Spent Some Money Yesterday
Tuesday, Mar. 04, 2003

So, yesterday, I ordered my tires off the internet. They�re the Dunlop SP Sport A2�s you see over there. They were $50 each off Tirerack.com with 33 bucks shipping. I�ll pay ten bucks each to get them mounted at Topline Tires here locally.

But that $233 wasn�t the last of my spending yesterday. I went by AutoZone since I knew they had a sale on Rhino Ramps. Those are the ramps that have a low enough angle that my car can actually use them. Rather than being $40, they were $20. I also bought some Eagle One A2Z wheel cleaner, as my Finish 2001 stuff is running out (which is good since it doesn�t work that good). And I picked up some Clay Magic to do Aisai�s mom�s car whenever it�s nice enough for a full day of that kind of thing. So, I�m up to $35.

Well, then, I decided to get stuff for my oil change. And here I lowered my standards.

They didn�t have Purolator, so I got Bosche. I�m sure it�s a good brand, but since they didn�t mention the backflow preventer, I�m sure it doesn�t have one. And it still cost $5.50 where I could add another 50 cents to that (and drive to a different place) and get a Purolator PureOne filter.

Well, my automotive slumming doesn�t stop there. Since I realized the price was getting kind of high, and I was looking at the motor oils and, well, the Mobil 1 was $5 as usual per quart and all the other synthecits they had were also $5. They didn�t have the Havoline that I�m used to at Advance Auto for $3.50�so�so I bought non-synthetic oil.

I would call it dino, meaning dinosaur, oil, but I don�t really like that term. Why? The oil isn�t dinosaurs. It�s any hydrocarbon. Biomatter. And what is most of the biomaterial on the earth currently (and thus we can assume that it was like that when the oily stuff went underground)? Well, it�s plants.

In fact, the oil I bought was based on plants, if my understanding is correct. Though I find this understanding to be freakish. And that understanding is that Castrol is based on Castor Oil, from like, the Castor plant. Which is actually an interesting seasonal schrubbery type thing. [Misspelling intentionally left in place, cause it looks neat and helps break the mold of the establishment�s landscape spelling paradigm.]

Well, I got Castrol GTX, and while being the best non-synthetic according to many authorities, it�s just not the best of the best, with honors, sir. It was $1.78 compared to $5 a quart. We�ll see.

All total I spent $53 at AutoZone and $233 at Tirerack.

When I got home, I played Gran Turismo 3. The night before, just so I�d be forced to pursue this one difficult route, I spent all my money upgrading my Pagoni Zonda and saved my game. Sure enough, yesterday, I discovered that the Zonda is like trying to drive an airplane on the ground. I had wasted about $270,000 dollars on that piece of crap. I got out the ol� CLK race car and earned $160,000 to take my mind off it. Well, I actually saved right before I won the last $100,000 of that so I can reload and see what car it will randomly award me. I�m not fond of any of the possibilities really, so I�m looking for the one that sells for the most.

I brought my little Reese�s Miata Matchbox car to work. It usually sits in my change bowl at home on my bedside stand. Well, now it sits in my uber-rustic saucer that I put my silver and black coffee tumbler on. I�ve gotten several comments. Most funny was when my boss asked if I minded him picking it up. Ha ha.

I�ve also gotten comments from the safety guy that my car is the only one that water beads on. Well, no kidding. You guys don�t love your cars. Heck, even my Saturn always beaded water, and it was so easy to take care of too. I miss the days when I could use Eagle One Wax As You Dry. It just makes the black paint streak like crazy.

Today, my car is clean, but covered in dust. I�m tempted to buy a CCD (California Car Duster) since the people at Autopia are, more than less, singing their praises. Though many feel, as I think I might, that rubbing anything against my paint sure doesn�t sound too good. And the CCD is waxed threads. Won�t the wax streak on my oh-so-easy-to-streak paint?

Ask me in a few months.