Ah, I just remembered something else I had meant to post about my experiences with license plate numbers. Writing the earlier post reminded me of the first time I took my Saab 9-3 convertible (the car I owned prior to the Prius) back to the dealer for service. I gave the keys to the mechanic and told him my car was the dark green 1999 9-3 convertible, with license plate ZCM576. He came back in a few minutes later and said that my keys didn’t work. I noted that if they didn’t work I wouldn’t have been able to drive the car there in the first place. So I went outside with him to see what was wrong. He walked right over to a dark green 1999 9-3 convertible with license place ZCM567. Another owner had brought his car in for service just a few minutes after me, and our license plates were partially dyslexic versions of one another.
Results matching “saab”
The current California license plate standard is one number followed by three letters followed by three more numbers. So for each initial number-three letter combination there are 1,000 possible plates, from 000 to 999, for all of the millions of cars in the state. Granted, the plates aren’t distributed randomly across the state—when you register your car at the DMV, you get the plates right then, so they’re distributed in batches to the DMVs. This means that the other 999 cars with the plates in my particular set of 1,000—my last three digits are 893—probably registered their cars and got their plates at the same DMV office. Still, it amazes me that in the last two days I’ve been immediately behind two other cars with plates from that same set. On Tuesday I was behind a white car with the same first digit and three letters followed by 873 all the way from San Francisco up Skyline Drive and even on to Westmoor, though she continued down Eastmoor when I turned down our street. And on the way to work today, as I was driving through Golden Gate Park at 8:30—I still get a kick out of the fact that I actually drive through Golden Gate Park twice every day—I was behind a silver Saab 900SE that was number 935 from the same set.
Now I’ve become hyper-aware of other cars’ license plate numbers as I drive around, and I want to find more of the other 997 from my set.
Well, I haven't done one of these in a while, but today's seemed particularly apropos.
1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not?
Yes, I have the shopping gene, though I do find that I tire much more readily now than I used to. And my sister puts me to shame. She's never forgiven me for the time two years ago that she and some other family members came up to the DC area to shop at Value City. I didn't realize when they came with a map to all seven (relatively) local locations that they truly intended to visit all seven; after spending several hours just getting to and shopping at the first two, I pleaded hunger and cut the buying short for the day. She brings this up every time we're together.
She and my mom also are QVC junkies; I don't ever expect to go that far, though my one-time eBay addiction came close.
I generally really enjoy shopping with Jeff. Our tastes in most things as well as our preferred stores are so similar that it's rarely a burden to shop with him, though I have to admit that I've never known anyone who could spend that much time at the Gap; there have been times that I've gotten rather bored and tired waiting for him to try on every piece of outerwear in the store.
2. What was the last thing you purchased?
Earlier today Mom and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some things for decorating my sister's house for Christmas (the trees--yes, plural; in addition to the 10-foot one in the great room, she has six others in her house and on her porch--already were up and waiting for me to arrive to help decorate them); I bought some soda, which like most food products is significantly less expensive here than back in DC; the Finding Nemo, Matrix: Revolution, and Bend It Like Beckham DVDs on sale; and three computer games, also on sale.
While that would have been my most recent purchase, I then came home tonight and took advantage of Apple's one-day only 10% sale on iPods and accessories, and finally bought myself an iPod (thanks, Gene).
3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why?
Unlike Jeff, I do a great deal of online purchasing. As much as I love going to brick and mortar stores, I tend mostly to window shop in person. But I've bought just about everything online: from the usual books, airplane tickets, music and tickets even to such items as widescreen TV, my computer and even my refrigerator. As I noted above, I just ordered an iPod online. And I've bought a fair amount of stuff, particularly collectibles but even shoes and other clothing, from eBay over the years.
I tend to believe that I can find better deals online, and especially in terms of comparison shopping, which is just so easy to do on the web.
4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it?
I did, but I don't remember how much.
5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing?
While I'm sure there are things since then that I've regretted purchasing, nothing really comes to mind, or at least nothing that can compare to the regret I sometimes feel about my Saab, for reasons detailed again and again throughout this journal. And even that is not unmitigated regret, as I really loved the car for the first several years I owned it, and part of me still does; I don't regret any of the enjoyment I had with that gorgeous convertible, but I do hate the trouble and expense of the past two years.
