"Pardon me sir, but have you seen my legs?"
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Monday, April 17, 2006
A new look
Before and after comparison. I didn't think I'd ever do this, but I thought I'd give it a try. I'll say one thing, it'll definitely keep the hair out of my eyes.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
The squirrel is gone
Last night when I got home, I did a little "squirrel scene investigation" and determined that the squirrel had somehow gotten in to our place through the laundry room. There's open access from that room to the space above our ceiling, so that made sense.
I decided that the easiest place to trap him would be right back in the laundry room. We have a Havahart live trap, so I set it up and baited it with some pieces of bread with almond extract on them. We hadn't heard any squirrel noises, and we were a bit concerned that he might have gotten trapped someplace inside our walls.
I checked the trap first thing in the morning, and there was nothing. I checked again a couple of hours later, and there was the squirrel. Almond extract works quite well. We're pretty certain it's the same squirrel. There's always a chance that we might have attracted a second one to come in from outside, but I didn't see any signs of that. I think this one got in around the dryer vent hose. We're going to try to get our landlord, Mr. Useless, to put some kind of screen over the vent to keep animals out. If a squirrel got in, then mice can get in even easier. I'd do it myself, only it's in a concrete wall, and I don't feel like spending money on hardware that will properly mount in concrete. It's not my house, and not my responsibility to spend my money upgrading or maintaining it.
Getting this fixed is going to be much more difficult than getting rid of the squirrel was.
I decided that the easiest place to trap him would be right back in the laundry room. We have a Havahart live trap, so I set it up and baited it with some pieces of bread with almond extract on them. We hadn't heard any squirrel noises, and we were a bit concerned that he might have gotten trapped someplace inside our walls.
I checked the trap first thing in the morning, and there was nothing. I checked again a couple of hours later, and there was the squirrel. Almond extract works quite well. We're pretty certain it's the same squirrel. There's always a chance that we might have attracted a second one to come in from outside, but I didn't see any signs of that. I think this one got in around the dryer vent hose. We're going to try to get our landlord, Mr. Useless, to put some kind of screen over the vent to keep animals out. If a squirrel got in, then mice can get in even easier. I'd do it myself, only it's in a concrete wall, and I don't feel like spending money on hardware that will properly mount in concrete. It's not my house, and not my responsibility to spend my money upgrading or maintaining it.
Getting this fixed is going to be much more difficult than getting rid of the squirrel was.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Squirrel Wars
I got a call from Norah at work. Apparently we have a squirrel loose in the space between our ceiling and the floor above. Last summer we had a couple of birds in the laundry room, then in the fall we had yellow jackets, now a squirrel? I like nature well enough, but this is ridiculous. Unfortunately we haven't been able to figure out how all this wildlife is getting inside, and our landlord is being his typically unhelpful self.
Getting rid of this squirrel is going to be interesting.
Getting rid of this squirrel is going to be interesting.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Slashdot | RIAA Sues Woman Who Has Never Used a Computer
Slashdot | RIAA Sues Woman Who Has Never Used a Computer
Good to see the recording industry is continuing their incredibly stupid war against their own customers. The sooner the record companies go out of business, the better. Their entire business model is obsolete now, they desperately need to die off. They used to be a necessary to handle the physical distribution of records, now they've become little more than a mafia trying to intimidate people in to doing business with them or else.
Good to see the recording industry is continuing their incredibly stupid war against their own customers. The sooner the record companies go out of business, the better. Their entire business model is obsolete now, they desperately need to die off. They used to be a necessary to handle the physical distribution of records, now they've become little more than a mafia trying to intimidate people in to doing business with them or else.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Need I say more?
I got a page a day desk calendar for Christmas called "The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said (TM)". Here's today's item.
On Integrity, Senatorial
Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition... to the early use of military by the US against Iraq.... On January 11, I voted in favor of a resolution that would have insisted that economic sanctions be given more time to work and against a resolution giving the president the immediate authority to go to war.
January 22, 1991, letter from Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) to a constituent
Thank you for contacting me to express your support for the actions of President Bush in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. From the outset of the invasion, I have strongly and unequivocally supported President Bush's response to the crises and the policy goals he has established with our military deployment in the Persian Gulf.
