The Robert Blog

New Car

Joel — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:01:15 +0000

Today I bought a new car. I didn’t want to buy a new car but I really didn’t have a choice. The VW Jetta that I acquired less than a year ago and had just recently turned a mature 400,000K, and which I was assured was “just broken in”, well, it decided that it would no longer clutch. No clutch. At all. I discovered that it is possible, albeit frustrating, to drive a manual transmission without the aid of a clutch however it does require some creative and daring driving techniques to do so. For example, 1st gear can only be attained while at a dead stop with the engine off. I’ll let the imagination paint the picture. Therefore having our one and only vehicle in a precarious state of health we had limited options. We could either pay to have the thing repaired at a price that would be roughly equal to or greater than the value of the vehicle, we could replace the transmission with an available used transmission in the driveway, or we could bite the bullet and find the cheapest car possible and pay good money for the next 5 years. Option 1 was just totally unpalatable in ways I cannot describe so I will move on. Option 2 would require too much time (and patience). Having my only car out of commission adds a certain amount of panic to any maintenance I undertake on my vehicles and things (read “my mental state”) tend to go south very quickly. I would not only have to remove the damaged transmission from my car but also remove the used transmission from the parts car, and then reinstall it again. I’ve never done any work with a transmission before. I’m an aircraft mechanic. We just don’t deal with transmissions. Which leaves Option 3. Option 3 had the most positives.

Reliable car
Warranties
No scrambling around in the driveway
New car smell
No scrambling around in the driveway

You get the picture. We did have to take a good hard look at our finances though. We anticipated that a newer car had to be in our future sooner or later so we had been looking at new cars but we also knew that we would probably have to do some cutting in other areas in order for it to happen. Amy also would have to make some extra effort in selling Pampered Chef to bring in the needed income. In the end though we decided to buy a Kia Rio5. Why a Kia you ask? Mostly because it is the cheapest car to finance on the market today. Yes it is a cheap car. But it is also a NEW car with a very good warranty and is surprisingly comfortable to drive. We chose Solar Flare because that was the one on the lot. It has some cool features like heated seats, Bluetooth, heated side mirrors, and a plug-in for your iPod. Other than that, it is a car. I would like to say that I’m excited but I’m really kind of blasé about it. I’m a mechanic and I know that machines of any sort are just waiting for a chance to break down. It doesn’t matter how well you treat them, eventually they will betray you. I have a new car, but it is not my friend.

Growing up

admin — Sun, 17 May 2009 23:37:34 +0000

Every so often as a parent you are reminded just how fast your children are growing up. It’s like you’re not paying attention so when you get a reminder, it comes as a bit of shock.
So this morning as I contemplated having a shower, I could hear Noah in his room commenting on his day so far. That’s the way it is with him. None stop commentary on his life. Constant chatter. It’s like CBC radio. Anyhow, I thought that I might kill two birds and bring him into the shower with me.

Now I don’t think this is unusual or weird. Some people might think that showering with your children would do irreparable damage to their psyche but I’m of the opinion that under 3 years old, your children don’t have much of a psyche and they’re not going to remember anything too shocking anyway. Not that I have to justify this at all. I’m just saying is all…

So I get up, fetch Noah from his room and head for the bathroom. Once he realizes what is going on Noah gets right into the spirit of the occasion and starts pulling out his bath toys. All of them. He has mercifully few bath toys but he always has to have all of them with him. I guess you never know what you’re going to need at any given bath time.

At this point I should say a few words about our shower. We have a tiny shower stall that I feel was probably custom made for the niche that it was installed in. On the upside, should you pass out in our shower, you won’t fall very far. You’d have about a 6 inch travel to any one side and then a slow slump to the floor. Having said this, we’ve had our children in the shower with us before, with all the toys, and still have had space to do what we needed to do. Until today. Once Noah had taken up position on the floor, with all the bath toys, I realized that there was really no floor space left. That’s when it hit me. My little boy was growing up. Pretty soon he’ll be taking a shower on his own. Well, almost on his own. I think the bath toys are going to be around for awhile.

admin — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:35:35 +0000

Good lookin' bunch

This is us.