Friday, Gene reported that he'd been notified that his Prius was on a ship that had docked that day in New York. Yesterday, while home sick from work, my phone rang and when I saw that the caller ID said "Alexandria Toyota" I became a little nervously excited, thinking that maybe I was going to get the same news about my own car; the salesman had told me last month that while I'd almost certainly get my new car before the end of the year, it was possible that it could come in the large shipment they were expecting in November.
No such luck, of course, given my track record. Rather than the good news I was hoping to hear, I was told that the dealers are receiving far fewer of the fully loaded model Prius than they were expecting, and that I have two options: 1) downgrade my choice, in which case they can "probably get me one sooner" (notice, though, there's no commitment to a specific time frame even if I choose to take this path), or 2) expect to wait until at least February for the car I originally ordered. The salesman told me I didn't have to make a decision right away, but to think about it a couple of days and call him back early next week to let him know.
I was pretty disappointed for most of the rest of the day, though by this morning a part of me is bemused--after my run of bad luck over the past few years, I almost have to laugh whenever yet another thing goes wrong, and while I wouldn't call myself pessimistic about life, I do find that these days there is a part of me that suspects things will go wrong more often than right. And while it's a disappointment, it's not like it's life-shattering. It's just a car.
And really there are only two downsides, besides just the disappointment of the dashed expectations. First, if I wait until next year to take delivery, then the federal tax deduction of $2,000 drops to $1,500; but, as Gene points out, I have the significant tax benefits this year from the refinance, so why not move this one to next year, even if it's a little less than it would have been (and it's not like a $500 change in deductibles means more than a few dollars in actual tax savings, after all). Second, it also means that I'll have to rent a car at Thanksgiving and Christmas and for any other trips out of town, and that I'll probably need to garage the Saab again--I had begun using it for short in-town hops and to and from work again, since I thought I'd be trading it in very soon--and go back to walking and using public transportation over the winter.
So I guess I'll call the dealer today and tell them that I've decided to wait; I'd rather get just what I want, and wait for it, then to settle for less--and what's more, I'd still have no real guarantee, only vague assurances, that the other trim level would be here any sooner.
So maybe there's even some kind of lesson in here for me. Or maybe I should stop looking for meaning in this completely random series of events we call life. Shit happens.
Because of ongoing difficulties with the Saab, and my reluctance to drive it for great distances, I'd been borrowing Craig's car to visit my mother on weekends. Last week, however, I decided to rent a car, so early in the week I reserved a compact car from Thrifty.com; Thrifty, along with many car rental companies, maintains a location just south of National Airport, not far from my home.
Friday evening Jeff and I went over to the rental facility to pick up the car. The man behind the counter pulled up my record and after a few minutes asked me if I'd like to upgrade to an Intermediate or Full-Size. I told him I would not. He then continued to enter my information, and a few minutes later told me that he didn't have any cars, only minivans, to which he'd upgrade me for the same price as the compact. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to use a minivan, thinking it was likely that they got horrendous gas mileage on the order of an SUV (a co-worker has since told me he thought it probably would have performed nearly as well as a car), but then I agreed to take the minivan. Then he quoted me a price two and a half what the original reservation had been. When I protested, he said that it was because of the insurance; I told him I already had insurance and didn't need any additional coverage. But by then my frustration took over and I told him just to hand back my driver's license and credit card and to forget the whole transaction.
To be fair, I didn't really want to go home for the weekend. I was tired and stressed, felt like I needed to clean and organize the condo in preparation for today's appraisal, and would have spent four hours driving there and four back, just to have a little over 24 hours there.
Before I left, I asked the guy why they even took reservations, if such were essentially meaningless (and I'm wondering now why he asked me if I wanted to upgrade to an intermediate or full-size, if they didn't have any of those, either; if I'd said yes, would he then have offered me the minivan at the same price as that upgrade, or for the original compact?). He said that other drivers don't always return their cars on time. But you'd think that a company and facility that deals with the kind of volume that they must would have formulae to account for that fact, and to have the extra cars to cover for those that they can estimate won't be returned.
So this coming weekend I'm in the same boat, but will make reservations at multiple rental car companies all along the same stretch of road--excepting Thrifty--in the hopes that one of them will come through. With any luck, I'll have my Prius before I have to deal with the rental car companies too many more times.
