Car Stuff '22 Recap

It's been far too long. I've put together this post with a recap of the car stuff that's happened over the last year or so.

Back in December of 2021 the starter had gone out on the Matrix. It had rained, and it went out right after that! Just a little after that, one of the coils went out, also after it had rained. Or maybe it was the other way around, it's been a while. Anyway, it doesn't seem to do well in the rain.

The air conditioning went out on Scruffy back in May or June. I was sitting at a red light with the windows down, when there was a very strong acrid smell. I had no idea what it was, until I tried the AC a bit later, and it didn't work at all. Apparently the line to the condenser blew. Of course, I don't have the equipment to do A/C work, so I had a shop doing it. While everything was being worked on anyway, I bought a new condenser and a seal kit.

In May I took Scruffy back to the shop that I had the tint done at all those years ago to get the two back side windows and the hatch glass tint redone. I had found the receipt when I'd moved my office into the corner a couple years back. The side window tint has been getting wrinkled at the top edge, and the back window had developed a bunch of bubbles. It has been bugging me for a while, and I finally got around to getting it done. They were at a new location. This was while I had been going into work, so it was a bit of a hassle, but got it handled.

Near the beginning of summer, the battery in the Matrix began acting up. This was one of the things I'd had an eye on since we'd bought it. The battery it came with was crusty looking, and one of the battery terminals was breaking apart back when I'd done the starter replacement. I held the terminal on with a C clamp. Had a couple of times where it was low to where it needed a jump start, but it worked OK after that. Also had a few times driving with the A/C running where the radio started acting up. Anyway, bought a new battery, and things went OK for a while, then the battery died again. Got it tested at AutoZone, and they said it was too low to judge the condition, so I charged it up and went back. Everything was working fine, but the guy said we had a bad battery and replaced it. I was suspecting alternator issues, and was wanting to get it checked, too, but they said both times that the battery was too low. Oh yeah, I also replaced the battery terminals while I had the battery out.

The registrations were due to be renewed for both cars in September, and they both needed their smog checks. As is always my custom, I did an oil change for both cars before taking them in to be tested, as well as a new air filter for the Matrix and a cleaning and re-oiling for the K&N filter in Scruffy. Things got interesting on the Matrix, when I went to check the oil level, the dipstick tube was broken!!!

The tube seemed to set back into place, so I tried cleaning both sides off and using some epoxy to stick it back together, but that didn't work. Needless to say, the lower portion that was still attached to the engine wasn't very easy to clean off. RockAuto sells a replacement dipstick tube for a quite reasonable price, so I ordered that. It was still giving charging issues occasionally throughout this time, so I went ahead and bought a replacement alternator, figuring that was the issue. The recommendation for replacing the dipstick tube was to remove the intake manifold. Since I had the alternator off, I went in from the side instead, which to me was a much easier way to go... except for it requires taking the serpentine belt off. Of course, I was putting a new belt on while I had all that apart, and that was honestly the most difficult part of the job!!!

The Matrix passed smog without any issue. I took Scruffy over the next week, and the computer wasn't completely ready. The check engine light that I usually get is for a small evaporative system leak, and I'd reset it not long before I'd taken it in. The tech told me to look up the driving procedure to get all the monitors set.

I looked up the driving procedure to get the monitors ready. Had things like start the car and let it run two minutes, drive for around 5 minutes with no more than half throttle, from a stop accelerate to 50 MPH with ¾ throttle, drive for 10 minutes at 50 MPH, then let off the accelerator and coast to 20 MPH without hitting the brakes or shifting, and things like that. I went out around 2 AM to do the sequence so there wouldn't be much traffic to impede. Did the sequence as best I could (it hardly coasts down to the 20 MPH, it'll stay around 35), turned around and did everything but the warm up on the way back, and checked the computer. It didn't have the monitors ready, so I did it again, out and back. Still wasn't showing ready, so I gave up for the night. Did some normal driving over the next weekend, and after that the monitors were ready. Took it back to the smog place, and finally passed with no issues.

