Archives January 2010

I rarely take a leak at the gym but today I did.  I wish I didn’t.  As I turned the corner to head to the urinals I was greeted by the mostly bare, wrinkled ass of a 5 foot tall old man.  He was standing at one of the urinals. Instead of pulling down the front of his shorts with one hand and steering his junk with the other he preferred to pull his shorts down to the point where 2/3 of his crack was showing and his free hand was above his head, supporting the wall.  I mean wtf is that about? 

I have seen people do this pose before at a urinal and I believe without fail they are almost always old.  I don’t understand what is going on there.  I can almost guarantee the little old dude performed the spit in the urinal move as well, something else I never understood. Is it good luck?  Does the sound of spit hitting the water trigger the urination process?  People are weird.

So after weeks of prep and countless practice tests I finally took my Microsoft exam Friday afternoon.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the test was a breeze for me.  I was allocated two hours for the  48 question test, I was finished in no more than 15 minutes.  Coming into the exam I expected that there could be lab simulation questions, IPV6 stuff and other items that were designed to make the test more challenging.  My test had none of that. 

All of the questions were short and straight forward multiple choice.  They didn’t even have a lot of the typical extra wording that is designed to mislead and confuse that I have become accustomed to in prior MSFT testing. I took so many practice exams that many of the questions were familiar. 

When you take these tests you have to empty your pockets.  You can’t have any electronic devices in the room with you, including a watch.  They also have the room under video surveillance to make sure there is nothing shady going on.  It sort of adds to the stress level.

So I now have credit for three of the five tests required to upgrade my MCSE to 2008 status (not called MCSE anymore)  I plan on giving myself a couple month break before I dive back in.  I was really, REALLY getting burned out on studying.

The vast majority of the rest of our weekend was tied up with the half marathon.  We got a call from the race director on Saturday saying he was getting a ton of last minute entries and that we might want to drive down there to start keying them in.  So drive down there we did and found the store to be swamped with people both registering for the race and picking up their race packets early.

I set up my wireless router to create our own mini-network and then set up the laptops on the patio of  TGI Fridays which was right next door.  I made sure it was ok with them first.  There was no one sitting out there so they didn’t care at all.  Ali and I punched in around 120 entries over the couple hours we were there.  At one point I grabbed a couple beers from the bar and enjoyed them as I did the data entry.  Finally we got all the entries entered.  The final total was 1918 registrants, a record number for the race.

 Saturday evening the race prep continued.  We HAD to make sure that all of our ducks were lined up, a race like this has to go smoothly.  The race director had asked that we arrive on site at a ridiculously early 4:30 am for the 7am race.  I set the alarm clock for an unprecedented 3:05 am in order to get out the door by 4.  One of my big concerns was leaving the dogs alone for such a long time.  By the time we would get home they would have been alone for 7-8 hours.  It was crucial that they both did their business before we left. Thankfully after much prodding from me both dogs did a 1 and 2.  Maybe they sensed the urgency in my voice.

The weather was not exactly cooperating, there was off and on rain and wind up until an hour before race time.  Once we arrived on site we dug into getting everything set up before the throngs of people arrived.  The registration area quickly turned into a bee hive of activity.  The biggest obstacle we expected were people once again being dumbfounded by the process of attaching a timing chip to their sneaker.  We weren’t disappointed.  I am constantly amazed at just how perplexing this process is for some people.

I had some unexpected duties pop up pre-race.  I became the lost and found department when someone turned in a car key.  Amazingly the guy that lost it tracked me down and got it back.  Our van also became an impromptu bag check for some of the elite runners.  Evidently they were told that there would be a place for the backpacks, there wasn’t. So I lugged their stuff over to the van and stored it in there.

Ali had to get ready to run her first ever half marathon so I took over the laptop while she got loose.  She was very nervous about the race, not only because it was her first half marathon but also because she hadn’t trained for a couple weeks because of a knee problem.  Although the knee has felt better recently she was worried what would happen after being pounded on for 13.1 miles.

The huge mass of people headed to the start. I found a small open space in the crowd of spectators to set up so I could start the clock.  The signal was given and the massive herd of humanity lurched forward.  I knew I had little to no chance of seeing Ali in the crowd so I quickly exited back to the registration area to get everything set up and moved.