$500 down, and I'm now on my way to Prius ownership: I just placed an order for a fully-loaded Prius in "Millenium Silver Metallic" with gray/burgundy interior. Jeff and I went by the Alexandria Toyota dealership this evening for an appointment with one of the salesmen with whom I'd emailed on Monday, after having seen his name in their ad in the Blade, Washington's gay weekly.
Within 5 minutes of arriving at the dealership and meeting the salesman, we were outside looking at a sleek new Prius in "Driftwood Pearl" (a light metallic gold, basically); just a few minutes later, after a quick rundown of the various systems, I was in the driver's seat and heading down Route 1. Jeff was very quiet in the back, even when I asked him how he was, whether the seating was comfortable, etc.; I was worried for a bit that he didn't like the car. After the 30-minute test drive, we were seated at the salesman's desk preparing the minimal paperwork for my pre-order. When the saleman left to make a photocopy of my driver's license, Jeff asked "Was it just me, or were you drooling over the car as well?" Turns out he loved it, too, and had been so quiet just because he was so engrossed in the car's cool technology and features.
Part of the coolness is that you don't even have to put a key in an ignition slot; as long as you have the key fob on you, the doors and hatchback will unlock once you're within 3 feet of the car, and the car itself starts with just a press of a Power button (imprinted with the same power icon you find on a computer or monitor). To put the car into drive, you merely step on the brake and lightly push a small dashboard-mounted lever to the left. To put the car in park, you push a button marked "P" just above the lever.
The speedomer, odometer, gear indicator and fuel gauge are digital, deeply recessed into the top of the dashboard at the base of the windshield for an almost heads-up display. The wow feature that is most readily apparent, though, is the systems monitor display, a good-sized LCD display panel that controls the audio system, the voice-activated DVD navigation system, the Bluetooth phone integration, the climate system, and also can show a continually updated display of the usage of the hybrid system and various statistics.
The ride was smooth and extraordinarily quiet (whenever the gas engine cuts out for battery power only, like at stoplights or going downhill, the car is eerily quiet; the initial impulse is to assume the engine has stalled and to look for the key to turn to restart it), and pickup from stoplights and while passing was more than sufficient, even when starting from a battery-only condition at a full stop; the interior is spacious and comfortable; and there's lots of cargo space.
The salesman said that they've taken orders for just over 60 Priuses, and they're expecting the first large shipment sometime in November; he said my car could be in as early as that shipment, and more than likely before the end of December at the latest. So before Christmas I may finally have a new car. Happy New Year, indeed.
After we concluded the paperwork, the salesman asked how I'd heard about the car and the dealership, and why I'd emailed him specifically. I told him I'd been following the Prius for some time, and noted that I knew someone (hi, Gene) who already drove an earlier model Prius and who had ordered a new one from that same dealership, and then I told him that I'd contacted him specifically because of the Blade ad. He said that they'd only just placed their first ad in that paper a couple of weeks ago, and already had gotten a lot of response from it. So it looks like after giving up one gay car in the Saab convertible, I'm just moving to what may turn out to be another.
The cutest thing in the brochure is the "Complimentary Roadside Assistance" offered by Toyota. Jeff and I simultaneously mused that the response might go something like, "Thank you for calling Toyota Roadside Assistance. We're so sorry to hear that you have a flat tire. But may we say that your hair looks marvelous?"
Toyota sent me another email about the new 2004 Prius yesterday, announcing the EPA-estimated fuel ratings: a pretty impressive 60 mpg city and 51 highway for a combined city/highway average of 55 mpg and the highest fuel economy of any mid-size car. The email also announced that the Prius will begin arriving at dealers on October 17.
With the Saab experiencing yet more problems--yesterday the knob for controlling the air flow location, which I just paid way too much to have repaired a month ago, started to break again, for example--I really need to plan to unload it and try to acquire a Prius instead... soon. I will miss the convertible top, especially since right before the hurricane we were having such beautiful weather for a change, but I won't miss the expense and hassle of the particular lemon of a car I ended up with, or the smug criticism, money-hungry attitude and general unhelpfulness of my dealer over the past year.
