Well, today is my day off, so after I dropped Cat at a florists shop - she's doing a (6 hour) day a week for free, to keep her hand in, and to adapt her style to American tastes some - I got to take the car to Honda for a service & oil: due, but also a sensible precaution before our big road trip next week to Historicon.
Up til now, Cat had done all the dealing with the Honda service people, but she was fed up to the back teeth with them: as she was a woman, they would always ask to speak to her husband about any decisions (!), could never adjust to the idea that she has a different last name to me (!!), and generally acted like patronising sexist assholes.
I can't say I love them very much, either, but at least I get less crap to deal with than she did. Still, a 2 hour wait pretty much wasted the morning (not helped by sharing the waiting room with the Woman With The Bionic Jaw - an art teacher with an apparently inexhaustible voice, and store of opinions, mostly annoyingly christian).
Checked the mail, and there are our (replacement) insurance cards - the first set didnt list Cat at all (!), so of course this set does .... but with my last name, again. Despite having been told explicitly. Oh well, try that one again, I guess - and of course I have to call them, not her, as they won't recognise her authority to modify this, despite both our names being on all the paperwork. What is this, 1950? 1850?
Just part of what I mean about the relentless sexism. Oh well: just another reason to try and relocate to somewhere less backward (speaking of which, I reminded my boss about my request, but still no word on it so far).
* * * * *
And driving home reminded me of something else: I will never get used to the idea you can make a right hand turn through a red light. I mean, I can see the logic and the benefit, but it always feels like I'm breaking the law, fairly pointlessly. Of course, if I should actually forget, and sit there, the people behind me will remind me volubly and frequently of this.
Showing posts with label cars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cars. Show all posts
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Travelled!
Well, that was a fairly low-key trip, all things considered. I drove us to the edge of Memphis, then turned driving over to Cat - on the theory that she's more experienced at American city driving, and I'm better at reading maps - which I guess worked out, as we got to the places we aimed for with a minimum of confusion and no real delay.
The actual USCIS thing was short & very easy: fill out a form, wait a couple of minutes, get digitally fingerprinted (no ink, no mess! god bless technology), have your signature & picture taken, that's it. Not sure what comes next, I think it will be back to Memphis for an actual interview face to face... but as we did this twice with our L-visas (once in London plus again in DC on entering the States), then maybe that step gets skipped?
We stopped at a Bennigans (at last, somewhere where they haven't been shut down!), and had Monte Cristo sandwiches, I think the high point of the week for Cat - she had been really longing to try one again. Having had a bite of hers (cold) last time, I was quite keen to try one myself, but I have to say they are much nicer once lukewarm or cold - when new-cooked and hot, they are not so great.
Cat had been feeling pretty low and out of sorts all day, so we cancelled the tourist stuff for the day: after all, it's only a 2 hour drive, if we fancy a daytrip any weekend, it's an easy reach, so we drove back slow & easy.
The traffic was moderate going both ways (well, by UK motorway standards - very heavy by NZ standards!), and man, were there a lot of 18wheelers & lorries on the road. I must say, tho, that the US truckers seem a lot more professional and courteous than the ones you encounter in the UK (most of course being EU-based): they stick to the speed limits much more, give you space to pass & are quite happy to pull over a bit to help, and (most of all) dont play Block The Traffic by occupying all the lanes & travelling at the same speed, the way so many truckers in the UK always delight in doing. Given that the Interstate we were on is only 2lanes each way, that would have been quite easy to do, but while the truckers would overtake their slower brethren & caravans, (and the occasional slow car), they were fairly careful to pull over immediately after, and to not let a buildup of delayed cars occur at all.
Two other differences I noticed in the open-road driving: one was the recurrence, indeed almost prevalence, of enormous peels of rubber - blownout 18wheeler tires, I assume. This despite passing at least 3 workcrews at different points, tidying them up & collecting them. Compared to the UK/EU motorways, there seemed to be a huge number of them: I guess the profit margin thing here (or the less stringent inspection regime?) drives the truckers to try and eke out every
last mile from their tires.