January 31, 1991, letter from Senator John Kerry to the same constituent
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Planning for the DML meet
Looks like this is going to be at least three days pulling the trailer.
Driving directions from Jon's
Ideally we'd meet up with people from points further east around Jon's place, then make it near Chicago to meet up with Josh and maybe Tom (depending on his plans). Or, we might be going it alone, I'm not sure if anyone else is going to want to poke along at the 60 mph that I do with the trailer. One good thing about the trailer is that we won't need motel rooms, just a place where we'll be allowed to park the trailer overnight.
Driving directions from Jon's
Ideally we'd meet up with people from points further east around Jon's place, then make it near Chicago to meet up with Josh and maybe Tom (depending on his plans). Or, we might be going it alone, I'm not sure if anyone else is going to want to poke along at the 60 mph that I do with the trailer. One good thing about the trailer is that we won't need motel rooms, just a place where we'll be allowed to park the trailer overnight.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Trip journal
Unfortunately, Norah and I came down sick with some kind of flu or chest cold right as we were getting back from our big trip. I had great ideas about using this blog as a daily journal of our trip as we were going, which obviously didn't happen. With everything else that was going on, I never seemed to find time to sit down and type it all up.
What I do want to do is go back and fill in the details after the fact. This site used to allow for changing the date of a post. I'm not sure yet if I want to do that or not. It will make more sense if things are listed on the days they actually happened, but it will also make it more difficult for anyone to find the new posts. Either way, I would like to get some of the things from our trip recorded here, mostly just for ourselves more than anything. Several times this year when we were home, I noticed that many of us in the family were trying to remember things that had happened in past years, either exactly what had happened, or when it happened, or who was there. I realized that things like this are the reason for keeping some kind of journal. We've got one here, might as well use it.
What I do want to do is go back and fill in the details after the fact. This site used to allow for changing the date of a post. I'm not sure yet if I want to do that or not. It will make more sense if things are listed on the days they actually happened, but it will also make it more difficult for anyone to find the new posts. Either way, I would like to get some of the things from our trip recorded here, mostly just for ourselves more than anything. Several times this year when we were home, I noticed that many of us in the family were trying to remember things that had happened in past years, either exactly what had happened, or when it happened, or who was there. I realized that things like this are the reason for keeping some kind of journal. We've got one here, might as well use it.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Way to go
Time named Battlestar Galactica the best television of 2005. I couldn't agree more. It's nice to see that they can appreciate a quality show even if it's set in space and has robots.
TIME.com: Best of 2005: Television -- Page 1
TIME.com: Best of 2005: Television -- Page 1
Monday, December 19, 2005
Trip day 3
We got up and discovered that the bitter cold weather we had been not enjoying had just gotten even colder. Neither of us felt that our stomachs were up to the challenge of another McDonald's breakfast, so we decided to head over to Perkin's for omlettes.
As we were leaving the restaurant, we could hear geese. After looking around for a minute, we noticed that there was a large field between us and the Cabela's HQ that was full of geese. I checked it out, and there was a pond there with open water. At that temperature, the only way to keep the water from freezing must have been to heat the water. The geese figured out that this was a good thing, and thousands of them were hanging out there. Good for Cabela's.
The drive across Wyoming was annoying as usual. Blowing, drifting snow, poor visibility, and a constant assault of flying gravel. Wyoming doesn't even bother using salt or sand for ice traction, they just go straight for gravel. Whenever we got passed, we got showered by flying gravel. No wonder we've had windshield breaks in the past (nothing this year, thank goodness).
We found an interesting little souvenier shop along the highway in Buford called "End of the Trail." Typical little tourist trap, with the assorted Indian hand crafts and other stuff. Only it wasn't overpriced here for some reason, so Norah decided to do a little shopping. I took a few minutes to talk to the owner while she was looking around. Somehow we started talking about the gang violence problems that Toronto has been having lately. He told me that he used to be in to drugs, alcohol, gangs, the whole bit, but he had a personal crisis and one day decided to turn his life around. He's now a minister in a local church. I'm not sure how much of his story was true and how much was exaggeration, but he was a really interesting guy to talk to nonetheless. Experiences like that make me wish I could just retire and spend my time driving around the country, seeing the sights and talking to people. It seems that if you stop and really talk to the people you meet rather than trying to get away from them as quickly as possible, you stand a pretty good chance of hearing some really interesting stories. It's too bad that the big cities train us to be afraid of each other.