Saturday at lunch at R.T.'s in Alexandria, Peg and I ran into my friend David, a fellow squaredancer, friend of Dorothy and resident of my condo building, having lunch there with a friend of his down from Philadelphia. David asked about my Saab, having seen my friend's SUV in my parking space and my car parked on the street the past few weeks. I explained the problems I'd been having, and his friend volunteered that he'd recently bought a used Saab and it already was in the garage with problems. I noted that I was planning to replace it, and I mentioned first the Mini, which got the more usual very positive reaction, and then the Prius, about which he also was very excited. So there was no clear vote from David one way or the other.
On the way home, Peg and I stopped by the BMW dealer on Jefferson Davis Highway, and there was a Mini parked there. We got out and looked at it again, and she still thinks it's ugly. I still love the look and styling, but more and more the lack of trunk space bothers me, and I'm also realizing that the appeal of the Mini for me is very much just stylistic; buying a Mini would be like dating a cool and very good-looking but somewhat vapid and high-maintenance indie rock musician, probably sleeping with your friends behind your back. The Prius, on the other hand, strikes me as a geeky, pro-choice Berkeley grad and Naderite, dependable, smart and attentive, and cool and attractive in a more personal offbeat way, despite or perhaps even because of his funky clothes and hairstyle.
Twenty years ago, I dated that musician; these days, I'd take the Berkeley grad hands down. So the Prius is looking more and more like the smarter--or at least more adult--choice, and I'm feeling more and more solidly in the Prius camp. We did swing by the Toyota dealer just next to the BMW lot immediately after; the outside sales staff rushed us when we stepped out of the SUV, but when I told them I was looking for information on the 2004 Prius, they all shrugged their shoulders and passed me off to the receptionist. The staff inside only took my name and email address and said they'd let me know, probably in September, when they had more information about the new Prius.
The remaining drawback to the Prius is that I'm having less success in coming up with a witty personalized plate. The only thing that the name evokes is Priapus, and anything in that vein would be swiftly denied by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
So, currently the tally (expressed or assumed on my part) is:
- Jeff: Mini (because he, carless, wants to be chauffeured in it)
- Nicole: Mini
- Waldo (colleague): Mini (because he wants a sporty car, but with a wife and kid now he feels he has to go the more practical route, and will drive vicariously through me)
- Gene: Prius (because Mac users are always evangelizing something)
- Katie (boss): Prius (because she wants one of her own, given that Virginia law currently allows single-passenger hybrid cars to be treated as the equivalent of HOV for the purpose of using HOV lanes during rush hour, and that she has more than an hour-and-a-half commute otherwise)
- Peg: Prius (she's involved with recycling and waste management professionally, and very green personally)
- Randy: Prius (another Prius evangelist: check out his Prius blog)
They're practically neck in neck. Anyone else care to add a vote as to which new car Thom should buy?
My friend Peg arrived today from Connecticut to spend the weekend with me. Having met through squaredancing, Peg and I used to see each other at squaredance events several times a year, back when I was still actively dancing. Now that I've largely given up the activity, and especially since I've been unable to attend convention the past two years, I only saw her once in 2001, once in 2002, and now once this year.
She took the train down, and I left work early to pick her up at Union Station at 2:30. We decided we would go to the Friday night contra dance at Glen Echo Park, so we had an early dinner of tapas in Shirlington, came back and changed clothes, and then headed out to Maryland for the dance.
Historically, the weekly contra dances (along with the weekly waltzes, swing and other dance evenings) were held in the Spanish Ballroom; as it is currently being renovated, however, the dances have been held for more than a year in the outdoor bumper car pavilion. The Ballroom is preferred, though it's largely just an emotional preference as the Ballroom is neither air-conditioned or heated, which makes summer dances in the Ballroom miserably hot while winter dances start out painfully cold, though by the time you've danced a couple of sets you've warmed up enough to start stripping off layers of clothing.
Tonight was simultaneously fun and torturous. My body is particularly bad at regulating its temperature; my normal body temperature stays about two degrees below the norm of 98.6°F, and I tend to get overheated very quickly and easily, even when being very careful to keep myself hydrated. I very rarely sweat at all. Tonight, though, I became soaking wet and miserable, and was feeling almost dizzy and sick; I think the moisture was less my own sweat, though, then just condensation from the high humidity in the air as well as the couple hundred other bodies in the relatively small--albeit outside--space.
