New Car

I’m still not through mourning for Arthur, but I’ve at least recovered enough that I can share a bit more about our experiences on Saturday in pursuit of a new car for me.

We started at Koons Tysons Toyota, because they were the closest dealership with a manual transmission Corolla. I took it out for a test drive, and chatted with the salesman a bit. He layed out the cost of the car, nad I told him that I felt that I needed to test drive at least two different kinds of cars before putting down that kind of money. He was very understanding, and did bring the manager over before we left, but even the manager seemed to understand that buying a car is a big deal.

Our next stop was Rosenthal Honda, just a mile down the street from Koons. Now, we had actually been to a Rosenthal Honda before and not been happy with the experience^*, but this was a different branch and we were looking at new rather than used, so we were hopeful that the experience would be different. We looked up the sales person from the e-mail they had sent, she found the keys for one of the 2004 Civics with manual transmission, and we had a pleasant test drive.

When we got back to the dealership, she brought us up to the office and gave us a price. I responded by saying that it was a big decision and that we would need to go to lunch and talk about it. She went to get the manager, who tried to get us to commit to buying the car right now, to which I responded (possibly more than once) that we would need to go to lunch to discuss the decision. At this point the manager seemed annoyed that we wanted to *gasp* think about the decision. I can’t believe that this attitude can win this manager many sales…maybe I’m just naive.

We did talk over the decision over lunch, but frankly it was a one-sided decision. (Though, Andrew did try to play devil’s advocate.) Did I like the Corolla $1500-worth better than the Civic? Perhaps not. Did I like the Corolla and the dealership that was selling it $1500-worth better than the Civic and the dealership that was selling it? Definately. It seems like a simple rule — treat your customers the way you want yourself to be treated. Or better yet, treat your customers the way you would want your mother or best friend to be treated.

That’s about it — it did take a while to actually drive home with the car, but that’s the way it always is when you buy a car. I did cry on the way out of the parking lot because Arthur was still sitting there, looking at me. And yesterday, while we were out Panda Hunting downtown, I kept seeing Tercels and would feel a twinge of nostalgia and guilt. But I am starting to bond with the new car (which has not revealed it’s name or gender to me yet).

^* We went to the Fairfax Honda used dealership last June when we were looking for cars for Andrew. I told the salesman outright that this was our first day out and that we would not be buying. We just wanted to get a feel for what was out there, and we realized that the exact cars may not be there the next time we came in.

He proceeded to show us cars, questioning why we wanted a certified pre-owned car, and insisting that we would never find a certified Honda or Toyota in our price range. (That last part we knew was a lie, because we had already test-driven a certified Toyota Echo in our price range.)

He ran into the dealership to get something to write some information down about us, so he could call us when something came in that we might be interested in. When he came back, he told us that his manager had said that he must be doing something wrong if we weren’t ready to buy after the cars he’d shown us. Excuse me? That’s right, we are manipulated that easily.

This salesman just kept pushing, and asking what he was doing wrong, and what could he do to get us home in a car today. Finally, I looked him square in the eye, and said, “I’ve already told you that we aren’t buying today. You could offer us a car for a dollar, and we won’t be driving it home today.” I think he finally got the clue.

Needless to say, we did not buy Andrew a Honda.

Odd spam

I felt like I was having a fever dream while skimming this in a spam message today:

airpark frothy bullfinch eleanor consanguine jackpot beck catastrophe vorticity strabismic judge insight cleanse softwood resolution glacial electroencephalograph angola marguerite sapphire skimp adulthood broadcast deepen bump candela aminobenzoic magna martial dreyfuss darius corruption czech

frothy bullfinch? eleanor consanguine jackpot? beck catastrophy? The rest of the message doesn’t get any better. I think, ironically, it’s for a spam-blocking product…

Pandamania

Andrew and I decided to head out to DC this morning with our bikes and the map for this year’s city-wide art installation of Pandamania. So, we hopped the Metro to the Farragut West stop, with the intention of seeing all the panda’s in the northwest part of central DC.

I’ve posted pictures on Flickr, but here are a few of my favorites from our first trip out:

Total distance: 7.2 miles

Sigh and Yay

Here’s Arthur:

Completely unsuspecting that I’m about to betray him today. He’s been a very good car. He’s gotten me through 3 years of graduate school, 1.5 years of the “real world” and 1.5 years of part real world and part grad school. His original mission was to get me through to my PhD, and he probably would have done it, too, if I hadn’t taken some time off. But with the two flats in the last month, and especially with the nearly $1k work that needed to be done with him, I thought it might be time for him to retire. Sigh.

We took Arthur to the Toyota dealership today to test drive a new Corolla. I think he started to get nervous when we pulled in. He was a bit relieved when we left after the test drive, but that was short-lived, because we were only heading a mile down the road to the Honda dealership. He breathed a deep sigh when we left the Honda dealership after test driving a Civic, and probably felt pretty good when we stopped for lunch down the road. But, he knew what was coming when we headed back to the Toyota dealership. To his credit, he took it well. He didn’t whimper or cry (which is more than I can say about me). He did give me look, and I tried to reassure him that he’d been a great car, and that I appreciated all the time he’d put in for me, but that didn’t seem to make him feel much better.

