Today I got a spam from PAYLESS INSIDER.

From: 242-424
PAYLESS INSIDER: Take
20% off during the Easter
Sale @Payless! Use codo
3XXXX thru 4/4. Txt END1
or 866-746-5923 to
Opt-Out. Msg&Data rates
may apply. Not@Shopko

I can remember receiving about a half dozen of them before, but never did anything with them, fearing that following their opt-out instructions might just make matters worse (with a lot of email-based spam, the opt-out instructions will only serve to confirm to the spammers that your email address is legitimate and make it that much more valuable.) I hadn’t bought anything from Payless for years, and even if I had, I certainly wouldn’t have given them my cell number, nor any hint that I was even remotely interested in their pseudo bargains.

But today my sore back made me grumpy enough to want to do something about this one, so I went to the Payless Shoes website looking for contact information. The Customer Service link lists an email address — CustomerService@csr.payless.com — so I clicked on it & drafted a short but terse note asking if they were responsible for the unsolicited text messages. I didn’t really expect to hear back from them, but hitting send (forcefully!) made me feel a little better. My back still hurt, but it helped a little anyway.

Much to my surprise, I did get a response about an hour later:

Dear David,

Thank you for contacting Payless ShoeSource.
We apologize that you were inconvenienced by our message. Please rest assured that your comments have been forwarded to our marketing staff.

All of the phone numbers called during this marketing campaign were collected at the time of checkout in our stores. These numbers have not been bought or sold through any outside marketing firms. You may remove your phone number from this database by calling

1-866-746-5923.

Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback.

Tyler
Payless ShoeSource Customer Support Center
1-877-474-6379

Well isn’t that dandy? If what’s said in that note is true, someone other than me gave my number at the time of checkout; sure as heck wasn’t me. That (on top of my still-sore back) ticked me off enough to chance a call to that number, halfway hoping to get a real person just for the chance to vent a little. Un(?)fortunately, calls to that number end up in an automated answering system where one of the options is to have your number removed from their call list. I clicked a few buttons in response to the queries, and the pleasant female voice assured me that my number has been removed. Time will tell. Either way, it’ll be a long, long time before I consider buying anything from them.

Now, time to look for a little something in the medicine drawer to help dull the hurting in my lower back…

I took a little detour past Buck’s Muffler on my way to work this morning, hoping to get a photo of the carnage, but all I saw was two guys with a hose & a broom cleaning up the mess. I hope they get Mr. Bendo put back together and back in place just as quickly!

Of course, it was a slip of the tongue or more likely a teleprompter miscue, but still… If it had been George W. Bush making a mistake like this, the media would be all over it, but again, our President can do no wrong. This guy is supposed to be the brightest bulb to grace the White House in centuries; shouldn’t he have caught that flub or at least corrected himself after he said it? And what about the adoring crowd? Was no one listening to what the man actually said and applying any critical thinking before cheering madly?

It seems the man is in permanent campaign mode, constantly trying to sell us something, even when polls show that we don’t want what he’s selling, and the facts show him to be dead wrong. Even Congressional Democrats are afraid to vote on it fearing a backlash come November.

Looking back at my other posts celebrating other milestones, the pace is picking up a bit; 10,000 was towards the end of June last year, so it took about nine months to add 10,000. Before that, I hit 5,000 in early December of 2008; adding 5,000 took a little over six months. We’ll see how quickly 30,000 comes. The one constant is that Google is my best friend; direct hits to the site are few & far between, but there’s a pretty steady stream of referrals from Google searches. The most recent favorite is my post on the Citroen CV2 Rat Rod, but the Ford Freestar trailer wiring post and the Plymouth minivan instrument cluster post remain perennial favorites.

At the risk of letting the exuberating get out of hand, I celebrated the occasion by picking up a roll (chocolate-covered Bavarian cream-filled Long John!) from Sunshine on my way to work today.

Yeah; I really know how to live.

One of the Fastest M5’s in the country

1988 E28 M5 VIN# WBSDC9305J2791570 prod date 6/87

Just in time for the racing season. This Race Car needs nothing to be raced next weekend.

Top Speed Over 170 Mph

3.9 6 Cylinder w/ over 370 rear wheel horsepower

• Weighs Just under 2500 LBs
• All Receipt’s and Complete Build Sheets Fresh S38 Motorsports Engine only 1 Race
• Comes With lots Spares
• Comes AMB transponder and lap timer
• 2 Rear Ends 3:91/3:73 Precision Engineering Built
• 8 Fiske and 4 BBS Lightweight Wheels
• Wolf 3D+4 Fully Programmable Engine Management
• Ground Control Double Adjustable Shocks & Struts
• Fully Adjustable Suspension Front And Rear
• AP 6 Piston Calipers Front and AP Rear Calipers
• Carbon Fiber Hood
• Carbon Fiber Air Intake
• Carbon Fiber Air Damn

This is A Completely Sorted Race Car, Campaigned in Scca and BMWCCA. Will pass all tech inspections. Holds Many Lap records and Many Overall Wins.

