Bologna Skins

My wife is heading to Fargo today for her friend's mom's funeral. Yesterday I got the tires rotated on the car she was taking. Turns out the reason it's been a death trap skid machine in the snow this winter is that two of the tires were worn down to the steel belts in spots and had no tread left. Stupid Hyundai and their shitty OEM tires. (33,000 and two of them are toast and the other two have like 6000 miles more in them maybe.) I guess that's how you drive down the purchase price.

So I decide to lay down some decent money for two Goodyears that have a 65,000 mile warranty on them. I figured that if I bought a set of shit tires, I'd just be replacing them in 33,000 again rather than these that should last twice as long so it's actually a bit less than replacing them twice, saving on the mounting and balancing fees.

The tread on these new tires is sick compared to the old ones, even when they were new. I'll be able to rally car it in the snow next year, since I'll have to replace the other two by then.

So I guess I've been cheating death for the past few weeks on the bald bologna skins that could have failed at any moment due to being down to the steel. Glad I found out before my wife took them another 1400 miles though, and what else would I want to spend the first month of my promotion raise on rather than two new tires?

I can't think of anything.

There’s a time to pray, and there’s a time to fight, anything can be a weapon if you’re holding it right.

I have no physical outlet for my stress right now. The rink closure and baby have made it so I can’t play hockey or find time to skate. I need that time to disconnect from my problems and just focus on muscles extending and contracting and the burning in my lungs.

At two and a half, Carter has a natural (oh right, things like this are learned, not natural. How quickly I forget.) disposition for hockey. He’s holding the stick correctly and has pretty good mechanics hitting around a big ball. I’ll post some pics or the video we took. I’m pretty impressed since he’s only watched me and hockey on TV. He’s going to have a good build for it if he wants to play. Dude weighs about 30 pounds right now, but when you pick him up he’s just this muscley little fireplug.

I’ve started driving slower to compensate for the massive amounts of diesel fuel I waste at work. (I enjoy powering my laptop using an 8.8L diesel engine in a D6T.) Quite a few of the roads to the sandbox are 55. Most people rock them at 60 or 65. I also used to. 55 is the sweet spot for your vehicle though. That EPA mileage they list is figured out at 55. Power to overcome aerodynamic drag is a cubic function of velocity. A 9% increase in speed 60 in a 55, results in a 29.5% increase in the power required to overcome the extra drag. I make sure I’ve got some good music to listen to with the extra minute or two I add to my trip by slowing down.

My guitar hero comrade at work introduced me to this band Ludo and their “rock opera” of sorts called Broken Bride. It’s pretty Emo, but you know me, I love it when my makeup smears when I’m listening to my music. It’s OK. Dude really digs it, and it is growing on me as I listen to it more. It’s no The Wall, but nothing is. If you have 28 minutes or so have a listen. (I could only find these set to Final Fantasy footage, but whatever.)