But, here’s the new car that’s now parked in his spot:

Don’t get me wrong — I like the new car. I just need some time for the loss of Arthur to pass.

Would you like a pillow under there?

Ever sit at your desk and want to just crawl under it until the day has gone? That’s the kind of week I’m having. There’s nothing specific, just a general feeling of dread and that perhaps I’ve made some serious mistakes in the path of my career. I’m sure it will pass soon. In the meantime, would you mind passing me that can of Diet Vanilla Coke that’s sitting next to my computer before you leave? It’s hard to reach it from under here.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

by J. K. Rowling

Like the movie, this third installment in the Harry Potter book is so far my favorite. The plot is a drastic turn from the you-know-who trying to kill Harry through some minion plot of the first two books. Plus, the characters are really feeling comfortable in their setting, with some romantic tension developing between Hermione and Ron.

In this book, a prisoner has escaped from Azkaban prison — the wizards’ prison. This person is Sirius Black, who betrayed Harry’s parents to you-know-who, causing their deaths. It is believed that Black is back to finish what his master started. All of this is going on with the backdrop of Harry’s third year at Hogwarts.

4-year anniversary

Andrew and I celebrated the 4-year anniversary of our first date tonight. Wow! It’s weird to think that it’s been four years. In some ways it seems much longer than that — I know him too well, and love him too much for it to only have been four years. But in other ways it seems much shorter that that — I keep learning new things about him, and the time has just flown by. I’m so looking forward to making the next commitment in our relationship when we marry this fall.

News from the Universe: 06/17/04

There’s been a lot in the news about various astronomy events, so I thought I’d summarize a few of them here:

• Space.com has an exclusive article answering the questions of where Kerry stands on the whole Bush moon-and-Mars plan, Kerry Criticizes Bush for Space Vision.
  

  “NASA is an invaluable asset to the American people and must receive adequate resources to continue its important mission of exploration,” Kerry wrote. “However, there is little to be gained from a ‘Bush space initiative’ that throws out lofty goals, but fails to support those goals with realistic funding.”

  This is all quite true — there is little chance that the initiative will succeed given the modest funding Bush has proposed. Kerry does also mention the cancelled servicing of Hubble; however, I was disappointed that there was nothing in the article about other space science missions. The rerouting of funds to the human space flight projects has really curtailed some of the upcoming (next decade or so) space science missions.

• Another Space.com article, Odd Black Hole Defies Explanation, describes results of a study by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics scientists that has found the best evidence for an intermediate black hole yet.
  There have traditionally been two types of black holes observed: “galactic” black holes with masses on the order of a few times that of our sun and “supermassive” black holes with masses millions of times that of our sun (and found in the centers of galaxies). One outstanding question has been how do supermassive black holes form, and if they start as smaller black holes and form by “eating” materials that fall within it’s gravitational influence, then where are the intermediate black holes — the ones with masses between the galactic and supermassive black holes.
  

  Yet several attempts to identify middleweights, those suspected of weighing hundreds or thousands of times as much as the Sun, have not fully panned out. Some astronomers think middleweights might have been very important in the early universe, serving is an intermediate stage in the development of a stellar black hole into one of supermassive proportions. If so, there ought to be a few that didn’t fully evolve and are still around as middleweights.

  Naturally, it’s always exciting when evidence for a new, previously un-observed object comes along. This particular type of object may provide clues to the origins of the supermassive black holes. (These results were presented at the 204^th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, 30 May – 3 June 2004 in Denver, Colorado.)

• Astronomers have also seen evidence of a black hole (or possibly neutron star) in the midst of the remnant of a very recent supernova: Youngest Possible Black Hole Spotted Near Birth
  

  It is the closest researchers have come to witnessing the birth of a black hole, from the explosion two decades ago to the recent emergence of a dense object amid the chaotic scene. The object may be a neutron star instead of a black hole, however. Scientists hope to figure that out with continuing observations, they said Thursday.

  Evidence of black holes and neutron stars has been seen previously in supernova remnants; however, the remnants are centuries old. This is the first time astronomers have observed a supernova, and then less the 20 years later observed a compact object within the supernova remnant. While the connection between supernovae and black holes/neutron stars has been well accepted by astronomers, this is an exciting observation to strengthen that connection. (The full article is in the 11 June 2004 issue of Science.)

Lesson 06/16/2004 — Last lesson for a while

After the stressful week I’ve had, and with the wedding coming up faster than I can deal with it, I decided that tonight would be my last sax lesson until October. I played through a piece from The Nutcracker Suite and we tried a couple of the duets I’ve been working on, but that was about it. I plan to continue playing on my own over the next couple months, but without the fear of an upcoming lesson, I’m not as faithful in my practicing as I’d like to be.

I should pick up the lessons again sometime in October, assuming Fred can fit me into his schedule then.

Monster House Girls Rule!

I watched Monster House last night. They had an all female crew doing the Surfer Girl house. It was the first time they had an all female crew. I was worried early on that I was going to hate the “do-it-yourselfer”, because she was shying away from the power tools (uh, hello, this is Monster House…there might just be some need to use power tools), but she came around by the second day. In the end they kicked ass, and pulled it out in the last couple hours.