Another Pink World

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Category: bug stuff

May 25, 2008

more champagne. less caffiene. taking the poo out of spacepoo.

i'm in Va this weekend. for as long as we've been together, J and i have kept lists of restaurants we want to visit together, one in his area and one in mine.

this weekend J decided we should try what is perhaps the fanciest of all the places on the list (or maybe both lists): The Inn at Colonial Williamsburg. they have brunch there, one of our favorite meals.

oh my. here's how it worked: it was a fixed price menu. you select an entree, and then help yourself to the extensive tasting table which included an omelette station (of no interest to me, but of great interest to J). the tasting table had many hors d'oeuvres, salad, and small desserts. they brought a basket of little bread things to your table (strudel, coffee cake, muffins, and of course real southern biscuits) and-- surprise-- all the champagne you can drink. a man who i assume was the sommelier (from the possessive way he spoke of the wine cellar) just kept stopping by and topping off our champagne flutes.

for me it was more like dinner than breakfast or lunch, because i didn't want an egg-based entree. for J it was like breakfast with a side of lunch, i think.

:|:

and in our continuing wide world of food, we had breakfast at CW yesterday too-- at The Lodge, which is, as the woman at the pancake station said, the "red-headed stepchild" to The Inn. i told her that no place that offered large piles of bacon and sausage next to a large pile of hash browns could really be considered in such a way. they had a quite good buffet, and we only wished we'd gotten there earlier.

we also tried a chain restaurant for dinner last night. i think i had never been to one, and J had not been to one in many years. i hesitate give them free advertising, but the initials are R.T. discerning the name can be an exercise for the reader. i was quite pleasantly surprised. they seem to have re-made themselves from being a burger joint to being something a little nicer. i had strawberry lemonade made from fresh strawberries and lemons that they mix at the bar. very tasty. the food was good, but the strawberry lemonade was the highlight.

:|:

a week ago i eliminated caffeine from my diet. the result has been surprising. as i hoped, i am more relaxed, less stressed and have been sleeping quite well. i am surprised to find myself less hungry and far, far less prone to having blood sugar crashes. in general i just feel much better. i did finally have some coffee today after brunch because the champagne gave me a splitting headache, but i plan to continue to lay off the caffeine for a while to come as it seems to suit me.

:|:

i have to hand it to the folks at the carolina auto spa in cary. i gave the spacepod over to them to try and get rid of the rotten leaf and mildew smell that has permeated his interior since fall of '06. they impregnated the porous surfaces with hospital disinfectant, shampooed and extracted, ran an ozone machine in the car for an hour with the engine on and the a/c on full blast, then overnight with the engine and a/c off. finally, they put down another layer of chemicals on the seats and carpets and detailed the interior.

the odor, as far as i can tell, is gone. there's just no trace of it. i am not fond of the disinfectant smell but J says he likes it. i have been letting the car air all weekend, though.

they said that if it creeps back they can re-treat it for up to 30 days for no extra charge. i can also get free car washes during that time.

it cost more than our brunch this morning (even including tip), but after living with the stank for a year and a half, i think it's worth it.

Posted by spacegrrl at 04:28 PM | Comments (1)

Category: bug stuff

May 15, 2008

smells like spacepoo

spacepod is finally out of mothballs after an hour long transfusion of SHEER RAW POWER from the blue bug, and a jump start.

i took him out to the auto spa today and they removed the crust of pollen and tree goop that had accumulated.

a lot of people have told me how pretty they think the blue color of the blue bug is, but to me, spacepod is the most gorgeous car i've ever seen. after he was all clean i had to admire him in the parking lot.

he's still pretty stinky on the inside, although the vacuuming seemed to help that a lot. i'm planning to take him back to the auto spa some time soon to have the interior shampooed, which might help knock the smell back a little more.

Posted by spacegrrl at 06:39 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

April 22, 2008

and in other news...

the roswell2k car show has been canceled - presumably for all time. didn't quite make it to the 10th anniversary show-- but i kind of expected that. that's one of the reasons i went last year.

there's already chatter on the list about going out there next year on the 10th anniversary and just hanging out. i'm all for it-- the car show itself wasn't that exciting anymore, and i mainly want to see my bug pals again.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:27 AM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

March 20, 2008

beetle parts

would the person who left a little baggie of beetle parts at my front door today care to come forward?

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:48 PM | Comments (2)

Category: bug stuff

January 06, 2008

Far be it from Ford to be innovative

Ford Plans to Introduce More Fuel-Efficient Engine in 2009

I was intrigued; new engine technology that improves fuel economy is always of interest to me.

this was the money quote, for me:

"Turbocharging isn't a new technology. Some types of race cars have used turbochargers because they increase power by forcing more air through the engine. Ford, in its statement, said EcoBoost also will have what the company calls "direct injection," where small, precise amounts of fuel are injected into each cylinder."

Also, some types of non-race cars use turbocharging and direct injection. Let me spell this out for you:

Turbo Direct Injection = TDI.

Sound familiar? Yes, I've been driving a VW TDI since 1999, and VW has been selling TDI vehicles in the U.S. for a lot longer than that. Because my TDI is also a diesel, I can get fuel mileage into the 50's under good conditions, and typically get around 45mpg in normal conditions.

I'm glad market pressures are finally forcing Ford to put out something more efficient, but it makes me crazy when companies act like they're doing something really new and great when they aren't.

If the Ford TDI vehicles (oh, excuse me, "EcoBoost" vehicles) are gas-powered, not diesel, I have my doubts as to how much of a "boost" they'll get. The convertible was a gas-powered turbo, and it was quick but the fuel economy was kind of sucktastic, with 30mpg being the best it was capable of. That's in a small car; now picture that scenario in a heavy Ford truck or SUV. Yeah.

Posted by spacegrrl at 01:14 PM | Comments (1)

Category: bug stuff

January 04, 2008

She's gone.

The convertible drove away with her new momma just a few minutes ago. A little sad to see her go, but the woman who bought her was so happy and excited that that made it better.

Plus, now I can kiss my credit card debt goodbye! Whee!

And in other pending departures... Gran is not doing so well and mom doesn't think she'll make it out of the hospital. Her blood thinners were causing some issues so they've taken her off of them, which will probably result in a second stroke. Her independent living apartment has already been cleaned out; if she does leave the hospital, it'll be to go to the full care facility.

And Thirteen is not doing so great today, either. Very sad.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

January 01, 2008

triple threat.

today my neighbor came over and asked me if i work for a VW dealership.

Posted by spacegrrl at 06:50 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

December 25, 2007

newer and blue-er

we went to SC sunday and picked up my new blue bug from this guy:

a few of you know him.

it's a 2001 diesel bug with 100k miles, which is 70k less than spacepod. it's also been meticulously cared for, because that's how dan is.

right now there are three bugs in front of my house. it'll be friday before the money for the convertible comes through.

admittedly, it's not that exciting to drive another diesel bug. it's cute, and it has a couple of luxuries that spacepod doesn't, but mostly it's inexpensive, reliable transportation.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:40 AM | Comments (1)

Category: bug stuff

December 17, 2007

yay!

she said the top looks fine-- unless i get a curveball i think i'll be selling the car for the full asking price. sweet!

Posted by spacegrrl at 06:21 PM | Comments (1)

Category: bug stuff

tenterhooks.

just got the 'vert back from the detailer. top looks a lot better but it's far from showroom perfect-- as the detailer predicted.

i think the high bidder isn't going to want it-- but i'm on tenterhooks waiting to find out.

after all the dragging on, i'll be oh so excited to actually wrap up this sale.

Posted by spacegrrl at 03:32 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

December 13, 2007

slow.

seems like everything is moving so slowly.

i worked on the convertible roof tonight with two different things. first i tried 303 convertible top cleaner which seemed to knock it back a little (difficult to tell while it's still wet) but i could tell there was still a stain there even after a lot of scrubbing.

then i tried my mr. clean magic sponge and that really seemed to have an effect. it didn't get 100% of the stain but i'm pretty sure it made a noticeable dent. so it's a matter of whether this buyer is okay with a 90% improvement or if that's not going to be good enough.

i also took it to a detail shop today and they basically told me the same thing-- they could probably make a big improvement but they can't get it back to showroom perfect.

:|:

i myself seem to be moving particularly slowly today. it's weird, it's almost like being sick except that i have no other symptoms. i'm just really tired and not energetic.