The other big difference was the absence of the usual stream of broken-down or burnt-out cars dotting the side of the motorways. I think in the whole journey, we saw 2 breakdowns, and in both cases they were obviously being attended to (if not necessarily fixed). I would guess, driving a similar distance in the UK (say up to Birmingham and back, we would expect to see at least 20 breakdowns of various ages, plus another 6 or 8 burnt-out cars ... each way.
I think that this is caused by the American love for (and dependence on) their cars, in a way that has never even penetrated in the UK, where car maintenance seems to be considered optional - to the point that simple things like oil & filter changes are considered an unneeded expense, or an occasional opportunity to be robbed blind by the mechanics.
Of course the UK mechanics truly are a band of ruthless cowboys, and as a class are quite piratical and utterly untrustworthy (with quite a few honorable exceptions, I'll freely admit).
Even so, it was always an occasion for mirth on our parts over the sheer volume of breakdowns we would see on the English motorways, and we would speculate on the underlying thought processes, or lack thereof. It's not as tho cars are cheaper in the UK, after all - quite the reverse. Still, it was very pleasant to not see the same littering the sides of I40 yesterday.
Cat disagreed with my guess of the cause, pointing out the number of cars we see in Little Rock with astonishing dings and dents, and quite commonly missing windowscreens - replaced with clear plastic & duct tape: but I dredged up the analysis I'd read a few months ago, about the effects of poverty on car ownership in the US as the cause of this.
Briefly, the bottom slice (12%? 15? 18? I forget) has such poor creditworthiness that they cannot get car loans at anything like reasonable terms, so - as they still need cars, public transport being a bit of a joke in almost all of America - they are reduced to purchasing wrecks: played out cars at the end of their useful lives, costing $500-$1000 typically, i.e. the sort of amount they can buy for cash (or buy on horrible credit terms & afford the monthly payments) ... and expected to last only months, perhaps a year if you're lucky.
Of course, in straitened circumstances like that, it is essential to get every last possible mile out of their investments, to delay the next purchase as long as possible: hence driving them in quite unsafe conditions, provided they still actually can move, and don't get stopped/ticketed too often to make them financially viable (fortunately there are very few police assigned to traffic duties so that is a low risk).
The irony of it is that, between the repeated purchases, and the price of those repairs that seem worth the cost, they could in many cases afford the payments on a much better quality of used car, but having been judged and found wanting by the Creditworthiness Judges (ha), they aren't given that access. Makes you think it might be something the government could address .. like so many things involving the Credit Rating gestapo.
Enough rambling for the moment :)
The actual USCIS thing was short & very easy: fill out a form, wait a couple of minutes, get digitally fingerprinted (no ink, no mess! god bless technology), have your signature & picture taken, that's it. Not sure what comes next, I think it will be back to Memphis for an actual interview face to face... but as we did this twice with our L-visas (once in London plus again in DC on entering the States), then maybe that step gets skipped?
We stopped at a Bennigans (at last, somewhere where they haven't been shut down!), and had Monte Cristo sandwiches, I think the high point of the week for Cat - she had been really longing to try one again. Having had a bite of hers (cold) last time, I was quite keen to try one myself, but I have to say they are much nicer once lukewarm or cold - when new-cooked and hot, they are not so great.
Cat had been feeling pretty low and out of sorts all day, so we cancelled the tourist stuff for the day: after all, it's only a 2 hour drive, if we fancy a daytrip any weekend, it's an easy reach, so we drove back slow & easy.
The traffic was moderate going both ways (well, by UK motorway standards - very heavy by NZ standards!), and man, were there a lot of 18wheelers & lorries on the road. I must say, tho, that the US truckers seem a lot more professional and courteous than the ones you encounter in the UK (most of course being EU-based): they stick to the speed limits much more, give you space to pass & are quite happy to pull over a bit to help, and (most of all) dont play Block The Traffic by occupying all the lanes & travelling at the same speed, the way so many truckers in the UK always delight in doing. Given that the Interstate we were on is only 2lanes each way, that would have been quite easy to do, but while the truckers would overtake their slower brethren & caravans, (and the occasional slow car), they were fairly careful to pull over immediately after, and to not let a buildup of delayed cars occur at all.
