Nattering on

Tuesday at lunch, thread_walker suggested a turn around Acquatic Park rather than simply sitting and eating. Somewhat to my surprise, you can do the entire loop in a lunch hour (which, including the to-and-from my building, probably comes out to 2.5 miles) providing you maintain a brisk pace. I remembered this Wednesday when I still hadn't fixed the flat bike tire (which turned up Tuesday morning) and did the same loop. Today -- still not having found time to fix the flat -- I tried going straight down 4th St to the gourmet ghetto the other side of University Ave. Not quite as long a route, but just right for throwing in a smidge of shopping in the middle (but not -- alas, or fortunately -- an actual cafe lunch). This suggests to me a solution for getting out and about at lunch during the winter when it's too dark to bike to work.

I had a chat on the phone today with the Toyota internet sales guy, but I'm not hopeful. He's basically offering me the same scenario as the other sales guy did: I give him a deposit, then I wait around hoping that the next boat from Japan includes a car with the specifications I want and that nobody else snaps it up first. He couldn't even give me a time-frame when the next shipment of cars might arrive. He said he'd get back to me later this afternoon with more information, but I dunno. At this point, I'd really just like to buy my birthday present and get on with my life. That Honda Element is really starting to grow on me. And it comes in three (3) non-boring colors. (I'm not at all sure that I'd like having an orange car, but both the red and green are attractive). It's probably a good thing that I don't have much free time to just pop off to Auto Row at the moment or I might do something impulsive.

ETA: So the Toyota internet sales guy gets back to me at the end of the day, and the answer is basically "could be six weeks, could be six months, and we really can't guarantee the specific features you want." *sigh* I think maybe this evening I'll go off and test drive/pack some Hondas.

Honda Shopping

So I tested out three models: the Fit, the CR-V, and the Element -- those seeming to have the best likelihood of fulfilling my space requirements without getting into serious monster vehicle territory. And this time, I actually did bring the harp along for test-packing. (In addition to needing a vehicle that can manage it, it served as a useful measuring stick for the camping gear. The harp stands about 5 ft at longest dimension and the longest camping gear that I pack runs about 6 ft, so I could estimate the rest.)

( Not everyone will be interested in the car reviews. )

I have an appointment to go back tomorrow after work and -- short of anything drastic happening to change my mind (which would include their failure to track down either of the colors I'm interested in) -- plan to come home with a new Element.

Cabless at last

So you know how back on March 17 I cancelled my cable TV service? They finally -- after almost three months -- disconnected me. (I've been getting it "free" for the last couple months.) Since my current tv set didn't come with an antenna, I now have to actually acquire one, which may be amusing since I suspect most electronics shops assume that everyone has either cable or satellite service. The most efficient thing will probably be to get something I can mount up on the roof and run a line down along the same path the cable service wires run. Hmm. It occurs to me that with a little ingenuity, I might be able to use the existing wire, if it's possible to splice the right sort of connector onto the end lying across the roof. I shall need to look into this.