Hitting 400!

"High Five!"

Hitting .400 is the Holy Grail for any major league baseball player.  It hasn't been done since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941.  A couple of players have come close--including one of my heroes, Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres in 1994 (.394).

I'm not a major league baseball player, but tonight, I did something that I had never done before...I got over 400 miles on a single tank of gas.  I fueled up in Flagstaff, Arizona and didn't have to stop for fuel again until Nephi, Utah...422.5 miles!  That worked out to 35.7 mpg.  

Even when my car was brand new, I was never able to achieve that mark.  As the gas gauge dipped lower and lower, I felt a bit like Kramer test driving that car in the Seinfeld episode "The Dealership."  Unlike Kramer, however, I didn't run out of gas.  :-)

Not too shabby for 259,000 miles and 9+ years of service...I guess my car may still have some life left in it!

Nearly two gallons to spare!

Driven Into The Ground...

A recent pic of the Saturn

My car is getting a little long in the tooth.  I recently documented its demise on this blog as well as its near miraculous rejuvenation.  It now has more than 250,000 miles on it, but I'm proud that it has held up as well as it has.  In fact, my car has even outlasted the company that built it (Saturn--a victim of the GM bankruptcy restructuring).

Yesterday, I notice (all of a sudden) a terrible grinding noise every time I had to apply the brakes.  I was actually worried about the safety of driving it any more than necessary, so this morning--after a quick trip to the courthouse--I dropped it off with my local mechanic.

You know your car is old when the mechanic looks at you funny and asks questions like: "Does it really have 250,000 miles on it?"  And you know in the back of his head he's thinking: "Are you really going to dump more money into this car?"

Well, yes, in fact, I am.  As crappy as it is to keep the car maintained (and pay for the maintenance), it's cheaper than making car payments every single month on a depreciating asset.  My car is very cheap to drive and I love that I don't have to worry about putting too many miles on it.  Someday, I will buy a new car, but it won't be until this one has been driven into the ground.  Literally.

Anyway, just got word from the mechanic.  As I suspected the brakes are shot.  The serpentine belt is cracked.  And (apparently) the air filter is dirty.  I can change the air filter myself and save $20 bucks.  When  a repair costs as much as this one does, it seems like the least I can do to mute the budgetary impact.

The other good news is that the last time that I had to have a complete brake job on this car was nearly 3 years (and about 85,000 miles) ago.  The rear brake drums lasted me even longer--150,000 miles and 5+ years.  My mechanic said that I can't really expect much more life out of them than that.

Que va...I'm just glad to have a reliable car that gets me where I need to go; doesn't look its age; and is (or at least should be) good as new in good working order.  I suspect that I'll be able to squeeze a few tens of thousands of miles out of this one before we have to part ways...Hope your cars are holding up a little better than mine is at the moment!

Car Swap

"So long, farewell...adieu to you and you and you..."

I said good-bye forever yesterday to an old friend.  It was a little bittersweet, but it was time.  And while I'll miss my friend, I will take some happy memories with me.

Two weeks ago, I swapped cars with my dad so that I could drive to our family reunion up at Bear Lake.  My dad's car hadn't been driven in about six months and it had a little bit more space for the trip.  Plus, I think there was some concern about whether my Saturn would actually survive the drive.

In two weeks, I put over 3,000 miles on the Ford Fusion above.  It is being sold, so I probably won't be able to enjoy driving it again.  It's not a very fancy car, but it was peppy, responsive, and had satellite radio (a huge plus for the wide open desert landscapes that I had to drive through late into the night).  I'll never forget being able to take that trip with R. and S.  I hope they have happy memories too.  

Good times in the Fusion

I had so much fun and was so grateful for those good memories that I didn't even complain when I had to vacuum out Chex crumbs from the little holes in the leather seats in the back yesterday (I had to use a safety pin dislodge the little crumbs!).  The Ford Fusion got us home safely and I'm grateful to my Dad for being so good to us.

It was a bit surreal to get back into my Saturn and turn the ignition.  It was like seeing an old friend and I have lots of good memories of this car as well (see here and here for some recent ones).  At about 245,000 miles, the Saturn has certainly given me a good return on my investment and been very reliable.  But one day, it'll be time to move on.  And I'll be looking forward making some great memories in that (new) vehicle too.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Yesterday was one of those days.  A series of unfortunate events combined against me, only this was no Lemony Snicket novel...it was real life.

First, we got socked with a heat wave that pushed temps to the mid-80s.  It was so hot, that I decided to push my training run to the night so as to escape the heat of the day.

