200 Grand Baby!!

My car did it. It effin did it! That's right ladies and gentlemen, my car surpassed the 200,000 mile mark. The picture is the proof! Sorry it's a little blurry but that's what happens when you're trying to take a picture with your phone going 70 mph and trying to steer and watch traffic as well. It's kinda hard to get a picture close enough too that you can see the numbers. Anyway, this actually happened a little while ago (I'm now at about 201,000) but I've been meaning to blog about it for some time. Milestones like this mean reminscing right? So here's a few things my car and I have done/seen/been:

• Without this car Jessica and I may not be together. That's right, this car was the instrument that essentially brought us together when it carried us to Vegas (the first time we actually hung out)
• My first car purchase (I felt so grown up)
• It took me to Denver to see Metallica, Deftones, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, and Mudvayne (I think that's all) plus we got to tour the Coor's factory
• Las Vegas, multiple times
• Canada TWICE, and once we almost died when we crossed the border and within about 20 minutes my car's alternator decided to quit and we had to find a mechanic in a strange town and get it fixed, which sucked but oh well. My infinit also put out some magic charm when I passed a RCMP car going about 20 mph (or aboot 30 clicks) over the speed limit, who then followed me for about 5 miles (or aboot 8 clicks) but then decided not to pull me over.
• Wheelin in Nelson, BC
• All over northern utah, and then some. I once logged about 30,000 miles in a year
• Been broken into TWICE. The first time they stole all my stereo stuff but left my sunglasses of which I was quite happy. The second time they took NOTHING because my stereo is bolted to the dash. At least it used to, now it's gone because I took it out cause I'm sick of people breaking into my car.
• The one time my car truly let me down was when I was in Cedar City and the electronics went psycho so I didn't dare drive to Orem, UT to see TOOL, a decision I now think was stupid cause I ended up having to drive it home all psycho'ed out anyway.
• We got off the freeway one day coming home from work and my whole engine compartment was engulfed in smoke. Lesson learned - if your AC compressor goes out you should remove it instead of letting it sit and eventually locking up causing the belt to burn up.
• I once got stuck in a freakin car wash. Winter + cold temps + lots of water = ice everywhere
• I've only had the valet key for the vehicle, I've never had the master key so my key has never worked for the trunk, I've relied solely on the opener from the inside. Now I have to rely on that since my lock has been punched out.
• I once drive my car into a garage with bikes on the roof rack. Big NO NO. I still have damage all over my roof and had to get a new rack. Amazingly, the bikes were 100% fine. The worst part of all this? I hadn't been driving all day and forgot about the bikes. No, it was raining and I wanted to work on something on my car so I was gonna drive it into my friends garage so I walked out to my car, got in, and then drove into the garage. I'm a freakin genius!
• My fuses went weird once and I went about a month without a speedometer or odometer. So actually I might've hit 200,000 miles a while ago...
• My car currently has a hole in the exhaust somewhere and it's becoming increasingly loud and obnoxious. You can hear my car idling from inside my work. Amazingly it passed emmissions 3 months ago without a hitch.

The list could go on and on, but you get the idea. It's been an amazing ride G20, and I look forward to many many more years to come!! 300,000 watch out!

Got Screwed?

So, the economy is sucking and the government decides the best way to fix the problem is to let people have more money. I'm sure you've all been hearing about this. The latest proposal would give everyone within certain qualifications a rebate check. Everyone is getting all excited about this and all I can think is, "What a bunch of suckers."

Consider this, why don't you give me $100 of your hard earned money. I will then proceed to spend a lot of that money on frivolous and unproductive things "for your own good" and/or "for the children". Things like the TSA, which works so well, pay farmers to grow crops, only to throw them away, support a losing drug war that really only benefits the drug cartels, give your kids an education that's falling behind in the world, pay a majority of your money into a retirement account (actually I say I'm doing that but really I'm going and buying some booze, which means your retirement is bunk), pay for your sick neighbor's health care because they deserve it (their smoking habit isn't their fault!), and on and on. Then, when you realize you could've used the $100 for something better and actually for your (and your family's) good, I'll give you a quarter back and see how happy you are. This is exactly what's going on right now and yet people are all excited for their big check. Anyone else see a problem here?

Another point I'd like to make - if giving us back some of our own money is what it takes to stimulate the economy, why the F$#%K do they not let us keep it to begin with? Who do these "expert" politicians think they are? They tax us and think they know how to best spend it, and have all these pet projects for the "benefit" of us all, only to have them actually suck. Fools! What we really need is for us to keep our own money and we will inevitabily spend it where we see fit, which (as the new "program" proves) is what it really takes to make the economy good.

Sorry for the "hate" here but this has been peeving me all day and I needed to rant. I really am a happy person I swear.