I had the thought that Scruffy may be having coolant temperature issues, which was causing it to idle higher that it should. The engine coolant temperature sensor on S series Saturns can be a sore point, causing all kinds of driveability issues. While I was checking into this as a possibility, I came across several owners who had replaced the factory thermostat with a higher temperature unit, with good effect to their MPG. I went ahead and purchased a higher temperature thermostat and a new engine coolant temperature sensor from RockAuto. I had previously replaced the temperature sensor, but they're cheap. I had bought a new connector for the sensor on 3, which had deteriorated, but never had a chance to install it. I flushed the cooling system and installed everything, and filled the system. The next day, I topped off the coolant. From then on, every time I drove it, it would lose enough coolant that the low coolant light would start flashing. I've seen this before... could the higher temperatures have over stressed somewhere else? It looked like it might be leaking from the water pump and slinging it around the belt, so I took the one I had left from the swap back to the store and exchanged it, with the thought that I'd go ahead and replace it. When I jacked her up to drain the system go to work on it, I crawled under and found the hose to the thermostat was a little wet. I found a different hose clamp, and replaced the one that was on there. Seems to have taken care of it!!! Oh, as far as I can tell, it hasn't improved the mileage at all!!!

A couple months ago I was driving Scruffy on the freeway. It felt like there was a little vibration going on. As we were driving along, there was an under body thump, like I'd run over something. I checked the rear view, but there was nothing to see. I noticed that the vibration had stopped, though. I did an under body inspection when I got home, and the front panel under the radiator and A/C condenser had gone missing. I wonder if it didn't get put back on well when I'd had the A/C work done. I don't miss it, but I think it would probably be a good idea to fabricate something for protection down there!!!

The rear driver's side window on Scruffy has developed an issue. I've got a replacement slider that I suspect is all that needs to be done to get it back in shape, but of course that will require taking it apart.

Just last weekend, I went back to the tire place and bought another front tire for the Matrix, the one opposite the one I'd replaced back in March was getting rounded off on the outside, and it's been raining on and off.

The roof on Scruffy is looking pretty bad. It's losing paint in patches. Of course, a lot of the area around the ribs never got a proper sanding. I'm plannng on repainting the roof, quite possibly with a couple of white stripes, making it into the Skunk Mobile!!!

Flat

It has been a while, yet again. I'd wanted to get more blogging in this year, and may have been somewhat successful. Anyway, last month my wife and I went up to northern California for a anniversary weekend. It was pretty fun.

We flew out of Long Beach, which is always a far superior experience than Los Angeles. The options of the flight were early morning or late evening. To keep from blowing the whole day (and as the day wears on, it seems more likely for a flight delay) we elected the morning flight. Of course, this means arriving well before check in time at our lodging. We got our rental car, one of the style I like where they just point you to the class of car you've rented and tell you to take your pick. I like the hatch style of the Hyundai Accent, so we took that and just started cruising about at random. First city areas, then farmlands, then we were in a forest area.

When I pulled off to take a few pictures, I noticed that the Hyundai is a 512'er!!! Pretty cool. Got to catch the end of The Woody Show on KFOG, and then discovered that our rental had satellite radio, and listened to that some. It was getting towards that time, so we started looking for someplace to eat. Rolling down the freeway, and suddenly the tire pressure light comes on!!! It began making a noise of a flat, and there was an exit coming up, so I kept going along to get off the freeway. The road we exited onto had no shoulder, so I continued to the next cross street and turned onto it, then pulled off to the side.

Yeah, it was flat all right. I moved our luggage out of the trunk into the back seat to get at the spare. Surprise, no spare!!! Just a compressor and a can of sealant. I have heard the sealant can foul the tire pressure sensors, so before I tried it, I called the rental company. They said to give it a try, so I went ahead. Connect the sealant to the line and compressor and let it run for 3 minutes. I did that, and it was as flat as ever. I noticed that there were three of one brand of tire, and a fourth was different, and the one that had gone flat had some cupping on the edge. I suspect that there has been some kind of suspension damage that causes one tire to wear quickly.

Called the rental company back, and they said they would send a truck. Could be an hour and 15 minutes, but it was only about the 15 minute. Back to the rental place, where the tow truck couldn't get into the garage because of the height, so he dropped us outside the structure. Went back, and they said to get another of my choosing, and suggested a Kia Rio S that was almost new, less than 1,000 miles. Also got phenomenal mileage.

Where we'd pulled off the road, there was a dead mouse laying there. Not a great sign, but the rest of the weekend was fine. At first I was thinking that this was the first time I'd had such a problem with a rental, but then I remembered the Mazda that had a window come off it's tracks. Was also thinking it's the first flat I've had in a while, but there was the shanking of Jade from earlier this year, as well as tires on Scruffy that would get low on air. So, this was the first time I've had an automotive incident where I've been stuck on the side of the road since the couple of times where AAA Screwed me over!!!