This really frustrates me. I love contra dancing, but I'm only able to do maybe every other or even every third set at summer dances because of the overheating; this same sensitivity to heat used to be very embarrassing on summer bicycle trips, when I would almost invariably be the first to end up retching from overexertion. I know I'm not in the best shape I could be, but I'm certain I'm in no worse shape than the majority of those who come to dance, a fair percentage of whom are half again my age and/or body weight, yet they seem to be able to dance set after set--and contra dances are long and very physically engaging--in the heat and humidity without being affected as badly. In airconditioning, I'm able to dance for hours on end without needing to stop; in college I won a dance marathon, and when I was most enthusiastic about squaredancing even as recently as five years ago would dance ten or more hours a day at convention, and then two-step and waltz for a couple more hours at night. Even now, though, two hours after coming home from the dance, and showering, I still feel flushed and overly warm.
Anyway, I'm not sure why this ended up being a diatribe against outside or uncooled indoor summer activities; I really intended just to write about how nice it is to have Peg here for the weekend, and to note that my posting may be light again this weekend while I'm entertaining a houseguest.
Tomorrow we're going to look at MINI Coopers. Peg already thinks it's an ugly car, though, and she's the first of my friends to push the Prius over the MINI, the rest wanting me to get the "funky" car, so they can have a ride in it. I am starting to think that the Prius by far makes the most sense, though, and the 2004 model due out in October even looks a little sexier in addition to being technologically more advanced, even more fuel-efficient and with lower emissions than the current Prius model. Yes, I must confess that a part of me gets off on the "coolness" quotient of a car, though I'm probably more attracted in the end to quirkiness or cool technology rather than just another pretty face, which is why I was a Saturn and Saab owner; Saturns and Saabs, in their ways and in their time, defined quirky and unique. So maybe I'll just try to be one of the first on my block to have the new, eminently quirky, techy and exceedingly green--if not altogether hip--2004 Toyota Prius. I just hope my Saab's engine holds out until then.
Wednesday evening, as I had reported, I reconnected with an old friend at Craig's pre-Europe trip get-together. I was telling her about my car woes, my pending decision to buy a new car, and my continued sense--first noted in one of my comments on Gene's journal--that my choice will be between the MINI Cooper and the Toyota Prius. After telling me that she and her husband had bought a Saab, which is what I also currently own, she said that they too had looked at the MINI, and she was urging me to get one; also encouraging style over function, W-- at work has been encouraging the MINI over the Prius as well.
When I got home that night, there was a note in my mailbox that a package had been delivered, but the concierge was making his security rounds at that time, so I wasn't able to pick it up from the front desk. I stopped downstairs Friday morning on the way to work and picked up the package, which was from Roger; he had told me he was going to send me some video of his and Raymond's trip to Long Beach and Disneyland, and of Raymond's most recent concert, and that he had put in "some extras." The box contained three video tapes, a music CD of the Jekyll and Hyde soundtrack, another MP3 CD of a variety of music, a pin of a cute animated Disney guy (especially interesting given Roger hadn't even read my Audblog entry about my attraction to animated hotties)... and a 1:32 IR remote control scale model of a MINI Cooper, with which Alex and I have had a lot of fun playing.
I had first assumed that if I bought a MINI, I would get it in green, my favorite color. But there's been a yellow one in the parking lot at work, which looks particularly sweet and has more of an impact than the green; the model that Roger sent also was yellow.
In the meantime, Craig offered to lend me his car--a Hyundai Santa Fe--while he's away in Europe. He dropped it by Friday evening, and I drove him to the airport. I had planned to drive it out to the MINI dealer yesterday, but in addition to another day of bad weather outside, I was feeling under-the-weather inside--with a headache, earache, sore throat and fatigue all day-- so I stayed in and rested. Perhaps next weekend I'll finally get to take a test drive in a MINI.
Craig joked that he wants to get me hooked on his SUV so that I'll join the ranks of the gas guzzlers. To be fair, the Santa Fe's gas mileage actually is pretty good, almost as good as my Saab. And while there are aspects of the ride I quite like, including being up higher on the road and the amount of room, after taking it Friday evening to the airport and today to church, I find that I'm feeling rather uncomfortable and hypocritical driving and being seen in an SUV. So the Santa Fe hasn't supplanted the MINI or the Prius.
