I have had a very long week.  Issues getting to work on time in the morning (pouty kids, traffic, forgotten cell phones), people behaving badly, late nights, mental exhaustion, children who don’t sleep, the audit that never ends, catching up on work that actually never gets caught up on. I’m mentally out of it tonight, so I’m not even pretending to consider booting up the laptop.  Screw it, I’m chilling out tonight.

Tomorrow is Halloween, and the weekend is not too far beyond. My wife has been taking care of the Halloween preparations for the kids.  Josh is dressing up as a cowboy, and Lily is going to be a lamb.  I picked up cupcakes for Josh’s Halloween party in class tomorrow afternoon.  I probably wouldn’t have all the time and patience for all this planning for the kids, but my wife more than makes up for it.  God bless her.

I don’t know why I don’t buy from Amazon.com more often.  I stepped into a Best Buy last week to get an AUX cable to connect my iPod to the car stereo, and I happened to see Iron Man (2008) on DVD for $19.99.  I did want to pick up the movie at some point, so I made an impulse buy.

Iron Man

Later, I found it on Amazon.com for only $14.99.  Needless to say, I purchased this, a replacement vehicle adapter (no expensive FM transmitter), and a DVD for my wife.

Garmin Vehicle Power Cable

Meanwhile, the $19.99 edition is sitting in my glove compartment, and will be returned sometime this week.  Unfortunately, lo and behold, this is the wrong vehicle adapter for the Garmin nuvi 660.  It still works via the USB plug, but not exactly the one that connects to the mount directly.  It works, so who cares?

Ah well.  Maybe I can drop it in the lake without my wife knowing.

So, get this.  Two days ago, I’m heading to Bridgewater to do that shopping. Using my Garmin 660 GPS unit in the Highlander for the first time, I couldn’t get the GPS to acquire a signal.  I tried for 15 mins in multiple locations, but no luck.  Luckily, I had handwritten directions, and used them instead.  Later that night, I’m researching Garmin support pages and other forums to find out why my GPS unit can’t acquire a signal.

On the Garmin site, it tells owners to move away from tall buildings, reset the device, etc.  On other pages I googled, I find mentions of, among other topics, heated windshields.  Remembering that this new car has a heated windshield, I curiously click the link, and what do I learn?

People are wondering if others are having issues with their Garmin 200 series units unable to acquire signals.  Additional research turns up an interesting fact: heated windshields are made of some sort of conductive metal, which has the unfortunate deleterious side effect of blocking signals from GPS satellites.  Did we just buy a car without the GPS navigation option, and my long-awaited-for GPS unit won’t work inside it?

Luckily, with some testing, I found a suitable workaround.  Suggestions posted online have recommended the purchase of an external GPS antenna.  However, that requires installing it on the roof, and snaking the cable through the door.  I’m not doing that with my new car.  I have found out that if I hold the Garmin facing the driver side window and allow it to lock onto a decent amount of satellites, I can then mount it on the windshield normally, and it will continue to stay locked on the rest of the trip.  Every time I turn on the unit, however, I will have to repeat this ritual if I want the unit to find the GPS satellites.

It’s not the greatest, but it’s a decent workaround.  Weird, huh?  I bet you have never considered, imagined, or heard of this problem.  I never even considered, and you don’t ever hear of it.  From what I read, it affects some Toyotas, Volvos, and other cars with heated windshields.

I drove my car to the office for the first time today. 80 miles round trip.  It was a very comfortable ride, fun to drive something new and in good condition, with plenty of features that I’ve never had before.  After work, I had to stop by the Babies R’ Us in Bridgewater to pick up some much needed supplies. It was so nice to have the powered rear door, and plenty of room to fit a new high chair and other items.

I ate some McDonald’s for dinner in my car (carefully) as the restaurant dining area was closed for the night.  I had the angus burger with swiss cheese and mushrooms.  I have to admit, fully knowing that I’m one step closer to death’s door after eating that burger, it was pretty tasty.

Back to the title of the post, egads, that car is no gas sipper.  I’m already at a 1/2 tank of gas left (or a 1/2 tank full for you optimists out there) after only 170 miles.  According to the onboard computer, it looks like I’ll be only getting 320 miles per fill-up.  Considering my old Honda in its decrepit state used to get me between 360 – 400 miles, this isn’t a plus for small SUVs or crossovers.  I’m going to stick to 65 MPH during my commutes, and determine if this improves the situation.

Or just apply for a flexible work schedule with 4 days in the office, 1 day working from home.  I’ve been meaning to apply for that for the longest time

Last Saturday, on the way to one of the dealerships, we realized that the car power adapter for my Garmin nuvi 660 was broken.  The little silver tip was gone, nowhere to be seen.  We made it to the dealership, but man, my GPS!  Later, I looked online for a replacement, but I was floored by the replacement cost.

