paulandemily.com

Rolled 50,000 miles on the Mazda today. *sigh*  Now that it’s off warranty, we’re waiting on something terrible to happen or parts to start falling off.

Share on Facebook

So I had a wonderful day at work today…

A kid from the day treatment program at my work got PO’d and ran out of the building away from the staff. Along the way he pushed one staff down on the sidewalk causing her to hit her head, then as he was finally getting caught/cornered by staff on the other side of the building, he decided in his fit of rage to use my car as a punching bag. He punched my hood three times, causing quite a substantial dent. It even has knuckle marks. After that, he decided to knaw up and down another staff person’s arm, breaking the skin in several places and sending him to the hospital. Luckily I wasn’t around when he did it, or else I would have been a little PO’d myself.

I had to file a police report on the kid. It was filed as criminal mischief 3rd degree/class B. The policeman said anything under $500 is 3rd degree, $501-$999 is class A, and over $1000 is a felony. I originally thought that it wouldn’t cost much to repair; maybe just pop it out. However, both autobody shops independently said that there are creases and they can’t pop it. One estimate was for $1012 and the other was for $1200. Guess I’ll have to call the police station and bump that class B misdemeanor to a felony.

So…I’ve had a great day. Hoping that my work’s insurance will cover it.

Check out pictures:

Share on Facebook

Last week, before I left for the IT 2007 show in Ft. Worth, Texas, I upgraded the headlights on the Durango to a set of projections lamps.  If anyone has ever been in a 98-2003 Durango or 97-2001 Dakota, you probably know how poor the headlamps are.  Here is a before and after pic:

 
click for a large version (new window will open)

On another note…Motorcycle helmets.  I will never understand why people don’t wear them.  1) it can save your life 2) Bugs.  Riding around on the back roads of Kentucky can be a great time, except there are a lot of gnats, mosquitos, etc.  Check out this pic from my ride home from work on Wednesday last week – this i just a 15 or so mile ride at 630pm!

Click to enlarge

-pc

Share on Facebook

XM and Sirius satellite radio companies strike a merger deal – USATODAY.com

Probably not a huge deal to everyone who reads our blog, but this is a really big deal in the Radio/Automotive industry.   I’ve heard rumors about this for quite some time now, but I just never figured it would go through.  Sean thinks is a smart move for XM, who has watched Sirius’ subscriber base grow since Howard Stern joined forces with them, plus Sirius is rumored to have streaming video on the way.  It will be interesting to see what auto manufactures do since some of them have only used one brand (EG: Mazda uses Sirius) – or heck, it will be interesting to see how the two companies go forward with their technology and channel line-ups.

-pc

Share on Facebook

On Saturday (21 Jan), I went to the Detroit Auto Show for the fourth consecutive year. I always have a good time there – checking out the concept cars, sitting in vehicles I know I can’t afford, and hanging out with friends. I took some photos (HERE) but certianly not as many as the previous years (2005 and 2006). This wasn’t intentional – heck I brought two cameras! … Just had some bad luck. The batteries in my Olympus D720 died about 1/2 way through the event. “No big deal” I thought, “I have my backup Canon!”. Unfortuneatly, when I dug the Canon out of its case, the LCD screen had a very large crack in it. I could still use it, but the veiwfinder is pretty pathtic so I decided not to deal with it.

Share on Facebook

Got out of class last really early. We had a ‘lecture’ over 4 chapters, an exam, and then a lab and I was done by 830 (class is scheduled until 1030). Was in a pretty good mood – getting home early, actually getting to spend the evening with Emily and Megabyte, etc. I was approaching the 275/75 south split when I was radar gunned doing around 70 in a 55 (although it used to be a 65 zone…KY keeps chaning the speed on this stretch of highway). I had a Mitsu Montero on my butt. I had actually just started to slow down because the rear end started to feel a little loose on the Rango. Then it hit.

The rear tire completely blew out on me and the ride started to get pretty bad. I immediately changed over 3 lanes of traffic to the shoulder and hit the brakes. I’d never changed the tire on an SUV before and left the owner’s manual on my nightstand from a previous nights bed time storey. Oops. I assumed the jack point on the truck would be the same as it was on my previous 3 cars. Apparently this wasn’t so as the scissor jack didn’t get the truck up high enough to mount the full sized spare. Nuts. Anyway, I got the blown tire/wheel back on and found out the jack point is actually on the rear axle, as close to the wheel as possible. Got it changed, got home (an hour later) and snapped a couple pics:

Looks like the trear seperated from the sidewall to me.  Wasn’t there a lawsuit about this back in 2001? Stinks too, because there was a lot of tread left on the tire.  Luckily the spare was brand new and in great shape.

Share on Facebook