Saturn Similitude

How's the newest member of the automotive family doing a couple months in, you ask??? Pretty good, still. Of course, there's been a few things. That's why a little follow-up post!!!

First thing that came up of note were the rear brakes. Bought a new set of shoes (they're cheap) & went to work. Come to find out, on the S series Saturns, the access hole on the backing plate lines up with... NOTHING!!! The side that was making the most noise took me HOURS of pounding & levering to remove the drum!!! If I had a clue to how bad it was inside, I may have been a little rougher with it. A new one was in order, and the wheel cylinder was leaking, too, so it started getting a bit more expensive. Finally finished the passenger side, and went to the other side. It went quicker, but the wheel cylinder was shot on that side, too. Took way longer and cost more than I'd wanted, but still a lot less than if I'd taken it to a shop.

Insult to injury, the hoses to the cylinders have a brass sealing washer. The one on the driver's side... didn't seal anymore. A week later I was out there again replacing that. It's all better now, but even though I've thoroughly bled the lines, there still feels like there's more pedal travel to it than on the coupe.

The other major thing was seen to just last weekend, for my wife's birthday. One of the initial questions I'd asked when I first contacted the previous owner was if the windows were tinted. They said no, but soon after getting the family truckster home I realized there indeed was some tint to the back half windows. The passenger rear door window had some interesting streaking on it, as though some solvent had gotten on the weather seal & melted the surface all along the area it rolls up and down. Also, in the bottom corner it was peeled away in a tiny little area. Just the TINIEST hint of color to the windows, and the film was so far to the edge of the windows I thought it was actually in the glass. The tint shop we took it to ended up not being able get it all off in the one day they'd thought they could, but they agreed to drive over for my wife on Monday once it was done, so that worked out. Had them do limo tint on the side windows and for a visor strip, and a shade lighter on the back hatch for easier night time viewing. Pretty good picture of my wife through the back window there!!! Fortunately my younger went with her to pick it up, because he noticed they hadn't done the visor tint. They took another 15 minutes to get that together. I think they should have knocked the price of it off and done it anyway. The pictures don't show it too well, I don't think, but I'm pleased with the results. Compare the side view with the Paint Shop job I did in the original post!!!

What else??? Things I like about the newer one:

The key doesn't have to be turned to run to roll the windows. The SC2 has that, and if you don't have your seat belt on, it does the ding ding. Irritating.

The daytime running lights don't come on until you put it in gear. The SC2 lights them when you release the parking brake.

The tint shop managed to knock off this little access panel below the hatch on the inside. It has three along the edge. Behind the panel is a nice thick steel tie down hook!!! Nice touch, my dad's Durango didn't even have that, he had to add in some eye bolts.

My wife drives her mostly around town, but even so she seems to get not as good mileage as the SC2.

Things yet to do:

I need to replace the lock switch on the driver's door. Interestingly, that was the first thing I had to replace on the SC2!!!

Duplicate the exhaust system I made for the SC2.

The actual throttle body goes straight down on the SW2, as opposed to horizontal on the SC2. I'll have to look, but I think I might be able to get the cowl scoop that Subaru has on their cars. I'll bet doing a straight shot instead of the twisty duct from the air cleaner back would do her a world of good. I've been thinking forever that I should shorten up that duct on the SC2 and flip the air cleaner box over, modifying it into a scoop.

Random Tienanmen CupDate

First time in a while I've actually gotten to do any cup artwork!!! For most of the day, I had just the text at the top, which reads, "It was 20 years ago today". One girl asked me what that was for, and I told her it was, in addition to being a lyrical reference, the day of the Tienanmen Square incident. She was unfamiliar with the story!!! I told her she should answer, "It was before my time".



Later in the day, I added the lower text, "Is fashion the reason they were there". Another lyrical allusion. Most of the tank I added in on my afternoon break.

Last Friday I went by Frys because they had laptop cooling pads for only $10, and notebook locks for $12. The cool pads were sold out, though. I did, however, pick up a patch cord for headphone jack to headphone jack. Been wanting one of those for a while, now I can play my MP3 player through Janice's radio!!!