:|:

i finally worked up enough enthusiasm to put lights on my xmas tree, although not ornaments. the lights are my favorite part, anyway.

i haven't bought a single present and don't even really know what i'm going to give most of the people on my list. guess i'll work on that this weekend, if it's not fully occupied with removing stains from the damn convertible roof. buy stock in the mr. clean corporation now, cause i might be buying a case of those awesome little suckers.

:|:

oh, and i procrastinated on renewing the allpods domain and now it's dead. i'm in a weird limbo where i can't tell if my renewal went through, my registrar hasn't answered my support email, and the domain isn't working... which means that comments on my blog aren't working. i can't find where in moveable type i defined allpods as the cgi url so i can't change it to a working url. i'm not too worried about the domain being stolen because, you know, who's going to want THAT domain? i'm just annoyed (at myself, mainly) at the down time.

Posted by spacegrrl at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

December 12, 2007

that was a long drive.

i drove to south carolina today and bought a car, and then i drove back.

they really have a lot of church down there.

the car will be coming to live with me in a couple of weeks. i'll tell you all about her then.

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:21 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

December 01, 2007

internet books

okay, if the disapproving rabbits people can publish a damn book, there's no reason i can't write my damn new beetle book dammit.

Posted by spacegrrl at 01:05 AM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

November 30, 2007

CHEAP, Fast, topless blonde for sale!

Time to drop the price! $14,700.

2004 Volkswagen New Beetle Convertible
1.8L Turbo engine, 5-speed manual transmission
Cream body with tan top and light tan interior.

Find out more!

Posted by spacegrrl at 07:42 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

November 17, 2007

Fast, topless blonde for sale!

2004 Volkswagen New Beetle Convertible
1.8L Turbo engine, 5-speed manual transmission
Cream body with tan top and light tan interior.

Fully loaded, 40k miles. 10k miles left on the bumper to bumper warranty which does transfer to the new owner. 40k service has already been performed. Tires only have 3k miles. This car has been extremely reliable and a joy to own.

All records, including original sticker.

This car is so fun, so pretty, and so quick! I hate to part with it. The Monsoon stereo sounds amazing and yes you CAN hear it just fine with the top down! Don't let the adorable looks fool you-- this car handles like it's on tracks and really moves.

Volkwagen called this beautiful color 'Harvest Moon'. This color combo hides dirt and stays nice and cool in the summer.

Electric top is extremely fast and easy to raise and lower. You can put it down or up at a stoplight-- I have many times!

Extra rear wind blocker included-- mounts behind the passengers to elminate mussed hair and makes for a very pleasant drive no matter how fast you go.

See more photos.

$15,700

Features:
Leather interior
Sport seats with adjustable lumbar support
In-dash cd player
Monsoon premium sound system
Air conditioning
Xenon headlights
Foglights
Removable wind blocker ($250 dealer option)
Seat warmers
Chrome bud vase, chrome trim rings on reverse lights and foglights
17" premium alloy wheels
Electronic Stabilization Program
Anti-lock power brakes
Anti-theft alarm system with Immobilizer
Front and side airbags
Automatic rollover supports
Cruise control
Power windows
Lockable storage - trunk, armrest, and glove box - so you can park with the top
down and keep items secure.

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:21 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

June 21, 2007

Travel along with spacegrrl and spacepod!

Starting Saturday, June 23rd, J and I will be driving to Indianapolis, Chicago, then along historic Route 66 to Roswell New Mexico, where we'll attend the annual Roswell2k New Beetle convention. Along the way we'll be picking up other bugs also traveling to Roswell.

I'll be running a live web cam in the car during our travel times and at various times while we're on site in Roswell. I'll post travelogues and photos daily (internet access permitting).

Want to follow along? Visit All Pods Go To Roswell.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:59 PM | Comments (1)

Category: bug stuff

learning to love the link

so, the exasperating audio link and i have been getting along a little better today.

i don't have to turn off the CAR to switch between the link and the cd changer; i just have to turn off the radio. that's cool. that's ok.

it is possible to use the ipod's UI instead of the dension UI. what i've been doing is selecting the playlist and song i want before putting the ipod in the cradle, and the link just picks it up and starts playing.

not having to manage power cables for the ipod and an fm transmitter is a big bonus-- the link taps into the car's power system and charges the ipod.

a couple of trips to the big blue hardware store helped matters a great deal. heavy duty velcro and some industrial looking zinc and rubber clamps were key items. i can bolt the ipod cradle and xm radio receiver to the clamps and clip them to the grab bar in front of the passenger seat. looks pretty cool and they're easily removable.

right now i'm waiting for the XM radio to pick up my new subscription. it plugs right into the link, too.

finally, i tried out the Tom Tom one GPS today. the device itself seems great, but the darn suction cup mount pops off the dash every five minutes! one more thing to work on.

anyway, tomorrow will be hectic-- lots of errands, spacepod gets his new tats, laundry, getting the house tidied up and packing, lots of odds and ends.

not sure how present i'll be on my blog/livejournal over the next week or so. i'll post an entry with the url to my travel site for anyone who wants to follow along.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

June 20, 2007

not optimal

actually, that's an understatement. i am most displeased.

i ordered a dension icelink gateway 400 for the 'pod. this magickal device is supposed to let you connect your ipod and other devices, continue to use your cd changer, charge the ipod, and do all this fancy stuff.

harumph.

i let the guy talk me into the one that plugs into the back of the radio instead of the one that plugs into the cd changer in the hatch. mistake.

i removed the radio and the glovebox trying to see if i could get the device into the glovebox. no dice, i couldn't see a way to do it without cutting a hole in the glovebox, wasn't sure there was enough cable to reach anyway, and i don't have the right tools to cut that hole.

hell of a time getting the glovebox back in, and when i finally shone sufficient light on the subject (note to self, get a BATTERY POWERED work light) i was devastated to see that i had scratched up spacepod's dash really badly. my poor baby. like the rust and the mildew aren't enough (and i got an eyeful of those when i was looking inside the dash).

i ran the cables down below the dash. the link device doesn't connect solidly. i don't know where i'll put the ipod cradle, really.

sigh. ok, so i get the dash all put back together and it works and stuff but it's really weird the way it works. the user guide is less than helpful. the UI is crazy and it takes over and forces you to use it's UI instead of the awesome ipod UI that is easy to use and i already know how to use it.

and the cherry on the ass cake is that apparently you have to turn the car off and back on to switch to the cd changer. um, i don't think so!

:|:

on the up side, after i finished up with all of this, i came inside to mail from J wherein he listed out the many tempting and delicious foods he is bringing for us to have on the road. yaaaay!

:|:

so, apparently the motels we're staying at don't have high speed internet access. just dialup.

yay.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

June 18, 2007

90%

i busted my ass this weekend and i am 90% ready to go.

less than one week til we leave.

it suddenly hit me that i am very tired.

Posted by spacegrrl at 01:02 AM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

June 13, 2007

webcam fully functional. spacegrrl not functional.

the webcam code is all functional for 2007. thank you, self of the past for writing such thorough code. thank you, co-pilot of the past for writing image resizing shell script which works awesomely.

blog/website largely functional except for fucking comment script fails every time. same comment script as all my other blogs use successfully. only error returned is 500 internal server apache error which tells one nothing. host tech support useless in answering simple question, "is there an error log?" i guess that would be no.

so i need help with debugging. the problem must lie in my blog config or templates. next easy step is to replace the template with a known good template. my ability to debug perl is limited.

road trip mix can be called done. web cam enclosure requires some modification which i will tend to tomorrow if i can. right now i'm thinking beer, tv, and sleep.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:49 PM | Comments (1)

Category: bug stuff

June 12, 2007

i'll get right on that

i leave for roswell in a week and a half and wow, i am so not ready!

i'm finally feeling the pressure. the pressure takes this weird form where i imagine other people critisizing me for forgetting some ridiculous detail, like not getting a spare headlight from the auto parts store before leaving, or having less than flawless usability on the web site.

it becomes more difficult to separate the true high priorities ("get more insulin for the cat") from the things i merely want to get done before leaving ("make the perfect road trip mix").

i stayed up too late last night and got up extra early this morning so i could take the cat for... er. acupuncture. yes, my cat gets acupuncture treatments for his arthritis. it seems absurd, but after caring for him for sixteen or seventeen years, i feel compelled to make his life more comfortable if i can. and it seems to be helping him; the third treatment was today, and the effects after the treatment are immediate. he stops limping for several days.

i'm using the customizable google home page really heavily now. i've got two separate to-do list widgets, both crammed full. my google calendar is loaded with little green and blue boxes. and i SO love the little theme i applied; a frog and a ladybug frolic all day on my home page. in the morning when i get up, their little animated sun is rising and they are drinking coffee and eating donuts. later when i get to work, they're practicing martial arts. throughout the day they slide on a water slide and... hm, you know, i don't know if they ever have lunch? anyway, at night their sun goes down, the whole page changes color, and they roast marshmallows over a fire and tell scary stories.

i love it.

where was i? oh yes. loads to do. miles to go. so tired. wish i had an iphone. must complete construction of weatherproof isight enclosure which J masterminded. i'll post deets later, but it involved a trip to a harley davidson dealership and a trip to J's favorite big box home improvement store, and it's going to look pretty sharp because he is the awesomest and he is totally going with me to roswell yay!

