Raised on Radio

I've been running around the last couple of days trying to get everything that needs done outside finished during these last few days of moderate weather - cleaning the patio, winterizing the bike, getting a last minute wash-'n-wax on the car, etc. The worst part of going on vacation is that When I get back, I feel like I am even further behind than before... They are predicting snow over the next few days, and I'm not looking forward to it.

On another note, I picked up a Sirius satellite radio the other day and have been playing around with it - pretty cool. (And no, my decision to go with Sirius over XM had nothing to do with Howard Stern - Sirius has NPR & BBC, XM doesn't). I've been thinking about it for a while, and they finally got cheap enough ($39.95 + a $10 mail-in rebate) that I decided to give it a shot. It's pretty cool, but on some level it's a really bad idea - you're giving me hundreds of channels of music and a remote control, allowing me to flip through the channels while I drive. I almost rear-ended a cop today while playing with it. And using the suction-cup mount to put it on the windshield next to my phone, my dashboard is starting to look like the Starship Enterprise. Just wait 'till I get the GPS unit for my Treo, I'll be a freakin' Circuit City on wheels.

One cool thing about it - I bought the Starmate receiver, which comes with all the car goodies and a built-in FM modulator (good thing, because the el-cheapo $50 CD player I have in my car just decided to stop ejecting CD's - I've been listening to Blast Tyrant for 4 days straight). I was going to buy the home kit, but they were out of stock. I'm glad they were, because the Sirius web site allows subscribers to listening to streaming audio from any computer. Cool. Now I just have to find a pair of speakers small enough to smuggle into work...