Worse than a job review...

Somehow I have managed to land myself in accademic probation, once again. Only this time I am not quite sure why. I have a GPA of 3.40 and finnished %62.5 of my classes. (5 out of 8 credits)

Weird. Now I just need to come up with the money for summer semester before it starts...tomorrow.

-G

Old car...new car.

Wow...Blogging is slow sometimes.

So B3 is gone! It moved to Rochester with my step-brother. May it treat him well until he passes it on to another brave E30 fanatic.
And a day later what is in my garage? A BMW of course! Welcome home B2 aka RallyBimmer.

I know this picture doesn't look so good but it is actually some fair progress. Wiring is the biggest pain and one of the biggest obstacles. Once the motor is running again and the driver seat is fitted it is off to the cagebuilder.

Once the car is caged up I will be finallizing the electricals and plumbing. Then it is a matter of installing the safety gear and equiping the computer. And then...more stuff, more money, etc etc etc. :)

Right now the plan is to have it running by June 9th for the CVSCC autoX in Eau Claire. I still have to pick up my 3rd place trophy from two years ago and figured it woudl be a perfect time to get the beast back in the groove.

-G :)

Unemployment=car time.

Sadly I am still unemployed...but that is depressing so I will only mention it. :)

I spent most of today in the garage. It was rather satisfying. I actually MADE a new key for B3 (the E30). I bought a key blank right after I bought the car and nobody in PF could cut a key fragment for me, and I asked one guy in duluth today and he said the same. So I finally (why didn't I do this on day one?) got out the Dremel and a narrow cutting wheel and had at it. I wish I had a second pair of hands so I coulda taken some pictures of it. Lordy! it was funny. And to top it all off the damn thing worked when i was done! A little tweaking, but it works! Yay.

Then I went and got a new wash rag at menards and did a little wishy washy on the beast. I was amazed at how much gunk there was on this car. I don't understand the history of this car at all. it reminds me very much of Sam's Mercedes. Mystery rust, holes where there shouldn't be, ride feels original etc...

After last weekends glorious visit to the pull-yard in East Bethel I had a few bits to make the car good again. Seatbelt buckles, window switches, trunk handle. I left several parts there though which are calling my name from afar now. Oh well. Theres always next time. :)

Ah, environmental politics

I must admit that since moving in with my father, I have become quite the little political thinker. Today I wrote my first letter to the editor. I hate myself. (just kidding) Now I feel like expanding on the subject.

Last friday (March 28, 08) The Duluth News Tribune's cover story was about the 2 hybrid transit buses that the DTA had purchased, and how they planned on replacing all 44 buses with hybrid equiped machines.
Great, lovely.
Each hybrid bus costs $500,000. Uh, what!? Come again!?
Yes, ladies and gentlemans, for 3.6x the cost of the average Duluthian home (http://www.city-data.com/city/Duluth-Minnesota.html) you too can purchase ONE hybrid transit bus.

Okay okay so the government (read- tax dollars) pays 80%. That still leaves $100,000 to be paid directly by the Duluth tax dollars. Which is they change out the entire fleet of buses equates to 4.4 MILLION dollars directly to Duluth, or $22 MILLION to the tax paying general public.

I can hear the greener of you out there thinking to yourselves "Well you can't put a price on saving the environment." Right... But we can minimize the cost imposed to us by the philanthropist government. But i will touch on this again towards the end, hold on through my fiscal analysis please.

The article states that the hybrid bus saved approximately $3500 per quarter, which means $14000 per year.
If we look at this from Duluth's perspective it is good. The buses will pay for themselves in 7-8 years. BUT if we look at the total cost of the bus it will take about 36 years to even come close to payoff. These calcs don't even touch on maintenance costs or intrest payments or anything else. If you are not from Duluth or the upper-Midwest let me tell you about the roads: SALT. My 20 year old BMW that lived it's life here should probably be illegal to drive because of the rust damage from road salt. A 20 year old transit bus should look about the same, if not worse. So how in the world are they planning to get 36 years out of these buses? Perhaps that should be the DNT's next cover article? LOL

Back to the environment.
Me and my father discuss the environmental/green FADS at length when we get bored. People are gullible seems to be our common conclusion. I would apply the same here.
Why do we, the environmental concious public, HAVE to spend $500,000 x 44 to "save the environment"? Why don't we refit half the fleet with hybrid units $170,000 x 22 and reduce the bus routes? (I do see people waiting for the buses here in the west end...but rarely downtown, and pretty much never in the east end)
How about spending $200,000 on bike and walking trails/paths? Spending $100,000 on offering incentives to car-poolers? Or to businesses that use more fuel-efficient vehicles?

Hybrids are not the golden egg, the holy grail, or the golden fleece. So get over it, folks. Learn about what effeciencey actually means before you give in to the "social norm" and the environmental fashion. Please?

Romney anounces new countrys under his presidency.

During Romney's "happy speach" after tonights FL primaries he let our this priceless gem: "Jobs going to other countries...like Asia and India."

oh my lord. me and my dad laughed for a while on that one!! hahahahaha

and it wasn't the only one...but i'll leave the others for other people.

-Gabe :)

Finally!

I was beginning to worry that we were gonna have another winter like last year.

Rally is now officially back-burnered :(

Yesterday evening I registered for classes at Hennepin Technical College In Eden Praire, MN.
That both excites me and dissapoints me. Happy because I am moving on with my life and getting an education. Sad because I am not going to be able to do everythign I want for the next couple years. I will be hard pressed to afford even attending Rallyes for a while, much less building my car.

Still unsure about life in general...but I will try my best I guess.
On a more upbeat note: the E30 lives! Everything Is back together and operates as well as It can right now. The lack of power steering kinda sucks; but makes driving that much more raw and entertaining. I do need to get it patched up though. Possibly a new steering rack as it appears the fluid is simply flowing out the ends of the rack. A factory stereo bumps the tunes and the electrics are sketchy and the thing smells bad. What a car!!

LOL
-G :)