Winter

When I walked out of Mighty Fine after lunch today there was water coming from the sky. Just taken on face value this is a strange thing to say because it doesn’t rain here anymore. The other thing it doesn’t do here anymore is Winter so imagine my shock when I walked out into the parking lot and didn’t get wet because the water was bouncing off of me. Truly I am a wizard and my might is awesome and terrible. That and it was sleeting.

My plans for today were install new license plates, hair cut, Mighty Fine and then down to Houndstooth for coffee and work. The license plates are only half done because I don’t have the technology to install the front holder thing. I guess I’ll take it to the dealer tomorrow afternoon and get them to put it on and finally do the state inspection. Hair cut went as expected. Mighty Fine was crowded with the post-church crowd. Initially I decided to brave the weather and drive into town for my coffee but about three miles down I-35 it really started coming down in earnest and I thought better of subjecting the new car to the aggressive, weather agnostic Texas drivers and came home. By the time I pulled into the driveway there were actual snow flakes mixed in with the sleet.

It reminds me of the first winter I spent in my house. Cypress had, in typical bizarre fashion, scheduled its Winter Christmas Holiday Solstice party for Valentine’s day at the Driskill Hotel and the weather turned very cold over the course of the day. I went down, had dinner, chatted with the people I saw every day at work and then left to visit my friends Hunter and Cali. I watched them play poker for a little while and then looked out the back window and saw snow. We all reveled in the novelty and had a little miniature snowball fight. Then I realized that I needed to get home before the roads got really bad and the drunks from 6th started filtering up into the suburbs. I got all the way up Parmer, down 1431 and into the neighborhood very slowly but without incident. The street through the neighborhood hadn’t been driven since the snow started so it was just a flat white blanket of snow. I crept down the road and, with the engine idling, touched the brakes, instantly locking the wheels and sliding in slow motion onto the curb of the hated traffic circle. In shame, I drove off and over the two blocks to home. At this point it was after 1:00 in the morning. I stood out on the back porch in the dark watching the snow fall and listening to it whisper. If you don’t get snow regularly it is beautiful and serene. I felt like the only living thing around. The next morning all of the neighborhood kids made the saddest little foot-tall muddy snowmen which melted by the end of the day.

NOAA says we’ll be back in the 60’s tomorrow and 70’s Tuesday but today is winter.

Plans

I don’t know if I would call myself a planner. Definitely a dreamer, but less confidence on the planner. Sometimes a brain gremlin will escape and I’ll end up with half finished bookshelves in my garage or a computer simulation of a human powered flying machine. I’ve been thinking about trying this planning thing out. All of my friends live in town. I work in town these days too. My commute is 40 minutes on a good day and over an hour on bad days. Each way. I love my house but it is far and I would like for it to be near. So, what if I decided to start saving to buy a house in town? I could figure out how much I needed and put that away over a few years and then move right?

If it were simple it wouldn’t be me; it wouldn’t have that intrinsic me-ness. Here are the problems.

  • My house is paid off. Not having a house payment is super awesome and it will be sad to have one again.
  • I like the fact that my house is “new”. Plumbing and electric have improved since the the 70’s and anyone who says different is trying to sell you something (a 40 y/o house probably).
  • Stuff in town is expensive. Selling my house wouldn’t buy me an unimproved lot in most of the neighborhoods I like.
  • I like pretty things. I would like a house that is interesting but still functional.
  • I want a garage AND a workshop. This thing where I have to move cars to tinker with stuff is bullshit. My unicorn must also have wings.
  • I also want a house that is efficient in terms of electricity, water and gas use.

A person who is a planner would figure out the cost of building a reasonably sized house with the necessary features in an acceptable part of “in town”, decide how much house payment was tolerable and from that how much money needed to be saved. Then such a person would determine how much money could be saved balancing quality of life from available dollars and quality of life from spending two whole weeks per year driving to and from work (1.5 hrs * 5 days * 48(ish) weeks = 360hrs = 2.14 weeks).