School is doing their Spirit week this week. The older boy used one of my shirts that I got from Shirt.Woot. It has a bird made of newspaper origami. It's pretty cool, looks like the heading says "Freedom", then in other areas it appears to say "Press" and "Religion", only all the places it seems to say these things are two different pages.



Four days this week I've worked middle shift. I've had enough.

I've been driving Janice this week. I'm trying to determine what kind of mileage she gets. Not too easy, because the odometer is broken!!! I've been taking my GPS along and using it to track the distance traveled.

I wore my Mario shirt today, and two different people picked up on exactly what it was of, without it needed to be pointed out. I think this was the first time that's happened!!!

One of my co workers was sitting on the couch next to the end a few months back. He was the only one there, and I sat down on the very end next to him. I said something to the effect of, "This doesn't seem too chummy, does it???" It was all in jest, but he hasn't let me live it down. Now whenever we see each other, we'll say things like "heya, chummy!!!"

The bird shirt (which I thought was appropriate, because it is, after all, black and white and read all over) was a mystery shirt that they had for the devilish price of $6.66. It had a picture of a shirt with a blurry question mark on the site. When I first got it, I thought that I would have preferred one with a blurry question mark, but it has since grown on me.

Did anyone see the beginning of Craig Ferguson's show last night??? He did a lip sync of They Might Be Giants' version of "Istanbul", it was pretty amusing.



I've been trying to come up with some sort of algorithm for what kind of mileage I'd have to get with Janice to be better financially. At a rate of 25 cents a gallon less for diesel fuel, I figure I'd have to get around 26.8 MPG or better. What I really need is a chart with varied mileage and varied price curves delineated so I could easily see.

That spiral galaxy image is from another shirt from Woot. They were doing a pointillism design contest, where all the images were of small dots of primary colors. I got this shirt, along with a maroon one for my wife that depicts Pandora and her friends. They both tied for winning, so they offered both for one $10 price. I couldn't pass it up!!!

I took the picture of my wife over the weekend. I thought her hair looked rather 80's.

My chum was telling the guy I was working with today to be careful, I might get chummy with him. I replied, "Hey, thats just with you!!! See how you make me sound like a chum slut!!!"

I'm realizing that by the time I post this, it'll be twenty years and a day!!!

P.S. I Love You

What I did over the Thanksgiving weekend: We all went out to Palm Springs!!!

Like last year, most of the extended family had other plans. My parents actually set this up, it was a time share condo where they give you a few nights of free lodging in exchange for listening to their spiel. It was a really nice place!!! For Thanksgiving dinner, they bought most of the whole thing pre made from a local grocery store, and for all the possible ways it could have failed, only the stuffing was a disappointment!!!

The next day, after swimming in the pool for a fair amount of the morning (while my poor folks attended the spiel), we went to the only actual attraction I was aware of in Palm Springs, the Aerial Tram. It was amazingly crowded there, and a bit spendy for a trip to the top, but well worth it.

The temperature was much lower at the top, and the rain that had come through the Los Angeles area the days before made for a nice layer of snow up there.

I guess this qualifies as our annual snow trip!!! The boys had a lot of fun frolicking in the snow, and would have stayed there much longer, but it was getting dark already.

We came back and went back to the pool area for a session in the jacuzzi. There are two of them there, one outside, the other under a synthetic hill, hidden behind a waterfall.The next day we went out to one of many oases in the area. Apparently the San Andreas fault line going through the aquifer causes the water to make its way to the surface. We hiked from one oasis to another, about a mile each way, with many cool things to see on the way.

Once we got back, we were snacking on some crackers and sodas near the visitors center (which was already closed for the evening), and along wandered this bobcat!!! Of course, I had already stowed my camera, but I managed to get it out and fire off three shots before he disappeared for good. The first two came out the better ones, shooting from the hip, than the third where I framed him up, and the camera failed to auto focus.

There's a shot of the pool in the background (along with the inflatable turkey). Actually, two separate pools. The smaller one has a very shallow large area for small kids, and two different water slides, one straight and rather flat, and the other of a decent height with some nice twists to it. The larger pool has one area with a volleyball net set up over it. The older boy took a Jr. Lifeguard course they offered. I don't know how much they actually taught him.