Another pretty mundane and fairly easily interpreted dream: Alex is definitely on my mind, as he (or some other cat most likely representing him) seems to be appearing nightly, often around the issue of escaping (and one of his habits is to run out into the hallway whenever I open the door). The appearance of the MINI Cooper also is not surprising, given that I've done nothing to remedy my current car problems (ref. velleity), yet continue to experience a fair amount of anxiety over it. And Roger and Lee are the two non-work friends with whom I interact most frequently.
I was living in the townhouse in Old Town, Alexandria, that in the waking world my ex--Hal--and I had rented when we first moved to the DC area back in 1987. But my roommates in the dream were Roger and Daniel, who until recently were my avatar's roommates in The Sims Online. Daniel was offstage in the dream: at one point I knew that he was in the shower and getting ready to leave for work, but I never actually saw him.
Lee was over visiting, and he and I were in the backyard. We went out the back gate and were looking at the trash and junk that all the neighbors on the block had put into the alley. We decided to go back in the house, but we walked the wrong way down the alley, getting about halfway down the alley before realizing. As we turned to come back, we saw a brand-new MINI Cooper (one of the two cars I'm leaning towards, at the moment, to replace my Saab in real life) parked at one of the neighbor's houses, so we went over to look at it. Lee told me he also was thinking about getting a MINI, but that he didn't think he could afford it.
We then turned back toward the house, and had to force open the back gate, which now was overgrown with vines. The back door of the townhouse was open, and Roger was preparing to leave for work, and he told me that Daniel was showering in preparation for work himself. Roger told me that he'd let Alex out into the backyard, which then panicked me, because we hadn't seen him when we'd come in, and I started to worry that he might have gone out through the gate into the alley after we came in.
And then the alarm rang, and I woke up. Alex, realizing I was awake, jumped up and started headbutting me before finally settling down next to me... though when the snooze alarm went off nine minutes later, as it always does, he jumped up as though he were surprised, as he always does, and down to the floor.
gay.com has an article about the "Ten great gay cars for 2003".
Yep, my Saab 9-3 is there. Author Steve Siler writes:
Saabs are ready matches for the gay community. Not only do they dare to be different, but Saab was validating and accessing our community through charity sponsorships and advertising in gay and lesbian publications before it was cool to do so.
OK, New Beetle Cabrio. Check. Jeep Wrangler. Check. Mazda Miata. Like, duh.
But really, now, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Subaru Outback, and the Ford Mustang and Ranger?
And speaking of cars, this news, which Roger heard on the radio on Tuesday but which I forgot to post about, makes me very sad. I really loved the look of the new T-bird though, to be honest, if I were going to spend $40K again on a car (which I'm not planning to and besides, all I could find in my area were the removable hard-top version instead of the soft-top I really want <grin>), it would probably have to be on something other than a two-seater. But oh, what a gorgeously sexy retro little two-seater it is.
Columnist Jerry Flint says:
I remember when they killed the first two-passenger Bird. I thought that the car was beautiful. A Ford executive back then said, "Beauty is a good 10-day sales report." The original Thunderbird reminded people that Ford could build a beautiful car. Ditto for the short-lived new Thunderbird.
The news about its demise is ugly indeed.
Amen to that.
A few weeks ago, before I revived this journal, I had problems with my car, a Saab convertible. The car had begun to make a strange noise when first being started--a loud, high whirring noise, that would rapidly cycle down in both pitch and strength. Then, on the way home from work one day, the oil light and check engine lights both came on. I called the dealer and they told me to bring it in the next morning.
This had happened last summer as well--one month after the warranty ran out, of course--at which time I took it to the dealer and they told me that my oil had turned to sludge. At the time, they removed and cleaned part of the engine, and charged me $600, and told me it was all taken care of.
Wow. Ok, so it's been 10-1/2 months since I stopped writing in this journal, after less than a month of doing so. As I noted in my very first posting, that's a pretty typical pattern of behavior for me.
So, back then I was:
- in my eighth month of unemployment;
- just beginning the process of being tested as a potential kidney donor for my father;
- dealing with a dead refrigerator, computer monitor, and expensive car troubles;
- and single.
About me