Posted by spacegrrl at 06:59 PM | Comments (3)

Category: bug stuff

June 04, 2007

old and new are both good

new is good

Today spacepod got a new windshield. It's quite refreshing to see clearly, again.

i also joined twitter; maybe it could be useful in some way for roswell. like during the caravan, it could be a way to put quick updates on the web site for where we are and what we're doing. although, last time we just used captions on the webcam photos for that so i dunno.

old is good

oh my god, it's a De Lorean!

Sadly, I did not get to see its gull wings open.

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:39 PM | Comments (1)

Category: bug stuff

June 01, 2007

wireless?

you know, when the first set of instructions for a wireless product are to "plug it into a power outlet"...

it's not really wireless.

i'm cranking on some creative ideas for the spacepod cam today. i said i'd keep it simple, just do what i did last time, and not make it a big project but...

i can never resist.

Posted by spacegrrl at 07:23 PM | Comments (1)

Category: bug stuff

May 09, 2007

going back

I drive this car:



view the original reverse engineered ad

i made all my hotel reservations and it looks like spacepod and i are going back to roswell this summer for the big ole new beetle convention.

and it looks like J is coming with; m & b will be going along in their beetle and the stephanies are planning on joining us as well.

we'll be going with the route 66 caravan. which was the promt to get us all on the road.

now, everyone wants to know-- will i do the webcams again? well, tentatively-- yes, at least during the caravan. i certainly have the right co-pilot to help out.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

May 01, 2007

hot pink new beetle in durham

for those of you who don't read another pink world and who might be interested in this (cough*hella-shoes*cough)...

Posted by spacegrrl at 07:16 PM | Comments (4)

Category: bug stuff

April 20, 2007

spacepod's day

i had planned to attack the basement today, but decided instead to continue work on spacepod.

he's got a new shift boot and knob now, courtesy of J. it was a gift, a very thoughtful one. he noticed that the original boot was worn, got spacepod's VIN once when i wasn't around, and ordered it from his local vw dealer, all as a surprise.

i removed parts of the interior so i could access a clogged sunroof drain and with repeated snaking out, flushing with water and with canned air, i believe i unclogged it. the crap inside the drain smelled like dog shit. seriously.

i organized all of his jumper cables and whatnot into a tote.

i took him to the spa for a nice bath and vacuuming.

i think i've decided i'm going to replace the windshield. in addition to the zillions of tiny specs of... something... that have been cemented to it for years, it's also distincly sandblasted, has a bullseye, and the UV film needs to be taken off, which would cost money. i think i might as well replace it.

there are still many issues to be resolved. i mean, it wouldn't be a trip to roswell if spacepod didn't go to the body shop and get all fussed over, right?

still to do...

panzer plate to replace the useless stock engine shield that has been torn off (again).

body shop to deal with peeling paint, cracked foglight lens, broken door handle

removal of all vinyl on the sides, and replacement of the big symbol (but not the biodiesel lettering)

polishing with zaino polish for scratched paint.

replacement of scratched dash plates.

and ideally-- a lift kit.

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:54 PM | Comments (3)

Category: bug stuff

April 19, 2007

paper cd labels are BAD.

Q: How long before lisa finally decides to fix that pesky cd changer?

a while back a friend gave me a cd from his band and admonished me to listen to it. even though i knew i didn't really like his band that much, i put it in spacepod's cd changer to give it a fair listen, because he was a friend.

i haven't been able to use my cd changer since that day.

A: about two years.

Tonight I completely disassembled spacepod's cd changer and removed the offending cd. it took about an hour and was a completely tedious pain in the ass, which is why i waited so long to do it. but it seems to have worked-- i re-assembled it, put it back in the car, and tried a few cd's. they played fine while sitting in the driveway, although the real test will be if they skip while driving. the little springs and whatnot that act as shock absorbers within the cd changer case were the trickiest bits to get back together.

i feel proud of myself, and sitting in spacepod listening to music made him suddenly feel less like the second-class beater in the driveway and more like the luxury-mobile he was when i first got him.

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:44 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

April 18, 2007

smart!

like stephanie, i have reserved my next car.

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:14 AM | Comments (5)

Category: bug stuff

December 09, 2006

this is how we roll.

More photos from the parade.

Posted by spacegrrl at 02:37 PM | Comments (3)

Category: bug stuff

December 05, 2006

KRAMPUS

this weekend my local bug club is going to participate in the Chapel Hill Holiday parade (Saturday, 10pm - noon, Franklin St), as we have several times in the past.

This year, though, we're actually pretty organized, and we have our best turn-out yet, a good six or seven bugs. A while back a few of us concocted a plan to have my convertible serve as a "sleigh" and the other bugs portray reindeer. M was going to ride in the back of the sleigh as Ms. Claus or something like that.

Well, last night when I met with M and B to work on antlers and crap like that, she proposed that she actually appear as Krampus. Not being the hugest fan of the traditional American Christmas, I was into the idea.

So I mailed the "rein-car" drivers last night to see if anyone would have a problem with this. So far no objections... and one person said she thought it was a great idea.

So... ah... we'll see.....

But if you're local and can haul your butt out of bed in time on Saturday, I think it's going to be worth it.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:20 PM | Comments (4)

Category: bug stuff

November 28, 2006

brave new dubmac world

back in the summer of 2000 i ran a (kinda) live web cam in my vw bug as i drove from NC to NM.

i recall it was not easy to find ideas on the 'net for how to do this. i really just knit together technologies that other people had created, though a fair amount of apple scripting was involved (ugh).

the following year, apparently there was still no more info on the 'net about mobile computing because the fella on the left coast who decided to run a web cam during his ride to roswell basically mimicked my setup.

so tonight i am googling for things and what should i find but a guy who has installed a mac mini in his 2001 vw beetle. which is very cool. had the mini existed in 2000, appealing though the form factor is, i probably wouldn't have been able to use it because power is a problem. you can't just plug a desktop computer into your car cigarette lighter. that's one of the reasons i used a laptop; it's made to be mobile, and good, reliable means of powering a laptop off of 12volt existed back then. with all the other stuff i was trying to figure out, discovering enough about electronics and power supplies to safely power a mini from my car without frying the computer in the process was out of the question.

the thing that just slays me is not that there's now a power supply specifically designed for installing a desktop computer in a car, (well, ok, that does slay me a little), but that they even sell a mac pack to make it easy to use with a mac.

so anyway, in 2007 some folks i know are leading a Route 66 caravan to roswell and i think spacepod and i are going to hit the road again for that trip. now on Route 66 I might not get good mobile phone coverage but I think I should try and run the spacepod cam again anyway. maybe it would be sweet to mount a mac mini and power supply on the underside of the tonneau cover, use a wireless keyboard and mouse to control it and... hmmm... run the video cable up to the front footwell... hmmm... get some vintage light housings from ebay to stylishly protect isights...

yeah this could be cool.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:32 AM | Comments (2)

Category: moses

October 18, 2006

the good news

i took mo in today to follow up on his arthritis treatment and to get a urinalysis done to see if a very slightly off factor we saw a few months ago has gotten worse.

so for the arthritis the vet felt that we are not ready yet for the more heavy duty drugs with the potential for serious side effects. which is kind of frustrating in a way, but also kind of good.

and for the urinalysis, everything is exactly the same. his kidneys appear to be just fine and that one factor is not worse and is very low anyway. so all is good with the mo.

i also spoke with MFM. he did a more thorough road test of creampod than the dealership. his opinion is that this is not a straightforward case of the clutch plate being burned down. the car grabs too well and behaves like a car with a good clutch, except for too little play in the clutch and of course the smell.

he's given me some ammunition to take back to the dealership and get the VWoA tech rep involved to have this investigated as a warranty issue. so i am going to give that a shot. this dovetails with what i suspected anyway, which is that there's a deeper problem here. and if that is covered under warranty-- then VW owes me a clutch.

obviously the situation with the car is not ideal, and it's a pain to have to fight with VW about the issue, but at least now i feel like i have a shot at not having to pay through the nose for this, and that makes me feel pretty good about things.

that and, you know, the fact that my cat isn't dying of kidney disease. that makes me pretty happy too.