So I headed over to the finish line and made sure the timing equipment was in working order.  As we were waiting for the first runner to finish I was approached by various individuals from the press looking for information from me that could be used in their race coverage.  The most bizarre of which was a guy and a cameraman from some hispanic tv station.  He asked if I knew how many hispanics were in the race.  I told him I had no way to easily tell.  He kept asking me questions right up until he was cut off by the race director, moments before the first runners finished.

For the second year in a row there were two runners sprinting for the finish.  It’s a pretty amazing thing to have two people dashing for the finish after a long 13.1 miles.  With about 100 yards to go one of the runners pulled away and crossed the line in 1:04 and change, an incredible 4:55 per mile pace.  Both runners registered cleanly with the timing system so everything was fine.  At that point my major job was to just periodically print updated results to be posted.

Before the race Ali estimated her finish time to be anywhere between 2:15 and 2:30.  As the 2:15 mark approached I was standing up so I could see her coming.  As I was waiting one of the male runners had stopped and fell down about 25 yards from the finish.  Evidently his legs had just given out.  I scurried out there and along with the help of another woman under the other shoulder helped him up and walked him across the finish line. 

You saw alot of people in a world of hurt as they crossed the line.  There was barfing, stumbling and for one woman a trip in the ambulance as she collapsed after crossing the finish from dehydration. 

So anyway I heard Ali’s name called in by the spotter a few hundred yards from the finish.  I saw one of her running buddies, Michelle cross a few seconds earlier.  I saw Ali bearing down on the finish looking sweaty and tired but also incredibly happy.  She had tears in her eyes as she crossed the line.  I had some in my eyes as well as I knew just how proud she was of her accomplishment.  I found her in the crowd and she gave me a big, sweaty, tearful but jubilant hug.  I told her how proud I was of her as I kissed her forehead.  She set a huge goal and accomplished it despite much adversity along the way.  She said it was the hardest thing she ever did.

I had to get back to the timing table.  Ali and Michelle were on the lookout for the third member of their running crew, Cristy who had to slow down because of breathing problems.  About 9 minutes later she came down the finish shoot to big cheers from all.

The course is supposed to officially close after 2:45.  If you sign up, it is supposed to be with the understanding that you can complete the distance in that time period.  Well the limit is never really enforced, in fact I kept the timing system running a full hour extra.  The last walker crossed the line a little short of four hours.

From a technical standpoint I had very few challenges during the race.  We had a few people that had their chips fall off after not attaching them correctly but other than that the system worked flawlessly, including the extra 1000 chips that we prepared for the race.  We got off site a little after 11 and hurried home to let the dogs out.  Luckily there were no unwelcomed dog  “presents” in the house.  They survived the prolonged absence just fine.

On the drive home Ali described the race to me.  It’s hard for me imagine running for over two hours straight.  Ali said her knees felt ok for about the first two and a half miles, after that she felt it.  She said Michelle was instrumental in helping her get through the race offering encouragement repeatedly to help push them forward.  I’m not sure how many times I told Ali I was proud of her.

Of course Ali was exhausted when we got home and it wasn’t long before she was out like a light in bed.  Although I was up a 3am I was still motivated to get all of the post race duties handled, the biggest of which was sorting the 2000 chips that were just thrown in a 5 gallon bucket.

I spent the better part of the next 6 hours doing nothing but sorting chips.  As you can see I set up an impromptu chip sorting station in front of the tv.  I figured I could at least watch some of the NFL playoffs while I was doing it.  It was a two part process.  By the time Ali woke up I was done with phase 1 which was sorting the chips into batches of 100 in the trays you see on the table.  Ali helped me with phase two which was putting each tray in numerical order. To say it was extremely tedious would be a huge understatement.  I got it done though, before putting my head on the pillow everything was cleaned up and put away.

Monday morning Ali woke up feeling very sore but surprisingly her knees didn’t feel all that bad.  She expected them to be a total mess. 

I didn’t like the way my Monday unfolded.  I am always a work first, play later kind of guy.  I much prefer to get any crap done early and then enjoy the rest of the day.  Instead I f’d around playing WoW all morning and then wound up doing work in the late afternoon.  We ran out during the afternoon and stopped at Home Depot and Bed Bath and Beyond.  I was finally going to get the replacement carpet cleaner that was on the to do list for a long time. 

