1976 VW Pop Top Camper Bus FOR SALE!

ASKING $2,500 OBO -- Must Sell THIS Week!!

I'm selling my beloved bus, Jenny. She's named after Forrest Gump's girlfriend. I've had her for 10 years but only put a little over 10,000 miles on her. She only has 135,000 total miles. Jenny has a manual with a pop top camper and full camping gear -- sink, stove, and refrigerator. The back seat pulls into a bed and there is a top bunk when you pop the top. She runs great but doesn't smog very well. I had a great mechanic in the past that knew the secrets to get her to pass smog easily, but he left the service station and the new guy just didn't have the right touch. So she's currently on a smog waiver. She has a dual battery set-up so the fridge will run on a backup battery when the engine is off.

Jenny needs a little tlc -- some paint, weather stripping, and upholstery would be awesome. I'm moving across country and haven't the time or money to get her in the shape she deserves!












I took the refrigerator/stove out a long time ago. I love the stove, but the refrigerator wasn't worth the space it took up. I'm not sure if it wasn't working properly or if it is simply a fan in a door. It didn't keep things particularly cold and took up a lot of space, so I took it out, but left the propane tank hooked up so it'll be easy to reinstall. The outlet that belongs on the side of the refrigerator hasn't been working. I'm not sure if there is a short somewhere or if the backup battery isn't working.





This is the propane and electrical hookups:


I didn't reinstall it, just sat it in there where it belongs, so you can see how it is supposed to look.


Here is Jenny with the top popped:


Here is the top bunk. It unfolds to be a full size bed. Kids love it!


This is the bottom bunk. You just pull on the back seat and voila!


The tent is pretty dirty but overall, holding up pretty well. It needs a little work around the zippers:


The tent has windows that unzip but the screens need to be replaced.





It's time for some seat covers and upholstery on the back cushions/bed.




The radio was stolen and the speaker fell out of the side door. I saved the speaker but didn't reinstall it.


It's time for some new weather stripping around the window on the driver's side door. That door also sticks and is hard to open from the inside.


Some of the weather stripping around the pop-top needs to be replaced. It has dried out and stiffened up in the desert.


Those little lights on the back sides are both broken off.


This is the view from the top of the engine:


The muffler is pretty darn rusty, although the undercarriage is pretty rust free.


The duct tape has been holding on the hose since I got the bus!



The paint is thinning, especially around the edges and just starting to rust. It's just surface rust... the dents and dings are also rusting.




Email me at countingks@gmail.com for more information.

Happy Holidays

Ahhhh... one of the best parts of the holidays are the very funny and very offensive holiday claymation videos "Trapped in the Clauset".

The Lineup

Here's what the Sox have so far going into 2010:

INFIELD
1B: Youkilis
2B: Pedroia
SS: Scutaro
3B: Lowell (although his Sox days seem to be numbered)
C: Martinez

Bench: Lowrie, Varitek, Kotchman

OUTFIElD
RF: Drew
CF: Ellsbury
LF: Cameron

Bench: Hermida

STARTING PITCHING
Beckett
Lester
Lackey
Matsuzaka
Buchholz
Wakefield

RELIEVERS
Ramon Ramirez A
Ramon Ramirez B
Daniel Bard
Manny DelCarmen
Hideki Okajima
Jonathan Papelbon
Boof Bonser

DH:
David Ortiz

Keeping up with the Joneses, Gonzalezes, Martinizes...

Theo is back in action, making plans for the 2010 Sox.

Alex Gonzalez
Sox declined his 2010 option, but are still negotiating for 2010.

** Victor Martinez
Sox pick up his 2010 option. Theo has declared Martinez to be the Sox everyday catcher. While Tek will likely don a Sox jersey next year, the Varitek era is over.

** Tim Wakefield
Sox drop his option, but sign him for less money to a two year contract, which by all accounts, will be his last.

Jason Varitek
Sox decline his option, but Tek has his own option for less money.

Two wild and crazy guys

I'd like to thank the crazy fans from Toronto, who dress as umpires and call the games from the stands. Toronto embarrassed the Sox this week and the games would have been downright painful to watch had it not been for the umpire fans.

Here is Don and Jerry's commentary on the umpire guys. The are behind the plate, just to the right, barely in the frame. (It's worth enlarging the video)

They are most entertaining when they ring up a guy on a called third strike:

Awesome.

