I bought a new car.

Actually, I bought a new car at the end of December 2007, and it just arrived. After 4 long and impatient months I am the proud owner of a Saab 9-3 Aero.

It was time to say goodbye to the Volvo. After some very unacceptable customer service experiences I decided to take my business elsewhere. It’s sad really, because I enjoyed the car when it wasn’t in the shop being further damaged by the service team. And to Volvo Customer Care: shame on you for not taking care of a customer, especially a brand loyal customer.

Probably a good thing I dumped it too - it lost over half it’s resale value after 2.5 years and 19000 miles. That’s pretty crappy in my book. Shame on you Ford for buying Volvo and demolishing it.

So onward and upward to the Saab. Every time I say it, I pronounce it like I’m saying Da’an from Earth Final Conflict. Say it with me now, Sah-ahb. That’s nice.

Anyhoo - you’ll soon see me sportin’ it around town. Cheers!

How many of you knew that your motor vehicle is considered a dangerous weapon?
That’s right - just as dangerous as a gun, a knife, a baseball bat, or a calphalon frying pan. One of the easiest ways to minimize the possible danger of your vehicle, is to not drive it.

Not especially helpful, but true none the less.

But for those of you who insist on needing a car to take you to work, school, or the mall, here are four quick tips to minimize the possibility of causing your own, or someone else’s death, while you are on the road.

• Tip #1: Eliminate, or minimize use of the mobile phone, unless you have a hands-free device. This will allow you to stay focused on the task at hand, namely, driving the car.
• Tip #2: Avoid use of the wiper system unless you are the only car on the road. This will prevent other drivers from losing control of their vehicle, and running in to you as they attempt to see through a smeared windshield.
• Tip #3: Do not eat in the car. Not only is this a sign of low class, but when that ketchup drips on your pants, you’re going to jerk the steering wheel left and bounce off the median. Also try to avoid drinking hot liquids in the car - the outcome is the same.
• Tip #4: Indicators. This is the main focus of this article. Some people like to call these turn signals, but in actuality, they are properly termed indicators. Use them. (see below for more detail)

Every car has them. Indicators are not an option like the premium package, or the sport suspension. Your car has them, my car has them, every car on the planet has them. The difference is whether you actually use them or not. Indicators are not only a courtesy feature, but they are also a safety feature. Let’s examine both cases.

Courtesy:

Isn’t it nice to know when the car up in front of you would like to move into your lane? It’s helpful to see that flashing light go on, so that you can ease off the gas a bit, and allow them to merge over. It’s common courtesy to let the drivers around you know when you might be moving unexpectedly through the lanes.

Another courteous use of the indicator is in neighbourhood driving. An indicator shows a pedestrian that you are interested in making a turn. They might think twice before walking out into the street if they see that orange light flashing, letting them know that you’re about to turn their way. Courtesy. Awareness. It’s a silent and visible way to prevent you from having to roll your window down and scream “MOVE OUT OF THE WAY! I’M COMING THROUGH!”

Safety:

The most important reason to use your indicators, is safety. Instead of weaving in and out of traffic, with no indication to other drivers as to where you are headed next, you are setting yourself, and others, up for disaster. What if another car is trying to merge into the same lane that you are? They have their indicator on, so other cars are giving them room. But you do not. Therefore, no one is paying any attention to you, and by the time they see you, you’ve already hooked your bumper into theirs and you’re both flying into the ditch on the side of the road.

Again with the pedestrians. Let’s say you come up to a right turn, and you don’t turn on your indicator. Out steps the pedestrian thinking that you are continuing straight. Off they go to the hospital after you plow them over when you turn. It’s not ok to then shout out of your window, “Didn’t you see me turning??”, because no, they didn’t…you never indicated that you were going to turn.

Most indicators are in the same place on every car…on the steering column. There is no excuse for not knowing their location, because it does not differ from car to car. It’s always a stalk sticking out of the side of the steering column. Driving someone else’s car is not an excuse. It’s in the same place it is on your car. Learn it. Use it.

Practice good indication, and save yourself, or someone else today.

It’s a happy day when you’ve just had your car washed. You can choose to wash it yourself, if you have that kind of time…I don’t.

Or you can take it to your local neighborhood scrub-a-dub-dub place.

There are various incarnations of these facilities: Harvs, Scrub Boys, Wash-N-Wait, Touchless-Express, Auto-Scrubbers, and the list can go on and on.

So you have this beautifully shiny, possibly even waxed, vehicle and you’re flying down the highway heading to work, home, or play.

And that’s when tragedy strikes. Some completely unaware person in front of you decides that going 80mph down the highway is the right time for them to bother to clean their car. And on go the wipers and washers.

Unfortunately, at those speeds, and really, anything above 25mph, the water coming from the nozzles on the hood of the car does not contain itself to the car. It begins to spray and fly all around the vehicle, and onto any cars behind it or beside it.

Now your perfectly clean car is covered in someone else’s car-filth. You either have to suffer the humiliation of having a filthy windshield that you can’t see out of now, or you have to turn on your wipers. This causes an additional issue.

If you turn your wipers on, but don’t run the washers, you are now smearing dirty water across your own windshield, creating streaks and lines which serve to further blur your vision. If you choose the washer option, you’re now doing the same thing they did, creating problems for the people behind you and around you.

