One and 1/2 degrees east of the 90th Meridian West

That's the location of the drive-up window at the local McDonald's. Oddly enough, the window is exactly 400 feet above mean sea level.

Useless facts. You bet! I finally bought a new car and most of the technology seems to be either useless, redundant, or unfathomable. Does anyone really need to know 24/7 what spot on the earth is exactly beneath their butt?

If you only buy a new car every ten years, the technology is bound to change, but give me a break. The new car not only talks to me, I can talk back to it -- then it either does something or asks another question. Rooty is very confused. He has no idea who's taking to us or whom I'm talking to. Just to mess with his mind, every now and then I switch it to Spanish.

So that's pretty much what I have been doing all week, reading the five main manuals that came with the car -- then I had to get a new cell phone that is Bluetooth enabled so the phone and the car can chat with each other -- then I had to wade through the mind-numbing labyrinth of Sirius radio menus ("cartas" in Spanish).

So, for a change of pace, today I cut the grass: pull cord, walk behind mower.