automobile

All posts tagged automobile

http://www.abarth.com/124-spider-scorpione

124-Spider Scorpione


This is a special Fiat 124 Spider, for about #30,020 or 41,800 USD. Lots of racing parts and things.

There is also a Fiat 124 Spider Abarth sold by Fiat that is only about $30,000 USD and a Fiat 124 Spider starting at $24,000 USD.

All are built at the Japanese plant where the Mazda MX5’s are built, the whole interior and chassis are just like the MX5. Just the outside skin and several upgrades.

Feeling crappy this morning, nicki was at the house early and was wanting to get the car tow it and sell it to car max. I was pissed but decided to go ahead and get the car with her and then sell it to car max so I would be rid of it. She and I got into a discussion about why she isn’t very humble when someone does something for her. I guess it was what was expected when I was a kid and I equate that to being confrontational.

We got to the U-Haul place where we were going to pick up a tow thing to get the car but they had just rented it out. Emotions were HIGH and some crying was done. Instead we just went to the car and I decided we would try to move the car. I had planned on just driving down to the next shopping center there off of Satellite Blvd & SR120 but the temp stayed just below the red so long as I coasted most of the time and didn’t accelerate much. I decided then to go to the ‘Shroom and give the car a rest while we had lunch and tried to decide what to do next. Nicki had intended to take it to CarMax and see what they would give her for it.

While @ the ‘Shroom we realized that the belts were not moving and one outside one was no longer there. Nicki also mentioned that the belts were making noise (squealing) and that had stopped on Friday morning, yes that must have been when it fell off or broke. She googled and found someone else saying that this will make the car overheat. We then got extra conformation since the battery light was on as well. Decided to get to the Auto Zone and get a new belt and install it. After quite a greasy time it was installed and everything seemed to be fine, I’m still worried about the power-steering unit and since she isn’t putting any fluid in it the belt will more than likely crap out again really soon. Nicki slept most of the afternoon away after that.

I decided to head out to the Red Hare Brewery for their Saison Release Party. It was a lot of fun, good beers, nice people and some nice music by the 4 Monkeys, three guys and a gal singer.
Ended up at the Fred Bar downstairs of the Prado Taco Mac, met a couple that were also at the Saison Party, Steve and Kate I think, really nice folks. They told me about the Tiny Toast that they were having for La Chouffe beers, got a mall gnome sized pint glass and we all toasted @ 6:66pm or 7:06pm. Had the RWS Fred Fries which were slightly undercooked IMHO but the dipping sauce was so good I wasn’t even worried about it.

Brasserie D’Achouffe celebrates 6,666th anniversary with Gnome Week. Huh? You’ve seen the Chouffe gnomes right? It goes that – 6,666 years ago, a village of gnomes were found in magical water in Belgium they were using to make beer. In 1982, the last surviving gnome pasted the secret recipe on to two aspiring Belgian brewers, giving birth to Brasserie D’ Achouffe.

The Fred

all the taps @ the Fred


I then stupidly went over to Taco Mac by the mall to have some dinner and a couple of more beers there, namely the Innis & Gunn Independence Day Ale.

Rainy and warm, only 59 when I woke up, started the day with shorts and a hoodie.

Brian called in the morning to tell me he had a small fender bender, but no fenders were bent. The lady who hit him in the rear just barely tapped him and neither saw any damage so they exchanged info and went along their way after the police got there.

PhotoSmith, a cool iPad program for importing photos and doing a bit before syncing with Lightroom, is delayed again. Looks like it’s going to be about a month behind schedule at a minimum. With a small Agile team they should be able to have added a few things and then released instead of holding so long, well at least in theory they should have been. I’m just a bit excited to get my hands on something that seems to be exactly what I was looking for to begin with when I purchased it about a year ago. I’m thankful they are giving v1 users a free upgrade, I know I would buy it anyway so I guess I shouldn’t be so impatient.

Due to my contact lens purchase I’ve messed up my finances for the beginning of the month, now I’ve taken out over $200 out of savings and need another $50 to $100 today to fill up the tank and then allow myself to have some fun on Wednesday @ Parma Trivia. Just about the same amount of money I spent on my contacts. I wish I had at least tried to use the Flex Spending Debit Card before using my Bank Debit. πŸ™

I only weighed 212 this morning, not sure if I really am loosing weight or if I just didn’t eat well yesterday. I’ve also been a bit below the weather, a bit of back and forth from the bathroom today, and tummy not feeling well. I’ve only ate a McD’s breakfast boritto, two pears and some Tostitos corn chips.

Texted KimO about meeting up for some dinner tonight over at the Los Arcos, dinner a bit later than I would do but cool enough. Got the car washed and then had a beer over at the Shroom before, went home messed with the car some more and then went over to meet her. She was already there, and we sat down. I felt like I hold the conversation, not very give & take imo. They didn’t have Riesling, damn, the second place to be out of it, and then they didn’t have white zif either. I had suggested that we head over to the Shroom for another drink, she said something about messing up her routine or something on that order if she stayed up late, instead we said goodbye, with a hug outside near her car, maybe I should have tried a bit of something more, nothing too much but Damn It! I want a bit more from the relationship than friends, maybe some benefits but I really do want a true relationship. I’m really not sure if she is open to more or not, mostly I believe NOT.

