Gas Milage Law Rambling Mostly
Friday, Mar. 21, 2003

Medium sized adoption news; we finally got our clearance from the ABI (Alabama BI) and now it�s off to the FBI. Hopefully, they can knock that out in a week and maybe by the beginning of April we�ll have our actual homestudy. The ABI was moving it�s office and it took about six weeks for what usually takes one.

Aisai and I still need to get our photos done. We�re supposed to have, like, eight photos of both her and me, and six of those with us together with family or friends. I think we need another family get together so there is a picture taking opportunity. Maybe a picnic on Monte Sano would be nice.

I�ve been reading stuff at auto.howstuffworks.com. The blinker one is pretty cool. It�s amazing that that thing doesn�t break every week it�s so simple. The turbo article was good also, but yesterday I read about how a convertible works. That was the most boring crap. Not only that, but being the owner of a convertible, most of the questions you get were not answered in the article. Yes, it�s louder than a normal car. No, it�s not colder than a normal car when the top is up in the winter (but my car is so small and has a normal sized heater).

Speaking of my car, it seems that the US govt is going to change the fuel economy rules. Most notable is that the heavy equipment exemption is going to be changed from 8000 lbs to 10,000 lbs, which makes the 8600 lb Hummer H2 back in with the normal vehicles.

I�ll have to look at the H2 with more awe since it weighs about 4 times what my car weighs. 8600/2200 = 391% heavier. Or, the Miata is 26% the weight of the H2.

The govt is also planning six different weight classes of cars/trucks. Basically, they are getting rid of the small truck exemption. So a Mazda B4000 pickup will fall into the same category as a Camry. My concern is for the little cars. One of the reasons we got so many little cars was that they were made as balances for the Dodge Viper and Corvette. I�m also concerned that my 2200 lb car, which is a little lighter than a Geo Metro, will be required to have better milage.

Well, not really my car, as it�s 10 years old. Only California would require retrofitting and retuning of existing equipment. They aren�t called the Environmental Nazis for nothing. Oh, it�ll be fun to see their brownouts this summer. Ho ho.

Many people like to think the govt is stupid. Well, inefficient and not driven by competition I�ll give you, but when the govt sets to something, they usually get it. And this fuel thing has little to do with fuel economy, it has to do with the NHTSA�s current dilemma.

The govt wants small cars larger and large cars smaller. The big ones are too big and the small ones are too small to make some of the odd rules that the NHTSA passes make any sense. AKA, as you get bigger cars that can survive the offset test, these tanks start killing en masse and what were formerly safe cars, Accords and Camrys, etc, are just as much deathboxes as your 1980s Chevy Sprint.

[Note: I�m totally aware of accident avoidance as a means of safety. I own a small, well handling car. I�m all about avoiding wrecks. But many stats are calculated in deaths per wreck, in which case the Metro and Miata would fare poorly. Meanwhile, Volvos are wrecking constantly due to crappy handling but everyone�s fine.]

Man, how did I get sidetracked by that.

I tried the Zym�l Cleaner Wax on the Miata�s hood yesterday after washing it. It darkened the paint nicely, but was still a bear to get off. It just sets up too fast.

We ate at Taco Bell again last night. Aisai had The Secret Elbow Rubbing Party of The Underground Lair last night. She thought it was going to be at our internet provider, but it was at some theatrical lighting place. It�s a weird (covert intelligence) world. And no, Aisia is not a spy or diplomat. She�s an accounting clerk.

One last note: Why is Academy Award Winning Cuba Gooding Jr (AAWCGJ) trying to ruin his career as fast as possible? The score at Rotten Tomatoes for his latest crap du jour is a 5%. Yes, % means out of 100. Ouch.

I�m looking forward to Phone Booth, Animatrix, Matrix II, X-men II, and several more killer movies. However, I�ll the next movie I see will probably be The Core, which will be stupid. I hope it�s stupid, I�d rather that than it be boring. [Joke about boring me to the middle of the earth not included due to inability to phrase it well.]

Word!