Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Asians, Trains, and Automobiles

March 21, 2015 - Alright, this post is intensely autobiographical, (emphasis on auto) which makes it astonishly awkward for me.


I bought my first car this week, which is something I'd been hunting for in the last few weeks:






Yes...Noah is the one in the driver's seat. :)

On top of already being autobiographical, I'm going to impose on you, good reader, to brag about my brother for a bit. When I was looking for a car, he did some research and watched some videos on what to look for when buying a used vehicle.  So, when we met up to check out the car, he went around, over, and under the car, poking and prodding for signs of problems.  
Then, he and I went for a test drive and he had me do a couple of things while driving, while he listened for any rattling, etc.  
At one point, I was told to take my hands off the wheel and pump the brakes, and that's when he noticed that there is a strong wobble in the steering wheel while braking.  
He said that the rattle was caused by the rotors.
After I bought the car, we picked up the rotors and he jacked up the car and worked until midnight to install the new rotors.
So, it's been awesome to see how all of his years of tinkering and experimenting are really beginning to pay off and he's of incredible help.


Doing some very detailed detailing
Ah, that was so nasty...

Noah and I spent the next day cleaning the car and fixing some minor issues.



That weekend I attended a meeting a couple of hours away.

This town was known for its engineering school, so when I was trying to decide where to eat for dinner this was my logic:
An engineering school means that there are a lot of smart math people
A lot of smart math people means that there have to be Asians
If there are Asian students means that there's got to be a sushi bar around
=



Not only was this my first time eating sushi, this was - believe it or not - my first time eating a whole meal with chopsticks.


So, it was a Saturday afternoon and I decided to go smell the proverbial roses.


I googled for some points of interest and found a park and this enormous Frisco train:





This should provide a comparison of the scale of this thing.

Now for some "photography" shots...wait for it...





And for some reason all of these are vertical...I wonder what I was thinking....



I took a quick stroll around the park and lake before heading home:






Well, thank you for your long-suffering dear reader as I end by brazenly imposing a selfie upon you!
There hasn't been too much to post about as of late, so my options were to either post this photo or a video of myself smashing my finger with a hammer while working.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

You take such great pictures! Absolutely beautiful!
Where did you research for your car? I'm looking around for a good vehicle myself.

Unknown said...

We've done the last few of our used car purchases on Craigslist and it's worked out well so far.
It's best if you can bring along a friend (or brother) who's familiar with cars or you can even schedule an inspection at a garage before you make an offer on the car.
We also looked at Consumer Reports for reliability information and NadaGuides.com information for some rough price evaluation.

Mazzou said...

I really enjoyed this autobiographical post! ;)
That's YOUR car? I saw it when we were leaving on Sunday and thought ''now THAT'S a car!'' :) Congrats- we love it!

Your logic leading you to the sushi bar was great. :)
I note that you refrain from including whether or not you enjoyed the sushi. I've never had any- is it good?

Loved the train pictures!

Thanks for sharing this post! I really enjoyed it. :)

Unknown said...

Oh, I'm sorry that you didn't realize that was my car. I was going to go down to the parking lot to show it to you all, but I got caught up in a conversation - you know how that is!

The sushi was fantastic! You'll have to try it sometime. I'll definitely have some again soon.

Thanks for commenting!