This was pretty cool, too. The condos, to further sweeten the pot, gave my parents several vouchers for, among other things, the gas station up the street. The day we headed home, they gave us one to use, $20 value. The drive out there is 111 miles, plus some driving around town, plus about 40 miles of to work and back the day before. Now, we'd driven out on Wednesday night. I haven't made mention here, but I bought myself a GPS unit for Christmas already. Figured it made more sense to have it BEFORE I'm in a strange town trying to find my way. On the drive out, it routed us along a couple of small, two lane highways (not what I'd have chosen, but we followed it anyway). It also rained a bit, causing everyone to hit their brakes far too much. The elevation increases quite a bit from home to there, so in other words, it was all uphill, albeit very slightly for most of the drive. In other words, the drive was less than optimal for prime fuel efficiency. However, in spite of that, after driving 168.4 miles, Baby would only take 3.98 gallons of gas!!! That works out to an unprecedented, AMAZING, 42.31 MPG!!! I have to imagine that this is an anomaly, but at any rate, I was quite pleased. The gas station wouldn't give full change for it, so we ended up with two large water bottles, three of the huge slim jims, and five dollars cash.

Good times!!!

Goblin Mail Fail

I'm SO far behind on making posts, I thought I'd start small with a little cupdate. Some background is in order, so here goes...



I don't know if I ever made mention here or not, but in any case, I shall write of it now. A while ago at work, they implemented a change, where they have four fillers not in the number (i.e., assigned to a specific printer), but instead are what they have termed "time fillers". Now, the regular fillers can set aside any documents that weigh more than 40 pounds, require cutting of material, or is a count of 100 touches or more. Surprisingly, our numbers are up since these changes. The original way it was done was to have one time filler on each floor for the blue bins, and one time filler for both floors of the red bins. This created something of an imbalance, as some floors would have nothing, and others would have several. A month or so ago, they gave all the time fillers radios and had them dispatched by one of the supervisors to where to fill. Two weeks back, they changed that to an E-mail system, accessible at all our terminals, so when you get a time fill, it generates a message from that printer. Therefore, all day long, the printers are popping up the message, "You've got mail".

Stream of consciousness, while playing Runescape, one of the items sometimes dropped by a killed goblin is goblin mail. Every time I'd see the "You've got mail" message, I would think, "You've got goblin Mail", so I put this on the side of my cup!!!

Something I discovered about Baby is that when the trunk is open, there is a nice area just the size of one of my cups at the top edge, and makes a great place to set it while unloading. Of course, you should always try and remember that you've set it there. Before I was able to get a picture of this cup, I forgot to remove it before shutting the trunk lid.

I've made mention before of my fondness for LOLcats, and another affiliated website that I will sometimes visit is FailBlog. So, here you have it: Goblin Mail Fail!!!

Speaking of Baby, my last tank (well, I've actually got one fill up since this, but that will follow) took 10.2 gallons for 307.8 miles, for a very nice average of 30.18 MPG. I replaced the air filter halfway through this tank, and it seems to have done some good. Incidentally, this fill up takes it to exactly 100 gallons bought, and 2964.3 miles travelled, for a lifetime average of 29.46 MPG.

Scary Decorations

How I used my last vacation day!!! I took the Monday after Halloween off, and took the boys (who had that day off from school) to Universal Studios.

The older boy and I had just been there on Saturday, and they had a lot of the scary decorations up still. He said that I needed to bring my camera with me when we came back. Look who we saw there!!! Beetlejuice, the ghost with the most!!! Later on, by Jurassic Park, we saw him walking and carrying on a conversation with the mummy. Totally candid, who knew they hang out together???

Marylin was there, too. We actually saw more characters there this time than any other, I think. When we first got in there, we encountered a living statue guy. No pictures, but I did get a little video clip of him. Doc Emmit Brown from Back to the Future was driving a Segue around the park.






On the Saturday before, the boy and I stopped at Philippe's near Union Station for dinner. We ended up waiting half an hour in line, but it was worth it. A lot of fans from the SC game showed up there, I didn't know that was a thing for them.






Some of the various decorations.

There were skeleton solders up on the military vehicle. Many other ghouls and corpses all around the park.

In the airplane wreckage from War of the Worlds, they had set up many bloody bodies.



I think I made mention in one of the previous visits, they've Incorporated Norman into the Bates Motel set there. He spots the tram, and advances on it with his knife. The last shot had some guy's head in the way when he was close, but it actually came out pretty cool, with him peering around him!!!



