The Latest Craze at Home: STORM CHASING!!

Editor's note: This may turn into a multi-blog discussion as plans evolve. Please check in at Autogotistical Carpinions for more of the vehicle oriented discussions in the future.

One of the latest TV thrillers gripping the heart-strings of each occupant in our house of late has been Storm Chasers on Discovery. So far, the show has been very illuminating, and is doing a good job of recruiting. Allie and I are having some semi-serious discussions about making a pilgrimage or two down toward Tornado Alley (ooooh! good nickname for the whirl-winded-wife!!).

As I have discussed before, I have a thirst for gadgets, and I haven't had nearly as many as I would like in the recent past. Trouncing tornadoes might be just what I need to quench that desire for a time. The other part helping that along would be designing and building our own RADAR system for the chase vehicle. After seeing the DOW on Storm Chasers, I know there is LOTS of room for improvement, and I have it: End-Fire RADAR Arrays. I've worked a bit with phased arrays, and end-fire arrays aren't much different for this type of use. The advantage we would have over the DOW is that we could build it on much smaller vehicles. What I would like is to have a kit of eight arrays to attach to any vehicle, but only requiring a minimum of 4. The software controlling the RADAR would be able to change it's usage of the arrays based upon their positioning on the vehicle, allowing you use almost any vehicle you want!

More to come later!!

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An Update in General

I've been busy lately, but not here exactly. I started two new blogs that more adequately address some of my desires for outlet of late.

The first was Pushing Wool, a place where I do my part to hinder or help the larger coordinated efforts to pull the wool over our collective eyes. Having been trained throughout my life to be suspicious and look for ulterior motives, I feel well equipped to address these issues. I know there are many other worthy places to look for such illumination, but I think most of them have either jumped the shark and/or been swallowed by the gigantic loom of lies and misinformation.

The second blog, which I just kicked off a few days ago, was something I had been considering for a long time. It wasn't until somebody came out and said I should write for one of the beloved car magazines, that I really considered giving my own thoughts on the topic more than just lip service (because I really can talk about cars all day long). Once given the nudge, I was determined to give it a name both clever and self-centered enough to meet or exceed the standards set by my other blogs. I finally came up with Autogotistical Carpinions.

In the process of becoming inspired on the spot for topics about which to blather on about (see?), I've been trying to utilize any possible tools at hand to make it easier to keep track of my thoughts for expounding upon later. I'm now using Remember The Milk for that purpose, via Jott or by SMS via Twitter when I'm on the go. When I organize my task inbox later, the blog ideas get filtered into their own list, which you can see the contents of in the sidebar of this blog and both of the new blogs. This was my first attempt at using the news feed from a list of reminders. I like the fact that you can make some of the static blog content a little more dynamic without too much babysitting.

So that's what I've been up to. Keep an eye out for more from each blog. I'll probably be adding a news feed for each blog on the other, for a little cross-promotional action.

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Bad Troubleshooting Gone Right...

The LHS is running again, thanks to a decent bit of weather I was able to accelerate the resurrection process. Yippeeee!!!!!

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The Fated Revenge of Complementary Thinking

This is what I was going to do:  I was going to write a little about how nicely mannered our 1995 Chrysler LHS has been through the course of our owning it for almost 5 years.

What happened this morning:  I got in the car to go pick up my children from Granny's house, and it refused to start.  Doh!!  I'm writing this while waiting for a friend to arrive to try to help jump the beast.

The Story I was going to tell: We started looking for another car once when we learned that our son was on the way.  The main family car at the time was a not-too-reliable Chevy Caprice 9C1.  The car had its moments, but was not all that fun to take into the shop.  While the Caprice had plenty of room inside, it was apparent that having two six-footers in front was going to make it hard to carry a toddler and baby in the back.  It was plenty wide, but could use a little bit more in the length department.  Our daughter's carrier snuggled nicely between the seat backs of the front seats when installed in the middle of the back seat, and we weren't going to have that option with two occupants back there.