There is really something to be said for rural America and Canada. The people, on average, are much more friendly, helpful and honest than people you meet in the cities. It's ironic that I would feel more afraid of having a mechanical problem at night in Toronto than I would in Wyoming or Nebraska. In Toronto getting out of your car makes you a target, but in Wyoming you're much more likely to find someone who would want to help you out. You'd still need to be careful, of course, as psychos are everywhere. But the more concentrated the population gets, the higher the psycho percentage is. Screw anyone who calls everything between Los Angeles and New York City "flyover country" or "those dumb square states". This is what makes this country truly great, not the shallow self-serving greedy city dwellers.
Anyway, we continued on our way and made it across despite the weather. It didn't get really bad until we got near Park City. We had almost zero visibility coming down Parley's Canyon, which was fun. But we made it. We grabbed a Quizno's sandwich for dinner and made it to my parent's house without any problems.
As we were leaving the restaurant, we could hear geese. After looking around for a minute, we noticed that there was a large field between us and the Cabela's HQ that was full of geese. I checked it out, and there was a pond there with open water. At that temperature, the only way to keep the water from freezing must have been to heat the water. The geese figured out that this was a good thing, and thousands of them were hanging out there. Good for Cabela's.
The drive across Wyoming was annoying as usual. Blowing, drifting snow, poor visibility, and a constant assault of flying gravel. Wyoming doesn't even bother using salt or sand for ice traction, they just go straight for gravel. Whenever we got passed, we got showered by flying gravel. No wonder we've had windshield breaks in the past (nothing this year, thank goodness).
We found an interesting little souvenier shop along the highway in Buford called "End of the Trail." Typical little tourist trap, with the assorted Indian hand crafts and other stuff. Only it wasn't overpriced here for some reason, so Norah decided to do a little shopping. I took a few minutes to talk to the owner while she was looking around. Somehow we started talking about the gang violence problems that Toronto has been having lately. He told me that he used to be in to drugs, alcohol, gangs, the whole bit, but he had a personal crisis and one day decided to turn his life around. He's now a minister in a local church. I'm not sure how much of his story was true and how much was exaggeration, but he was a really interesting guy to talk to nonetheless. Experiences like that make me wish I could just retire and spend my time driving around the country, seeing the sights and talking to people. It seems that if you stop and really talk to the people you meet rather than trying to get away from them as quickly as possible, you stand a pretty good chance of hearing some really interesting stories. It's too bad that the big cities train us to be afraid of each other.
There is really something to be said for rural America and Canada. The people, on average, are much more friendly, helpful and honest than people you meet in the cities. It's ironic that I would feel more afraid of having a mechanical problem at night in Toronto than I would in Wyoming or Nebraska. In Toronto getting out of your car makes you a target, but in Wyoming you're much more likely to find someone who would want to help you out. You'd still need to be careful, of course, as psychos are everywhere. But the more concentrated the population gets, the higher the psycho percentage is. Screw anyone who calls everything between Los Angeles and New York City "flyover country" or "those dumb square states". This is what makes this country truly great, not the shallow self-serving greedy city dwellers.
Anyway, we continued on our way and made it across despite the weather. It didn't get really bad until we got near Park City. We had almost zero visibility coming down Parley's Canyon, which was fun. But we made it. We grabbed a Quizno's sandwich for dinner and made it to my parent's house without any problems.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Trip day 2
Today we managed to get up and on the road on schedule. We ran down to McDonald's again for breakfast and got on the road. We made it over to Council Bluffs, IA almost exactly on schedule to meet Norah's friends Alenna and Shannon at La Mesa Mexican restaurant for lunch. We stayed there for almost two and a half hours and ate probably way too much food. But we definitely enjoyed our visit.
Unfortunately, we paid for it the rest of the afternoon, especially me. Indigestion is uncomfortable enough at home, but when you're driving across Nebraska it's just that much worse. I asked Norah to remind me never again to eat that much when we're on the road.
