Car Porn II

i just got my oil changed this monring and had some other routine stuff done this morning on my beloved Volkswagen... i will be rolling over 150K miles probably by the end of the week, and that is pretty exciting...

when the Rabbit GTI died it reached about 140K miles (the odometer stopped shortly before 130K, so ican't be sure of the mileage) and i nursed that thing along for more years than i really should have...

But my mechanic gave the Corrado a clean bill of health because luckily the two previous owners took really good care of the car (and the guy that i bought the car from had bought it to be a tuner project-- all work that he did he used top quality parts).

i put a LOT of miles on the car in just the first year that i had it (over 22K in one year). the Rabbit, with all of it's time in the shop i never drove more than about 10K miles in a year... and never traveled far from home, either. the ONE time that i drove more than 100 miles from home ened up being the road trip that killed the car for good.

With the high gas prices, i'm not driving as much right now as i was a year ago... but if i was able to get 60,000 miles out of the Rabbit (which was mistreated before i owned it and was maintained by a questionable repair shop) the Corrado should last me a very long time

Time Warp

A few days before Christmas (so, before our post Christmas 20% off sale...) a woman wanted to buy a calendar (a kitten calendar, for those who are curious...) The wrapper had been taken off, so there was no price tag... so I rang it up for half of the list price (our calendars are always half of the publisher price). But she had some concerns about the format of the calendar...

Customer: Is this a 2005 calendar or a 2006 calendar? There is a page with 2005 on it...

Me: It’s what’s called a “sixteen month calendar”. Calendar companies make them so that they can start selling them earlier in the year; they are good for students because it includes the beginning of the school year, or good for someone who forgot to buy a calendar at the beginning of the year...

Customer: But there is an extra page with extra months on it. I don’t NEED this extra page; 2005 is almost over.

Me: It’s a standard 2006 calendar with one page representing the last four months of 2005...

After going back and forth like this for a minute or so, the customer decides to buy the calendar... She’s heading towards the door, but stops and comes back.

Customer: (pointing to the 20% sale reminder Post-its) you didn’t give me the sale price!

Me: The sale starts the day after Christmas. Those Post-its are just advertising the sale coming up.

Customer: But it says here that everything is an extra 20% off!

Me: and the dates of the sale are ALSO on the Post-it... the sale starts after Christmas.

Customer: So... not ONLY did you sell me a calendar with extra months, you didn’t give me the sale price!

Me: sale starts after Christmas. The Post-it says so... and the calendar is a normal 2006 calendar...

Customer: Well, I don’t need THIS calendar yet! I HAVE a 2005 calendar already!

Now, remember... the date the customer is in the store is December 23rd. The New Year is in about a week... She doesn’t want this 2006 calendar because it is still 2005 for a few days... And don’t even THINK about asking her to pay for “extra months”! So, I’m curious what kind of calendar she WAS looking for if she’s not ready to buy a 2006 calendar that she will need in just a little over a week...

I gave her a refund. She returned a couple hours later to re-buy the same exact calendar because it took her that long to realize that she DID want a 2006 calendar, even if it DID contain “extra months”...

Whedon-esque

Last night i dreamt that i was a vampire. It wasn't the "cool goth kid" version of vampires; sexy, suave creatures of the night magically seducing their victims and where blood-drinking is basically a form of sex.

No, this was much more animalistic, not glamorous, and drinking blood was far from sexy.

First of all, the vampire "affliction" was different than the regular mythos. It was a cross between vampire and werewolf-- the vampire characteristics only came out for the full moon (and like in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer world, the full moon lasts three days). The coming of the change was skull crushing and overwhelming pain, but once the change was complete, i felt more alive and whole than ever in my life.

I could see my reflection, which also defies regular vampire myth. The fact that i could see my reflection wasn't terribly significant except that i could see my animalistic face (and bad hair... i thought vampires were supposed to be sexy?!?)

i also didn't bite any people, at least in the course of the dream. i do remember chasing down and catching a deer (and i ran on all fours to hunt). The feeding was also not a sexy embrace and neck biting; i tore the deer to bits with just my jaws.

In the dream, this was the first time that i transformed into this creature. The transformation was frightening but when it was complete it felt incredibly natural. i could have done without the bad hair though...

Auto Pilot

Cars are supposedly "safer", with air bags, crumple zones, rear-view cameras, ABS brakes, etc etc etc...

But people are still getting into accidents and people are still dying...

Yesterday i saw a commercial for some new car (a minivan of some sort, i think) and one of its new features were these sensors that let you know if you were drifting into someone else's lane.

It is BECAUSE of all of these saftey features that people are still getting into accidents.

Drivers are relying on their cars to drive on their own. "I don't need to think about the road because my car will tell me if i fuck up. AND if I get into an accident, I'll be OK with all of these airbags anyway!"

People eat, put on makeup, talk on the phone, send e-mails from their Blackberrys simutaneously while driving because their cars have ginven them a false sense of security with all of the "safety" advancements available on cars.

I feel safe in my car because i have manual transmission, i don't use cruise control, i read my gauges, i check my mirrors... i have to THINK while driving. i am safe because i rely on ME, not my car to do the driving.