Two other differences I noticed in the open-road driving: one was the recurrence, indeed almost prevalence, of enormous peels of rubber - blownout 18wheeler tires, I assume. This despite passing at least 3 workcrews at different points, tidying them up & collecting them. Compared to the UK/EU motorways, there seemed to be a huge number of them: I guess the profit margin thing here (or the less stringent inspection regime?) drives the truckers to try and eke out every
last mile from their tires.
The other big difference was the absence of the usual stream of broken-down or burnt-out cars dotting the side of the motorways. I think in the whole journey, we saw 2 breakdowns, and in both cases they were obviously being attended to (if not necessarily fixed). I would guess, driving a similar distance in the UK (say up to Birmingham and back, we would expect to see at least 20 breakdowns of various ages, plus another 6 or 8 burnt-out cars ... each way.
I think that this is caused by the American love for (and dependence on) their cars, in a way that has never even penetrated in the UK, where car maintenance seems to be considered optional - to the point that simple things like oil & filter changes are considered an unneeded expense, or an occasional opportunity to be robbed blind by the mechanics.
Of course the UK mechanics truly are a band of ruthless cowboys, and as a class are quite piratical and utterly untrustworthy (with quite a few honorable exceptions, I'll freely admit).
Even so, it was always an occasion for mirth on our parts over the sheer volume of breakdowns we would see on the English motorways, and we would speculate on the underlying thought processes, or lack thereof. It's not as tho cars are cheaper in the UK, after all - quite the reverse. Still, it was very pleasant to not see the same littering the sides of I40 yesterday.
Cat disagreed with my guess of the cause, pointing out the number of cars we see in Little Rock with astonishing dings and dents, and quite commonly missing windowscreens - replaced with clear plastic & duct tape: but I dredged up the analysis I'd read a few months ago, about the effects of poverty on car ownership in the US as the cause of this.
Briefly, the bottom slice (12%? 15? 18? I forget) has such poor creditworthiness that they cannot get car loans at anything like reasonable terms, so - as they still need cars, public transport being a bit of a joke in almost all of America - they are reduced to purchasing wrecks: played out cars at the end of their useful lives, costing $500-$1000 typically, i.e. the sort of amount they can buy for cash (or buy on horrible credit terms & afford the monthly payments) ... and expected to last only months, perhaps a year if you're lucky.
Of course, in straitened circumstances like that, it is essential to get every last possible mile out of their investments, to delay the next purchase as long as possible: hence driving them in quite unsafe conditions, provided they still actually can move, and don't get stopped/ticketed too often to make them financially viable (fortunately there are very few police assigned to traffic duties so that is a low risk).
The irony of it is that, between the repeated purchases, and the price of those repairs that seem worth the cost, they could in many cases afford the payments on a much better quality of used car, but having been judged and found wanting by the Creditworthiness Judges (ha), they aren't given that access. Makes you think it might be something the government could address .. like so many things involving the Credit Rating gestapo.
Enough rambling for the moment :)
Thursday, May 28, 2009
More good news!
Busy day today (Thursdays usually are), so I better keep this short, but - I've now got my Arkansas driving license :)
Very easy test indeed - just drive around the block, 4 right-hand turns. No parking test, no hillstart, not even a left-hand turn across traffic. So long as you come to a complete stop at Stop signs, and don't actually prang the car, you get a pass.
The best bit is definitely the reduction in insurance - still waiting for some quotes, but on the best so far, I should be able to knock $1200 off my annual bill, which is definitely a Good Thing.
Meh, back to work now
Very easy test indeed - just drive around the block, 4 right-hand turns. No parking test, no hillstart, not even a left-hand turn across traffic. So long as you come to a complete stop at Stop signs, and don't actually prang the car, you get a pass.
The best bit is definitely the reduction in insurance - still waiting for some quotes, but on the best so far, I should be able to knock $1200 off my annual bill, which is definitely a Good Thing.
Meh, back to work now
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Cars, again
On the bright side, now that we've got our own car, I can start driving again - and I did so, last Sunday.