By this time I was starting to get a bit concerned about the fuel mileage we were getting. Our Dakota has the 4.7L V8 engine in it, which isn't exactly an economy-minded hybrid tree hugger mobile. But it was getting in the 15.2 mpg range, which is low even for it. We usually get more like 17.4. I was a bit worried that we might have a bad injector, or clogged filter, or something. Since it seemed to be running okay, I figured all I could do was to keep going and see if I could figure something out later.
We managed to push on to Sidney, NE that night. The Motel 6 there is in the complex right next to the Cabela's headquarters. There's also a super Wal-Mart right next door. For dinner, I just walked over to Wally World and got a sandwich from the deli, which we split. That was all either of us were able to eat.
Unfortunately, we paid for it the rest of the afternoon, especially me. Indigestion is uncomfortable enough at home, but when you're driving across Nebraska it's just that much worse. I asked Norah to remind me never again to eat that much when we're on the road.
By this time I was starting to get a bit concerned about the fuel mileage we were getting. Our Dakota has the 4.7L V8 engine in it, which isn't exactly an economy-minded hybrid tree hugger mobile. But it was getting in the 15.2 mpg range, which is low even for it. We usually get more like 17.4. I was a bit worried that we might have a bad injector, or clogged filter, or something. Since it seemed to be running okay, I figured all I could do was to keep going and see if I could figure something out later.
We managed to push on to Sidney, NE that night. The Motel 6 there is in the complex right next to the Cabela's headquarters. There's also a super Wal-Mart right next door. For dinner, I just walked over to Wally World and got a sandwich from the deli, which we split. That was all either of us were able to eat.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
The "no smoking" ashtray
What, you think I can make something like this up? They have these in all of the Motel 6 non-smoking rooms. I actually asked about it when I called the front desk to request a wake-up call. Apparently they're provided for people who like to use an ashtray to put their keys and spare change in. It makes sense now that I know that, but I still say the non-smoking ashtray makes for a pretty weird image.
Trip day 1
We got on the road this morning about an hour late. It could have been worse. Quick stops for fuel and breakfast at McDonald's and we were on our way.
We ran in to the duty free shop at the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia. The duty free shop at the Peace Bridge is nicer, but this one isn't too bad. When we crossed the border the agent asked if we were bringing any dog food. Yes, we had two weeks worth of food for the dog with us, already measured out and everything. She wanted to know where it was made. Being Iams, it was made in the US. Good thing, as we wouldn't have been allowed to bring it across the border had it been made in Canada. We couldn't figure out what the big deal was with dog food until later that day: dog food might contain beef by-products, so Canadian dog food might possibly have Canadian beef in it. The US is taking their beef ban quite seriously, it seems.
Lunch this day was leftover pizza from the night before. Good thing we hadn't ordered hamburger on our pizza. We met Josh at Buffalo Wild Wings in Tinley Park, just south of Chicago. The traffic through the area south of Chicago was its usual insane construction mess. We sat in the construction zone for an hour, and when we got to the end they had their hands out looking for a toll. Sixty cents. Norah and I felt like handing them an invoice for our wasted time. All I had was a $20 bill. He have me fourteen $1 bills back in change. Thanks a bunch.
After dinner, we had a fairly uneventful drive and arrived as per our plan at the Motel 6 in Davenport, IA. Checking in was an adventure. The clerk's computer crashed four times in a row. Turns out they're running their hotel computers on Windows 98. Once it finally decided to keep working for more than two minutes at a time, we were set, and we headed off to bed.
We ran in to the duty free shop at the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia. The duty free shop at the Peace Bridge is nicer, but this one isn't too bad. When we crossed the border the agent asked if we were bringing any dog food. Yes, we had two weeks worth of food for the dog with us, already measured out and everything. She wanted to know where it was made. Being Iams, it was made in the US. Good thing, as we wouldn't have been allowed to bring it across the border had it been made in Canada. We couldn't figure out what the big deal was with dog food until later that day: dog food might contain beef by-products, so Canadian dog food might possibly have Canadian beef in it. The US is taking their beef ban quite seriously, it seems.
