1/11/10

I didn't do shite this weekend. Two days, totally wasted. Well, I guess I kind of did something Saturday, sort of, but nothing productive. After having lunch with mom, I ran by the Nissan dealer to look at new cars. OK, while we wait for John's pulse to slow and his blood pressure to return to normal, I'll remind everyone that I do not fit in mom’s Altima. My sister really wants said Altima, so I figured I'd go shopping for a replacement. Mom has said that she ought to get into a smaller car, but I don't really remember her reasoning. I was thinking Versa sedan. I had a look around the lot but none had satellite radio, which is going to be mandatory on her next car even if she doesn't think she’ll ever use it. While looking at the Versae, I saw one in a color that really popped. Reflected light, especially through my sunglasses, made the car look like a dark metallic bronze/brown, but when back lit it was black. It was awesome. Of course it wouldn't be awesome as soon as it got dirty, but that is beside the point. From the Versae we moved on to look at Sentrae. I figured a Sentra is about halfway between the Altima and the Versa so, why not? The sales dude found a silver SE with all the bells and whistles so we sent for a drive. CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission[s]) are weird. I know I've given a revue of driving a CVT before, but it bears repeating. When you release the brake and put your foot on the gas, the engine revs up to that point. Then the engine stays at that point until the car accelerates up to the speed that gas pedal location dictates. There is no change in engine sound or speed but the car just accelerates. Now if that weren’t weird enough, if you ease off the gas while accelerating, but are still giving it more gas than the current speed requires, the engine will slow down while the car continues to accelerate. Romp on the gas at speed, and the engine revs up, like Juan would expect, then the car accelerates to catch up to that engine speed. That part kind of feels like a slipping slush-box transmission except that the engine doesn't “search around” for the speed the transmission and car need, it just revs up to where you have the pedal and then the car catches up. I'm sure if I didn't tell her about it, mom would never notice, but I'd have to tell her. Anyhoo, the Sentra’s interior and controls seemed more Altima-like than the Versa and therefore I think she’d acclimate to it better. Oh, I do fit in the Sentra, by the way. At least I think I did. I don't recall having any trouble with ingress and egress, but then again, I don't recall having trouble when test driving the Altima either. I think I need some more ingress and egress testing before a decision is made. What is really a pisser is the fact that the Sentra has an MR-20 engine. Versae use an MR-18 engine. I wonder if they could be swapped. Tee hee. Anyhoo, with some data in mind, I took off from the Nissan store to go gun shopping again. Yeah, yeah, get over it. I went to Academy and Elk Castle after work on Friday but neither of them had the Kel-Tec I'm sort of interested in. They did both have the Ruger LCR (.38 revolver) for around $400.00 to $450.00 but I'm not ready to abandon the awesome little clippy thing on the P3AT. Like I said, that was Friday evening. Saturday, after car shopping, I went to Cabela’s. They also didn't have the P3AT but did have the LCR. Seems like their LCR pricing was right about the same as everyone else. I did not stop at Blood Bath & Beyond on the way back, even though they are the only folks with any Kel-Tecs in stock. Oh, I'll probably swing by there one, or two, or every evening this week to look at it. Yeah, I'll probably end up buying one Friday, because I'm a dumb ass. We’ll see. So, from Cabela’s, I went to the shop to see if I could finger out why Ms. Clio's horn sounds off. I removed the grille and had a look. Everything was connected so I pulled the “low” frequency horn. Yep, there’s the problem. I could not blow air through the thing. It is totally plugged. Since I don't have any money to buy another, I reinstalled it and went on my merry way. If I didn't install it, then the “high” frequency horn doesn't work because all the air from the compressor bypasses through the hose not connected to the other. I took the long way home and had a bit of a hoon. At the house we determined that neither of us wanted to go out for a “sit down” meal, but mom didn't want to cook either. I suggested burgers and was sent out for them. Sunday morning I waited around for anyone to call and invite me out to do something. Eventually mom came home and we went out to Genghis Grill. It was really crowded. Now, I've noticed that there are two types of GG crowded. One is the “everyone is in line” crowded while the other is the “everyone has already been through the line” crowded. We met up with the latter. Once we got a table, we made it through the line pretty quickly, but the grill was totally full of food and the line of bowls waiting to be cooked was stacked pretty deep. Our food finally arrived and it was quite tasty. I wanted another bowl but knew mom needed to get home to her nap so I forwent it. I took her home and debated going back out myself. Eventually I went to bed because I'd wasted the whole day in front of the TV. So there you have it. No progress on The Seven, no progress on Nadine, no oil change in Ms. Clio (which is about 1,000 miles overdue), no oil change in Fifi (which is even more miles overdue, but since John has it I can hang my hat on that nail as an excuse, this weekend), no maintenance on Lil' Wiggly (like replacing that near-death battery, or figuring out where that coolant came from on the front cover of the engine, or fixing the heater, or...), no progress on George, no progress on Roku-Hyaku, no progress on Barbecue Bob, no progress on the Chickenhawk, no cleaning up the shop, no nothing. I did nothing productive this last weekend. I ought to feel worse about all of that, I suppose. Meh, what are you going to do?