We went back to the Starving Artists cafe, as it had (a) really good interesting food, (b) delicious deserts, (c) isn't a chain, and (d) has lots of baaad art on the walls, allowing us to feel comfortably superior, plus a bit of quite good stuff that we could gawk at.
Sadly, that turns out to be their last brunch - they're located right in the middle of the CBD, and weekends, it's just a desert, man: No shops around to speak of - they're all out in the suburban malls - so noone much goes into town. They've also cut back their evening openings from 3 or 4 nights a week to just Fridays, and survive on weekday lunches, when they do a really roaring trade. Despite this, they've decided to move the cafe to North Little Rock, somewhere closer to residential areas: I'm hoping they will then resume brunches in the weekend.
Driving there & back was actually very simple and easy, once I got over my initial nerves - a month of sitting beside Cat when she was doing all the hard work, seems to have really helped me adjust more easily to this driving on the wrong side of the road business: Not that I don't periodically have to mutter to myself 'rightie tightie, leftie loosie' when executing a turn, but I haven't actually tried to turn into oncoming traffic, which can only be a good sign. I even felt safe enough to make a couple of other minor excursions, to do some shopping. Actually, driving a brand new car certainly feels pretty good!
Saturday we spent mostly building kitset furniture - 2 DVD racks, 2 computer desks (one to serve as my painting station), and 2 computer chairs. We actually bought 3 desks, but they are so large that we've decided to try and share one for both PCs - certainly seems large enough - and that means we can put the third one together to serve as Cat's workstation for sewing & the quilting that she's now busily engaged with.
We went back to the Starving Artists cafe, as it had (a) really good interesting food, (b) delicious deserts, (c) isn't a chain, and (d) has lots of baaad art on the walls, allowing us to feel comfortably superior, plus a bit of quite good stuff that we could gawk at.
Sadly, that turns out to be their last brunch - they're located right in the middle of the CBD, and weekends, it's just a desert, man: No shops around to speak of - they're all out in the suburban malls - so noone much goes into town. They've also cut back their evening openings from 3 or 4 nights a week to just Fridays, and survive on weekday lunches, when they do a really roaring trade. Despite this, they've decided to move the cafe to North Little Rock, somewhere closer to residential areas: I'm hoping they will then resume brunches in the weekend.
Driving there & back was actually very simple and easy, once I got over my initial nerves - a month of sitting beside Cat when she was doing all the hard work, seems to have really helped me adjust more easily to this driving on the wrong side of the road business: Not that I don't periodically have to mutter to myself 'rightie tightie, leftie loosie' when executing a turn, but I haven't actually tried to turn into oncoming traffic, which can only be a good sign. I even felt safe enough to make a couple of other minor excursions, to do some shopping. Actually, driving a brand new car certainly feels pretty good!
Saturday we spent mostly building kitset furniture - 2 DVD racks, 2 computer desks (one to serve as my painting station), and 2 computer chairs. We actually bought 3 desks, but they are so large that we've decided to try and share one for both PCs - certainly seems large enough - and that means we can put the third one together to serve as Cat's workstation for sewing & the quilting that she's now busily engaged with.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Cars
Well, perhaps there's fewer differences between the States and the UK than we thought. We picked up our new car yesterday, a leased Honda Accord. The arrangement we'd made with the salesman was that we'd pick the car up on Wednesday (when the rental was due to be renewed), or he'd provide a loaner until our car was ready.
Cat dropped the rental at Budget (where it had cost us an arm and a leg for rental), and caught a taxi to the Honda agency, where she'd been told the car would be ready at 3 o'clock. She was apparently sat down, and essentially ignored for a couple of hours, without being told what was going on or why the delay (or how long the delay would be), and no sign of any loaner. At that point she phoned me, fairly upset, & I arranged to catch a taxi out there and pick up her and the car, and deal with the car yard myself, as she was out of all patience with them.
She then called back shortly thereafter, having left the lot because one of the sales managers had approached her in an unpleasantly aggressive manner and, in the guise of apologising, tried to make her feel angry or bad (I guess as a way of feeling justified in the way they'd treated her). Fortunately rather than losing it with him, she just left the lot, and waited for me on the next sidestreet.