Just like braking, it creates a long chain of events, with everyone down the entire highway suddenly having to run their wipers and washers all because some idiot in their Lexus SUV can’t be bothered to take their vehicle to the cleaners once in a while.

Folks - be courteous and be aware. Do not use your wipers with washers unless you are the only person on the road. Because if you do…be prepared for me to flash my brights and blare my horn at you for making my windshield a complete and utter nightmare.

I really do hate to be redundant here, but it’s just so topical.

In California, a bill was passed in September 2006 regarding the use of mobile phones while driving. However, this new law won’t take effect until July 1, 2008 (which is over half a year away), and the penalty for using your phone while driving is not a deterrent at all (and it has several exceptions).

When you can get out of a ticket for $20 (for your first offence, and $50 for your second), just carry some extra cash and keep on talking, right?

I’ve seen an increased number of people driving around on the phone, and not just holding it up to their ears but actually cradling it between their ear and shoulder. They are driving down the road with their head tilted off to one side.

How on earth can you see the van full of children that you’re about to plough in to, if your eye line is underneath the dashboard??

Please do the world a favour, buy yourself a headset, learn how to use it, and remember that most of us are not important enough to NEED to take that call while going 80mph down the highway.

Remember when people had pagers? You could be notified if you had an urgent call to take, then make the call WHEN IT WAS APPROPRIATE.

Oh for the good old days.

Last week, David and I went out to Roseville to a model railroad exhibit. Now David is a big fan of railroads, and some of you may remember that we took a trip in 2006 up to Clear Lake and stayed at a bed and breakfast called Featherbed Railroad Company.

At that b&b, we discovered 8 cabooses laid out in the property, all of them completely refurbished into little cottages. There were hardwood or carpet floors, beautiful wood inlay ceilings, some had hottubs, others did not, large feather beds and tasteful furnishings.

I had chosen the “Orient Express” themed caboose, and you can see some of the pictures here.

But anyway - David got tickets for the model railroad event in Roseville, we packed up our cameras and headed out. Now I am not a railroad nut like David is, and I warned him not to be disappointed if I didn’t get as excited about the exhibit as he did…but I have to say, I had a really fun time.

As soon as we arrived, we realized that the clientelle for these events was not exactly “our crowd”.

There were some very…interesting people there, but I suppose it takes an interesting person to have the patience to create some of the grand exhibits we saw.

The first stop was at the Sacramento Valley Live Steamers. They had a train set up and were taking people on a little tour around the grassy plot. The train was very cool…but…I don’t know - the people riding it just looked silly.

We passed by the consignment booths, because we weren’t there to buy anything, and went into the first of many display buildings. In the first one, there were four or five model areas set up that completely filled the room.

The detail on the models was absolutely incredible. Little plastic people visited little plastic shoppes and stores, and the train zoomed right on by with little choo-choo sounds.

This model also had a very cool “Amusement Park” portion, with little rides and such.

In the next building, we saw even more wonderful detail, and a lightrail exhibit. The time it must take to create little signs and features like this…I just wouldn’t have the patience.

And people really take this stuff seriously, as can be seen by this $350 engine available for purchase…

But the absolute coolest thing of all were the cemeteries. This is the last picture I will include in the blog post - you can see ALL the pictures from our trip here.

We were just amazed at the incredible detail of the cemeteries, and there were even vendors that specialized in selling “cemetery kits”. I have to say, these were our favourite parts of the models…given how fanatic David (and me a little bit) is about Halloween, it’s not surprising. So here is a shot of the coolest cemetery there…

Rachelle is currently on sabbatical from work, and so I thought it would be fun for the two of us to have some R&H time away from Sacramento…and what better spot within driving distance than Santa Cruz?

Well, I’m sure there are other great spots, but I had never been to Santa Cruz before, and she hadn’t been there since she was a wee little girl (decades ago :-)), so off we went.

Our first exceptional experience was driving behind a Ferrari. But not just any Ferrari, a numbered Ferrari. 171 of 198. How incredibly pretentious. Wahoo for midlife crisis purchases.

We decided to stop for lunch at the Elephant Bar, but first we had to pass by this guy…the harbinger of holidays - Hellaween that is.

Spooky. Scary. Frightening. But um, creative I guess.

Anyway…

We made our way down to the Santa Cruz area, up through the redwoods and eucalyptus trees and to our hotel/conf center destination - Chaminade.

Pretty place overlooking the forests and the city. The bellboys were very friendly - overly so perhaps…we thought maybe not a lot of patrons talk to them, but since we did, they were very talkative with us. And they were cute as well.

Here are a few shots from our room, the view, and a nature walk we took around the facility…stay tuned for Day 2 when we visited Santa Cruz and the Beach Boardwalk, and Day 3 when we drove up the California Coast.

(More pictures from Day 1 are here)

I realize this will be difficult to see, but take a look at the picture below that I snapped from my crappy phone camera today…

What you are seeing is a sticker that shows the twin towers, an American flag, and yes, a plane crashing into the tower on the right with a big yellow clipart star in front of it.

Since it’s difficult to see, I have attempted to recreate the picture using Powerpoint.

I really don’t know what to say. It just astounds me that someone would display this type of “bumper sticker”.