Our search began, and over the course of a few months of combing through Autotrader's web site, and examining interior specifications of everything I could think of, I noticed a car that was slowly dropping in price as it continued to go unsold.  It didn't have a lot of miles for its age.  The interior was quite cavernous, with legroom everywhere, and it had a (queue the ray of light!) sunroof.  The first problem we noticed was that the display didn't work on the stereo.  Okay, we thought, we would probably be replacing that with an newer unit, so that gives us haggle room.  The next thing was the climate control system.  Somehow it was stuck on max heat.  We went home later and thought it over, inadvertently leaving my Sting CD in the unlit CD player.  We called later to say we would like to buy it, and found out that it was actually owned by a broker who was a good bit closer to where we lived, and that it had been taken back there to replace the stereo (Bye-bye, Sting!).  We made the trip out there, and started talking about what it needed, and what we would pay.  From the continual price drops, no doubt due to some of the flaws previously noted, and the dealer's inability to get the display to work on another stereo, we got a pretty nice deal on a quite luxurious car.

After that it was our primary family car, and while there were some problems with the transmission leaking, a freak coolant issue, and letting it go too long without changing the timing belt, the car has been fairly dependable with regular use.  It has never stranded us on the freeway, which the Caprice did a number of times, and is usually up to whatever task put before it.

The standout feature for me this week, was looking back at how very capable it is in slick conditions.  I don't think I've been in a more capable car with a single axle propelling it.

A few winters back, my father and brother were visiting with Dad's RV, being followed close behind by my step-mother in the Suzuki Sidekick tow-vehicle.  While step-mom was on her way, a big storm hit, and made what is usually an uneventful trip into something a little more scary.  Somewhere between the directions my dad gave her and the weather, my step-mom took a wrong turn and while she had made it to within 10 miles of my home, we didn't want to risk any further problems.  My dad and I headed out in the LHS to find her.  The tires were VERY bald, and the traction control was kicking in every time we started after a stop, but it took the conditions well and never lost its composure.  In the aftermath of this same storm, we agreed to shuttle my brother back home so that my dad could go further north to avoid the storm in the big rig.  That was a real nail biter, as the car was driving on ice during the whole trip.

Earlier this week, I took the kids down to the Oregon Coast to celebrate New Year's.  I had planned on leaving in the wee hours of the morning, which turned out to be a good thing, because we drove on ice ALL the way from Olympia down to Tillamook.  The car seems ideally balanced for traveling like this.

If only it weren't so scared of high winds!!!

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New Tools for Fools

This is my first attempt at using the Blogger for Word Toolbar. We’ll see how it does here. Up until this point I’ve been emailing my blog posts to allow easier formatting and keep a separate record of posts. I thought I’d try this one out as it sounds even more capable.

So you may be wondering if anything interesting will ever happen here. The answer is: I don’t know. It’s nice to just have a place from which I can pronounce the silly thoughts that waft gently from my enigmatic inner machinations. I’m still looking for the ideal TV and the stand for it. I’m certain we’ll find the right ones.

In other news, we have decided to move on from our goals of finding a Saturn Vue to purchase, to the goal of finding a 2006 Toyota Rav4. I liked the distinctive styling of the pre-2006 Vue, and loved the Honda V6 that it picked up beginning in 2004. My wife was not as enthusiastic as I was, but slowly warmed up to it. The slight redesign for 2006 made her like it a little more, but had the opposite effect on me. When I saw a commercial for the 2006 Rav4, I had to go take a look at it some more. At this point, both my wife and I are really excited about it. We went to our local Toyota dealer on Friday to take a look at one in person. One of the salesmen walked us around the lot to see if they had any he wasn’t aware of. There weren’t any at all! They aren’t shipping big numbers yet, so as soon as a couple of them show up they are usually gone in a day or two. I called a couple of other dealers and got the same answer.

If you are interested in configuring a Rav4 for yourself, I would recommend visiting www.edmunds.com. Toyota’s “Build Your Own” tool is not complete in that you are limited to the 4-cylinder Base model if you want to build a Front-Wheel Drive Rav4.