This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

I watch all the CSI shows, have since the beginning of each of them. I still like the original best but they each have their own slant and strong points. My most excellent spouse, Patricia, only grudgingly tolerates CSI: Miami. She can only take so much of David Caruso. But we are both always impressed with the gorgeous Miami scenery which, I can now say is almost stunning on our 52″ Sony Bravia HDTV.

Last Monday’s episode, “LA,” featured a visit to Los Angeles and guess what? I have never seen such beautiful, colorful, shots of the L.A. basin. Griffith Observatory, the Coliseum, City Hall, the Disney Concert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, all rendered in rich, saturated color, so unlike it’s usually drab greys and browns. If you missed it, it is worth watching just for that, even in standard definition TV.

After 10 minutes I heard myself thinking, “They sure make movies better now.” I really did not like the music at all and the sound in general is noticeably poorer quality compared to almost any contemporary production.

Further on there were scenes with a detective named Mulderig, who obviously did not like Gene Hackman’s character, Popeye Boyle. After watching him for several minutes, I was thinking, “I’ve seen that face somewhere.” Finally I got it: he was the one driving the Charger in Bullitt!

So at the end of the movie I had two items to check in the credits: music composed and conducted by Don Ellis. Stunt coordinator: Bill Hickman, also played the part of Mulderig.

Don Ellis was a highly respected musician and composer. I still hate the music in this movie. Bill Hickman was indeed the wheel man in the Charger and was also in charge of the stunt driving in that movie. I stand by my first impression: they sure make movies better now.

When I got home I parked in the driveway and spent about an hour and half … reading the manual. (I had to tell you this because one of my official duties at work is writing The manual. I hate it when people don’t read them!) There really are some things you won’t find out any other way. For example, it was easy to figure out how to use the radio controls on the steering wheel. But I doubt I would have ever discovered that the radio can be set to adjust the volume depending on the vehicle speed! For YEARS I had turned the radio up while on the freeway and down again while rolling to a stop on the off ramp. No more! This radio does it automatically. It’s a little disconcerting at first but it is really great after about the third time and you realize that there is nothing wrong when the volume changes by itself. I just left the volume set at 7. Works perfectly!

As you probably know, I was laid off from my 18 years of engineering for Ericsson in 2006. My commute went from 31 miles one way to zero. I have rarely needed to get on the freeway since. When driving around with my most excellent spouse, Patricia, I always turn the radio off.

Last December, I finally had the most expensive service to date: rear brakes, 4 new tires, a new battery, one headlight … Oh yeah, and an oil change, all out of warranty. When I picked the car up, I noticed right away that all the radio presets were gone. That’s what happens when the battery is disconnected. I just quickly found my favorite news station, KFWB, News 980, and went on home.
It was months later before I got around to fixing all the presets again.

For the last several weeks, it has seemed like my hearing has gotten a lot worse or the radio is just not working right. At times it has been necessary to turn the volume up to 12 or 13! It finally made me realize that the volume adjustment with speed was not working. I was almost heartbroken. On the way to work Monday morning I thought I was going to have to take it to the dealer. Where was that setting again? Hmmm. Let’s see push this knob several times until the display shows … what was it again? BASS, TREB, MID, BAL, FADE, ALC OFF. That’s the one! OFF? It should be LEVEL3! It was also reset when the battery was disconnected!My radio works so good again. And the volume is back at 7.