Lunch this day was leftover pizza from the night before. Good thing we hadn't ordered hamburger on our pizza. We met Josh at Buffalo Wild Wings in Tinley Park, just south of Chicago. The traffic through the area south of Chicago was its usual insane construction mess. We sat in the construction zone for an hour, and when we got to the end they had their hands out looking for a toll. Sixty cents. Norah and I felt like handing them an invoice for our wasted time. All I had was a $20 bill. He have me fourteen $1 bills back in change. Thanks a bunch.
After dinner, we had a fairly uneventful drive and arrived as per our plan at the Motel 6 in Davenport, IA. Checking in was an adventure. The clerk's computer crashed four times in a row. Turns out they're running their hotel computers on Windows 98. Once it finally decided to keep working for more than two minutes at a time, we were set, and we headed off to bed.
Friday, December 16, 2005
The big trip
Well, we're getting ready to head out on our big road trip tomorrow morning. Here are the driving directions according to Mapquest.
We're planning on meeting Josh for dinner Saturday night in Tinley Park, Illinois, and spending Saturday night in Davenport, Iowa. Sunday we're meeting Alenna for lunch in Council Bluffs, Iowa and Sunday night we'll be staying in Sidney, Nebraska. Monday we don't have any plans to meet up with anyone, so we'll just see what Wyoming has in store for us this year, and we should be at my parents place on Monday night.
The weather so far is looking like it might actually cooperate, at least as well as it ever does in December. We'll try to post updates if we have Internet access in the motels. High speed wireless access isn't exactly a feature provided by Motel 6, they keep things to a minimum to keep the prices down. But they are pet friendly, which is a lot more than I can say for the other motel chains I looked at.
Wish us luck!
We're planning on meeting Josh for dinner Saturday night in Tinley Park, Illinois, and spending Saturday night in Davenport, Iowa. Sunday we're meeting Alenna for lunch in Council Bluffs, Iowa and Sunday night we'll be staying in Sidney, Nebraska. Monday we don't have any plans to meet up with anyone, so we'll just see what Wyoming has in store for us this year, and we should be at my parents place on Monday night.
The weather so far is looking like it might actually cooperate, at least as well as it ever does in December. We'll try to post updates if we have Internet access in the motels. High speed wireless access isn't exactly a feature provided by Motel 6, they keep things to a minimum to keep the prices down. But they are pet friendly, which is a lot more than I can say for the other motel chains I looked at.
Wish us luck!
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
I listen to Jack
Heard this morning on Jack FM:
"Christmas is like a day at the office. You do all the work, and the fat guy in the suit takes all the credit."
"Christmas is like a day at the office. You do all the work, and the fat guy in the suit takes all the credit."
Don't try this at home
moparts: another reason to tow in neutral
Just goes to prove, no matter how stupid you (or I) might feel, there's probably someone out there who's done something even more stupid.
Just goes to prove, no matter how stupid you (or I) might feel, there's probably someone out there who's done something even more stupid.
Monday, December 05, 2005
Thank goodnes I'm not a game programmer
From a comment posted on Slashdot:
Just goes to show, no matter how grumpy I get about working overtime, there are many who are much worse off.
I cut back to 80 hours a week, even though people were bitching at me for the laziness. (Why couldn't I take my work seriously like the people who slept in their company provided sleeping bags under their desks 6 hours a night?)
Just goes to show, no matter how grumpy I get about working overtime, there are many who are much worse off.
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Are they kidding?
Amazon.com: The Ultimate Star Trek Collection: DVD
$2500??? I can just see the late-night infomercial describing all the stuff that's included.
I guess the good news is that anyone insane enough to buy this probably already has some of the previous releases. They might start showing up in the used outlets for a bit more reasonable price.
$2500??? I can just see the late-night infomercial describing all the stuff that's included.
I guess the good news is that anyone insane enough to buy this probably already has some of the previous releases. They might start showing up in the used outlets for a bit more reasonable price.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Hanging out with Biff and Muffy
So, at some point last week, we got a telephone message from Unique Chrysler, a local dealership. They wanted to personally invite us to an evening to demonstrate some of their new models. They promised wine and cheese, and a chance to win a million dollars just for showing up.