Yesterday I bought another tank of gas for Baby. I hadn't updated since last time, which was a new low of 26.67 MPG (which, honestly, is still pretty darn decent). My wife drove her three days on that tank, which was soon after getting Janice back on the road. All her drive, while about 1/4 the distance, is city driving. Add in at least one day being stuck in a bad traffic jam and it all adds up. This tank was back on track, netting 30.51 MPG. Over the weekend I gave her her first oil change (mental note: buy a strap wrench for doing that, none of my filter wrenches worked well at all for it) and checked the tire pressures. The tires were all pretty low, so this should help quite a bit. Once all these fires are cleared up, I'll probably change out the ash-laden air filter. Coming up for the Thanksgiving weekend, we've got a fairly sizable road trip coming up, should be a good test.

Naked News

I have much within me, I could probably go random easily, but I think I'll just stick to two topics. Oh yea, if you don't know, there is a website out there with the same name as the title of this post. This is mostly unrelated.

This was a story on the news last night. They had video of of a car chase, with the car driving at high rates of speed with no lights on. At the end, the driver loses control and crashes, rolling the car several times, whereupon the police discover that she is naked. Insert "driving without headlights" punchline here. I've been trying to find out more information on this story, and so far, it's just not out there. There were several discrepancies in the story as I've gone through, too.

The pursuit began in Pasadena, and the helicopter reporter had been saying that it ended on the 5 freeway just before the 110. That is very near my home, and I would have gone and seen myself if I had known, but I didn't hear any helicopters all night. Turns out it wasn't the 110, but either the 170 or the 210, depending on the source. Either of those makes more sense.

What precipitated the chase??? The audio on one of the video clips I've found has the helicopter pilot on the line with Pasadena PD, and the story he came back with was that she had broken into a property, and as she was leaving ran over a motorcycle (hopefully just a parked motorcycle!!!) The much more prevalent story, however, was that she was vandalizing a car. No matter the case, my question, was she naked when committing the original crime??? If so, and the crime was the latter, what kind of vandalizing was she doing??? Is that a euphemism??? If not, how talented is she to be able to drive at that speed and strip naked???

Something I only heard one time, on the television broadcast, was that she threw her purse out of the car during the pursuit.

I heard the car described as a 4 door Acura. The only way they could have gotten that any more wrong was to say that it was painted black.



For such a titillating story, it seems to be near impossible to find any pictures or revealing video to answer the question, is she anyone that you would want to see naked??? I found this picture on one website, but it doesn't say if it's really her or just a stock photo. Looks like what little you can see from the video capture I got.




I once again bought gas for Baby today. That second half of the tank always goes so quick!!! This time, I travelled 301.6 miles on 10.41 gallons, for an average of 28.94 MPG. By my calculations, that puts my average at 29.55 MPG. Still pleasing. Did I make mention that the factory driving lights weren't working??? Can't remember, but two weekends ago, I checked the fuses and found them to be fine. The other day I pulled the cover off the console (which is where the switch for the rear defroster and driving lights are, go figure) and sure enough, the plug to the back of those switches was disconnected, and lodged behind the radio. Looks like only a few screws to get that free, maybe tomorrow. But for now, I must get to bed. Recharge the super zapper.

Reptiles Abound

I bought the fourth track able tank of gas for Baby tonight. It was the farthest I've travelled on a single tank thus far, 326.7 miles. The first time I needed to purchase gas for her, going down the hill it was giving the only low fuel warning I've had. Anyway, I bought more gas than ever before, 10.41 gallons, for a total of 31.38 MPG for this tank. If you're paying attention, this would be the best mileage so far, and drags my running average up to 29.62 MPG. Not bad at all!!!



And now, for a little story I thought I'd share. I don't recall what made me remember what made me think of it, but it came to memory last night for some reason.

Several years ago, my brother in law had a couple of cool things. One was a Jeep CJ-7, and the other was a pet Rosy Boa snake, who my wife had named Rhoda. One summer afternoon, he and my wife and I decided to go to Tommy Burger in Long Beach for some lunch. As it was quite warm out, we decided to take his Jeep, since he had the hard top and doors all stripped off for the warm weather. The Tommy Burger has nothing but outdoor seating, also perfect for summertime dining. When we got there, we laid the quite relaxed Rhoda on the dashboard to sun while we dined.

