PolarLava::Blog

So on July 9th the NWS/CPC issues an El Niño Advisory.  Depending on where you live this might be good or it might be bad.  Or, a little of both as is the case here in Western New York.  For us it explains the bleak cool and wet summer we've been having (e.g. Today's high 71°F and a cool wind when it should be 80°F and humid.); although it finally looks like this week we are finally going to get some real summer like weather.  Yea!  On the flip-side, it means we likely get a warmer and dryer winter.  The precipitation in this part of the country is the opposite of what most of the country gets, as stated in the advisory.  And if it strengthens into the Fall as expected, it means we'll probably have a fairly mild winter.

So what does this mean for me?  A cool summer cycling season, but the likelihood of an extended and possibly year-round cycling season courtesy of a "warm", dry winter.  FTW!

By some amazing feat I've managed to keep a car —in this case my 1998 Honda Civic EX coupe, intact for the outlandish period of 11 years and 1 month and captured it as it hit 150,000 miles.  Ironically right in front of the GM plant on River Road that I loathe for oh, so many reasons:



For those that know of some of my past driving exploits (see September 10, 1986), this is a rather remarkable feat for me.  It's certainly the longest period of time I've owned a car and about double the mileage of the most I've ever accumulated.  We've talked about replacing it a few times over the past several years, but it's simply a great car.  But the time will come for it to go, as it would be nice at this point in my life to have a 4-door car.  But it's hard to stomach a new car payment after being without it for the past 7 years that this one has been paid for.  It no longer rides quite like a new car, but it's very well maintained and averages 33mpg (30ish in the winter, 36 in the summer!)  And although it doesn't shine or smell like a new car, and it only has a couple of small rust spots, it's still in good condition.

It's due for an oil change and the high speed front-end shimmy is back again, so I believe the left front tire also needs to be replaced.  And earlier this week the wipers started to operate very slowly when you first turned them on.  And of course today when I was out it poured rain and they won't work at all now.  Thank God for Rain-X, one of the greatest inventions ever even with working wipers.  So obviously a new wiper motor is needed.  But even with this pending maintenance it's far cheaper than replacing it.  And now part of me wants to push it to 200,000 miles.  It's certainly a very realistic and doable prospect, it is a Honda after all.  So even if I do decide to move —that's a little more than another 3 years of driving at my current rate, somebody is going to get a very low cost, but awesome used car if I do.

Roll, Baby, Roll!!!