Why are apartment prices so messed up?

Okay so I am reporting live from the Midwest city of twins: Minneapolis...actually New Brighton at the moment. And I spent the last couple days looking over apartment prices and then driving around and actually physically going out to look at a couple this sunday. and...This stuff is ridiculous!!

I went through Hopkins and Eden Prairie to look at places and here is what i got: I will not be living in a half-decent 1 bedroom apartment for less than $600 a month. and could likely pay $750. That is for ONE MONTH of living. That is incredible. Is housing really at that much of a premium that stuff costs this much? Right now I make $11 an hour living in a dinky town in Northern WI and I could afford that if I had too...but that is me living in a rent free house not anywhere near minneapolis. It's crazy and i really don't understand it all.

Its depressing. I'm sure my brother will laugh at this since he has lived in A^2 for a long time...but I also don't know how he affords it either! so ha! :(

so it looks like I will definatley have to up the ante in my life very soon and take on both full time school and full time work just to have a roof over my head. I hope I have it in me.

As for the cars: The Bronze car will hopefully be running again soon now that I have all the head parts to put it back together. Hopefully the rest of the car is in good enough shape for it to run after all this!!!
The red car still is gathering dust. Zero status change.
The Silverado has brake problems, likely warped rotors. Still has a clunk up from somewhere. And the Vent distribution knob froze up...no idea whats up with that.
The KZ is on the eBay Auction block. and if that falls apart then it's parting out time! woohoo. and the remainder goes to Reubens. yay.

Okay, Gabe- out! :?

May the car Gods SMITE the moron!

oh pitiful misery of disaster. May you call on "GLI_ryan" and smite him badly for being such a stupid guy.

So, after a massive injection of money into the E30 prerunner project car; I broke 4 rocker arms and bent at least 4 valves in the head. So obviously I had to find out what went wrong. I discovered the timing marks were off, and after I thought about it I realized they had moved since I first tried to change the timing belt.

and tonight i finally discovered what happened this whole time. There was no key holding the timing gear to the crank. Seriously; that is the stupidest thing EVAR!! It hadn't fell out (they can't) and there was zero evidence of there having been a key in the correct slot any time in the recent past. Gawd I just want to drive up to Duluth and smack that kid for overlooking something that important and then selling it to me! (or maybe I should smack myself for buying the car off him when he was obviously a sub-par mechanic)

so, hopfully tomorrow my valve spring tool will arrive and I can rebuild the head and get it all back together some time before next week! in time for Ze Rallye!!! woohooo!!!

oh look there goes the time!

okay so it has been a forever since I posted on here! whoops. Well I'll give a little recap.

I bought another bmw. a 1989 325i 2dr. So far I have blown up the valvetrain once, and...thats about it. Haven't even driven it out of my driveway! It was supposed to be a cheap daily driver for when I move to the Twin Cities this winter.

Going back to school is still in the plans, so Is moving to Minneapolis area to pursue those dreams. It is becoming very aggravating to keep my life on track but I am trying hard.

So that is the last several months in a nutshell.

In two weeks Leann and myself are headed to Da UP for POR (Lake Superior ProRally) for some rallying action. I hope I can get her a ride in a car!

I'm also debating what to do with BahntechnicII since I will not have enough space for three cars in an aparment complex :( Who knows. Nobody wants to buy it as is...so It might go to the crushers. if thats the case I'm taking some of Dad's garage for an engine stand and tranny storage! heheh.

okay thats it for now. more later some time.

-Gabe :)

The Bike is Alive!!

okay so yesterday I got 4 boxes from the post office...and honestly didn't know what was in them. Turns out they were all motorcycle parts! woohoo!

So I sped home as fast as I could and started re-assmlbing the carbs off my 1980 Kawasaki KZ650B. Things were much better with the assistance of a manual! I rebuilt the accelerator pump and the vacuum pump thingy next to it, and reassembled everything with new float bowl gaskets. A little silicon on the intake boots and some new gas line and presto: looked like new! almost.

I wheeled the bike out into the driveway and went full choke and a little throttle. Kick 1; sputter sputter. Kick 2; ZZZZZZZZIIIIPPPP zam! 4000rpm idle!! woot. choke down and close the hand thottle and sure enouigh the idle goes down and it doesn't die. I give the throttle a twist and sure enough a roaring sound comes form the exhuast instead of the usual rattling gasping death! YAY!!!

Now I need an idle screw so the damn thing stops dieing every time I close the throttle. Then new tires and a headlight and I might have a usable bike!

I am like so excited! yay.

-G :D

Poor Jan...

So...in case some of you haven't noticed I follow things Czech whenever I can. And WRC Finland was last month and poor Jan Kopecky(Czech driver) in his Skoda(Czech car) had a rather nasty little bump. As Follows:

and now...The News!

I haven't posted much lately...since my life is in the usual standstill that it ends up in.

I've been spending a lot of time with my girlfriend lately, which does indeed greatly detract from the amount of time spent moping about over my car and dead motorcycle. But I view it as a good thing.

I need to start planning for my move to the twin cities around christmas, and everything else involved in that, as well as clean out the garage of all my shit and figure out what to do with the Bimmer.

I am also still trying to persue Rally. The bmw is on hold but another Suzuki Swift recently came up for sale for a totaly decent $3000 price tag...which is about the cost for a roll cage...so it would be a crime NOT to! We will see.

and on life goes...

-G :)

Appearantly the bottom line is...

...is that if both your parents are educated people who have some money saved up the government wants you to go fuck yerself and pay for your schooling out of your own pocket.

I recently updated my FAFSA since I want to go back to school and guess what it says: EFC-35,000 something. What a farce!! A real joke. That is way more than I make in a year, and neither of my parents are able to put down that kind of money for me (no matter how I beg them it wouldn't happen).

It all makes me sick. I can't afford a car, an apartment and schooling while going to school full time. It actually kind of depresses me...not like thats really surprising.

meh
-G :(