I’ve been telling my friends I’m on the five-year plan, but clearly that’s crap because there is no plan. I have, however, obtained the Employee Direct Deposit Enrollment Form to change the amount that goes to savings. I suppose it doesn’t hurt to save one way or the other but I’ve been thinking it would be good to make an actual plan and commit to it. Shows responsibility, maturity, that sort of thing. Alternatively I could put a zip line between the office and home.

This will at least be an opportunity for me to collect pretty house pictures.

a sad

Today, one month and one day after getting my new car it was involved in its first altercation. I decided to drive down to Houndstooth for delicious coffee and while I was sitting in the left turn lane on Airport waiting to turn onto 45th the guy behind me (who had successfully stopped) smacked the back of my car. Apparently his dog was misbehaving and he took his foot off the brake while dealing with that. It was a red Volvo S40 (hi Zach).

The only damage I can see is two bites in the bumper from where his license plate screws hit but some of the plastic in the little groove back there is actually broken so they’ll probably want to replace the whole thing. I didn’t even see it coming. I was just watching the light and the on-coming traffic.

On the road again

I spent the night at aunt Kathleen’s house and it’s about time to get back on the road. I think I’m going to go ahead and fill the car up while I’m in town and see if someone will sell me some coffee. The drive yesterday was nice. It’s very pretty country up in the mountains and I even found a little hippie, organic, sometimes vegan bakery and coffee shop by accident in Asheville to stop and stretch my legs and have a snack. According to the car I’ve averaged a little over 28mpg but that includes all the driving around in Winston-Salem and driving in the mountains. We’ll see if I can do better today.

Success

I made it. The flight to Raleigh was uneventful except for the fact that the guy sitting next to me was basically a terrible human being. Not that I had to deal with him or anything but terrible none the less.

I caught the Avis shuttle as it was driving up and got my car almost immediately except for the part where you have to turn down $70 worth of stuff you don’t need.

It was a straight shot on I-40 all the way to Winston-Salem and I got the car dropped off just a little after 5:00. A nice kid from the dealership drove me over there and I met my sales person checked out the car, signed some paperwork, gave away a bunch of money and then learned how to work the car. There are a ton of little buttons and gadgets and crap but underneath all of that it’s just a nice car. It’s comfortable and drives good and all that jazz.

Also the dealership was hosting a preview of the new Mission Impossible movie and I got to go see that too. It was ok. About what I expected. A bit long in places and completely ridiculous but entertaining in the way that modern action movies are.

So far so good. Tomorrow I drive to Nashville to see aunt Kathleen and maybe cousin Janet and Jim and Parker if they’re available.

Dallas again

A disproportionate number of posts here have been made from DFW as of late. This time I’m off to Winston-Salem, NC. I am buying a car there. Why there? The one I want is not being made next year so I couldn’t order one and the local dealer wanted me to be their girlfriend in order to get one that met my criteria into Austin. The NC dealer was pretty reasonable though so I’m flying out there and driving it back.

It’s a little mini-vacation and a chance to see my aunt in Nashville and my cousin and her family there as well.

Looks like someone is going to bring their yip-yap dog in the flight. Yay.

Difficult

I have a lot of stuff. That should not be taken as a brag. I am terrible about throwing away things that are past their useful life. I am worse at tossing or donating or selling things with either a sentimental attachment or with a particular historic obligation. When my grandfather died my grandmother gave me his work clothes. Well, some of them at least. Four or five suits, some amazingly tacky sport coats (blue gingham anyone? It’s like a picnic tablecloth with arms), dress shirts, even a tuxedo with black and white coats. He was always bigger than me, bigger in all dimensions. Taller by probably three or four inches, considerably heavier, a people person for the right people. Larger than life. So I accepted the clothes because my grandmother wanted me to have them though I could never hope to wear them. Years passed. As I have had work done to the house or have needed space in one place or another I have moved all of these clothes from one closet to another, taking them out to look at and smell the smell of the hall closet at Mim’s that has remained with them after all of this time.

