In cars

I had to take my poor, on-death's-door car in for major overhaul yesterday. It seemed like a good time, since most of the staff here is off on a retreat and it would be quiet enough that I could come in quite late, which was good planning, because the whole getting a loaner car thing turned into such an ordeal that I was starting to think I might never actually make it to work. The poor old thing just wasn't up to such a long commute every day, especially being stopped in traffic all the time on baking acres of tarmac, and I figured it would end up costing me about $1,000 by the time I was through, and that's what it's going to come in just under. So much for my saving for the full copper repipe. And I still have an alignment to do, since the wheels are getting beat to shit by the crappy West Seattle roadways. I really, really miss taking the bus to work every day. Dammit.

At least, though, the loaner car has served to solve a question. I kept thinking that if I could get a new car, I was torn between a new Corolla or a VW Beetle. I've always, always wanted a Beetle, and they have massive headroom for such a small car. But I've loved my Corollas to death; they have served me incredibly well even when they were breaking down (my old one got me miles to a gas station in a totally empty, creepy part of town as the water pump was blowing itself into three pieces), so I've been loath to give up my ongoing ownership. But sitting in the brand new one now for two days, I know I cannot buy another of these -- this is the most uncomfortable car I've ever sat it since the detestable Beretta I rented in Palm Springs a few years ago. This car is intolerable for someone over 5'7". Especially with my long torso *and* long legs, I feel like I'm doubled up over myself if I can get close enough to hold onto the steering wheel, and the seats curve forward at the top so that the headrest forces my neck and shoulders forward. Even leaning the seat back (making it difficult to control the wheel) doesn't help. Yuck. It's got a cute body, but the interior has no room and allows you no ability to move -- even just adjusting my clothes so they aren't bunched up is nearly impossible. At least there's a CD player and A/C, sigh. Of course, it's going to be much hotter at the end of the week, when I will have my A/C-less car back and will be baking in the sun in stalled traffic. So, I will miss that for certain.

The thing is, I love cars. I've been a car girl since I was a kid, and while I don't enjoy working on them, I know how to do basic fixes and I know things like engine sizes, what a hemi is, can ID parts, and stupid, worthless stuff like that. I like hearing about twin-barrell carbs and Glasspack mufflers and all of that, and I think looking at car magazines and checking out new models is fun. I suppose this is a good thing for my sudden new obsession with The Fast and the Furious. I do not know why I am like this, but I have this thing happen once in a while where I love something tangentially and quietly, and then one day, I wake up and I am obsessed with it. This has happened to me with the first F&F movie, largely, of course, for Vin Diesel, but also, cars. Specifically, the Dodge he drives at the end -- and crashes, sob! I love those old muscle cars much more than the tricked-up imports in F&F, but that's okay, it's still cars and speed. I'm stuck with having to have practical, small cars, but in my heart, if I were rich, I would own a classic '68 Mustang convertible, a 'vette circa the early sixties, a Charger or Challenger, and of course a GTO. I liked Nash Bridges's Barracuda, except for the color. That doesn't even get into the foreign sport models I would own were I rich.

Now I must finish my F&F porn and... dear god, I even have a vid idea... this is just ridiculous. What a silly, cheesey thing to be obsessed with. I'm ashamed, but also, cars! And did I mention Vin Diesel?

Oh frabjous day!

It's hard to overstate how anguished I was on finding out that LFN DVDs were pulled from distribution one week before they were due. There is so much goodness in S2, and fans had such a long hard road getting them -- the over a year wait is a good indication of how little support there's been for the show. And I felt pretty resigned, because the timing meant that most of the major resellers had to cancel their orders after sending out copies to the international orders (farthest out goes in the mail first). Currently the disc sets that were available before being yanked are going for upwards of $300 on e-bay.

So imagine my surprise when movies_michelle called me tonight to tell me that she was standing in a local Best Buy and they had copies on sale. Did I want them? she asked. HELL yes, I said. I don't care that they're $20 more than I would have paid on Amazon. They're physically there, and I can have them (unless the counter people took them away from her). Thank god for the S&H discs coming out today and her devotion to getting them. Praise be to Starsky and Hutch! Apparently this BB didn't get the memo to pull the discs, and someone emailed me today telling me she'd found some at a store in another part of the country. So the haphazard, mixed information is apparently causing enough confusion that if you're vigilant and look hard enough, you might be able to find some. Seattle area peeps, might be worth checking out michelle's BB store!

I can't stand the wait till Friday when I can get them in my grubby little fists. Finally, Hard Landing on disc! The nude scenes and love scene in crystal clarity! Whee! ANd I can only hope that this confusion and zaniness will get sorted out. It sounds as if it is a music licensing issue, but it's hard to know if it means someone wants to pull a song, or some junior legal assistant didn't cross all Ts and dot all Is. I just want the discs. I just want more discs. And I want Warner to understand how crushing this is to people who've struggled for years to make this a reality in the face of enormous opposition. But discs! Illegal discs! Yay!!!!