Posted by spacegrrl at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

October 14, 2006

the two-beetle system is working as designed

the warm weather car has broken down at exactly the right time of year, as the temperature drops. the cool weather car has sprung back into roadworthy-ness at just the right time.

all is working as designed.

ps, i love driving spacepod.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:17 AM | Comments (2)

Category: bug stuff

October 12, 2006

glass half full, or at least one quarter.

although thinking about the many clutches of my beetles makes me IRATE and frustrated, i thought it might be nice to focus on some more positive developments.

first, spacepod is driveable again-- in fact i plan to drive him to work tomorrow. after many jump starts and idling and whatnot, his battery is finally strong enough again that he'll start on his own reliably. i am trying to start him every day, however, because i'm paranoid. and on his next visit to MFM, i'll ask that the charging system and battery be checked.

i think i may have cleared the sunroof drains? he's a little damp inside, but no actual puddles. driving him means i can air him out though and keep the issue under control.

so he's a lot less pathetic and sad than he was. many props to xta for her jump start assistance, and to spkorb and dangerwill for their virtual assistance. it takes a village, apparently, to keep a vw running.

i'm having fantasies of having him repainted in a two-tone retro scheme with the chrome atom symbol on his side done in paint rather than vinyl. but, you know. that's just a fantasy.

:|:

speaking of fantasies, there's this old, abandoned car dealership near my house and i keep having fantasies of buying it, somehow getting the city to re-zone it so i could live in it (ha!) and making it into an awesome retro pad with a zillion tons of garage space. i call it "garage house".

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:41 PM | Comments (3)

Category: bug stuff

October 04, 2006

he's alive! sort of.

christa came over and we succeeded in jump starting spacepod! we pushed him to the end of the driveway so we could use shorter jumper cables, we connected him negative to negative, rather than grounding the negative to spacepod's body (there ain't much metal accessible in that engine compartment), and we let him charge for a while off of creampod that way. and then, with a few tries, he started!

i let him run a good long while, moved him on to the street where i can jump him pretty easily by myself, and i fiddled around trying to unclog his forward sunroof drains (to no avail, i think). and then i shut the windows and sunroof and turned him off. checked the battery and it was not fully charged and he would not start again.

so clearly something is not right in his electrical system, maybe the battery was just damaged by being deep cycled. also, something is clearly draining the battery which is compounding the problem. so a visit to MFM is still in order but i am going to let it wait til next week.

if i have to jump him to get him to nbeast, then jump him again to get him back home, then so be it.

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:00 PM | Comments (5)

Category: bug stuff

September 20, 2006

renewed respect

i've always admired the interior of the beetle. the design is harmonious, pleasing, and largely circular. i sometimes think i get the best view of the car while driving it.

i spent an hour cleaning spacepod's interior today. i've removed a lot of the surface mold and dirt. it's startling how easily it comes off of all the surfaces. most require a simple wipe down with a spray of simple green and a microfiber towel. in fact, i suspect it would have come off the cloth upholstery with no more than that, although i did spray that down with carpet cleaner and brush with a clean scrub brush.

i removed the leather steering wheel cover that I added a several years ago. mold was growing on its underside. once i'd removed it, the steering wheel wiped down clean with little effort. the cover itself is ruined, i think, with the strange yellow mold.

i am nowhere near done, of course, but it's good that i've made some progress.

i met with the nbeast folks tonight. i think i have more work to do to get my cars ready for the show than i do to get the show ready.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:36 PM | Comments (2)

Category: bug stuff

September 18, 2006

i need a garage

like, really need.

i noticed that spacepod's windows had fogged up again so i decided this morning to open them and let him air out.

i was a little startled to find that his battery is apparently dead. i guess i let him sit too long.

i was startled to find that every porous surface in the interior (except perhaps the headliner) is covered in white mold, with a three-dimensional, yellowish growth on the leather steering wheel cover.

i almost cried when i saw this. in fact, i should be out there right now cleaning him up and not writing this.

the problem that originally grounded him is that the lower engine shield is dangling by a single bolt and scraping the ground. it had come partially loose and i'd removed two bolts, but could not get my screwdriver angled correctly under the third. faced with indecision: jack the car up, or get a shorter screwdriver, i let the issue slide for, i don't know, two months? the driveway is so dirty, i get filthy whenever i have to get on my back to get under the car. plus rain makes it worse, so i let it slide...

so let's recount the problems:

car is leaking and turning moldy: a garage wouldn't fix the leak, but it would prevent the car from getting wet and moldy inside. i've ordered a car cover as my best current solution to this problem.

battery has died, probably due to lack of use: a garage would allow me to keep the car on a charger. i will find a way to jump-start it, although this might be a real pain if my jumper box isn't strong enough, which it has not been in the past.

need to get under the car to remove engine shield: a garage would make this a heck of a lot less unpleasant, and feasible to do after dark.

i need a garage.

i don't want to photograph the mold, even though it's extraordinary, because i'm afraid i'll become known on the internet as the woman who let her beetle grow fungus.

Posted by spacegrrl at 07:14 PM | Comments (9)

Category: bug stuff

September 12, 2006

NBeast is not just for Beetle nerds!

NBeast is a New Beetle car show (and some other stuff).

NBeast is happening in Durham, at Durham Central Park, on Sunday October 8th.

You're invited!

The cars will be pretty, and the people will be merry! And it will be a lovely day in the Park.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:20 AM | Comments (2)

Category: bug stuff

May 12, 2006

Tantalizing views from Houston

Sarah and Georg are down in Houston at the bigmamajama art car event, and as always I'm finding inspiration in the photos that are coming back. And of course, I am begging Sarah to get details on the ones that use intriguing looking techniques.

I spent an hour and a half working on the Westy last night, and spent much of my drive home today wondering if she'd really make it all the way down to Houston, or if she'd die halfway down there. At least this event is early enough in the year that the weather wouldn't be too brutal (a concern in the Westy since she doesn't, and won't ever have, A/C).

Also of note to me, this photo of a car with a wire sculpture on it. I want to do the same thing, essentially, except with wicker coated in silver paint and epoxy.

Posted by spacegrrl at 07:01 PM | Comments (1)

Category: bug stuff

March 29, 2006

wanna go for a ride?

the title arrived today, and i got the new car registered and kitted out with a legal license plate and all. i got her at lunch, drove the co-workers around a little, and went to mom's after work for dinner. mom insisted we had to have the top down on the way to dinner even though it was a bit too cold. whee!

the weather should be lovely for the next several days, except for maybe a spot of rain on saturday, so if you'd like to go for a ride, just let me know.

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:37 PM | Comments (2)

Category: bug stuff

March 24, 2006

waiting waiting waiting wait... augh!

yes, i am waiting to be able to drive my new car. now don't get me wrong; it was extremely cool of steve to let me drive it down here on his tags so that i would not have to make two trips to complete the sale.

currently, i am waiting for the title to arrive at my credit union. once that happens, i can take the title down to the tag office, give them large wads of money (highway use tax for bringing in a car from out of state + registration fees + cost of tags) and get some kind of tag and registration for the car.

in 35 minutes, i will call the credit union and bug them. if the title is there, i'll have enough time to get it and get down to the tag office before COB today. then i can drive the car to virginia this weekend, and there will be flowers and butterflies and happy bunnies and rainbows and unicorns!

otherwise, i am driving the ever-more-pathetic spacepod to va. he needs a visit to MFM. and despite the fact that i made Actual Efforts this week to get him cleaned properly, he's still pretty dirty (the auto spa was inexplicably closed on a nice sunny day).

that nice young man that i visit offered to drive down here this weekend so that i could avoid taking S.P. up there, which was very sweet. but i want my monthly mini-vacation to Va, and that is that. the S.P will be fine.

UPDATE: no title today. maybe monday.