With my 20% off coupon in hand I headed inside.  I initially had ideas of going for the top of the line $300 model that had heated water, a blower to help dry the carpet and a few other things.  They had one on display but none in stock.  What they did have was another model that was half the price.  This model also had the water heater which was the one key thing I wanted.  I figured hell it was half the money, let’s get this one.

When I got home one of my wanna does was cleaning the carpets which were feeling cruddy so I immediately tested out my new machine.  It was very similar to my 10+ year old model with a few improvements, including the water heater.  The new cleaner seemed to work  just fine but I immediately noticed one thing I didn’t like. The machine was narrower than my older model and as a result has a smaller tub for solution which means more trips to the sink to dump and refill.  It also meant more swipes to cover the same area. 

I had the heater on so the water coming out should have been warmer which I assume would do a better job of cleaning.  Of course I had no way to really know if it made any difference.  The water I was dumping from the unit looked no dirtier than the stuff I would get before.  Dirty water is dirty water.  I found myself wishing I got the Mercedes model although to be honest I doubt I would be able to tell much of a difference in the quality of cleaning.  None of the models are going to make carpet cleaning exactly fun.

Today I get my latest spot of skin cancer removed.  This area was once burned and scraped but it grew back.  Now it gets cut out with brute force.  This area is the most visually disturbing of any of the spots I have had.  It looks like a perennial bloody pimple.  The procedure is going ot have an unwanted side effect, restrictions on my exercise routine for approximately two weeks.  I need to be sure to not do anything that could rip the sutures which pretty much eliminates any upper body exercises.  I am hoping cardio and leg work will be deemed as ok.  We’ll see.

Pat Robertson or Rush Limbaugh for saying this?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/14/limbaugh-weve-already-don_n_422958.html

Wow any Rush worshippers out there should be ashamed…..

I get to enjoy a three day weekend thanks to MLK day on Monday.  I have a bunch of things I want to get done and Sunday I’ll be timing the biggest race I’ve ever done, the half marathon which currently has 1800 runners registered.  It also will be the first half marathon that Ali has ever done.  She had to stop her training a couple weeks ago because her knees were giving her some issues.  I’m sure it will be a very emotional moment for her when she crosses the finish line.

This afternoon I am finally going to be taking my first Microsoft test in at least 3 years if not 4.  I’m pretty confident that I’ll pass it pretty easily.  I’ve spent at least 30 hours going over practice exams.

I haven’t mentioned the disaster in Haiti although that is what has dominated the news obviously.  There is a large Haitian connection in SW FL, we have a number of Haitians that work here and Ali has even more that work at the nursing home.  It’s hard to imagine having a disaster like that go down and have such inadequate emergency services available that your only option is foreign aid.  This is the biggest disaster since the tsunami.  The images coming out of the area with dead bodies piled up like trash are enough to shake up anybody.

How did you like Pat Robertson more or less saying that the Haitians had this disaster coming because they embraced the devil in exchange for being relieved of French rule in the 1800’s.  This was god’s way of making them change their evil ways.  Need I give any better example of why religion when applied in an overzealous manner is f’d up?  The scariest thing is Robertson represents millions of similar thinking people.

If there is a God, I would certainly hope his idea of a good time isn’t ripping apart an area that was already mired in some of the worst conditions in the western hemisphere.

I had three funny sightings over lunch hour.

When I came back from lunch a thin, bald, black man smoking cigarette was walking towards me.  I thought I would be nice and say hello to which he replied “How are you young man.”  It was only then that I noticed he was wearing a button down oxford with sweatpants and sneakers.

On the way to the gym I saw two more sights.  I passed an oncoming Mercedes convertible.  In the passenger seat was somebody in what looked to be a full sheep costume, including a huge over sized sheep head.

On my side of the road I noticed a woman that appeared to have a fit, lean body.  She was wearing black spandex pants tucked into her leather high heel boots.  She had a matching tight black shirt on that was pulled down over the ass and separated nicely by a shiny silver belt.  She topped off the outfit with a black sequined hat with additional silver piping.

Obviously I was checking this woman out to develop such a complete inventory of her wardrobe.  Well as I reached a 90 degree view of her my mouth involuntarily dropped open as I saw the most outlandish part of her outfit, the full, neatly trimmed gray beard and face that looked like an old sea captain.  Wow.