We aren't in the position to be buying a new car, but some day we are eventually going to need another vehicle. I joke about planning on being buried in my '95 Dakota, but realistically I know that it's not going to last forever. Since we didn't have anything else going on, we decided to go check it out. By the time I'm ready to buy something, I'll probably be in the used market looking at vehicles that are being made today. Besides, how many people from Burlington would be attending? The odds of winning the million seemed pretty good.
Well, it turned out that they weren't giving away a million dollars of their own money like we assumed. They were handing out $2 lottery tickets to everyone in attendance. We didn't win (big surprise). The refreshments were pretty good, even if the wine was non alcoholic (I suppose as a car dealership, they aren't licensed to serve alcohol, particularly not free alcohol).
As for the vehicles, it's pretty obvious that they were marketing at people who have a lot more disposable income than we do. I don't think there was a single vehicle there under $40,000. They had a Jeep Commander, a Dodge Charger SRT-8, a Chrysler Crossfire convertible, a Dodge Magnum R/T AWD, and a Chrysler 300.
The Commander is HUGE! But it's clearly too low to the ground for any real off-roading, no matter what the Jeep division's marketing people say. Trust me. I crawled under it and looked. I could utterly destroy one in just a couple of hours, on trails I've driven in my Dakota or my dad's CJ. It looks nice and cushy inside, if that's your thing in a 4x4. I still think the TJ (a.k.a. Wrangler if you prefer) is the only true Jeep left since they killed the Cherokee.
The Charger had the 6.1L HEMI engine. There was a gentleman there who told me he owned one. He was complaining about the cost of replacement tires. Apparently the low-profile performance tires only lasted him about 30,000 km, and cost $350 each to replace. He pointed out that the salespeople had carefully avoided mentioning that to him. I had to wonder, if he has the kind of money where he can feed $4/gallon premium gas to a 6.1L HEMI V8, why is he complaining about the tires? He had to have known that it was a performance vehicle when he got it. I guess these things catch people off guard, as I hear stuff like that a lot. They also had a poster showing the orange Daytona edition. Apparently the color is called "Go ManGo!", instead of HEMI orange like I thought. At any rate, I'm a big fan of the look, with the blacked out grille and spoiler. I'm waiting for them to bring Sublime back... that would be wonderfully obnoxious.
I must be strange, because I really like the styling of the new Charger. I know a lot of people hate it for having (gasp!) four doors. Personally, I don't get the controversy. If it were a small coupe with a microscopic back seat like a Camaro, then obviously it wouldn't need four doors. But I can't stand full-sized cars with two doors. You get two huge, wide, heavy doors, and a large back seat that's pretty nice once you get back there. Too bad you can't squeeze through the front door opening. When Car & Driver reviewed the two-door Neon, they said "we have about as much fondness for two-door sedans as we do for one-wing airplanes... the only point seems to be that you never have to suffer the indignity of being called practical." I have to agree. The argument goes that the new car shouldn't be called "Charger" because the original Charger had two doors. Just because they used an inconvenient design in the past, does that mean we have to repeat it? Anyway, moving on...
The more I look at the Magnum, the more I like it. If I had the money to buy one or the other, I'd probably take a Magnum over a Charger, even though I think the Charger looks slightly better. Ever since we rented a Durango on our vacation in British Columbia in 2000, I've realized the benefits of the wagon-style cargo area. It's much more convenient and practical, too bad a comparable Durango would have been $11,000 more more than our Dakota. That's an awful lot of money for some extra glass and a hatch. Norah definitely approved of the paint color on the Magnum, a color that Chrysler describes as "brilliant black crystal pearl". I didn't realize that these things came in an all-wheel-drive configuration. It caught my attention much more when I realized that. The one they had there was equipped with a 5.7L HEMI, and had the ultra-plush leather interior with the GPS navigation system and all the other bells and whistles. The GPS system looks pretty cool. Much nicer than our little handheld GPS sitting in its cradle on top of the dash with wires going everywhere.
I didn't really look at the Crossfire much. It had too many people crawling all over it all night. I don't think I actually looked at the 300 at all, so I have no idea what the specs on it were. Personally, every time I see a Chrysler 300, I expect to see a mafia type in a pinstripe suit holding a Tommy gun standing on the running board. Not that this is a bad look, but I can't get the image out of my head.
