kevinnowak.com

Car Show.

Kel and I checked out the auto show here in Philly one night this week after work.  We're not really in the market for anything immediately, but it's always nice to see whats out there [and Captain was able to hook us up with a couple of tickets!] 

 Two rides that we did want to check out for close inspection were the Volvo XC60 and the Subaru Outback.  The plan is to go for as long as possible with the one car we have now, but we did want to get an idea of what we'd eventually want should we get another. 

With a kid in the picture by summers end you can't have a safer car than a Volvo, right?  Kel has had her eye on this ever since it came out a few years ago and I really like it too. A great mid-sized SUV.  It's a bit pricey, but hey, safety like that is worth it, right?

  

     

Ideally we wouldn't have two SUVs, so once we need to get rid of our current car I'd like to get a wagon to replace it.  The Subaru Outback is great, plus it's all wheel drive so it really is an SUV at  heart.  This one even had the bike rack on top, ready to roll! 

  

     

The Subaru headquarters for North America is practically in our back yard so I feel like I'd be really supporting a local business if I got one of these.  I think a good percentage of people in our neighborhood work there and drive them!

 

Bumper.

  

Amazing what a little fender bender can do, ha?  $600 bucks to replace this entire bumper and the light!

Kel got rear-ended by a little old lady the other day.  They were both stopped and she reached for something on the floor and her foot slipped off the brake...so she pretty much rolled into Kelly.  $600 bucks!  Obviously her insurance is going to cover this, but the pain-in-the-ass part is that now we've got to drop it off, get a rental, pick it up...just a hassle. 

They need to go back to the days of steel bumpers!

New Tires.

There's nothing like a 7am appointment to spend $750+ on a new set of tires.  I guess I can't complain too much as the tires that came with our car had a 60k mile warranty on them and we got 70k miles out of them. I replaced them with the exact same set, so here's to another 70k! 

Take a look at the side by side photos of the before and after...

       

yeah...there wasn't much left on those old ones!

My question though is where do all the old tires end up?  I'm not talking about the part that is on the car, I'm talking about the treads that get worn away.  Where does all that material go?  Follow me here...you have millions of cars on the road with tires getting worn down every single day.  Shouldn't we expect to see piles of rubber built up along the side of the road?  But we don't...so where does all that worn away tire material end up?  In the atmosphere?

60k Santa Fe.

Turned over 60,000 miles on the car last night.  5 year/60,000 mile warranty only lasted us 2.5 years!  That's a lot of trips back and forth to Boston in that short amount of time!

  

Happy Halloweeen folks...and maybe I'll post a photo of my awesome costume later tonight!

Philly Car Show.

A few weekends ago Kelly, Deb, Steve and I went up to Philly to check out the 2010 Car Show.  We decided to take the speedline train into town and grab lunch at the Reading Terminal Market beforehand. 

We weren't looking for anything specific, but at some point we will need a 2nd car.  We checked out the 2011 Sonata, the Outback, and Kel really fell in love with both the Volvo XC70 and the XC60.  Who knows what we'll end up getting...but hopefully we can remain a 1 car family for as long as possible.

     
     
       
     
       

     
       

     
     

     
     
       

       

       

Drunk Driver.

This morning, at around 4:30am I was awoken by a loud crash.  I got up out of bed and looked out the window to see if there was anything.  Nope.  I looked out the other window in our bedroom too.  Nothing.  I figured I must have been hearing things or the noise must have happened in a dream and I climbed back into bed. 

Well, about 10 minutes later a police car parked sideways out on the road to block and traffic from going down.  Turns out a guy had crashed his pickup truck into the guardrail of the little bridge that is about 500 yards from the Farm.  I threw on a pair of jeans and stepped out into the cool evening to have a look.  By the time I got down there the cops had already hauled the guy out of the truck and taken him down to the station.  He was drunk.  His truck was in pieces, and of course he was just fine!

    
   

   

I went back this morning to have a look and it's amazing how much damage he did.  He knocked about 8 posts clear off that hold up the guardrail.  Sheared them right off at the base.  I can't imagine how fast he was going!  He's actually lucky that he #1 didn't hit the tree you see there, or #2 end up in the creek.  His truck actually spun around and was sitting in the middle of the road, nice and pretty.  Well, not really pretty. 

It's a good thing he did hit this guardrail/bridge, because the next obstacle he was going to have to negotiate was the sharp turn infront of the farm house...lord only know's how that would have ended up.  You remember what happened to that one guy on just a rainy day...and he wasn't three sheets to the wind.

Overcooked on the Farm.

The rain here has finally let up after about 4 days of cold, wet, nasty-ness.  Thank god...maybe I'll be able to get out on the bike sometime this week? 

Anyway...this past Friday was particularly bad down here at the farm with all the rain and wind.  Lots of the roads were flooded out in the area and the water was ponding everywhere.  One guy ,with an old car, [and presumably bald tires] took the turn out in front of the house a bit hot and ended up overcooking the whole thing and slid into the field across the way. 

     

   

   

I was up at the office with Deb and Steve [ironically helping out on a 9-1-1 project] but Kelly was here and actually called 9-1-1 to make sure the guy got help.  He was fine but I think he snapped an axel as he went over the curb.  Not good.

[all photos by Kelly]

Wanna Get Away?

You know those Southwest Airlines commercials right...they have a scenario where someone makes a boob of themselves and then they play that catchy jingle that says "Wanna Get Away?"  I can imagine that's exactly what this truck driver was thinking this afternoon as he nearly tipped over his trailer in our office parking lot.  There's some sort of food production joint across the way and they get deliveries all day long with these 18 wheelers.  With the large snow banks and slick conditions we've been having this guy didn't stand a chance.  The truck ended up precariously perched for about 3 hours until help finally arrived. 

         

         

         

the rescue crew [or big ass two-truck in layman's terms] was able to slide the rear wheels out and "right the ship".

         

3 hours of this guys day down the drain and probably a few hundred bucks for the two, but at least nobody got hurt and his truck didn't get damaged.

Cold.

On day's when the temperature is this cold...

     

it is certainly nice to have a feature like this...

   

to help keep my keester warm! Bundle up folks, it's nippy out there today.

Frank the Tank, Frank the Tank!

I'm willing to bet that half of my readers will get that title and the other half will have no clue.  So be it. 

Anyway...on our drive home from Jersey on Monday we were somewhere on rt 84 in Connecticut when we rolled up alongside this old army tank.  Talk about not something you'd expect to see hurtling down the highway. 

     

Even though the thing has probably been defunct for a number of years it's still unnerving to see the barrel of the cannon pointed right at you!