Second, I had a big work project that kept me chained to my laptop through the heat of the day.  At least I was inside where it was cooler, but I couldn't take my kids to the beach or do something fun.  I am pretty busy during the week, so I try hard to keep my weekends free to do family stuff with the kids.  Yesterday would have been ideal to hit the beach, but my project made it impossible.

Third, our good friends (Royal and Nicole) are moving to Arizona and their farewell party was yesterday afternoon/evening.  The party was fun and the food was fantastic.  Nicole is pretty much a gourmet baker of desserts and her talents were on full display.  I consciously had to hold back for fear that my workouts would never be able to keep up with the calories I was consuming.  I'm happy for Royal's great new job, but selfishly I'm going to miss both of them. A lot.  Royal has been a great race partner and Nicole has always been super nice to me.

During the party, I handed my iPhone to Baby M. to keep him occupied.  Big mistake.  Baby M. decided to channel Cy Young and threw my iPhone down onto the concrete.  My iPhone responded by giving me the "Dreaded Green Screen of Death."  Hence no pics of Royal and Nicole's party.  The phone is barely functional.  Worse, I hate breaking things and losing things, so breaking my phone at the party that was already making me sad did nothing for my mood.

My brother came up after the party and we were supposed to do our run together, but that didn't happen.  I was consumed with trying to get my iPhone fixed and I found a kiosk at the mall that claimed to be able to fix it.  I jumped into my car to drive to the mall only to find that the battery was dead.  Kaput.  I got the car jumped just as my brother arrived.  The car turned on [barely] just as he pulled up and made a horrendous sound.  My brother diagnosed the problem for me...my engine was blown.  Those were unfortunate event numbers five (dead battery) and six (blown engine).

It doesn't look that old does it?

At this point I was too despondent to deal with R.'s complaint that his Kindle wasn't working.  I told him to charge it overnight and we'd check it in the morning.  I think at this point I was afraid of anything else that I owned falling to pieces!

My brother was kind enough to drive to the mall.  I figure that my day had finally hit rock bottom with the realization that my car (which has nearly 245,000 miles on it) was going to be towed out of my driveway and I'd never see it again.  I can tell you that I had plenty of other things in my budget to spend money on.  My car is 8.5 years old and nearly a quarter of a million miles on it, but I was in no hurry to replace it.  When you have kids, it seems like there are always things that they need more than I need a new car.  In addition, I really don't have an ego about my car.  It works great and doesn't cost me a lot to get around.  I'm good with that.

We got to the mall and the kiosk guy "fixed" my iPhone.  The battery on my phone was dead, so I had to charge it before I could start using it again, so I went to the Verizon store to charge it.  I got the phone charged and guess what...still broken.  :-/

At this point, I had the Verizon guy check the account and turns out I had free replacement coverage on the phone through my job.  After what seemed like an eternity, I left the store without a phone (bummer), but with the promise that my brand new iPhone is being shipped directly to my office for Tuesday (yay!).

Then we got home.  It was late and my brother and I were both tired. I grabbed my keys and walked over for one last look at my poor car.  I distinctly remember saying to my brother as we walked over to it: "It's too bad you can't give a car a priesthood blessing."  His reply: "Yeah, but that would be like trying to heal a 100-year-old man.  It's had a good life."

Yes, it has, but I started it up anyway.  To my surprise, the car started and worked!  I got back in it today and was able to drive it to church. It was "good as new"--as if nothing had ever happened.  I really and truly do believe that it's a miracle.  I wish that I could say that it's because I was living right or that I somehow "deserved" divine intervention.  But I don't think that's the case.  I do think that it was an example of Heavenly Father being merciful though.  And for that I'm grateful.

La Ferrari -- My next car?  ;-)

It has got me thinking that I should be prepared to replace my car at some point.  It is probably unrealistic of me to think that I can get it to drive a million miles--or even another 250,000.  Anyone have any good ideas?  :-)

So in the end, it all worked out.  I was so relieved that I was able to replace my iPhone for free and that I wouldn't have to spend thousands of dollars on a new car, that it overshadowed the series of unfortunate events that had befallen me earlier in the day.  So much so that I was almost tempted to name this post after another book--Shakespeare's "All's Well That Ends Well."

PS--I also fixed R.'s Kindle today too!  What can I say, I was on a roll!  :-)

This Will Buff Right Out...

You might be a redneck if...you have to duct tape your mirror to your car.

There was a little incident with an aggressive, jumping, orange traffic barrel last night.  I think I'd be more ticked if I weren't absolutely convinced that this will buff right out!  =o)