Friday, December 17, 02004
So I ran into the second nasty aspect of living in Reston today (the first being the noisy neighbors) - I don't live within walking distance of the Honda dealership anymore.
The check engine light turned went on in the Insight, and the milage plunged down to 43 mpg suddenly, so something is very wrong. I'd just gotten used to only getting 50 mpg on my shorter commute instead of the 57 mpg I used to get on my older 40 mile/day commute. I live too close too work now, so I can't coast along as far I could in days past.
So I dropped the car off at the dealership, and got a rental car. The problem is I got there pretty late, and didn't make an appointement before hand, so all the they had left was a huge pickup truck. I had to get back to work, so I took it. Otherwise I'd have to sit and wait for an unknown period of time until another car was returned. Sigh.
I feel like I'm driving around with stilts on. I'm driving it like a hybrid, so I keep letting my foot off the pedal, expecting it to coast, and well, it doesn't. Everytime I turn I feel like the thing's going to tip over. I've parked way out of the way at the office so I didn't have to worry about scraping anyone's car. I'm wondering how many small children I've run over without noticing as I'm driving along. I checked the undercarriage when I got to the office, just to make sure...
I can't wait till I get my little car back !
Posted at 12:28 PM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Wednesday, December 15, 02004
"....Secondary roads are preferred. Paved county roads are the best, state highways are next. Freeways are the worst. We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with emphasis on "good" rather than "time" and when you make that shift in emphasis the whole approach changes. Twisting hilly roads are long in terms of seconds but are much more enjoyable on a cycle where you bank into turns and don't get swung from side to side in any compartment. Roads with little traffic are more enjoyable, as well as safer. Roads free of drive-ins and billboards are better, roads where groves and meadows and orchards and lawns come almost to the shoulder, where kids wave to you when you ride by, where people look from their porches to see who it is, where when you stop to ask directions or information the answer tends to be longer than you want rather than short, where people ask where you're from and how long you've been riding."
I've fixed the RSS feed a bit for you people who use aggregators. Personally I don't use one, and hope to never , never fall into their trap. I have no need nor desire to track 10,000 feeds. I'll never track many more than are on the sidebar over there.
Posted at 02:33 AM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Tuesday, December 14, 02004
Dear Blue Santa,
All I want for Christmas is a tweaked Corporate Fallout Detector that'll help me choose the blue.
Thanks,
- jude
P.S. Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I just haven't had much to complain about lately.
Posted at 01:20 PM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
