1/4/08

I went to an interesting website this morning. I don’t remember the name of it, so don’t ask. I found it linked to the “Weird Earl’s” tab on “The Straight Dope” website. Anyhoo, it has several “quizzes” which purport to tell you interesting things about yourself. For instance, according to this website, I could successfully fight nineteen five-year-old children at one time if need be, I am 43% geek, my dead body is worth $3,280.00, I have a 48% chance of surviving a “Zombie Apocalypse,” and 127,095 people died the day I was born. There were other “tests” I could have taken but the air card decided to lock up before I could explore them all. Some of the other things I could have found out about myself were: how addicted to Apple I am, how proficient I am at identifying alcoholic beverages, and… um, some other stuff like that, which I can’t remember right now. I will probably go back and add it to my favorites after a while. Ok, so I stopped off at the Ford dealer on my way home to get Fifi out of hock. $1,384.13 more debt on my gold card and she’s got a new clutch system. Yeah, I could have done it myself. Pat has done his in his driveway but he’s nowhere near as lazy as I am. Perhaps I could have offered him a grand to do it. Well, I didn’t, so there. I mentioned that they had better replace the disk and pressure plate earlier when lamenting the estimate, remember? Well, they did, at least it is on the bill as such. I didn’t hoon on it to test it out because it was really low on gas. In fact, when they called to say it was ready they warned me that they didn’t test drive it very far for that very reason. It seemed fine all the way home so I think I'm going to be happy. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell y'all about the latest bee in my bonnet. Now, before I go on, I want to say that I'm very happy with Matilda, and I have no intention of trading her in anytime soon. Ok, having said that, I really want a Nissan Altima Coupe with a V6 and six-speed manual! I saw an Altima Coupe while driving around the other day and thought, “Wow, that’s a sexy bitch of a car.” I stopped in to ask if the V6 was available with a six-speed. I was sure it wouldn’t be because the auto makers think that “we” only want manual transmissions in economy cars and base models and that if we’re springing for the “big motor” we’ll all want a slush box. I did forget to take the Maxima into account or at least discounted its significance due to (tee hee, I said doo-doo!) the fact that it only comes with the V6. The Altima, being available with a four cylinder, I figured wouldn’t have a manual on the V6. I was wrong. They had one in white with all the bells and whistles. It was dead sexy. Bo, the dude who sold John and me our Versas, got the keys and we went for a spin around the block. It made Matilda feel woefully underpowered! I'm sure had I gone for the freeway it would have been like the time I test drove a six-speed Maxima. I was ripping down the freeway at seventy or eighty when the sales dude, not Bo that time, said, “Um, you have two more gears.” Torque is a wonderful thing, especially when it is available in an engine that will also rev. Anyhoo, I parked the Altima and got out while disguising the chubby in my britches, and told Bo I would have to think long and hard about it. [ Heh heh... You said "chubby" and "long and hard" in the same sentence... - SM ] Did I mention I really want it? It was so friggin’ cool I can hardly stand it. But alas, I think I'm going to let sanity prevail and “dance with the one whut brung me” for a while longer. Of course now I'm looking for a turbo or supercharger for Matilda! There used to be a company called Zero Point Industries making a kit but they went out of business. Perhaps Dimlight Racing could develop and market a kit. Hmm, I need to cipher and figger on that for a while. I'll get back to you on that one. Well, it is noon and I'm a Starvin’ Marvin right about now. I think I'll call desktop support and go to lunch. Have a weekend and I'll talk to y'all again on Monday.