All my life I have avoided the "Keeping up with the Joneses" syndrome. I have never worried about what the other guy has that I don't. Well, until recently. When we visited Robert and Laura at Christmas time, Robert made good use of his new barbeque grill. He is quite good at it. I have to admit to jealousy on my part. I have been agitating Ginny for quite a while about getting a new one. We had a "discussion" about it recently. She said I could get the grill of my dreams for my birthday, coming up next month. Well, that was certainly cool. I already have it picked out. Yesterday she said that we should fix up the older one as well and keep it. That struck me as "sub-optimal" since it would take several hundred dollars to put it back in shape. About the only thing original in it is the enclosure which is aluminum. All the other parts have been replaced many times (hence my interest in a stainless steel barbeque). It was clear that our discussion was going nowhere, so I resolved to try upgrading the old grill with used parts from around the house. I pulled out this 160 gig external hard drive and hooked it up. I would have to say that the upgrade was not really all that effective. I am not sure how many hamburgers and steaks you can store on it, but I decided that further experimentation would be fruitless. We are going out Saturday to shop for the new one.
This is priceless and indicative of what happens when you have to sit and wait and wait for dial-up computer service. I know it gives my brain time to wander--with the risk of not completely returning to the starting point (wherever that was...).
The custom broomstick handle is a nice feature, I would try to incorporate that into your new burger burner.
Maybe a Wi-Fi connection is in order; the ability to remotely fire up the grill while seated inside, waiting for Pbase to load might be handy. You're going to make it tough for your neighbors to keep up with you, The King Of BBQ Sundays.
I admire your inventive thinking about upgrades, John. If the average burger requires twenty bites, you should be able to store a ton of them on that drive. BUT...will it keep them fresh?
One note: that looks like a USB cable; for this application you need a Firewire connection.