S38 b38 BMW Engine, Balanced and Blueprinted, Head match ported and polished. Stillen Crankshaft, ARP Bolts and Studs Throughout. Over 370 RWHP.

Has New FIA 6 Point Schroth Belts, Current Window Net, Momo Seat and Steering Wheel. Comes with Spares. Spare Carbon Fiber Air Damn, Spare Rotors w/Hats for Front and Rear. Back-up Master Cylinder, Hydroboost, Brake lines, Various Rate Coil Springs

Comes w/2 Sets Full wets and 1 Set Intermediate wets, 3 sets of slicks; 24 tires total.

The car is (was?) owned by David Daniels, and is pretty well known to people in the E28 community. For a non-turbo engine, it’s HP output is as high as I’ve ever seen in an E28. And stripped down to 2,500 pounds? Wow. The E28 is notoriously heavy and difficult to strip down for racing, but Daniels used a lot of carbon fiber & fiberglass to help keep the weight down. Here is a video of it going up against an E36 M3 (owned & driven by Brian Watts.) In the video, the M3 can outrun the M5 in the straights, but the M5 walks right on by in the corners. Tells a lot about the work that Daniels put into the chassis and suspension! And about the driver!

The car was up for sale on eBay, but the auction ended with the final bid at $21,100, and the reserve not met.

I had never really heard of this car before buying a copy of Ambrosia Software’s Redline for the kids last Christmas; the Zonda is one of the downloadable add-ons for the game, and it’s one of the fastest & best handling cars in the game. Kinda makes sense, since it’s essentially a street-legal Formula 1 race car.

House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.
…
In the Slaughter Solution, the rule would declare that the House “deems” the Senate version of Obamacare to have been passed by the House. House members would still have to vote on whether to accept the rule, but they would then be able to say they only voted for a rule, not for the bill itself.

This is only another attempt by the Democrat “Leadership” to obfuscate the fact that even with the huge majority they have in the House, Nancy Pelosi still is unable to muster the votes to push this thing through. The Representatives know a ‘yes’ vote would be political suicide, so they don’t want to touch it. Comically, the story from Nancy is still that the Republicans are the problem (cue rolling of eyes). Even if they proceed with this cockamamie plan, a vote to accept the rule will still have the stink of death on it, so the issue is pretty much moot.

Speaking of leadership (or the lack thereof), for the last few weeks President Obama has been insisting that Congress get this healthcare thing put to bed before Malia & Sasha’s Big Adventure (featuring stops in Guam, Indonesia & Australia; one can only wonder whether a visit to Dad’s birthplace is on the itinerary…) The Southern Hemisphere Tour was supposed to take off March 18, but has been pushed back to March 21. Again, he has drawn a line in the sand, and allowed that line to be moved. Is it any wonder that his job approval numbers have tanked? Or have they tanked because he’s pushing so hard for something so many people don’t want? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I guess what it really shows is that there really is little new in the world of politics.

You know I get angry when I’m hungry. Like the Hulk, only I don’t get all green and muscle-y, I just get dizzy and snap at people that don’t deserve it.

I can so relate to that!

I don’t buy into the whole karma thing — do good things to balance out the bad things — but the show is pretty entertaining. And it’s refreshing to see sitcom characters demonstrating some honesty instead of the usual mess of trying to hide their mistakes. That and the whole trailer trash atmosphere of the show makes for some good, (relatively) clean entertainment. And Randy… He is just a hoot!

Sean started out his trip from New York in the enormous Thai-style rickshaw you see pictured below, but found it wasn’t quite up to the trip and ended up being replaced by a more modern pedicab about a 1,000 miles into the trek. I’m sure he misses the built-in sunshade, but won’t miss the extra weight; the old one weighed about 700lbs and had only 3 gears! His knees will thank him in twenty years or so.

When asked why he’s doing this, it seems there are a lot of things motivating him; from his FAQ:

Q. Why are you doing this, what is your cause?
A. My cause is because.

My buddy John (Sean’s brother) says he’s doing it to avoid work. “Because” seems to be a better motivation, so we’ll stick with that. And what he said in the interview about the importance of having an adventure rings true to the romantic in me. I wish I’d had the gumption to do something like this in the years before wifejobkidshousemortgagecarsstuff, because I sure don’t see anything like it happening in my future.

Sean is now in the Gulf states region, and his planned route will take him…

… west across TX, NM, and AZ up to Vegas then over to Cali. Up Cali and try to go as north as possible depending on the terrain then head east thru Montana (one of the states I’m really looking forward to riding thru, Big Sky!!) Head into the Dakotas, stop off at my brothers in Sioux Falls. Then hit up my home state of Iowa try to meet up with Ragbri. Hang with my folks for a week or so. And then haul butt to NYC.”

His original plan was to hook up with RAGBRAI 2010, but considering he also planned to be in New Orleans by Christmas, RAGBRAI 2011 might be a more attainable goal! It’s cool that he’s planning a stopover in Sioux Falls; should be a big party at John’s place!

Sean & Coop’s Blog