Tire update

Yesterday I had a major "girl power" day, because I solved my tire problem (almost) all by myself.

I called around several places to find out if they had my tire in stock. Here's what I found out:

• My tire model is extra-special because it is really hard to find, and my car is the only model that currently ships with it.


• It is also one of the most expensive tires you can buy for that size.


• Nobody stocks it.


• Sears wasn't all that helpful (one Sears I called never even answered the phone, which I thought was sort of pathetic). NOTE: If I ever apply for a job at Sears, I am going to edit this part out.


• I'm now a big fan of National Tire & Battery (NTB).

The NTB guy I talked to, Chris, was extremely helpful. (And, in person, he turned out to be very cute.) I liked NTB because, even though I walked in ready to drop $300 on ONE tire, they said they really wanted to try to fix the other one first. And they did! They were able to fix it for $30. So that's one less zero than I thought I was going to have to spend. They promised me numerous times that my tire would not blow up and they said the repair would last the life of the tire.

They also showed me what was in my tire. I asked if I could keep it because I just had to be able to show people:

It's not a super-great photo, because I took it with my phone, but you can still tell that was a seriously big spike of something that was in my tire. No wonder it went flat.

But I took care of it on my own! Hooray for me!

It's always something

So I'm stressed, right? And today one of the tires on my car went flat. My NEW car. I mean, I know I probably ran over a nail or something, and it happens, but who expects to have to fix/replace a tire on a 4-month-old car?

The truly excellent thing, though, is that my car TOLD me the tire was low. I started the car after work, and it said, "CHECK TIRE PRESSURE" in bright orange letters, with a helpful little diagram showing me it was concerned about the rear passenger-side tire. Very handy.

I already have an appointment for an oil change at the dealership on Monday, so I'm going to call tomorrow and ask them if they can take care of the tire while I'm there. And then just not drive my car all weekend. We figure the dealership might be the best bet, since this car has so many sensors and things that have to be reset (or whatever...I'm baffled by how this car knows so much).

Having a Monday

This morning, after dropping Hannah off at day care, I hit myself in the face with my car door.

Yep, that's what happened.

Looking back on it, I still haven't figured out the logistics of how I managed to do this so spectacularly. I was in a hurry, and I wrenched open the door, and the next thing I knew was awful pain, disorientation and stars (you really do see stars when you get clocked in the face - who knew?). I didn't break my nose, and in the grand scheme of things I shouldn't really complain, but man - it HURT!

So I went back home, emailed people at work that I had to wait for the bleeding to stop before I could come in, cried a little and felt sorry for myself that a) my nose had a painful, bloody gash and b) I had to wear a Band-Aid on my nose like an 8-year-old.

I got over feeling sorry for myself but did spend the rest of the day feeling stupid. The good news is that the gash, under the powers of Neosporin and Band-Aids, seems to already look a bit better than it did this morning. It's still achy and is probably going to be bruised tomorrow. And I have a big presentation to do on Thursday that I imagine is going to be a bit awkward with a bandage on my nose. But whatever.

Then, when I got on my way to work, I decided I'd earned a Starbucks run. So I ordered my current favorite, a grande Cinnamon Dolce Latte (thanks, Vic - I used the gift card you sent me for Christmas!) and a blueberry muffin.

They were out of muffins. Whatever.

The whole day reminded me of the first bad day I ever remember having. I was in first grade. I was leaving school after what I imagine was a long and tedious day of learning my left from my right. It was raining, and I didn't have an umbrella. I dropped my yellow Cabbage Patch Kids lunchbox down the steps outside school, and it broke. When I got home, Mom asked me how my day was. And I said (I remember this vividly): "It's raining, and I didn't have my umbrella, and my lunchbox broke...and I have a headache!"