The highlight of the evening for us was actually parked just outside the showroom. A Ram 2500 4x4, Cummins turbo diesel, with the new "Mega Cab". Again, this thing is HUGE! But it's easy to see the advantages of the extra cab size when you climb in it. The seats are like real seats, they recline and everything. Not like the jump seats in the Quad Cab. The Quad Cab is a huge improvement over the Club Cab, but the Mega Cab makes the back seats that much better, even if it is a silly name. I think it has more interior room than our apartment. We decided that we would need a two wheel drive version, as we both had trouble climbing up in to the cab. I looked up the trailer towing rating. Something like 12,800 lbs. Certainly much more than the 5700 we get out of our Dakota. Needless to say, we both left the dealership wishing we could upgrade to a Ram. Maybe some day.
The things that were notably missing were all the vehicles more in our price range. The Liberty, TJ, Dakota, PT Cruiser, Neon, etc. Like I said, this was obviously a night for Biff & Muffy, but we thought it was interesting to check out what the rich people drive. I would have preferred to check out a TJ Unlimited. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say it's safer if I don't see one. I could always go back any time and test drive one, but then I'd get a salesdroid there drooling over the idea of selling it to me. I have to give them credit, even though the evening was definitely sales motivated (and who can blame them), they did a good job of standing back, making themselves available to answer questions, and keeping their sales pressure to themselves.
We aren't in the position to be buying a new car, but some day we are eventually going to need another vehicle. I joke about planning on being buried in my '95 Dakota, but realistically I know that it's not going to last forever. Since we didn't have anything else going on, we decided to go check it out. By the time I'm ready to buy something, I'll probably be in the used market looking at vehicles that are being made today. Besides, how many people from Burlington would be attending? The odds of winning the million seemed pretty good.
Well, it turned out that they weren't giving away a million dollars of their own money like we assumed. They were handing out $2 lottery tickets to everyone in attendance. We didn't win (big surprise). The refreshments were pretty good, even if the wine was non alcoholic (I suppose as a car dealership, they aren't licensed to serve alcohol, particularly not free alcohol).
As for the vehicles, it's pretty obvious that they were marketing at people who have a lot more disposable income than we do. I don't think there was a single vehicle there under $40,000. They had a Jeep Commander, a Dodge Charger SRT-8, a Chrysler Crossfire convertible, a Dodge Magnum R/T AWD, and a Chrysler 300.
The Commander is HUGE! But it's clearly too low to the ground for any real off-roading, no matter what the Jeep division's marketing people say. Trust me. I crawled under it and looked. I could utterly destroy one in just a couple of hours, on trails I've driven in my Dakota or my dad's CJ. It looks nice and cushy inside, if that's your thing in a 4x4. I still think the TJ (a.k.a. Wrangler if you prefer) is the only true Jeep left since they killed the Cherokee.
The Charger had the 6.1L HEMI engine. There was a gentleman there who told me he owned one. He was complaining about the cost of replacement tires. Apparently the low-profile performance tires only lasted him about 30,000 km, and cost $350 each to replace. He pointed out that the salespeople had carefully avoided mentioning that to him. I had to wonder, if he has the kind of money where he can feed $4/gallon premium gas to a 6.1L HEMI V8, why is he complaining about the tires? He had to have known that it was a performance vehicle when he got it. I guess these things catch people off guard, as I hear stuff like that a lot. They also had a poster showing the orange Daytona edition. Apparently the color is called "Go ManGo!", instead of HEMI orange like I thought. At any rate, I'm a big fan of the look, with the blacked out grille and spoiler. I'm waiting for them to bring Sublime back... that would be wonderfully obnoxious.
I must be strange, because I really like the styling of the new Charger. I know a lot of people hate it for having (gasp!) four doors. Personally, I don't get the controversy. If it were a small coupe with a microscopic back seat like a Camaro, then obviously it wouldn't need four doors. But I can't stand full-sized cars with two doors. You get two huge, wide, heavy doors, and a large back seat that's pretty nice once you get back there. Too bad you can't squeeze through the front door opening. When Car & Driver reviewed the two-door Neon, they said "we have about as much fondness for two-door sedans as we do for one-wing airplanes... the only point seems to be that you never have to suffer the indignity of being called practical." I have to agree. The argument goes that the new car shouldn't be called "Charger" because the original Charger had two doors. Just because they used an inconvenient design in the past, does that mean we have to repeat it? Anyway, moving on...
