Wow, This posting thing really got away from me in the last month. I guess you can blame this post on Kayt and Alex. However, I should be posting without the competition from their web site. During this month a lot has happened. Of course I have been going iPhone crazy with all these apps. But more important than that, Alex has gotten me back into cars. This is both awesome and a curse. Cars are of course the one thing on this planet that are more expensive then computers... my other hobby. I have so many computers at this point I was done spending money on them. Now I have to start spending money on my car. It couldn’t come at a better time. My throwout bearing is just wailing at me. Every time I touch the clutch “rghrghrghrghrgh.” It sounds positively awful. That is a job that I can probably do myself, but I am still researching options. Unfortunately my “drop gear” as was described by my mechanic is too noisy and it has been getting noisier over the past year. That is an engine out job and probably something I can’t do. So research is being done on that as well. But in any case I threw caution to the wind and Alex and I went on a fantastic mini run. A bunch of minis grouped up at the base of the mountains between the bay and the pacific ocean and we went for a drive. It wasn’t too long, but it was exciting. The scenery was, as all scenery in Northern California is, beautiful. We ended the drive in Half Moon Bay at Cameron’s Inn and Pub where we had a tasty lunch. This wasn’t any official run. There were no dues, not RSVP’s, no maps. Just send out an email blast and meet us at this point. You could say it was “Social Networking” in real life. Whatever you want to call it, it was fantastic. You can see the photos Alex took on Jeffburg.com or my MobileMe Gallery.

Tags: mini, san francisco, half moon bay, motoring

As I was driving home last yesterday I saw that it was going to be quite a foggy night. As you may be able to tell from the posts on this site, I do tend to like the fog. I like it when it precipitates on my windshield and when I can see my headlights in it. I also like how it makes the air more dense and makes my car just that much faster. I also like how it blurs the landscape. The Golden Gate Bridge, for instance, normally quite visible. Last night I couldn’t even see the lights that illuminate its graceful steel cables. The fog also makes the roads a little slippery. This means that I can have a little bit more fun with under and oversteer (with my rotten suspension setup its mostly understeer) without squealing my tires and/or alerting nearby patrol cars. However, it was friday night and the cops were out for the drunk watch. Thankfully, none of them had any interest in me. I also managed to get some pretty crappy iPhone pictures, one of which is posted above. If only the iPhone had the same camera my old Sony Ericsson did. But anyway, there will be many more foggy nights where I can bring a proper camera.

Tags: mini, car, san francisco, fog

"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco"
Mark Twain

Tags: san francisco, summer, street, house, mini, car, fog

Well, two weeks before I need my car to drive back to Orange County the brakes crap out. Wonderful! The one time I need my car to work it breaks. I can take the bus to work every day, but no bus to Orange County. Luckily, I disocvered this brake problem on tuesday. Therefore I could order the parts from Heritage Garage on tuesday night. That means they ship out wednesday and will get to me on friday. Its now saturday, I have received the parts and I do believe they are the correct ones. So now comes the fun part. Time to go sit outside cursing at my car and getting all dirty and getting brake fluid all over me. Yuck.

Tags: mini, car, mechanic

Here is one marked advantage of San Francisco over Orange County. Look at the view from my parking lot. There are no famous structures at all in Orange County, let alone ones that are viewable from your local parking lot. In this picture you can see my car and the Golden Gate bridge. What this picture lacks is the view of Alcatraz and Sausalito which are both out of the frame in this photo. So this is what I see every morning when I come to work... Not bad. And thats the thing with San Francisco. Almost everything is like that. There is so much history here that you can only help but bask in its beauty sometimes. For instance what you also can't see in the photo, but I can see from the where I park, is the Exploratorium Dome and Coit tower. This city is filled with one amazing view after the other. It's fantastic

Tags: parking lot, san francisco, bay, marina, golden gate bridge, mini, sgh

It was a nice sunny day and it was perfect for a good drive. After finding out the Aimee's camera had no juice we headed out to Tunitas Creek Road. The first time we took this road we started from Highway 35 (Skyline Blvd) and went down all the way to Pacific Coast Highway just south of Half Moon Bay. However, the first time was not much fun because the brakes were getting a little toasty on the downhill section. This time I decided to go from PCH to Skyline. This was much more enjoyable. I was able to take it a little faster without worrying about not being able to stop. However the nature of the road requires driving with a good amount of caution. Its just a one lane road with lots of blind corners and therefore must be approached with caution. So while its not a particularly fast or smooth road it is a nice drive with a lot of terrific scenery to look at on the way. If your looking for a relatively quick one to two hour drive, you can't beat this road (so far as I know.)

Tags: street, motoring, mini, aimee, excursion