Sooner or later, he was bound to explode... Fight Night 2009

Classic. Not only did Youk charge the mound after getting hit by a pitch yet again, but he actually chased the scared young pitcher and threw his helmet at him. Notice Penny, who came out to join the party as Youkilis was leaving the field.

Once the dust settled, Bay tied the score and Francona, still a little worked up, got himself tossed. That fired him up even more. After the toss, is some awesome commentary by Eck on Brad Penny's late arrival and shower shoes.

John Smoltz and Josh Beckett are a deadly combination. Just ask George Kottaras

In the batting adventure that was Sunday's Sox-Orioles 18-10 (is that right? I lost track) debacle, the boys in the dugout got a little bored. Nothing like the bubble on the head trick to liven up a 4 hour blowout. Thank you, John Smoltz.

Are you trying to say that Jesus Christ can't hit a curveball?

The Sox bats could use a little voodoo these days... maybe a bucket of KFC?

You're in Good Hands with President Palmer

Maybe I'm late to the party, but I just figured out that the great voodoo hitter from Major League is none other than America's favorite president, Dennis Haysbert!!

Thank you, NESN!

Thanks to NESN and Don Orsillo, in particular, for pointing out the similarities between Disco Denny and Barry Gibb.


Why is there not a DH in the All-Star game? Doesn't it more guys a chance to play????

Have I mentioned the 90 minute blackout?

I've spent so much time clicking, rebooting, and power cycling, I haven't had to time to write down my complaints. I should make better use of that "90" minutes that I'm waiting for the archive. Last night I spent over an hour trying to use the DVR function to get to the beginning of the game. I got the dreaded "DVR function is temporarily unavailable" error. I rebooted, cycled, restarted, and quit processes. I started clicking in the 6th inning. By the time the game ended I had only watched the first inning. After which I got that error again and again and again. As soon as the game was over, the DVR function is over. The mlbsupport on the forum said that you will be kicked out of the player if you touch any buttons after the game ends. Nice! So I'm screwed and I have to wait for the archive. THE NINETY MINUTES. I knew exactly when the game ended. I saw the bar on the player go from yellow to red. It was 6:43PST. At 8:43 a link to the archive appeared. It didn't work. "The game is temporarily unavailable." It didn't work for 30 minutes. Then it worked but the DVR function didn't work so I had to watch the first inning over. It quit once in the bottom half of the inning and reset to the start of the game. I was able to watch to the bottom of the second. Then the video never came back on but the sound kept going and a second soundtrack kicked on. I gave up and listened to WRKO.

This morning I tried again and had the same issue in the 2nd inning. I skipped to the 3rd inning and it played! I was so excited until I noticed that the sound was lagging a few seconds behind. It was annoying. The lag grew inning by inning. By the end, it was a full out behind the video. It was unwatchable.

Game 3 credits

I think I forgot to mention Rocco's 8th inning diving catch. Awesome. And tonight Jon Lester takes the batters box. Good times.

Game 3 part 2

8th inning

After an hour of non- baseball activities, the game is archived. I half heartedly watch.
Saito proves he is not Timlin 2009.
I doze and awake to Don yelling.
Take a chance that rewind doesn't crash player. It doesn't.
Holy crap. Cc is finally out. Sox score. Tie it. Take the lead. Holy crap. Is this the best game of the year?

9th inning



OMG!!! NICK GREEN PROVES HE IS NOT JULIO LUGO!
He wins baseball boyfriend of the day.
2 down.
Mrs. Texiera. Enough said.

8-0.

2009.

I think we might be watching something special happen here.

Game 3

1st inning
Brad Penny drills A-Rod and becomes my favorite person.

2nd inning
Brad Penny clocks in at 98. Trade Dice-K.
Nick Swisher wins worst base runner of the year and becomes my new favorite person.

3rd inning
Papi. Papi. Papi. Papi takes another curtain call and becomes my new favorite person.
Eck gushes on about the new Brad Penny. Penny strikes out A-rod and becomes my new favorite person. Trade Dice-K.

4th inning
MLB.tv quits playing suddenly and switches instantly to the 8th inning. I manage to not see the score.
Johnny Damon drops Papi's pop fly and becomes my new favorite person.