The more I look at the Magnum, the more I like it. If I had the money to buy one or the other, I'd probably take a Magnum over a Charger, even though I think the Charger looks slightly better. Ever since we rented a Durango on our vacation in British Columbia in 2000, I've realized the benefits of the wagon-style cargo area. It's much more convenient and practical, too bad a comparable Durango would have been $11,000 more more than our Dakota. That's an awful lot of money for some extra glass and a hatch. Norah definitely approved of the paint color on the Magnum, a color that Chrysler describes as "brilliant black crystal pearl". I didn't realize that these things came in an all-wheel-drive configuration. It caught my attention much more when I realized that. The one they had there was equipped with a 5.7L HEMI, and had the ultra-plush leather interior with the GPS navigation system and all the other bells and whistles. The GPS system looks pretty cool. Much nicer than our little handheld GPS sitting in its cradle on top of the dash with wires going everywhere.
I didn't really look at the Crossfire much. It had too many people crawling all over it all night. I don't think I actually looked at the 300 at all, so I have no idea what the specs on it were. Personally, every time I see a Chrysler 300, I expect to see a mafia type in a pinstripe suit holding a Tommy gun standing on the running board. Not that this is a bad look, but I can't get the image out of my head.
The highlight of the evening for us was actually parked just outside the showroom. A Ram 2500 4x4, Cummins turbo diesel, with the new "Mega Cab". Again, this thing is HUGE! But it's easy to see the advantages of the extra cab size when you climb in it. The seats are like real seats, they recline and everything. Not like the jump seats in the Quad Cab. The Quad Cab is a huge improvement over the Club Cab, but the Mega Cab makes the back seats that much better, even if it is a silly name. I think it has more interior room than our apartment. We decided that we would need a two wheel drive version, as we both had trouble climbing up in to the cab. I looked up the trailer towing rating. Something like 12,800 lbs. Certainly much more than the 5700 we get out of our Dakota. Needless to say, we both left the dealership wishing we could upgrade to a Ram. Maybe some day.
The things that were notably missing were all the vehicles more in our price range. The Liberty, TJ, Dakota, PT Cruiser, Neon, etc. Like I said, this was obviously a night for Biff & Muffy, but we thought it was interesting to check out what the rich people drive. I would have preferred to check out a TJ Unlimited. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say it's safer if I don't see one. I could always go back any time and test drive one, but then I'd get a salesdroid there drooling over the idea of selling it to me. I have to give them credit, even though the evening was definitely sales motivated (and who can blame them), they did a good job of standing back, making themselves available to answer questions, and keeping their sales pressure to themselves.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Must be October
My mom sent me a slide show in a weird patented secret file format made by some obscure software company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Perhaps you've heard of them. Micro-something-or-other.
Anyway, once I managed to speak the proper incantations and click on "I agree" to sell my soul to some guy named Bill so that I could view the slide show, I saw some really cool looking pumpkin carvings. The artist who does these has a web site up at Pumpkingutter.com. Be sure to browse through the gallery, the pictures he takes at night with lights inside the pumpkins are really cool. And some of them are downright creeeeeeeeepy.
For a few good laughs, check out the FAQ.
(Okay, I didn't really have to sell my soul to Bill, all I had to do was move over to our laptop and download his special PowerPoint viewer program. I haven't figured out how to view these things in Linux yet, or if there's even a way to do it.)
Anyway, once I managed to speak the proper incantations and click on "I agree" to sell my soul to some guy named Bill so that I could view the slide show, I saw some really cool looking pumpkin carvings. The artist who does these has a web site up at Pumpkingutter.com. Be sure to browse through the gallery, the pictures he takes at night with lights inside the pumpkins are really cool. And some of them are downright creeeeeeeeepy.
For a few good laughs, check out the FAQ.
(Okay, I didn't really have to sell my soul to Bill, all I had to do was move over to our laptop and download his special PowerPoint viewer program. I haven't figured out how to view these things in Linux yet, or if there's even a way to do it.)
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