1959 Mini, Floating
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Category Archives: Car
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Commuter
Since I’ve started my new job, I’ve been commuting for 39 miles each way from my house in Puyallup to Factoria. It’s a new experience for me, usually taking from 1.5 to 2 hours each way to get to my destination. Just last year, I poked fun at two of my brothers for doing such crazy commutes. Now I’m one of them! I’ve learned a few things that help keep me sane during my journey:
- It helps to take another route that may be a few miles longer, but traffic isn’t as heavy so you feel like you are getting to work faster. I take highway 18 up to Snoqualmie and back down to Factoria on I-90 which is about 15 miles longer than going 167 to 405, but I get there in a faster time.
- Gotta have your iPod. Especially some sweet podcasts to keep you entertained. I like StarDate, This American Life, Photoshop TV, RE: Hope sermons and Ricky Gervais.
- In the Seattle area, you’ve gotta get some good wiper blades for all that rain. I just picked up some sweet Rain-X blades last week and they are awesome.
- Get yourself a nice smartphone with net access so you can check the traffic with live updates.
Hopefully our house will sell soon and we’ll get our new place in Issaquah, which will cut my commute down to 15 minutes. Oh man I just pee’d a little bit just thinking about how cool that will be!
Buggin’
In an effort to get myself a MacBook Pro I’ve been working on my Volkswagen Beetle that has been in the garage a few years. I restored it in High School and it was quite a project. I lifted the body off of the pan, replaced the rusted out floorboards with new ones, added new seals, carpeting, headliner, fenders, etc. But lately my problem has been with the carb. It took me a few days to figure out what the problem was. Turns out it was this tiny little brass tube that was connected to the accelerator pump that was all clogged up. Jamming a sewing needle up in it and wiggling all the gunk out solved the problem! As you can see from the movie, she’s running great! Sarah and I took a drive and it was really fun! Now that it works again I’m starting to think that I shouldn’t sell it… hmmmmmm
More Tools!
I’m not really what you would call a “Mr. Fix It”, but this weekend I was happy to get my hands on a shiny new socket wrench with a 6″ extender. I was trying to get a dead battery out of my beetle and it was proving to be quite a challenge. But a trip to Sears fixed that in no time! Did you know that Craftsman tools are guaranteed for life? Awesome! I had this busted wrench that I took back and they replaced it with a brand spanking new one!
Traffic Pattern Analysis
Steve has a great post discussing some theories as to why his commute is better or worse depending on what day it is. I’m glad that other people think about this too as I contemplate it all the time as I’m sitting still on the 167 most mornings. For me it seems that the best days are Mondays like Steve says, with the worst being a tie between Tuesdays and Fridays. One weird part about my commute is that if I leave earlier than most people would, say like 6:30 or so – the traffic is worse than if I left at 7:15. I’m still trying to find that ‘magic window’ of time where that short stretch of 167 that I travel is wide open. Since I’ve been doing this commute for a year and a half, I’m starting to think that the window doesn’t exist…
If I start to get angry at my 40+ minute commute some days, I just remind myself of my two brothers who have awful commutes. One commutes from Lake Stevens to Renton, and the other from DuPont to somewhere way up North-East near Ravensdale! Both of them commute for about three hours each day!
230k Miles, Not Dollars
Please forgive the poor image quality, I took the shot with my cell phone. Having my 1988 integra pass 230,000 miles this week gives me mixed emotions. On one side, I’m happy that the car I bought when I was 16 years old has lasted as long as it has. Keeping in mind that the seat is tearing and the foam padding falling out, the air conditioner almost literally fell off of the car, the CD player doesn’t work at all besides the FM radio, and it burns off a quart of oil every two weeks. But the car just keeps on going! On the other side I’ve been thinking lately that it would be nice to have a car that has some of the amazing new technologies like cup holders, airbags, and a roof that doesn’t leak so the car won’t smell like the outside when you get on the inside. ;)
Since I aint got the cash for a new ride right now, I’ll have to stick with ‘The Blue Rocket’ while I can. She’s a sturdy steed who gets me from A to B (mainly to work and back, 30 miles a day). I guess if it works, it works eh?