Odds & ends

1. I am so happy the Patriots lost the Super Bowl. I suppose I am also happy for the Giants that they won, and even though I've always thought Eli Manning was a little whiny, he just seemed so aw-shucks pleased with everything that I have to be happy for him. Also, he's Peyton's brother and I'm sure Peyton is glad they won. But mostly, it just does my heart good that the Cheating Cheaters Who Cheat got theirs...finally. My friend Jen & I put a sign that said "18-1" outside the office of this major Patriots fan we work with. (He is a nice guy, or we wouldn't have done it; he took it the right way. He also left Patriots stuff on my desk earlier in the season, so he had it coming.)

2. The problem with night school is that you have to work all day and then go to school. I had a mildly crummy day at work, but most of my department had a bona fide crappy day, so it was tiring. And then I had to go discuss ethics for 2 1/2 hours...which is endlessly interesting, but hard to do when your brain is so worn out.

3. I found a new use for my navigation system: finding your way in the fog. It is stupid-foggy here tonight, so I used the nav system to give me some warning for when turns were coming up. It worked quite well.

4. Tomorrow is Super Tuesday and if you live in a state that's holding its primary, be sure to vote! I'm planning to maintain my perfect Barack Obama voting record. I'm really interested to see how the presidential race shapes up after tomorrow, especially since the weather is supposed to be awful in many of the primary states.

5. Did I mention I'm happy the Patriots lost?

A is for Awesome Acura

YOU CAN TALK TO MY CAR!

Brock went out to set up my hands-free/Bluetooth capability in the car this evening, since it got above 30 here and felt quite nice outside. So he called me from inside my car in the garage, telling me that my car was awesome and I had to come outside.

So I did...and it turns out the car recognizes a bunch of voice commands. You can practically have a conversation with it. At the very least, you can order it around, which is pretty fabulous.

Remember how I said it was kind of awkward for me to reach the rear defroster button? Nevermind now...I'll just say, "Rear defroster on" and the car will turn it on for me. Who needs a stupid button, anyway?

I am upgrading my overall rating to 9.8/10.

Review of Acura RDX

I was inspired by Brock's review of Assassin's Creed to actually try to use my blog to convey something that might be useful. :) Since we just bought a new Acura RDX about three weeks ago, I thought I would provide some insight on this car.

First, let me say that this is my first foreign car. I refer to myself as "GM spawn" in that I am from a GM family - Dad's retired from the factory, Mom works at a GM dealership. I've only ever had Chevys. I had to work very hard to get over my GM bias to even think about buying an Acura. It helps that it looks cool and has tons of great features. Also, this model is built in Ohio; thus, I am calling it my Japanese-American car. It eases some of the genetically encoded guilt.

Anyway, on with the review. The model we bought is the 2008 Acura RDX with Technology Package, so everything I'm about to say is based on that.

What I LOVE:

• The headlights. If you said, "Hey, nice headlights" to me as I was driving my Acura RDX, I wouldn't be offended as long as you were talking about the ones on the car. They are Xenon High Intensity Discharge (HID) headlights, and they rock. The beam focus is really tight, so that when you turn on the headlights you can see a perfectly straight line of light ahead of you. I don't have great night vision (bad eyes to begin with, plus contacts give all the lights that "halo effect") and I can see much, much better with these lights than any other headlights I've ever had. I am more comfortable driving at night because of them.
• The navigation system. I have a bad sense of direction. Actually, no sense of the direction. The nav system has an excellent sense of direction, and together, we make a great team. I confess I used it to find my way out of the mall parking lot one day. It's pathetic, I know, but it's great for me. Also, if you keep the subscription to XM radio after your three-month trial expires, you get updated traffic information in several major cities. Which brings me to...
• XM radio. I'm still in the free trial and I have become quickly addicted. I'm not proud of this; I always thought satellite radio seemed frivolous. But it is really nice being able to listen to actual music anytime you want, without being at the mercy of talking DJs all the time. And yes, I know I could just load up the 6-disc CD changer or plug in my iPod and listen to those instead. I didn't say it was rational.
• The rearview camera. When the car is in reverse, the nav screen shows you the view of what's right behind you, but too low to see through your back window - the scary blind spot in any SUV. This is one of the features that actually sold me on this car. I've always thought it would be so easy to hit something backing out of the driveway, because there's that spot that you absolutely can't see...without a handy rearview camera. And because lots of kids walk past our house to the school bus stop, I think this is an extra-good feature. It's also really nice when you're backing out of a parking space.
  
