Summer drive

Summer officially arrives tomorrow, but today was a great day for a drive in a convertible. Mike opted for a day in the barn playing with cars, but I took off with the top down on a long, round-about trip to a quilt shop near the river. I sort of had a map and a plan, but when the road became full of potholes, I just kept turning onto better paved roads in the general direction of the river. The sunshine, green fields, farms and small towns rejuvenated me. Lots of other convertibles and motorcycles were out today, and plenty of boats on the river and lake.

So long, Mark VIII

A 1994 Lincoln Mark VIII, purchased in 1995, it served us well. But the repair costs would exceed the value, so it was time to go.

Thank you, Skip Barber!

One of the skills we practiced in Skip Barber driving school is called the "lane toss". At the last second, based on a light signal, you must choose to swerve right or left to avoid the simulated sudden obstacle. Every time we do this in real life, and avoid a real accident, we are grateful for the practice, with only cones to run over and into if you make a mistake.

Last night, on the way home from work, I got to do not one but two lane tosses. While I was in the middle of three highway lanes, I suddenly heard tires screeching, saw brake lights coming on in the right lane, and saw multiple cars swerving into my lane. I knew there were no cars to my left, so I swerved into the left lane, avoiding whatever had caused the chaos in the right lanes. Then, within a couple hundred yards, I could see a lunch cooler bouncing across my lane! I have no idea where it came from, or if it was related to the earlier commotion, but once again I performed a lane toss onto the center shoulder and avoided hitting the cooler. I don't think the guy behind me was so lucky, because by the time I could look in my mirror, I saw pieces of plastic cooler bouncing around.

With the adrenaline pumping, I made it safely home. No white-tail deer tried to make it three in a row.

Lessons to remember:
- be aware of what's going on in the lanes on either side of you, so you can do a lane toss if needed
- leave a big enough gap between you and the car in front so that if they swerve to avoid an obstacle, you also have time to react and avoid the same obstacle
- know the capabilities of your brakes and tires (yes, we still practice these lane tosses, brake checks, etc.) and anticipate the need to use them

How many engineers does it take...

... to screw in license plates on the new car?

Should be easy, right? We take delivery on the car, and our sales buddy Kurt hands us the frame for the front license plate, which we toss in the trunk until we get the plates. Two weeks later, we get the plates. Mike removed the plastic dealer logo from the rear plate bracket, and quickly installed the rear plate. But we couldn't find any way to actually attach the front frame and plate. Do we have to drill holes in the bumper?

Email Kurt, and he gives us instructions for how to align the frame with the slots in the bumper, use the self-tapping screws to install everything. Problem is, no screws anywhere, even after two independent searches of the trunk, glove box, etc., and Mike couldn't find any slots in the bumper.

A few days later, screws arrive in the mail. I manage to find the slots, Mike works the screwdriver, and the front plate is finally installed. One week, two engineers, plus our loyal (and we hope not long-suffering) sales guy. (He really has treated us well.)

And, I really love the car; especially the heated seats and steering wheel.

Number nine

The sidebar has been updated - car number nine has arrived. We picked up the new BMW yesterday. Automotive technology has come a long way since the 15-year old car that I've been driving, and I think it will take a while to figure out all the bells and whistles. But so far, so good - I like it. And the dealership certainly seemed happy to help us do our part in stimulating the economy.

The truck returns

Summer must really be over, because everyone is done using our truck. It's been passed around from friend to friend since we left it with Dave & Ari after the tornado in May. When they moved into their new house and were finished with it, Dave C used it to haul his car to the Lotus Owners Gathering (LOG). Then, as long as it was nearby, Tim used it to haul some brush. Today, though, it's back home, and the temporary replacement (Dave C's Porsche - not a bad loaner) is gone. The poor truck has to sit outside until the barn is rearranged to accommodate it, but we'll be able to haul our garbage to the dump soon, and get the chipped windshield fixed. With the price of gas lately, we didn't really miss driving it, but come the first snow, it will be back in regular service.

The End of Summer

Today we hosted the annual local Porsche picnic - the year's easiest way to entertain. Jeff organizes everything, handles the invites, provides tables and a grill, and all we really do is sweep out the garage and set out plates and condiments. Cars and food show up from all over, we grill our burgers and brats, and eveybody looks at cars and talks about cars. Our streak of good weather continued for another year. And best of all, there's no clean-up other than a bag of trash and some recycling.

We also invited our neighbors down for the picnic, and had a good time chatting with Jerry. Bonus: an invitation to come spend some time at their place in Montana - an offer we will not refuse.

The cats were quite brave this year, as people came inside to use the bathroom - Alex and Rusty allowed a few people to pet them, and Detour stayed on the bed, instead of hiding underneath.

The sad part is that this picnic always marks both the end of a three-day weekend, and the end of summer. It's much too short to begin with, and we barely saw 90 degrees this year, so we aren't in a hurry to return to cooler weather. Oh well. (That's why we live in the northland, right? The change of seasons, etc. etc. At least that's what we tell people.)

New car shopping adventures

A few weeks ago, the new car choices were narrowed down to the BMW 3 series. Our local dealer treated us well, but didn't have adequate stock for us (me) to actually decide the model of choice, though. We finally had time to go to a Minneapolis dealer this past weekend, and, after a test drive, decided what we wanted. Neither dealership actually has the car we want, of course. And when I called the sales rep here in town to tell him what we had decided, I was told he had recently quit. Within a few minutes of that call, the sales manager from Minneapolis called Mike to say they wanted a chance to bid against the local dealer for our business. What a crazy system - I guess times are tough in the auto business right now. We may have to wait for the 2009 cars (which cannot be priced or ordered yet), because it's unlikely they will be able to find what we want anywhere, and we are probably too late to influence any of the remaining 2008 car builds. We're not done with this process yet, obviously, but we're making progress. If only in having made a decision.