But the weight of all of the past I am carrying around is heavy and today I did a very hard thing. I cleaned the closet. I took, with the exception of three things that I have actually be able to use occasionally, all of my grandfather’s clothes, and some of mine and gave them to Goodwill. There are some good things in there. Brooks Brothers shirts, Neiman Marcus suits. There are less good things as well. The tux was not particularly great and was probably something he owned of necessity rather than pleasure. But it’s gone now and I feel kind of stunned. I instantly regretted it. Why couldn’t I have just kept them? Why can’t I keep all things forever? When I’m gone we can send me and my past on in some kind of giant Viking funeral and all be released from and by our burdens.

Of course that’s ridiculous. I expect I’ll get over it but for right now that’s good way to go from a normal Sunday to a nice melancholy. The weather is perfect for it. Cold, rainy but more drizzle and light rain than a good, hard, cathartic storm; dark to fit the mood.

The worst part is that it’s not over yet. There are five boxes of random stuff in the garage that need to be winnowed, the aluminum melting furnace that needs to be dismantled and tossed, a broken car wheel and two radiators that need recycling and another hard one, a dresser that belonged to my other grandparents. It’s in disrepair and probably ought to be tossed but that will be as tough as the clothes. There’s also a lamp of theirs but that’s not as big of a deal. That will all have to wait until next weekend though. In the mean time, the will to do this has passed and I am spent. I kind of need to put the Christmas tree up which is it’s own emotional experience but a less sad one. It remains to be seen if I’m capable of anything more for today.

Cars

That's not good

Seriously?

Both shiny and happy

I’ve been shopping for a car. I think I’ve settled on a BMW 335d but, of course, it is not being offered in the 2012 model year and it is too late to order exactly what I want. I’ve been to the dealership here twice and my salesperson has been pretty helpful and we’ve found a car that I would buy except that they’re being kinda hard-asses about the price. I contacted a different, out of town dealership and their price is better so far but is light on details as it’s been going over email which is a pretty high latency communication protocol. I’ve asked for more detail from the B team and we’ll see if that gets the ball rolling any better here at home.

The Triumph lives once more. It’s like a bad horror movie villain. You just do a few rituals and sacrifices and it rises, sputtering and roaring from the grave. The problem this time was that once the coolant had been flushed during last project with the car, the years of crud and rust (more on that in a second) that had been keeping a half-assed repair job holding were suddenly gone and the radiator began leaking in earnest.

Once I got the hoses off it turns out that the flexible return hose up top has a plain old steel spring inside it to help it keep shape. This thing is basically rusting to pieces so that will need to be replaced at some point. It never ends.

Anyway, I wasn’t very excited about the prospect of coughing up $500 + s/h to get a new one from Moss or Vicky Brit but it turns out there is a company in Alabama that makes and sells new, all aluminum replacement radiators for all kinds of old cars. They have the 1969-1974 TR6 radiator and the 1975-1976 model as well. And it’s significantly cheaper. I got mine for $270 + $45 s/h. The company name is Brice Thomas Radiator and they sell through eBay as radman2776. The radiator came quickly but when I got it it was the wrong model (75-76). However, when I contacted them about it they had the right one built and shipped and it got here the same week so my plans didn’t have to change. I got the old radiator out and the new one in this afternoon in about three hours. The new one actually didn’t fit right. The mounting holes needed to be about 1/8″ farther from center but the ol’ Dremel and some patience solved that.

It works fine, doesn’t seem to leak and the temperature gauge got a little past halfway, the thermostat opened all the way and we leveled off right at center on the gauge. Hard to argue with that.

Maybe everything will work out and I’ll be able to get the new car at a good price and it will be a magical car-filled thanksgiving. Fingers crossed.