UP-UPDATE: steve, in his awesomeness, called the loan company and found out that they sent the title to him via regular postal mail. yay. again, in his awesomeness, steve is going to overnight it to me when it arrives. light... tunnel.. end...

Posted by spacegrrl at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

March 18, 2006

top down car!

"top down car" is what my brothers called my stepfather's '67 galaxie 500 convertible when they were little kids. so now i always think of convertibles as top down cars.

i'm exhausted. christa drove me up to northern va to pick up the car today. we had lunch and hung out for a while with my friend steve, the original owner of the car, and then went down to ikea where we spent two hours and many dollars. and then i drove home, and now there are two beetles sitting in my driveway.

driving a gas-powered car again is very weird. it's too quiet, too smooth. driving a beetle other thans spacepod is very weird. spacepod and i are a team, you know? we've been so many places together.

it's supposed to be kinda cold this week, but steve said that with the windows up and the wind screen in place, you can drive with the top down in fairly cold weather and it's nice, there's basically no wind chill.

anyway. top down car!

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:52 PM | Comments (3)

Category: bug stuff

March 17, 2006

!!!!!!!

tomorrow, if all goes as planned, i'll spend the evening driving home from Virginia in MY NEW CAR.

i'm EXCITED!

i'm not going to tell you any more about it until it's sitting in my driveway. i'm funny that way about cars. i always think i'm going to jinx it.

this car will be my new daily driver, but i am keeping spacepod. mainly because i'm too attached to him to ever part with him, but also because there are some practical reasons to keep him. his blue book value is not really high enough, anyway, to make it worth selling him.

the thing with beetles is that they don't hold their value very well. that's fine with me; it means there's a whole world of affordable used beetles out there for me to buy.

if you're considering a diesel vehicle because of the great fuel mileage and because you can run it on FREE vegetable oil, consider a beetle. it's probably more practical than you think, and it'll cost less than a jetta, or even a golf.

heck, i should open a used beetle dealership. that would put my enthusiasm and beetle nerd knowledge to good use.

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:27 AM | Comments (1)

Category: bug stuff

March 14, 2006

all cars need a red-covered switch

The interior of the Spyker Peking-to-Paris just blows me away. Here's the ejector switch.

Just kidding. I'm sure that's not an ejector switch. I'd sure as hell love to know what it is, though.

Maybe one day when i grow up, i'll get to design really amazing car interiors. For cars with names like "Peking-to-Paris".

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:10 PM | Comments (2)

Category: bug stuff

March 13, 2006

Scirocco

Which VW Are You?

Maybe because I chose "unpredictable" as the word or phrase that best describes me. There's a reason that even I haven't ever put the Scirroco on the Short List of VW's I Want To Own.

Speaking of that list, today I spotted a diesel caddy-- the small pickup truck that VW made in the 80's. Now that bad boy is on the short list and has been for some time.. And I love the diesel logo that appears on this VW and no other. Sadly, this one's logo had fallen off, leaving just an outline in the paint. But the "Got 50 MPG?" sticker would have been enough to clue me in to the engine type.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:51 PM | Comments (5)

Category: bug stuff

March 02, 2006

street legal, jet powered new beetle

Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered VW Beetle

picked this up from the newbug list... two things i like (besides the whole idea of a jet powered beetle): the fact that it's an automatic, which cracks me up, but i guess with that kind of power, it just doesn't matter if you have a manual transmission or not, and the way he installed the gauges. i've seen a lot of beetles with gauges added, and i think this comes closest to respecting the original design of the interior of all that i have seen. of course, the exposed back would need to be covered to really get it right aesthetically, but he's got the right idea by creating an additional concentric circle.

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

January 21, 2006

another new one

woke up unnaturally early today, went out and got jesus chicken for breakfast. headed over to whole foods to do a little shopping, and had to wait in my car for a little while for the store to open.

a sleek silver minivan pulled up and parked next to me. the woman inside was talking animatedly on a cellphone.

the doors to the store opened, so i started gathering my things. out of the corner of my eye, i could see the woman get out of her van, and pause as the writing on the spacepod caught her interest. i could tell that as soon as i got out of the car, we were going to have The Conversation. i resigned myself to it.

The Conversation went as usual, until the very end. she asked, as most people do, "Where do you get it?" "An Exxon station on Duke Street."

Her face fell. "Oh." and then she said, "Well, I mean, it's just a bummer to support Exxon." Seeing that this wasn't going over well with me, she added, apologetically, "For me." I grimaced a little smile, and walked away.

Coming back out of the store, I looked at that minivan. Most of you will not be surprised to learn that I have some idea of the fuel mileage rating of this particular vehicle.

I wish I'd said to her, "It must be a bummer, for you, to get 17mpg."

Seriously, is there a petroleum company that is worth supporting? I don't want to buy any more product from oil companies than I have to. That's one of the many reasons I drive a car that gets more than twice the fuel mileage of her minivan.

I realize there may be reasons to drive a minivan that can't be covered by, say, a Prius, a Highlander or an Escape hybrid SUV, or a Passat TDI wagon, but that doesn't give her room to be smug.

I really do think it may be time to remove the lettering from my car.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:25 PM | Comments (9)

Category: bug stuff

December 22, 2005

something beautiful for the VW fans

via boingboing.

Photos of VW's transparent factory in Dresden.

This factory is where VW's high-end sedan (saloon?), the Phaeton, is made. I'm not a fan of VW's large, fuel-gobbling vehicles, and unless things take an unexpected turn, the Phaeton will never be something I can afford, anyway. But that's not the point.

The factory is the star here, not the car. If you're a VW enthusiast, an engineer of any sort, or have an interest in human factors, this place will sing to you.

I would love to see the human factors research that went into this place. There's one photo that is very telling– where a platform raises to support the car at a comfortable working height, rather than the car being lowered to the floor. You never see a assembly worker bending or crouching or otherwise assuming an uncomfortable working position (although since these photos are courtesy of VW's media department, they don't show us everything). Just the fact that the place is so beautiful and so clean shows respect for the workers.

I would love to see this place in person some day...

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:56 AM | Comments (3)

Category: bug stuff

November 29, 2005

THE POD HE IS HOME.

and that new clutch works like a little dreamy cloud, oh yeah.

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:24 PM | Comments (1)

Category: bug stuff

the damage

good things include the fact that spacepod is coming home tonight and that his transmission has been pulled in a clean room full of lab-coated experts, sterilized and pumped full of bionic transmission oil. i get another new clutch and the general feeling that the car ain't right, which has been going on for a while now, should magically disappear. also, a new starter, which i've needed for a while. no more embarassing loud groaning noises when i start the car.

the verdict was not a bad release bearing, after all (although i get a new one of those, too), but rather that the flywheel came apart. and had been off-center for a while, hence the not-right feeling at idle.

the fuel filter is due for a change, but we're going to hold off on that. this is the perfect opportunity to clog it up by running the car on B100 biodiesel. once the B100 has cleaned out my fuel lines, i'll change the fuel filter.

bad things include the price tag. well, really, besides not having a car for a week, that's the only bad thing.

MFM agreed that a 2000 - 2003 Jetta TDI would be a good second car. Given how much I am spending on the 'pod today, and how much better he should be running now, I don't need to rush on the second car thing, but i'll at least figure out how i'm going to pay for it and how i'm going to find one (broker... carmax... checking various web sites... or some combination of all three). MFM confirmed that diesels are in very high demand right now, so it may take some time to find one once i start looking.

jeez, it'll be nice to be able to shift again.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:27 AM | Comments (6)

Category: bug stuff

November 28, 2005

the no car thing

seriously, it sucks. it sucks so much that i'm accelerating my plan to let spacepod go into semi-retirement (no, i am not selling him) and have a different daily driver.

jason! helped me jump start the van tonight, but there are electrical system problems, she's not charging properly so i can't really drive her. i wonder if the alternator is going bad.

i got through the holiday and weekend ok, with minimal imposition on others. fortunately my friend from virginia came to visit saturday and sunday and drove me around to a few crucial places, like to feed m's cats and to see 'harry potter'. and go to cook out. i'm a hamburger addict and i have no problem admitting it. in fact, i was on my way to cook out when spacepod's clutch went out. i didn't make it. it was sad.

i also did not go to char-grill at lunch today, but i did manage to catch a ride to, ahem, Large Evil Pacific Northwestern Caffienated Beverage Chain that serves irresistible peppermint mochas at this time of year.

so, as of today the front runner in the daily driver pageant is a used Jetta TDI, preferably fitted out with a waste vegetable oil tank. unfortunately they seem to be expensive and hard to come by, so i may have to scale back to a Golf TDI.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:05 PM | Comments (4)

Category: bug stuff

November 23, 2005

here we go again.

spacepod's clutch finally died today. more specifically, the release bearing. it's been gradually getting worse since this summer.

i was within eyeshot of my mechanic's shop when it happened. in fact, spacepod seems to have done a remarkable job of choosing his time and place to crap out. i don't need to go to work til monday; i didn't have to pay for a tow, and i just went to like five different grocery stores this week to stock up. i even got fun stuff like coke zero and... well, i guess coke zero was the only fun and unusual thing that i got.

so i guess i should try and get the van jumped and charged so she can hopefully earn her keep a little bit over the weekend.

here's hoping this time it goes a little better than it did two years ago when we did this before. MFM says he's figured out a way to avoid the bolts that sheared off last time.