5th inning
While both starters are pitching awesome, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Yankees starting rotation. Thanks for making these last 7 games so fun.

6th inning
Brad Penny strikes out Matsui and I'm madly in love with him. If they trade him and keep Vanilla Dice, I may never forgive theo. Penny has officially become more than Beckett's bff.

7th inning.
A-rid doesn't suck as bad as I would like him to. I try to fast forward through the pitching change. BIG MISTAKE. DVR functionality is not available at this time. And guess what?! The games aren't archived yet. I guess it hasn't been 90 minutes since the game ended. Since I've decided to move back east, of course, things have been well here, just to mess with me. But now I thank God that this is the LAST season I will ever have to endure Mlb.tv.

Click. Click. Click. Nothing. Still no archive. Thanks for next to nothing MLB.Tv. I hate you so much. I'd rather you didn't exist. Your teasing false hope is far worse than the acceptance that I used to have. If you were an individual I'd wish fir Jack Bauer to torture the crap out of you so you could feel a fraction of the pain you afflict on baseball fans with your lies and unacceptable performance.

8:39 still no archive. I'll go to bed and prevent further torture. I have a student who is a lawyer. I'll be emailing him tomorrow about class action suits.

Day 2 of Game 1

14 hours later and I haven't finished the game. Last night, the archive went up at 10:30pm PST. Yes, that's 1:30am EST and it wasn't even a 5 hour Sox-Yankees marathon. I watched the top of the first. Then I started the bottom and the video got choppy and eventually stalled. I tried changing my settings and then it wouldn't play at all. I rebooted, cycle, ran in circles and threw the remote. Nothing could get me through the first inning. So I listened to it on GameDay Audio. Of course, I didn't stay awake for long but I woke periodically so I got the gist of the game. This morning I tried rewatching and of course, it worked beautifully. I watched through 3 innings and had to go to work. I sat down an hour ago to watch the rest of the game and I can't get it to work. I click and click and click some more but I can't get it to jump to the fourth inning and when I start from the first (which I don't want to do, obviously) the video freezes. If I try to adjust my video settings, it freezes. FANTASTIC!

I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU MLB.TV

IT'S 9:13 PST THAT IS 12:13 EST AND THE ARCHIVE OF THE >>>>>>>SOX YANKEES <<<<<< GAME IS NOT UP YET. I HAVE NEVER HATED ANYONE OR ANYTHING AS MUCH AS I HATE MLB.TV. THANKS FOR DROPPING THE BALL ON THIS. I WILL BE FINDING A LAWYER TOMORROW TO EXPLORE CLASS ACTION SUITS.

Why baseball should not be played in a circus tent

I went and bought myself a slick little screen recorder (iShowU) and so I can make little video clips once again. I just had to clip this lovely snippet of Josh Beckett trying to shag fly balls during BP. Luckily, the Twins will have a new ballpark next year and will be moving out of the trash bag lined circus tent.


video courtesy of nesn

Rock bottom..aka "Screaming at the customer service agent does not help."

Last week, I thought I had hit rock bottom with mlb.tv. The video was crap the whole game. It would play for 10-30 seconds and stall for 30 seconds. I tried every video setting. Whenever I changed the video settings, I got an error. Either the DVR controls were currently unavailable or the game itself was temporarily unavailable. I reset, restarted, and cycled. No change. It was annoying but I did get to watch it. Until the 3rd inning, when the video crashed and started me over at the beginning. Again and again and again. After I spent 3 hours watching 3 innings, I called customer service. I spent a few minutes on the line during which the problem cleared up. I got off the phone and was able to watch about 15 minutes before the problem came back. I got back on the phone and spent the better part of an hour politely changing my settings. Quick sidenote: the fellow knew NOTHING about macs. If he told me to right click one more time, I thought my head might explode. You'd think that the customer service folks would be trained on both systems or would put someone on the line who was versed in mine, but alas, I digress....When none of the troubleshooting 101 suggestions worked, the customer service did the unthinkable. He actually tried to watch the game!!! Shockingly enough he had the same problems. Sorry, it looks like it's just a bad feed. There is nothing you can do. That's about when I lost it and started yelling. I know it's uncool and it doesn't solve anything. I know it's not this fellow's fault that mlb.tv sucks so badly. That said, I can hardly blame myself. Fellow waited almost an hour to try the video himself. When he noticed it didn't work, he just said sorry, not I'll call over to to tech and make sure they are working on this. ERRRRRR...