I ran at the gym today and as I was doing so I was looking around at the many people on the various cardio machines.  I couldn’t believe how many people hold onto the machine while doing things like the treadmill, elliptical and stair machine.  When you hold on to the machine you are robbing yourself of much of the benefit of doing body weight supported cardio.  When you stop holding on you force your body to support and balance which has a big overall benefit for core strength, agility and balance.

I especially have to snicker at the people that crank the angle on the treadmill but then negate much of the benefit by holding onto it.  Hey it’s better than doing nothing at all but if you are going to be at the gym exercising why not get the most out of your time there?

Speaking of exercise, we saw the first episode of this season of Biggest Loser.  They are developing a very dangerous and stupid trend with the show.  Each season they have to bring on fatter and fatter people.  This year they set another record by enlisting a 525 pound elephant. 

They are using the family format again this year where two family members are teamed up, husband/wife, parent/kid, siblings, you get the idea.  They also have an unreal pair of 485 pound twins, I mean wtf??  When they show the background on the various people most of them follow a pretty similar script.  They just don’t know how they got so heavy.

  I get particularly annoyed when fat ass parents in their 50’s cry about setting a bad example for their children and wanting to change.  Cut me a break, it took you 25 years of being a parent before you realized you were setting a bad example for your child?  To me it is just another form of child abuse.  Your kid emulates you.  Set a good example for christ sake, instead of setting them up to be a lazy glutton like yourself.  It doesn’t take a scientist to understand this.   

Yes it’s great that they are finally doing something about their weight, I just have no sympathy for how the majority of them got there. If you can’t exhibit self discipline you will have a variety of big issues in your life, including being BIG.

Ok I am officially whining about the cold, I’m sick of it.  We’ve had pretty much a week of temps dropping into the lower 40’s and 30’s, bottoming out at 31 degrees the other day.  A day or two is fine, a week just sucks.  As you can expect, our landscape has taken a huge beating.  Once again I’ll be spending hours tending to things once the cold leaves which hopefully is today.  The long range forecast doesn’t show any returns to these sort of temps thank goodness. 

Even with the week of cold I still have held rigid in my no coat policy.  I’ve worn just a long sleeve shirt to work.  Randall has taken things to an entire new level. He refuses to turn on the heat in his house since he lives in Florida. As a result as you can see the temperature in his condo has dropped to ridiculously low levels. 

I can’t imagine letting our house get that cold.  If the thermostat temp drops below 70 both Ali and I really mind it.  It’s supposed to be up to the mid 70’s by Friday.  I’m ready for it.

I finally scheduled my Microsoft test for Friday.  I have been studying off and on for the test for over a month.  I’m at the point where I want to puke if I look at another practice question.  I haven’t done any certification testing for a couple of years.  I heard they have upped the difficulty level of the MSFT tests so hopefully I can keep my perfect Microsoft testing record intact. 

These cert tests are really mostly a waste of time since many of the features that they test heavily on are used in very large corporate environments and will never see the light of day in my network environment.  However in the IT industry if you don’t push yourself to keep learning you are setting yourself up for trouble if for some reason you find yourself back out there looking for work.

I remember when I first started in the business and was doing integration of new systems a tech that I worked with gave me some good advice.  Never be afraid to take on stuff you never did before, never stop learning how to do stuff.  The more you know the more valuable you become.  It was ironic that this guy gave me the advice as he regularly caught hell from the boss for being unorganized and a poor communicator.  However he also was the only guy that knew how to do a bunch of stuff so it didn’t matter.

I still have  a small bottle oil from Jim.  It was jokingly referred to as the “magic Studs oil”.   Once he left Entre I kept it as a good luck charm. So far it’s worked out for me, thanks Jim.

I picked up Ali at the airport last night.  Despite being immersed in sub-freezing temperatures for the majority of her visit to PA she had a good time visiting her brother’s family.  I took the van to pick her up with the dogs riding shotgun.  Of course they were ecstatic to see her.

While I was waiting for Ali to call me to pick her up I was sitting in the cell phone lot playing with my Pocket Tunes app.  I mainly just use the app to listen to Stern via the internet feed on my Iphone.  However the app has every radio genre you can imagine and I started just checking them out.  I listened to a full time Christmas music station, the police scanners for various municipalities around me and finally stumbled across the sports station I used to listen to exclusively in PA, 610 WIP.  It really is a fantastic app.