Posted by spacegrrl at 02:50 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

October 19, 2005

MFM says...

it needs a new battery. he's going to put one in.

he says the gears feel notchy but at the moment, it's not bad enough to warrant tearing the thing open. could be the synchro mesh going bad.

he also says that when you lock and arm the car, it actually reduces the number of things that draw power from the battery-- it goes into a 'sleep' mode. so my strategy of not locking actually did the opposite of what i intended.

i'm very happy that i'm getting my car back tonight. i've got a trip planned for saturday that i would definitely not want to miss.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

October 17, 2005

fer pete's sake...

(who is this pete, and why do we care about his sake? odd.)

i went for a brisk walk in the woods today at lunch. it was nice, except for the bit where i tripped and fell and nailed my knee. fortunately my jeans didn't tear, so the scrape is not too bad, the wound isn't dirty and my favorite jeans aren't ruined. it's sore though.

i did catch myself on my hands, but so far neither of them feel sprained, which is a relief. there's something to be said for falling on soft dirt instead of concrete.

spacepod ain't right either. i had to get another boost from AAA on sunday, after ray tried to boost spacepod off of christa's honda and that didn't work. the AAA guy had a heck of a time getting him started-- in the end he had to use both his truck battery and his jumper pack simultaneously. i went immediately to sears where they proclaimed my battery was still good and refused to replace it. he's also become quite difficult to shift lately. so he's off to MFM tomorrow.

i've been monitoring the battery with my little analog voltmeter, and i haven't been locking him for fear of the alarm system draining the battery overnight to the point where i can't get him started. the battery will take a full charge, and is getting charged successfully off the alternator. the sears guy swore that if the battery were not capable of holding a charge his little device would not have pronounced it "GOOD", but i'm dubious-- how could it tell?

although to be honest, the shifting issue has me more worried than the electrical issue. i really hope we're not tearing out the transmission, yet again...

Posted by spacegrrl at 02:27 PM | Comments (4)

Category: bug stuff

October 16, 2005

...and then i rode in the alpha!

whee! i finally got to go for a ride in phil's alpha. i've been in more exotic cars this month than i have been in ever before. that's an awkward sentence, but you probably know what i mean.

as we walked out my door, phil asked me if i wanted to drive. while such trust is admirable, given that i'd broken a car the previous day, i declined.

while we were out on old oxford highway, he decided to test out something a friend had told him recently about double wishbone suspensions. he pulled into a nice flat, empty parking lot and did the tightest donuts ever-- no squealing, except from me! he made me squee like a girl. it was fun.

hey phil, you should look into autocrossing that thing.

Posted by spacegrrl at 06:14 PM | Comments (1)

Category: bug stuff

October 15, 2005

home!

it's good to be home!

travelling with jason/sylvia wrath/sean is always great. these are people who like to eat their way through wherever they are going, and actually put some thought into what they eat, which is a mode of travel that i heartily endorse. in fact, i felt inspired to be more brave about trying new flavors, and ate a kalamata olive on friday night at dinner. the flavor was complex, and some parts of it were good, but there was one flavor that tasted like a medicine that i had as a child, which was not so good. but i could see trying kalamata olives again, especially really good ones, like in that hot almond and olive appetizer at federal.

i didn't go crazy, though, and try to eat eggs for breakfast while hungover this morning. that would have been asking for all kinds of trouble.

the microcar museum was amazing. he even let us drive them! and, sadly, we broke two of them. well, i don't know if we broke them but they broke while we were driving. 50 year old cars are finicky that way, though, and bruce, the man who owns the museum, was very cool about it.

i took many, many photos. they are uploading to flickr now, and i'll sift through and caption them later. jason got a few of me and sean driving that i'm sure i'll link to, once they go up.

i think the citroen 2cv is about the size of a microcar, so it's a little surprising that he doesn't have one-- perhaps they are just too common to be worth the space.

i saw a smart up close for the first time-- i want one. they need to start importing that car to the US, seriously. it's probably bigger than the new mini cooper, and much more swank and roomy inside, plus of course the fuel mileage should be far superior. i might almost be willing to take on a car payment again to get one. might.

yeah, i'm gonna need a garage one of these days...

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

October 08, 2005

a trip to the microcar museum

what jason said.

i'll only be semi-available from tomorrow until we leave, so if anyone has questions, i'll try and answer as quickly as i can, but may not get back to you right away. i don't plan to bring my laptop into the conference, but i'll have it with me at the hotel.

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

September 18, 2005

something weird happens every time i go to bahama

"I don't even know where this is," said b. i was starting to recognize things, though. "it's b.. b..." then we passed the bahama fire department and i said, "oh, bahama! hey, the last time i was in bahama this weird thing happened..."

and then b. hit a curve a little fast and i shut up so as not to distract him. the tires squealed and another car was oncoming, so he corrected a bit and-- told me later-- lifted off the gas pedal. the problem is that when you do that in a light, powerful rear-engine car, such as the one we were in, the rear end suddenly becomes lighter and tends to swing around. this is not good when you're also on a curve and heading into it a little fast.

b. corrected a couple of times and i thought he had it, but then finally the back end swung all the way around, we crossed the other lane and i could see some trees coming. i thought i was screwed-- the trees were on the passenger side.

but the crazy thing was that we were ok. we landed in a nice, soft ditch, between some pine trees and a telephone pole-- ass end down, of course, since the back end is so heavy. b. asked me if i was ok, and i said i was. i never even let go of spacepod's keys or lost my glasses. i didn't even get the shakes. just laughed about how lucky we were after we got out of the car and looked at how intact it was.

then we were kinda stuck for a while, waiting on a tow. the fire department came first, then a couple of state troopers.

the tow truck took us up to hillsboro, to b.'s mechanic. there were some awesome cars in the yard, including a rusted-out citroen 2cv, which i was pretty excited about.

anyway, it was a long strange day; i didn't eat lunch until about 6pm (i was about to go get some when b. said, "wanna go for a ride in the porsche?") but except for the whole near-death experience it was actually kinda fun.

i probably need to get out of the house more.

Edit: b.'s photos from the scene.

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:13 PM | Comments (8)

Category: bug stuff

September 10, 2005

yet more car-related fun

i have to say that the drive-in was pretty awesome. the starlite was packed and it is really good to see it that way again.

the vw turnout was better than i anticipated. four new beetles, two old beetles, and the transporterwerks double cab transporter, which is a very cool vehicle. the vintage vw folks were very friendly and i got to know a couple of them a little. the owner of transporterwerks was interested in discussing biodiesel, as were a lot of the other vintage folks.

i had heard a rumor that he put a TDI in a vanagon once, so I asked him about that. he said that he never has, and talked about how it's always problematic to do that, takes a lot of time and creates a domino effect of issues. so i think i'm going to table the idea of putting a TDI in the westy someday. he's probably the only person locally who would do something like that.

he said that if there is eventually a standard way of doing it, and it's relatively simple, only then would he consider it.

i didn't expect to enjoy the movie as much as i did. i dunno, something about seeing the little beetle racing the big cars affects me. i'm a sap for a cute vw.

i did stay for part of the second movie so i could hang out with my pal b— who i'd not seen in a long time. he gave me a sip of the new super-mega-alcoholic beer, damn that stuff is good. despite the fact that b— is a fairly entertaining person with whom to watch a silly movie, i didn't stay for the whole thang.

on the way home i met two girls walking down the street. they stopped and told me all about how cool it was to hear the blues from the stone bros parking lot.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)

Category: bug stuff

adventures in the industrial zone

seems like a good time to finally switch to b99 biodiesel. that's fuel that is 99% made from recycled vegetable oil.

tried to call the local guy who got the tank put in in durham, then tried to call the co-op. no answer, so i just went on down to the tank to see what's what. figured i'd walk away empty-handed but it's close, so that was ok with me.

oh, how i love the industrial zone. the combination of nature and junked cars and cement plants and unexpected businesses (a funeral parlor, f'instance) makes me excited.

the tank is behind the fence of a mechanic's yard. the mechanic was there and he explained-- you join the co-op, call the local guy and he gives you a key code so you can fill up any time the yard is open.

all pretty cool. i can probably get it all arranged before my current tank runs out.

plus i got those photos of the english car place. they totally need to get sarah to model for them with that mini for an ad.