Cool, almost cold today. Mostly sunny and clear skys.

Got a bit more going on the issue @ work. Just feel things don’t get tested well enough when we originally put them out.

I stopped in @ the Mellow Mushroom after work, had a beer and a Chicken Caesar Salad. Lauryn was a bit out of sorts today, school is taking it’s toll but her spring break is coming up. Margaret was there along with Erin, or at least I think it was Margaret, not sure any more, I can’t tell the difference even when they are right next to each other, I think Rebecca is a bit more laid back. When we talked she mentioned working out so I think that it certainly was Margaret.

Went home and drove around to see if Nicki’s car was still there, hoping it wasn’t. It had gotten too dark so I couldn’t tell at all since I was on the other side of the road and there isn’t a streetlight where they had stopped the car.

Watched the latest episodes of Shameless and then Californication, damn the cutie on the show that is the one dudes nanny is FANTASTIC!

I then finished up the photos from the wedding and got them up on the web, sent the gal Nicki a message with the link.

Heard some very odd news from Brian, the place we (he) shoots is Bull’s Eye over in downtown Lawrenceville, GA. He heard that a dude killed himself in the gun range last week, or in the last few days. Just rented a gun, got bullets and then from the cameras in the range they said he kept looking behind him so as not to possibly hurt another person and then finally just put the gun to his head a fired.

PS. It was on the 25th of Feb 2012, the guy got eye and ear protection, no targets and then did this around 5pm and by 8 everything was back to normal.

Everything seemed OK this morning until I got a call from Nicki that the car battery won’t start the car even with the charger, I think I messed up the cable when I replaced it and since I didn’t re-test before finishing it up it’s my fault. Told her to just take Brian’s truck and be careful. Called Brian to let him know and ask forgiveness and he told me we had left the garage door open last night, I should be more careful, just forgot about it when we came in after messing with the car.


tiny gulf fritillary

The sky was clear and I almost set up the camera this morning to take some wide field shots of the Orion constellation but didn’t. By about 9am it was totally clouded up and the wind was gusting.

Went out and got a few photos before it got bad or began to rain, stayed close in, checking on the Viceroy larva that are on a willow branch. The willow tree-bush is really small and looks as if it had been cut down more than once. Since it is close to a colvert I figure it may not continue to thrive in this area. There are at least 4 larvae, one large and three smaller ones. The Big Creek is getting smaller by the day, went down to the edge by the bridge that connects the greenway to our office building area and got a few photos of what I think are either small wolf spiders, grass spiders and some sort of jumping bug that looks like a crab.

Home and Nicki’s car is still BAD, I charged the battery again, it started and then about 2 hours later off the charger it wouldn’t start. Nicki walked to the store, didn’t even bitch about it so I told her we would get a battery after work tomorrow. I’m a sucker I know.

Watched True Blood, still weird. Then messed with some photos and made some zucchini for dinner.

This morning Nicki’s car wouldn’t start again, the battery or charging system is not working correctly it seems.

Hurricane Irene hit the east coast during the weekend and things got blown around. Not much rain here (none) or in Florida last week but the news was full of 10+ inches all up in North Carolina, Jersey and New York. And as always there are a lot of people without power right now up there.


1952 or so, my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles

My parent’s families were friends, my dad with my mom’s older brothers (Chuck and Dean) and mom’s older sister – Glenna with my dad’s older sisters (Nadene and Glendene) ( finally everyone moved away. My mom is the second from the left, with her eyes closed and my dad is the 5th from the left. My mother’s dad (Grandpa Schadd) is taking the picture, I assume he’s doing it with the Argus that he gave me when I was about 15. Mom helped me date the photo, she figured she was about 10 here which made my dad about 14 or 15.

Walked around the creek today, saw a turtle about 6 inches long, about the size of the shell I found with a turtle missing from it awhile ago. I noticed something moving through some long grass and snuck up on it. It kept itself hidden and stopped moving as soon as I was watching it. Looked away photographing a spider and it began to move again. Walked around back to the Big Creek not finding anything good to shoot, went back to the spot where the turtle was and couldn’t find him.

Got home this afternoon and the dudes had mowed the lawn, it really needed it and I’m not sure but I think they only do it every two weeks. I need to check and see since I think I blogged about it then.

Nicki looked up a way to test the alternator on a car with a multimeter so we went out and tested her car. Seems the Alternator is just fine, which leaves the battery, it shows charged but will not start the car, I think it may be shot, put it on the charger until tomorrow morning and she will have to see what happens.

Looking up some interesting stuff on S2000’s, I need to get mine in the shop to fix the nasty spot on my front bumper and the door locks.

Cool website with some info, http://www.s2kblog.com

Nice iPhone/iPod connector for the S2000, need to get this http://www.scienceofspeed.com/products/interior_performance_products/S2000/USASpec/

A nice S2K forum with good DIY and OEM Info. S2Ki http://www.s2ki.com/


Here is a place to get a new gearshift knob and other Honda accessories. Majestic Honda