Where racing and quilting collide

Whether it's a boy or a girl, the recipient of this quilt will grow up watching and going to races, and hanging out with car people.

(I love this backing fabric. Unfortunately for Mike, it was supposed to go on his racing T-Shirt quilt, so I'm searching for more of it.)

Lotus Quest 2008 - part 2

Our truck has been travelling the country for the past few weeks. Dave and Tim took our truck and Dave's trailer on the east coast leg of Lotus Quest to Maryland, to pick up Dave's newly acquired Lotus X180R. He bought it from a former local club member, and had hoped to be able to drive it back, at least partway. They were unable to get it back into cross-country driving shape in a reasonable amount of time, though, so it rode home on the trailer.

They dropped the truck and trailer off at our house last Wednesday, and the west coast leg of Lotus Quest began on Saturday, when Mike and his co-drivers (his dad and brother) departed for California. The trailer's spare tire soon grew tired of all this travelling, and is now residing somewhere in a ditch along I-80, but otherwise, the trip has gone smoothly. Mike's "new" Lotus is also undrivable (the engine is in a box - or several). It was loaded onto the trailer Tuesday, and is taking the scenic northern route to it's new home, including a visit to Yellowstone and Old Faithful.

My responsibility has been to act as travel agent, making hotel reservations when they know where they plan to spend the night. By all accounts, the trip is going well, and they'll be back in time to say goodbye as I leave town on Sunday for a business trip.

Experimentation, Ugly Fabrics, Useful Result

A few years ago, I wanted to try out a quilt-as-you-go method. (I had purchased the book from the author when she spoke at our guild meeting). So I gathered fabrics from my stash and gave it a try. But about three-fourths of the way into a quilt, I lost momentum, and any desire to finish it. It was ugly, and I wasn't enjoying the quilting method. That was also around the time we bought the Boxster - a convertible, complete with removable hardtop and a handy rolling storage stand. What you see in the picture is the colorful result - a quilted hardtop cover. I sewed up the sides of the partial quilt with some more ugly fabric, added some pieces to make it big enough, played around with some of the specialty stitches on my sewing machine on the quilted sections, and had a stress-free time completing it. Besides protecting the hardtop from dust and scratches during the summer while on the stand, we fold it up and store it in the trunk in the winter, where it doubles as the winter driving emergency blanket.

The next time I accumulate enough ugly or orphan blocks, I'm going to make a quilted car cover for Mike.

Is it just me?

Taking cars in for repairs is probably not anyone's favorite thing to do, but it's usually just another errand. Unless I have to deal with one particular local dealer. Then, something is bound to go wrong.

On the other hand, Mike has generally had good experiences there, so usually I just let him deal with them, and take my cars elsewhere when I have a choice.

My worst experience was many years ago, when I had to have the cruise control fixed, and they replaced the blinker-like stalk on the steering column. When I went to pick up the car, my hand just barely brushed the center of the steering wheel, and the horn honked. It happened several more times, and so I went back to the dealership. The service rep wouldn't admit that they could have possibly done anything to effect the horn, even though they are both on the steering column. In frustration, I went home, where Mike was able to figure out what they had messed up and fix it. (A part had been replaced backwards.) Since then, I've avoided the dealership at all costs.

But we got a recall notice on the white car, and at about the same time the check engine light came on, so we had to take it in. I called and made an appointment. And my curse kicked in again. When we dropped it off in the morning, strangely, they had no record of my having made an appointment. By 4:30 in the afternoon, they had just started working on it, so I had to wait around before I was able to pick it up after work. They explained the cause of the check engine light, and the part that needed to be ordered, so we took it home. Five days later, I still hadn't gotten a call about the replacement part, so I called to check on it. The parts guy left me on hold for several minutes before eventually disconnecting me. When I called back, he wouldn't explain the delay, just that the part would be in this Monday. I'm pretty sure all he did was figure out that they had never actually ordered the part, and had to put the order in when I called to ask about it. Unfortunately, I've got too much bad history with these guys to give them the benefit of the doubt.

We'll find out next week. But you can bet that the car I buy this summer will not be from this dealer.

A plethora of choices

Spring is in the air today, finally, with temps in the 40's and snow melting. It's been a long cold winter, but the weather guys keep telling us it just seems bad because of so many recent years of very mild winters. In reality, this year was just "normal". It didn't take us very long to become winter wimps.

Car show update: Boy, are there a lot of trucks and SUVs out there! Even with gas so expensive, they were front and center. When we first went into the convention center, that was really all we could see. The cars were there, just way in the back and sides.

I'm looking for a nice, comfortable everyday car. We've already got a truck and plenty of sporty cars, but I've gotten used to nice seats and power everything. Yes, I'm spoiled. The inexpensive cars just weren't very appealing. We sat in a lot of cars, and quickly eliminated a lot of cars. I've got a list of about ten that need a further look, but I'll probably cross off several because there is no dealer locally. If I go for brand new, I want a dealer nearby. On the other hand, if I find something older and out of warranty, access to a dealer isn't a factor. I've got a stack of brochures and a list of desired options, so now I'll try to figure out what fits the wish list.

Car Shopping

The big auto show starts tomorrow, and we're going. We're planning on buying a car this year, and it's my turn to choose. (The faithful Lincoln Mark VIII rolled over 150,000 miles this week.) The auto show will give us a chance to look at all the cars in one day. I get a chance to sit in the driver's seats, which is important because it's harder for me to find a comfortable seating position. Mike's suggestions tend to be exotic sports cars, but I think I'll end up with something more practical. No purchase is imminent, but we should be able to narrow down the list of cars that we will actually take for a test drive later this summer.