After getting home it didn’t take long until I was back into more race prep.  I had close to another 50 paper applications to put into the system.  We currently have over 1750 people registered for the race.  This will by far be the biggest event I ever timed.

Not feeling overly chatty, sorry.

One of the things I had planned for my “crazy” weekend was I wanted to shave my own head.  I have sported a high and tight hair cut for years but I never used one short length for everything.  I always used a slightly longer attachment for the top.  I also never did it myself.  Ali always has been behind the clippers.

When I posted on FB about my head shaving intentions one of my buddies said he would pay to see video of that.  Well I decided to oblige him and roll tape during the process.

Shaving your own head is more of a challenge than I expected.  It’s difficult to evenly cut the hairs in the hard to reach areas like around your ears and the back of your head.  Even after repeated trips to the mirror to observe my progress I still found stray hairs hanging out the next day.  I also butchered my rear hair line.  Ali will need to do some fixing when she gets home.

I woke up Saturday morning to some absolutely miserable weather, probably the coldest, rawest conditions since I moved to Florida in 2000.  It was 41 degrees and raining.  I decided to keep as much of my activities indoors as possible for the day.  I kept myself busy around the house doing various things to keep me occupied.

Saturday night was the Eagles game, the chance the team had to make amends for their embarrassingly bad performance the week prior.  I decided I would make my time viewing the game productive as well so I labeled timing chips for the half marathon during the broadcast.

I don’t really feel the need to go into great detail about the game, it was more or less a replay of the prior week.  It was astonishing that the Birds were unable to do anything for a third time this year against the Cowboys.  If anything, it was the most humiliating loss of the three.  The Birds had revenge on their side, anger should have lit their asses on fire yet they once again came out and got dominated.  Ok I said I wasn’t going to go into detail but I feel the need to expand and point some fingers.

For sure the entire team sucked, the entire team played with no heart, the entire team, coaching staff, management and ownership should be scratching their heads and wondering exactly what they have as a team there.  Here are some things that stand out.

The defense is filled with holes.  I am so sick and tired of seeing the Eagles secondary throwing shoulders instead of tackling opposing players.  Macho Harris and Asante Samuel do this constantly, it infuriates me.  Wrap your f’in arms around the guy and TACKLE him.

The offense, that can certainly be explosive, also is entirely one dimensional.  Running the ball is a mere afterthought.  The problem is when you are one dimensional if a team handles that dimension you are screwed. Such was the case with the Cowboys.

As always, fingers are pointing at Donovan since he is supposed to be the leader of the offense.  To be fair, the offensive line was HORRIBLE on Saturday, McNabb was constantly running for his life.  However once again, the few opportunities McNabb did have to hit open receivers he mostly missed.  His 60% completion percentage is very deceptive since the vast majority of his pass attempts are less than 10 yards.  He just is not good at hitting crossing receivers down the field consistently.  He never has been and he never will be.  Hell he even misfires on the short stuff a ton.  How many times have we seen a 5 yard pass that is at the receivers ankles over McNabb’s career?

I’m not screaming GET RID of McNabb like many Eagles fans but I will say that I question the true intention of Eagles management.  How many times are you going to give Donovan the opportunity to prove he is a big time QB?  I think it is pretty well established what you can and can’t expect from him.  If your ultimate goal is to win the Super Bowl I don’t think McNabb has the accuracy or mentality to get it done.  He isn’t a clutch QB in my opinion.  I would be fine with starting a new era at QB in Philadelphia.  I appreciate what Donovan has done for the team over the years but I have a pretty clear understanding of where his ceiling is and I think we have bumped up against it for long enough.

Brian Westbrook is pretty much done I think.  He has been injury riddled for years and after missing half the season, McCoy has done enough to justify cutting the ties with Westbrook and his big time salary.

Andy Reid drives me nuts.  Sure his stoic, passionless demeanor has survived a dozen years  of criticism in the football championship starved town of Philly.  His win / loss record can not be argued against. However I just wish we had a guy with some fire in his belly.  I love a coach that gets visibly pissed off when the team loses.  I hate that when the Eagles lose Reid spits out the exact same line again and again. “I need to do a better job of putting my players in position to make plays”  Andy is winning coach but at what point is a coach that is unable to win it all a true winner?