• The seats. Not only are they leather, which is just nice, but they are heated and they're designed so they kind of cradle you on all sides. It's hard to explain, but they're really the most comfortable car seats I've ever sat in.
• The driver controls. Okay, you can run quite a lot of this car from the steering wheel. I couldn't do that with my old car. So not only can I deal with cruise control, but I can change the radio station and adjust the volume, and flip through one of my favorite features, which is...
• The driver information center. This car will tell you, right on the dash, if your tire pressure is okay, how many miles per gallon you're getting, what your average speed is, how long you've been driving, how much power is allocated to each of the wheels (it's got all-wheel drive) and more. It is so cool. Just having the car tell you a tire is low is such a fantastic idea. I think it will also tell you when your car is due for service...or maybe that comes through the nav screen. I'm not sure, but this car is smart.
• The safety ratings. The Acura RDX has scored the highest in just about every safety test. I really, really like that.
  

What I Don't Love, but Can Totally Live With:

• The console controls. There's a lot going on in the console of this car, mainly because you have to control so many things (nav system, sound system, defroster, etc.). But some of the controls are kind of hard to reach from the driver's side, like the rear-window defroster button. And maybe when I've had it longer I'll be able to more intuitively hit the buttons, but right now I find I have to sort of search for things and really look to make sure I'm hitting the right button.
• The headlights. Not the lights themselves, which we've established I LOVE. No, what I don't love is that they aren't automatic. And this is because my last car had automatic headlights, so I got completely out of the habit of turning on the lights when it was dark. I have to really think about it now to make sure I don't drive around like an annoying person with just my running lights on. This is most likely to happen in a well-lit parking lot. It's a small thing, but with a car that does SO MANY things, it seems like they could go ahead and make the headlights come on by themselves, too.
• The rear window defroster. It just doesn't seem to have enough juice, somehow. I mean, it works, but I would appreciate some faster defrosting action.
  
• The size. While I like that it's a little smaller, and shorter, than my old SUV, I do miss being up a little bit higher while I'm driving. And while the loss of cargo space vs. the old car has not yet been an issue, I still wish it had more. However, this is totally mitigated by the fact that I'm really enjoying all the benefits of driving an SUV in an easier-to-maneuver vehicle.

What I Haven't Tried:

• The hands-free phone thingy. You can set it up so you can use your cell phone through the car's sound system. This sounds very cool, but it requires reading the instruction manual and syncing up some stuff, and I just haven't had time to do that yet. Also, it's been really, really stupid-cold here lately, and who wants to sit in the garage and set everything up when it's 2 degrees?
  
• The iPod connector thingy. I just got the cable for it, so I'll have to give it a go.
• The paddle shifters. I can't imagine I will ever use these. I don't even know what they do. But they're there, so if you're into paddle shifting, this car's for you.

Random Notes:

• There aren't that many colors to choose from in this car. Mine is "Royal Blue Pearl," which is a very pretty, very dark blue. I like it a lot. But other than that, you've got red, white, black and about three variations on gray.
• I don't see a ton of these cars on the road, at least around where I live. The MDX seems to be more common, probably because it's bigger. But I actually like that because I just traded in a Chevy Equinox...and I passed about 10 of them every single day on the way to work. And if it wasn't an Equinox, it was another GM variation on the same theme, like the Pontiac Torrent or the Saturn Vue. That got kind of annoying after awhile.
• I haven't really said anything about how the car drives, but I think it drives very nicely. And Brock had to drive it back from Indiana in blowing snow the weekend after we got it, and he said it handled fine in those conditions. It's a 4-cylinder "turbocharged" engine; I think I would still prefer a 6-cylinder, but it seems to have plenty of power. I mean, I only drive around the suburbs, anyway.
  

Overall Rating:
9.5/10

I really love my new car. :)