Lots of little things


A few weeks back my 2001 Honda Accord that I bought new crossed 200,000 miles. It has been a fantastic car but I told myself I would start shopping for a new one when it got to 200k and so I have been. So far I’ve driven a BMW 335d, a Lexus CT Hybrid and an Acura TSX wagon. I have been dreading the car shopping experience. I’m not a particularly assertive person. More of a go along to get along which means that I’m basically sure I’m going to get taken advantage of at the dealership. However, it’s turned out to be not as bad as I thought. The BMW dealer was excellent. They let me take the car out with just me and my friend. The saleman didn’t pressure me at all and just asked if we had questions when we got back and then wished us a good afternoon. The Lexus dealer was a little more pushy and the Acura dealer a little more than that but all of them were polite and I wouldn’t say I got the hard sell from anyone.

The 335d is very fun. It’s 265hp, 425lb-ft and is otherwise very sporty. It is, by far, the most expensive of the three and you have to pay for every little thing option wise but it definitely stands out in terms of driving experience. It does get 23 city / 36 hwy which is fantastic.

The TSX wagon is basically my Accord ten years later. It has a nicer interior and a Nav and a lot of little improvements here and there and the wagon part is nice because I could just toss my bike in the back. It does want premium gas though which is kinda meh considering that it gets 22/30

The CTh is not really for me. It’s completely gutless and the center console is like this giant wall between you and the passenger seat and the “NuLux” interior is plastic. I’d rather cloth than that stuff or at least a real leather option. Leather is actually a fantastic material and not just because it’s fancy.

Anyway, the 335d and the TSX are candidates right now. I figure I should go try a Chevy Volt and maybe like a VW Jetta TDI. Need to check Consumer Reports on that last one because I have a lot of apprehension about VW reliability.


So, that’s cars. I also finally got the TR6 running enough to back it out of the garage a few times in September which means that I got a little work done on the eternal bookshelf project. Of course I managed to aggravate a radiator leak badly enough that now I need to get a new one of those so I stop leaving big green puddles on the rubber mat under the damned car. There’s a guy on Ebay that sells new ones for ~$270 + s/h which beats the hell out of the $450ish that the resto catalogs want. But anyway, bookshelves. I found a paint that I like for the final finish. Sherwin Williams ProClassic Acrylic Latex. It’s water based so painting and cleaning isn’t awful and it dries fast and hard so it will be reasonable to use on something I actually use regularly. I’ve milled the face frame pieces and dry fit them and they look good. I have also milled the map drawer pieces and they are awaiting priming, painting and assembly. Basically the big obstacle right now is the top. I still don’t know what I’m going to do about that. Good news is that a sheet of bamboo plywood similar to the floor in the office is down to $270 from $400 so I’m more likely to do that now since it isn’t a huge deal if I mess it up and have to try again.

I rode the 60 mile route in the LiveStrong Challenge a couple of weekends back and that was good. It was a lot harder than it should have been because I basically didn’t ride the bike at all in August because of the 106 F median high temp for that month and September wasn’t really enough to get back into shape. I have been riding a little more in October though and it’s been good to be back into it. It’s been cooler too which really helps.

I joined www.fitocracy.com this last week. It’s basically Facebook + WoW for exercising. You log your activities when you do them and it awards you points which causes you to “level-up”. I put quotes around that because there’s basically no point to it. You don’t get anything for your levels. There are Achievements and Quests too. Quests are sort of progress indicators. Like for bicycling there is 10k, 50k and 100k that I know of and you have to do the first one to unlock the next one and so on. Achievements are more like milestones and you can earn them whenever. There are Achievements for various lifts 0.9x body weight bench press, 15 pullups, 1000 career miles run, that sort of thing. I expect that the list of those will grow because there aren’t any for a lot of different thing that people commonly do for exercise. It’s a pretty good idea and is responsible for me riding my bike to Mighty Fine today rather than driving the car so I guess it’s working.

Finally, the “Power Ball” lottery was up to like $208M last night so I bought a ticket because why-the-hell-not. And I matched one number and the power-ball which got me FOUR DOLLARS WOO! So now I have another ticket for the $245M drawing and a Big Red soda and $1.39 in change. Not bad at all.

Oh! One last thing. Apparently the clothes that I had tailored for my birthday present to me are finished and are ready to ship. The charges were declined by the card company but I got that sorted today so when they try again it should go through and then they’ll mail me my new duds.