It’s a shame that the Eagles turned the momentum of 6 wins in a row into a disaster so quickly.  It would have somehow been a less bitter pill to swallow if the team was at least competitive in the two losses.  They weren’t.  It was like the Cowboys were playing a high school team.  I’m hoping there is some meaningful change on the team next year.  At some point you have to realize that trotting out the same formula year after year is not going to magically produce different results.  The Eagles need to be a well rounded team, just like their coaches physique.

Sunday the weather was very cold once again but at least it wasn’t raining.  I decided to venture out into the 40 something degree air to do some outside chores.  I bundled up wearing two sweatshirts, work gloves and a beanie to cover my freshly shaved head.  Man it was cold.  It’s a weird thing that happens to a human beings body when they are no longer exposed to cold temperatures for long periods of time.  Despite spending 30+ years in PA winters where temps in the upper 40’s in January would be pleasant, I just can’t hack the cold anymore. 

After spending a couple hours outside, which was plenty, I again retreated indoors.  I decided to take in a couple movies I had that were on Ali’s “I don’t want to see” list, Bruno and Inglorious Basterds.

I had heard a lot of negative stuff from people that saw Bruno when it came out.  Although I have also heard some people that thought it was hilarious.  There seemed to be no middle ground, you either loved it or hated it.  I would have to say I am one of the former.  I can understand if you were homophobic or had a remotely conservative mindset that you would be extremely offended by various parts of the movie. 

There were several parts where the tension created by Bruno was incredible.  For example when he is sitting down with the religious dude who was going to convert Bruno from being gay to straight through the power of Jesus.  After a dissertation by the gay converter Bruno stops the guy cold by saying he had perfect lips for fellatio.  I mean the awkwardness was just incredible.  You could feel the guy squirming through the tv.  The film is filled with these type of moments and I loved them.  Putting people that are obviously uncomfortable with gayness in close proximity with outwardly gay behavior produces some pretty amazing and funny results.  Yep there are lots of visually shocking moments in the movie but if you realize that they are intentionally over the top and part of the plan they are easier to take in.  I’m sorry but I liked it.  B+ 

Inglorious Basterds was the second part of my home double feature.  Having Brad Pitt and Quintin Tarrentino involved in a film meant it HAD to be good.  This movie made the Ali not see list because I told her there was considerable graphic violence in it.  Having Nazi’s scalped and smashed in the head with a baseball bat isn’t exactly family entertainment.  However since it was just myself and the dogs watching it I had no reservations with taking it in.

Tarrentino has a really unique ability to make very compelling scenes where simple conversations become captivating, filled with drama and suspense.  The movie is filled with these moments and yes of course there is tons of graphic violence which is typical in most of his movies.  Ironically, although Brad Pitt once again does a great job portraying his role as the lead Nazi killer, the most interesting role was the one of the Jew Hunter.  The actor that played him was BRILLIANT.  If you despise on screen violence you would want to skip this movie.  If you appreciate good movies you want to see this.  To me it’s just as good as anything else Tarrentino has put out. I’d give it a solid A.

I’ve been giving more thought to my ultimate Camaro choice.  I think I am going to go with the Inferno Orange color, despite Ali’s preference for the more civilized silver.  I figure in the long run it’s my car, I should get what I absolutely want.  I also am oscillating on the 1SS vs 2SS decision.  The 2SS has a couple tech features that I would really like to have like the Homelink system which allows me to control the garage door as well as Bluetooth support so I can use the cell phone hands free in the car.  It looks like there is about a 3k difference.  For that money you get leather heated seats, bluetooth, a usb connectivity package, auto dimming mirror, the 4 pack of additional gauges,  upgraded stereo,  and navigation.  It may be worth it, I’m not sure.

Ali comes back home tonight.  I have to make sure I remember to clean up the remnants from my wild weekend before she arrives.

Yesterday on the way to work I wound up behind a nice burgundy 2010 Camaro SS.  It appeared to be a non-RS model since it didn’t have the halo headlights.  I couldn’t tell however if it was a 1SS or 2SS model.  Regardless it looked sweet.

Well later in the day I found myself thinking about Camaros and I became annoyed that my sales guy, who said some SS models were coming in a day or two had never called me, now 10 days later.

So I pull out the guys card and leave him a message.  Surprisingly he called me back 5 minutes later saying he had tried to call me but when he scribbled down my number his 1 looked more like a 7 so he was calling the wrong number. Anyway the cars had arrived Monday and they were all still there, including the orange 6 speed I was interested in test driving.