Since then, I've had pretty much the same problem when watching the archived games. I can usually get a few innings in and then I have to switch browsers and/or reboot to get to the next inning. It's pretty uncool. Last night, the uncoolness was multiplied by the fact that the game started without HD, fullscreen, or audio. I mean, seriously, could you f#$# it up more? I guess I should be grateful for the tiny out of focus video in the middle of the screen. I mean it's not like the promised me anything. OH WAIT! They did promise me HD quality when I paid the extra money for the premium membership. Regardless, it wasn't long (an inning maybe?) before I was blessed with sound. Unfortunately, it was RKO's sound and it was about 30 seconds ahead of the game. Nothing like hearing "Swing and a miss" before the ball leaves the pitcher's hand. Nice. Eventually the NESN audio did come on. And then it disappeared again. And came back and disappeared. It was never on at the beginning of an inning and most innings it did reappear at some point. Most.

Of course, I had to reboot twice to make it through the game. The overall video quality was pretty choppy, like silverlight. Obviously the game should be in HD since I pay for that. However, in the circumstances that it isn't, full screen should be full screen. Last night's game had the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen to make the player widescreen. However, the game wasn't widescreen. So they put grey bars on the left and right sides of the screen, making the screen teeny tiny. Well maybe the teeny tiny-ness was supposed to distract me from the crappy quality.

From bad to worse

It seems the in their never-ending quest to improve their troubled video player, MLB.tv has introduced an outrageous error. When the player finds a flaw in the NexDef video, it switches to the Standard video. This seems smart, huh? And if you are watching a live game, it works well. It keeps the video from quitting altogether when it finds a snag. However, when you are using the DVR function to watch a game, as I usually do, it doesn't work quite so seamlessly. I generally start watching during the late innings but immediately skip back to the start of the game, taking careful steps to not see the score when the game starts up. Well, with the new and improved feature, the game plays fine for a bit, but within a inning's time, it will inevitably hit one of those snags and switch to the Standard video. Standard video doesn't support DVR function during live games, so the video switches to the live feed. So, I'm watching along, maybe there are 2 outs in the bottom of the first. Probably runners are on base and WHAM! Suddenly I'm in the 9th inning. That's fantastic. What's even better is that it happens about once an inning.

While I sit in waiting

I'm currently waiting for MLB.tv to archive today's Sox game so I can watch it. I don't usually have to sit and wait for archives because of the fancy new DVR function that NexDef provides. I can jump in at any time and jump to the first inning. That is when NexDef is actually working.

Needless to say, it's not working tonight. And frankly I can't remember a time when it's worked in an archived game...NexDef is supposed to improve the video quality which leads me to believe that it hasn't worked properly in quite a while because my video quality has averaged about how well I can see without my contact lenses. That is to say that I can't read the score on the top of the screen or the names on the uniforms and I certainly can't see the damn ball. But I've lowered my standards of what is acceptable performance. If I'm able to see the game, I'm (relatively) happy.

Right now, I'm not even close to relatively happy.

While I was able to watch Saturday and Sunday's games live without an issue, other than poor video quality, I met with some interesting issues yesterday. I now have mlb.tv on speed dial. Last night I fell asleep in the 9th inning. I woke and rewound to the start of the inning. Like normal, it said "verifying account". Then it gave me a fantastic error - that I've logged in too many times. I've had this error many times before, but I really had logged in multiple times. Originally, I didn't know you were required to logout every time you leave that media player window and that if you load a game from the mediacenter page, it counted as a separate login. Since then, I've been sure to logout every time from the media player window. Well, I've still come across that error because there have been numerous times when the shoddy player has crashed my browser. Not much I can do about logging out in that case. The folks on the support line have assured me that if I logout every and use the links in the player, I will not encounter the error. Last night, however, I got the error when I jump to an inning! I hadn't even selected a new game, let alone, left the player! Unbelievable. Another 20 minutes of my life lost on the support line for mlb.tv.

During the time that I've spent writing this post, the Sox game has been archived, but it doesn't load. I tried with NexDef off and had no luck. I tried loading it from the player and it says it's not availble, try again soon. Yup, I freaking love you, mlb.tv.