Posted by spacegrrl at 01:25 PM | Comments (1)

Category: bug stuff

September 04, 2005

want to improve your fuel mileage?

This is an issue i've been concerned with since i bought my first new car in 1993. This week I've had a lot of people want to discuss biodiesel with me, many more than usual. People are waking up to the fact that we can't live the way we've been living. Sadly, a hit to the pocketbook is the thing that got everyone's attention, even though the larger picture of air quality, global warming, and finite resources has been well known for decades.

I don't do all of these things myself, but it is good to at least know and be aware of the ways in which an individual can reduce their consumption of fossil fuels, particularly fuels for transportation, which is what I'll be focusing on here.

drive less

the best way to save fuel is to drive less. we all know that staying at home, walking, biking, carpooling, van-pooling, and riding public transportation are good ways to drive less. here are some things that most people don't think about doing.

• know your area so you can plan the most efficient routes. buy a map of the area where you drive the most, and take a good, long look at it. there are roads you don't know about or understand on that map-- i guarantee it. you may be shocked if you trace your usual route to your favorite restaurant or your friend's house... it may be wildly inefficient. if you're going to an unfamiliar location, use your map or mapquest to plan a route in advance-- don't just wander around. i know this sounds like common sense, but i make this mistake sometimes and i know other people who do, too. take that map in the car with you, too.

• plan your errands carefully. this relates back to knowing your area. group all of your outings into one. plan a route in advance that is going to get you to each one as efficiently as possible. i know i often feel fatigued during errands, especially when it's hot. bring snacks and water if you need to, to get through the whole list in one trip.

• we have a sprawl problem in this area (the triangle). find ways to get all of your raleigh stuff done while you're in raleigh, and all of your durham stuff done while you're in durham. or enlist a friend who lives in the area to help you out. the drive between durham and raleigh is not insignificant-- don't do it if you don't have to. it adds up.

idle less

• don't get into traffic jams. if the interstate is always jammed when you go home from work, change your route or your hours.

• don't go through drive-throughs. you wouldn't believe how fast fast-food restaurants are when there's no one inside them (because everyone's in the drive-through). besides, it's nice to stretch your legs and not talk into a machine for your food.

be a better driver

• the first thing i'm going to say, and i know a lot of people will have objections to it, is that if you want to get the most out of every gallon of fuel you put into your vehicle, you must drive a manual transmission. don't kid yourself that the modern automatic is as efficient as a manual or more so. it is not. even the CVT (continuously variable transmission) "automatic" that they put on the mini and the hybrids is not as efficient as a manual. check the epa's fuel economy site if you don't believe me, or just look at the stickers on cars at a dealership.
  • "I don't know how to drive a stick." if an entire generation of baby boomers, including your mom can learn to drive on a manual, you can learn.
  • "The traffic on my commute is stop and go." See above about idling less. I'll also say that I've been through a ton of stop and go traffic in my various manual transmission cars, and it's not the end of the world unless your knees are completely shot.
  • "My knees are completely shot." Ok, then you should probably be driving an automatic. Please consider a CVT hybrid.

• now, assuming that you are driving a stick, here are a few things you can do to get the most out of it.
  • high gear, low revs. if you've got a tach, read it. learn where the "sweet spot" is for your car, the speed at which your car is geared to run most efficiently. in my TDI Beetle it's 100kph, which is around 62mph. don't over-rev.
  • we all know this one, but it bears stating. no jack-rabbit starts! drive like a grandma.

• and regardless of what kind of transmission you've got, don't exceed the speed limit. park it in the slow lane and set your cruise control at 65 or 55.

• note that if you drive a hybrid, driving techniques to get the most out of it will differ somewhat, and are well documented on the internet. please, please research how to drive a hybrid efficiently if you are driving one.

drive a more efficient vehicle

we have a fairly skewed idea of "need" in this country. there are families, businesses and even individuals that need the towing capacity, passenger space and cargo space of an SUV. but we all know that many, many people who drive large vehicles do not really need them.

when selecting a vehicle, assess what you really need. what did your parents drive while you were growing up? during my childhood, my mom drove a '65 vw beetle, then a '78 honda cvcc, then moved on to small station wagons. even with four kids in the house at any given time, she didn't need anything more than that.

driving one of the slowest vehicles on the road-- an '82 diesel vw camper that gets 50hp on a really good day and weighs two and a half tons-- has been eye-opening. how much power do i really need? if i'm willing to avoid interstates, not very much. ok, most people aren't willing to avoid interstates and i'm one of them, but the truth is that we don't need lots of power under the hood. it can be fun, but it's wasteful. i've also come to appreciate that on short trips, driving slowly down back roads is damned fun and oddly, does not take that much longer. on long trips, it's still damned fun. last fall's drive into the VA mountains was one of the best drives of my life and damn, i sure miss driving her these days. slow is nice.

here are my suggestions:

• i'm a big fan of the station wagon as an alternative to SUV's and minivans. it's what my mom had when i was growing up, and there are some options for high fuel efficiency in station wagons that trump what's available for SUV's and minivans. The best that I'm aware of is the VW Passat TDI wagon, which has an EPA rating of 48mpg highway, even better than the smaller Jetta TDI wagon. Since it's a diesel, you can also run it on alternative fuels to reduce emissions and usage of fossil fuels. There are also mercedes turbo-diesel wagons available used; I have a neighbor who uses one of these with a Waste Vegetable Oil tank and he claims it works great.

• if you don't need that kind of space, consider one of the following. most are not still produced but can be found used.
  • the geo metro. it's retro! close to 50mpg.
  • the 1993 honda civic cx hatchback. 46mpg highway, cool "clamshell" style back hatch door.
  • the honda insight. insight drivers regularly report mileage in the high 60's and into the 70's, and insights perform better in terms of mileage than any other hybrid available.
  • the honda CRX HI, which averages around 50mpg. christa reports that she gets in the high 30's in her CRX SI, the sport model.
  • vw golf, beetle, or jetta tdi. i average 43mpg combined city-highway in my beetle, and many tdi owners get into the high 40's and low 50's.
  • vw diesel rabbit. slow as hell, but hey, it just sips the fuel and they're virtually indestructable, which is why you can still find 'em. should be no problem to run on non-petroleum fuels.
  • older diesel mercedes station wagons and sedans. note that the diesel sedan became much less efficient in 1987, i think? or 1986? i met a woman who was driving an '85 or '86 because it was the last model year before the mileage started to degrade in favor of power.
  • many others that i don't know about.

• ok, let's say you don't have kids/dogs or you're really willing to live on the edge. transporting a metal and glass bubble around means you need a bigger engine. dispose of that bubble, you don't need such a big engine and you're using a lot less fuel. yes, i am talking about motorcycles and mopeds. they scare the crap out of me, but they are much more fuel efficient than cars. The other day I saw a woman in a pencil skirt and strappy kitten heels riding a scooter in rush hour traffic on Chapel Hill Rd. If she can do it...

biofuels can help, but be careful

I've been using commercially produced biodiesel for a few years now, but i recently found out that the fresh vegetable oil stock that it's produced from is grown using petrochemical fertilizers. So it's kind of a wash in terms of reducing dead dino usage.

Biodiesel, for those who haven't read my car lately, is diesel fuel made from vegetable oil. Vegetable oil + lye + methanol + agitation = biodiesel and glycerine. You can do this at home in a blender on a very small scale; to produce more fuel, i've met people who just used a big tub and an oar, or hacked something out of an old washing machine from the junkyard.

Piedmont biofuels is a co-op in Pittsboro, NC that makes biodiesel and it's increasingly available around the triangle. check out their web site.