Garmin GTM 20

One of the reasons we got it was the FM traffic receiver, which allows the nuvi to display traffic information from TMC. The receiver is actually built into the power adaptor.  After using the initial complimentary 3 months of traffic service, I found it severely lacking in accuracy, and ultimately decided against paying for the service.  Looking to replace the exact item presently, I am amazed to find it it will cost me approx. $200 to buy this Garmin GTM 20 power adapter / traffic receiver.  Are they mad?  The whole set cost us around $300.  How much is the actual GPS unit — $100?

Thankfully, it is not my only option.  I can get a regular Garmin power adapter compatible with multiple Garmin units for just $18, which I ordered on Sunday.  In the meantime, I’m also exploring getting a replacement power adapter / traffic receiver through my still-in-effect 1-year warranty. Of course, I’m not doubting that Garmin may try to wiggle out of repairing/replacing, citing misuse.  It’s worth investigating.

BTW, I think the whole experience so far can be summarized with an “Argh.”

It took two Saturdays, and a few hours of online researching, and a few calls with local dealers.  We settled on the 2008 Toyota Highlander Limited.  We did a lot of negotiating, and walked away happy with our deal. Today, we are the proud owners of a new 2008 Toyota Highlander Limited in “Magnetic Grey”, which I think looks pretty classy.  We certainly wanted the Limited, as it offered a lot of interesting features in one package.

2008 Highlander Limited

Some highlights:

• all-wheel drive
• rear-view camera
• keyless ignition
• mudguards, 19″ alloy wheels
• foglamps
• power rear door (separately opening glass hatch)
• leather seats (both driver and passenger adjustable power seats)
• cold weather package (heated seats, heated sideview mirrors, heated windshield)
• 9 JBL speakers (and subwoofer), MP3 jack, 6-disc in-dash CD changer
• 3 climate-controlled zones
• Power tilt/slide moonroof with sunshade
• remote start (getting installed later this week)

The drive home was certainly different.  I’m more of a sedan-driving kind of fellow.  Driving a larger vehicle has a different feel that will take some getting used to.  I don’t think I’ll be able to slalom around other cars at 90 MPH anymore.  However, everything in the car works right now, so I will enjoy the simpler joys.

I was sad to complete the final once-over on my Little Honda That Could.  I very much wanted to surpass the 200,000 mile mark, and I certainly came close.  However, the last 9,000 miles was becoming impossible. For the past few months, the car itself was producing a significant level of noise while driving at varying speeds, and was extremely sluggish.  I had attributed it to a dying transmission, but one of the mechanics at a dealer diagnosed it as a rotted out front axle, which would have required an expensive replacement.

My poor Honda Accord.  I took the EZ-Pass tag out, did the once over, locked the doors, and handed over the keys.  It was a good ride, but all good things must come to an end.

All those years in high school and college, I dreamed about having my own car. While all the rich kids got new cars for turning 16, my parents were reasonable and responsible, and let me borrow theirs, took the time to teach me to be a good driver, keeping a watchful eye on me. I drove their 1990 Mitsubishi Galant (manual everything) for a few years, then drove our 1988 Honda Accord through college.

As a college graduation gift to myself, with some help from my parents, I went in search of my very own car.  I hunted around NY in April-May 1999, with my Dad & I negotiating a great deal on a Honda Accord EX-V6.  Great features, great handling (in the hands of a master like myself), and I could take my friends along with me.  I took the car everywhere, getting all kinds of girls.  No, not really, but let’s pretend I have some street cred in my Honda.

The car has served me well.  This week, the Honda will reach 191,000 miles, and the rate that it is deteriorating is accelerating. I recently took the car for an oil change, and was “recommended” that I have $500 worth of fluid systems flushed and filled.  Nah, not worth it.  Another bulb in the dashboard went out, and I can’t read the odometer at night.  $90 to open up the dashboard to replace all the $0.10 bulbs? Someone else’s problem. Hard to hear anything at 40+ MPH, and the transmission is about to die?  It’s all just not worth replacing.

We’ve started pricing out a replacement car, and we hope to finalize it in the next two weeks. I’m looking forward to driving a nice, quiet, comfortable ride again, but the Honda will always be a little special to me.

What schmaltz.

I didn’t understand last Saturday’s clip, until I saw Andy Samberg’s original sketch from two weeks ago.  Ah, that makes sense.  Yo, Andy is spot on with his Mark Wahlberg.

On my day off, I went to have lunch and see this movie at my friend Doug’s house.  I wasn’t expecting it to take place in London in the 1970’s.  It was a decent movie, but nothing special.  Call it a popcorn flick.

The Bank Job (2008)

I just realized/ woke up / found out / had an epiphany / looked at a calendar, and Monday is Columbus Day.  I don’t know about you, but it’s a day off for me.  A 3-day weekend has snuck up on me, and it’s not a bad thing.  My wife is working, the kids are going to school, and it’s just going to be me at home.  I can run around in my boxers, eat Cheetos, play Star Wars on the home PC, have lunch with my wife, fold the laundry, unfold the laundry, go drag-racing, eat Thai food, hang out with friends, throw eggs at the neighbors, or put in a few hours at the 7-Eleven.  The world is my oyster that day, and I’m not doing any work that day.

What will I do that day?  I don’t know, and I don’t care.