well, one of them anyway) caught up to it. It will be interesting to see what the next two days bring. I really wish I had a PVR to record this, as this is "History in the Making" with the way Watson was designed. Unfortunately, I got so caught-up watching this Man-vs-Machine mind battle, that I completely forgot that I was supposed to call back a client about his snow-blower at 7:30pm this evening. Ooops! Here's hoping they're not too upset!