We didn't pay a lot of attention to her, which turned out to not be a great idea. When we returned to the Jeep, she was nowhere to be seen. A little bit of looking around revealed that she'd gotten up underneath the dash board. Too high to be easily reached, but nowhere near the steering or pedals, so we drove back to my parents house (where he was renting a room at the time) to see if we could get her out there, or remove parts to gain better access. He went to work on it while we did whatever it was we'd come over to do. She continued to slither farther up into the dashboard. At some point, he gave up and put the doors back on, hoping to contain her within the Jeep until she decided to come down on her own accord.

Sometime that afternoon, my older sister stopped by in her convertible Mustang. Later that evening, after we'd gone home, I get a frantic call from her. "Rhoda is here!!! She's slithering out from my car!!! Call up Scott and get him over here to get his snake!!!" She's freaking out. I found this remarkable, but agreed to give him a call and let him know. I called him up, "Hey Scott!!! Your snake is crawling out from my sister's car!!!" His response was predictable: "Nu uh!!! She is not!!!" Eventually I was able to convince him, and he retrieved Rhoda.

Mileage III

I bought gas again today. The tank wasn't near as empty as it had been the previous two times, having only travelled 251.9 miles. In spite of this, it still took a considerable amount of gas, 9.26 gallons. I wasn't able to buy from my usual gas station, I drove there, and they had chain link fence set up all around most of the islands!!! They did have a large banner stating "OPEN FOR DIESEL". Nice if you need diesel. Ended up driving to a Circle K that I've never been to before, and I wonder if I'll ever go to a Circle K again. Seems like their pumps always suck, and judging by where the needle was and how much it took, I suspect their pumps are not properly calibrated. Weights and Measures will be hearing of this.



If you are keeping count, this tank would be 27.2 MPG, for a three tank average of 29.08 MPG. Still not bad, but the downward trend in my mileage is troubling. Next time will be better, I'm sure.



Anyway, I did manage to get her washed over the weekend, and got a couple of pictures yesterday. I had to take a half day yesterday to go to traffic court. A little matter of being pulled over with an unregistered vehicle. I had gotten an extension, then mailed the court the paper showing my release of liability, along with a letter describing what I'd done. Apparently they didn't get it (or it fell into a bureaucratic black hole, more likely) and sent me a delinquent notice wanting to get $800 out of me. I showed up to court, which was rather busy that morning. After a couple of hours, I was finally called to the stand. On my way up, the judge asks if I got the car registered. I replied that I had junked it, and almost before I'd made it to the stand, he asks if I can pay a $10 dismissal fee. Duh, sure thing, jug!!! Then I had to wait almost an hour for the clerk. Considering the alternative, not a big deal!!!

Round Two

Tuesday was the third trip to the gas station for the Saturn, so it's the second time I've been able to calculate the mileage. For this tank, I travelled 297.7 miles on 10.34 gallons, for a result of 28.79 miles per gallon. Not near as good as last time, but still well better than the Geo would get consistently. A two tank average of just a tad over 30 MPG. Oh yea, it was a rather warm day, so there could be a "hot gas" effect going on, too. Since I'm doing this here instead of a yet to be Twitter account, I'll make note that the current price for 87 octane was $3.639. I notice that diesel is under $4.00, at $3.959 a gallon. I've even seen some stations with the price for diesel actually less than hi-test. This is rather pleasing, being as I'm near to driving Janice again.

Being as I hadn't come up with a name for this car yet, last week my wife had asked if she could drive "the baby" on one day. I think "Baby" does have a nice ring to it, and she is the youngest car I've ever owned *making mental note to do the math on the Camaro, think it was younger when I got it, but it's way older now*

Lets see, any other news about her??? I still haven't taken any more pictures, but wouldn't now, she needs a bath badly. White gets dirty fast, it seems. Weekend before last, at my parents house, I switched the dealers' ad license plate frame for this cool model that my dad couldn't get to fit on his car. Now whenever I see anyone who doesn't have such a frame, I can ask them, "Why do you hate America???" LOL

The factory radio-CD player has to go. Fits the dashboard nicely and the radio is fine, but the CD doesn't play MP3's, and it can take a LONG time to get working and select a track. I yanked the awesome Clarion unit out of the Storm before I junked it out. Got $160 for it, about 15% of my purchase price. Not too terrible for more than two years and almost no money into it.

The front cup holders are illuminated!!! They don't look that big, but they'll fit a 32 ouncer from my work, or one of those ridiculous 64 ouncers my wife gets. Of course, you can't fit anything in the one next to it if that's there. Oh, and don't shift into park with it in there!!!