When I pulled up I saw they also had a silver SS which is the other color I was considering, how convenient to be able to see both in person, side by side. Both colors are appealing to me for different reasons.  The orange tugs at my heart strings because my beloved 69 Firebird convertible was Hugger Orange.  The silver looks sharp, hides dirt better than anything (although the car would never be dirty) and would look nice with a set of Eagle Midnight Green rally stripes painted on it.

Speaking of the stripes, I decided I don’t really like the look of the factory stripes much, especially when viewed from the front.  I’d like stripes that extended all the way down the front of the car.  The factory stripes look ok from the side and look fine on the rear trunk deck.  Plus the factory stripes are just decals, painted on stripes would look much better and hold up longer.

So my sales guy grabbed the key to the 6 speed and handed it to me.  I was a bit nervous to be honest.  The last stick I had driven was our Sentra.  I’ve never driven a stick shift muscle car.  Thankfully the clutch set up was not hard at all to get used to.

All of the SS they had were the higher end, more expensive 2SS models which I am leaning away from.  This thing stickered at over 37 grand and for what you get for the extra money I think I’d rather save 5 or 6k and go for the 1SS model.  The leather seats in the 2SS were pretty damn nice though.

The first thing I did was adjust the seat all the way down and all the way back to give me adequate clearance which it did, barely.  What is immediately noticeable when you sit in a new Camaro is the lack of visibility.  If you are used to driving a typical commuter vehicle it is very noticeable.  The car has a high belt line and as a result the windows and windshield openings all feel very small.  I had read about the visibility issue so I already expected it, even so it felt quite odd.  I also have read like anything else you become accustomed to it and learn to use your mirrors more to accommodate.

I fired the car up and heard the reassuring rumble of a 426HP engine.  My test drive wasn’t much more than a big square in rush hour traffic on roads where the speed limit was 45mph.  I only got apply slightly above minimal gas pedal pressure once or twice but that was all it took.  Even just caressing the pedal down brings about an angry response from the motor which seems to be asking for more.  I can only imagine a full throttle launch, it would surely mash you firmly into your seat.

The car drove nicely from what I could tell by the short test drive.  I found it amusing as I caught several sidewalk bystanders taking the car in as it rumbled by.  It just looks good and sounds even better.  I pulled back in the dealership and even backed the car back up onto the small display area where we found it.  The sales man went over a few of the features, all of which I already knew.  I even caught him giving me some inaccurate info.  He said that the 1SS model comes with the 4 pack of gauges on the center console which I knew was wrong.  He mentioned a few other things that were not true but I didn’t really care since I knew the deal.

 The car despite being a throwback vehicle has lots of modern tech that makes me warm and fuzzy like built in satellite radio, Onstar, full power accessories, digital information center and with the 2SS models stuff like bluetooth connectivity and usb docking port for a MP3 player.

One nice thing about our local Chevy dealer is they don’t throw bullshit addendum stickers on the cars unlike some asshole dealers that are trying to sell the cars 5k above MSRP.  I also asked him about the ordering process.  It’s simple enough.  I can spec out the car on the website, bring it to them, hand over a $1000 deposit and they order the car.  Roughly two months later you should have the car in hand, exactly as you want it.

After the test drive I somehow got into a prolonged conversation with the sales guy that had absolutely nothing to do with the Camaro.  When I met this guy the first time he seemed about as exciting as a water fountain.  Well in the span of 10 minutes or so I found out that he had quite a run of success, first as one of the first window tinting businesses in Naples, followed by a very successful run as the owner of a van conversion company which at it’s height made roughly 14 million dollars.  I also found out how most of that money disappeared after two bad marriages, how he is married again and lives out in the estates on 5 acres, less than 5 miles away from me.  He bred Great Danes for a few years and sold the puppies for as much as $6000 per.  Wow, it was just another example of how much you can find out about a person if you take the time to dig just a little below the surface, something I am admittedly bad at.

Anyway, I told Greg that when I was ready to make the move I would call him up and set the ball in motion.  Driving the car assured me what I already knew, I’d love a Camaro. 

Hey this weekend I am a bachelor, Ali is up in PA freezing her ass off.  I plan on reenacting some scenes from the Hangover.