Any diesel vehicle can run on biodiesel without modifications. Diesels can also run on straight, unrefined vegetable oil, kerosene, and a variety of other things. Biodiesel, petro-diesel, and vegetable oil can be combined freely in the fuel tank. The diesel engine was originally designed to run on vegetable oil, the intent being that farmers could be self-sufficient and grow the fuel they needed to run their tractors.

Many diesel owners are retrofitting their vehicles to run on waste vegetable oil, or WVO. A second fuel tank is added to the vehicle to store the WVO, which you can get for free from any restaurant that has a fryolator and a friendly manager. The car is started on a refined fuel (diesel or biodiesel) and then switched over to WVO. The driver switches back to refined fuel at the end of the trip, so that's what's in the fuel lines when the vehicle is started again. VO tends to "gel", which is why it's not ideal to start the car on it.

There's a Piedmont Biofuels pump in downtown Durham and my next task along the path toward eliminating petrochemicals from my life is to go check it out and start filling up there.

I also plan to more seriously consider the dual-tank WVO conversion for the Westy, and possibly for Spacepod as well.

hybrids aren't automatically the answer

be sure to consider the total cost of ownership of any vehicle. maintenance prices, reliability, even tire costs can surprise you. the cost of replacing the big battery in a hybrid can be $1000 or more, and recycling of the old battery isn't necessarily guaranteed.

the only hybrid that interests me personally is the insight; a golf, beetle, or jetta tdi will get comparable or better mileage to all the rest of them and can be run on alternative fuels. hybrids have the advantage in terms of emissions-- they are, essentially, zero emissions vehicles. does biodiesel run through an efficient, modern diesel such as the TDI improve the emissions? yes. is it comparable to a hybrid's emissions? probably not, but the debate rages on. nevertheless, less fuel in means fewer emissions out. that's basic.

here's what biodiesel proponents have to say about emissions. here's some more.

what am i doing?

the main things i am doing now are: planning my driving for max efficiency and driving reaaaallllyyy slowwwlllyyyy. yesterday i had a large SUV stay at a safe distance behind me for several miles as i was tooling down the Durham Freeway with my cruise control set at 55mph. maybe by driving slowly, i can lead by example.

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:33 PM | Comments (4)

Category: bug stuff

August 02, 2005

what i'd really like to say is...

a lot of people ask me questions about the text on the side of my car. i get a lot of the same questions over and over, and some of them are kind of depressing. most people assume that it's a paid advertisement; most people ask if biodiesel is "really that much cheaper?"

sometimes i just want to take the text off and have nothing about biodiesel on my car. but if i replace the text with other text.. this is what i'd really like to say:

this is a diesel car that has not been modified. it runs on fuel made from vegetable oil, called biodiesel. yes, it is really running on that right now. no, this is not an advertisement and "they" have not paid for this. i do not run biodeisel because it is cheaper in terms of money; rather, because it is cheaper in terms of human life and damage to the environment.

but that probably wouldn't be very nice, now would it? a little on the self-righteous side.

Posted by spacegrrl at 07:26 AM | Comments (2)

Category: bug stuff

June 18, 2005

GIANT. INFLATABLE. SPACESHIP!

a view inside the conference center in roswell.

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Category: bug stuff

June 17, 2005

CARAVAN SIGHTING!!

just got a call from a co-worker who happens to be vacationing in rural texas-- she just spotted the caravan! she said she saw three blue bugs pull out of a diner together, then join more bugs at a gas station, and she thought, "that must be them!! i have to call lisa!!"

i'm totally hyper now. i suddenly appreciate the point of view of the person stuck at home watching for any little posting of anything online, and i know exactly what i'd do differently if i ever do it again.

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Category: bug stuff

caravaneers

the roswell caravan is looking really small-- only four or five cars so far, and they're only one day out from roswell. hopefully they will run into the houston group at the dairy queen and get to travel with a larger group as they head into town.

for perspective, the first year, i think the final car count coming into roswell together was something like 56? and we had a good 35 cars after dallas. in subsequent years the number has dwindled, but even last year we had at least a dozen going into roswell, i think.

it's a little sad, but it does offer advantages. the logistics of a 35 car caravan are tricky.

anyway, someone is posting pictures, but i need to get to bed i suppose... i'll see them tomorrow.

here they are at the motel in sweetwater, tx.

sweetwater is a tiny little town in the desert, about half a day out from roswell. the first year, we stopped there for lunch, and caused a huge commotion. they trotted out the mayor and the newspapers. spacepod was even on the tv news one year after they interviewed a bunch of us on our stop in sweetwater (i think-- i never saw it). in later years, the caravan pushed the schedule ahead and got there in time to spend the night on thursday night. the motel where we all stay is an old style route 66 kinda motel that has probably never known a major renovation, but is nevertheless well-maintained.

i have happy memories of sitting out by the pool, uploading photos and updating the web site, while stephanie worked on beading a skate costume or just kept me company.

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Category: bug stuff

June 15, 2005

they're in nashville

i guess the eastern caravan made it to nashville last night and are headed out to texarkana this morning.

this is gonna make me sad....

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Category: bug stuff

June 13, 2005

we're really not going.

so i was driving home from work and this silver beetle passes me, and it's got one of those cute jetsons spoilers and a vanity plate, and i start to fantasize about the caravan passing me or something, and about going out to meet them in knoxville as a surprise, and then i realize...

knoxville is tomorrow. if i were going, i'd be leaving tomorrow.

this realization so startled me that i did something i never do, i pulled out my cell phone and called someone to talk about it. of course, the person i called was the one person who would be experiencing the exact same thing. that would be stephanie. we talked my entire way home.

ah well. i sent my webcams off to a friend who is going, so i'm hopeful that i'll get to watch at least the saturday morning activities (he won't be doing an in-car cam, sadly).

Posted by spacegrrl at 07:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Category: bug stuff

June 08, 2005

bio-willie!

willie nelson opens biodiesel truckstop in greer, sc.

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Category: bug stuff

May 28, 2005

is it still a pod if it's all flattened out?

i wasn't thrilled in 2001 when they changed the mirrors on the new beetle. the original mirrors, although less practical, were clearly drawn along the same lines as the original beetle's mirrors.

i feel very passionate about the design of the new beetle. i think the original design was a work of genius-- a design that is so clearly beetle, yet really, if you look at it, actually looks nothing like the original. every curve is a perfect circle, and every surface is a curve. the interior, far superior to all interiors in its price range and to many above its price range, is equally genius.

over the years, vw has changed the new beetle more and more. the mirrors were the first really big change. the new mirrors are safer and more practical (the original mirror design can block the driver's view at certain critical moments if the driver isn't very careful), but not at all in keeping with the original beetle's mirror design. vw basically tacked modern car mirrors onto a decidedly retro car. feh.

well, now in the 2006 model year, they've started to flatten out the curves. i don't hate it, but its distressing that the beetle strays further and further from the original design. the original designer of the car hasn't worked for vw/audi since the beetle went production, and i've learned not to trust the people now in charge of the design.

curious? someone has posted photos of the 2006 beetle to flickr.

i will say that the new beetle convertible is well-executed. the top, when folded, sits on top of the trunk, which is one of the things that gave the original beetle convertible its distinctive look. (modern convertibles almost never do this.) the color schemes introduced for the convertible have had a retro feel-- soft pastels, and a limited edition with a black body and decidedly old-school red leather seats and red top.

as has been noted on the new beetle mailing list, the color scheme for the beetle sedan has lost a lot of its life. metallic neutrals are now more common, rather than bright crayola colors. the car looks good painted almost any color (except the appalling luna green-- fortunately a limited run-- basically white with just enough green to be confusing). but the spirit of the bug demands a certain color palette. it's either got to be a bright little round jewel, or the color that truly makes it look like a jetsons car-- silver.

of course, these unfortunate changes just make the early models all the more special. i hope to keep spacepod for the rest of my life-- and one day, long after he's no longer my daily driver, he'll go to a vw show and we will show them what a new beetle is really supposed to look like.

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Category: bug stuff

March 26, 2005

and a few more

1. a gremlin or a pacer. duh!!!
2. a vw corrado. i think i'd take the corrado over the scirocco, even though the scirocco is earlier and more "raw" and therefore in some sense cooler and with more cred.
3. a microcar, preferably a peel trident

yeah, i guess the crx is off the list... not that i don't still admire it a lot, but i guess i don't put it in the dream stable.

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Category: bug stuff