After I picked her up and went back to the yard (I had an internal debate about just telling them to stuff it & walking away from the deal - but the practical problems that that would have created were too great), I dealt with the salesman we'd originally dealt with, who was very apologetic, then got handed to a different sales manager to finish the financial details (and who seemed pretty adept at not listening to what the customers were saying, himself).
We then sat outside waiting for the final details, and the sales manager that had already ticked off Cat came over, and delivered what I'd have to say was one of the slimiest and most unpleasant performances I've seen in many years: under the guise of allegedly apologising, he strenuously and repeatedly made every effort to put all the blame for this on Cat, and tried to portray himself as put-upon and - of course - always in the right: the old politico's trick of the apology that is no apology ("I'm sorry you feel like I kicked you in the nuts").
I'm very proud to say that Cat kept her head, and was quite civil, without accepting an inch of this nonsense, and kept pushing back at him quite directly, without ever being unduly abusive or excessive. It's fortunate that the original salesman came over and finished the details off tho, as I was at the point of becoming confrontational with him - the way the 'apology' had deteriorated, he was essentially calling her a liar, which isn't something I'm going to sit still for.
As it is, I think we both somewhat regret that we hadn't just torn the whole deal up and walked away ... but at least the car is very pleasant, and should be large enough for the comfort of our future guests.
Cat dropped the rental at Budget (where it had cost us an arm and a leg for rental), and caught a taxi to the Honda agency, where she'd been told the car would be ready at 3 o'clock. She was apparently sat down, and essentially ignored for a couple of hours, without being told what was going on or why the delay (or how long the delay would be), and no sign of any loaner. At that point she phoned me, fairly upset, & I arranged to catch a taxi out there and pick up her and the car, and deal with the car yard myself, as she was out of all patience with them.
She then called back shortly thereafter, having left the lot because one of the sales managers had approached her in an unpleasantly aggressive manner and, in the guise of apologising, tried to make her feel angry or bad (I guess as a way of feeling justified in the way they'd treated her). Fortunately rather than losing it with him, she just left the lot, and waited for me on the next sidestreet.
After I picked her up and went back to the yard (I had an internal debate about just telling them to stuff it & walking away from the deal - but the practical problems that that would have created were too great), I dealt with the salesman we'd originally dealt with, who was very apologetic, then got handed to a different sales manager to finish the financial details (and who seemed pretty adept at not listening to what the customers were saying, himself).
We then sat outside waiting for the final details, and the sales manager that had already ticked off Cat came over, and delivered what I'd have to say was one of the slimiest and most unpleasant performances I've seen in many years: under the guise of allegedly apologising, he strenuously and repeatedly made every effort to put all the blame for this on Cat, and tried to portray himself as put-upon and - of course - always in the right: the old politico's trick of the apology that is no apology ("I'm sorry you feel like I kicked you in the nuts").
I'm very proud to say that Cat kept her head, and was quite civil, without accepting an inch of this nonsense, and kept pushing back at him quite directly, without ever being unduly abusive or excessive. It's fortunate that the original salesman came over and finished the details off tho, as I was at the point of becoming confrontational with him - the way the 'apology' had deteriorated, he was essentially calling her a liar, which isn't something I'm going to sit still for.
As it is, I think we both somewhat regret that we hadn't just torn the whole deal up and walked away ... but at least the car is very pleasant, and should be large enough for the comfort of our future guests.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Happy Waterloo Day
and a mere 193 years since Drouet screwed the pooch, and let the Bad Guys win.
To celebrate, or not, I'm off to Albuquerque again today - just for a meeting tomorrow, then home tomorrow night in time for our weekend guest arriving Friday.
Last weekend was a nice change - the first weekend we haven't had to spend, frenziedly comparison-shopping and dashing around trying to fit out the house and make it livable. Instead we could spend it at a more leisurely, even lazy, pace, just adjusting ourselves slowly to life here. Haven't really tried to explore the city for adventures and places of interest yet, but that will happen soon enough. We also had to spend a certain amount of time dealing with the car rental company and exchanging our rental -
We had picked up a GPS system so Cat could steer around without constant resort to the map book - possibly we should have done this much earlier! Or possibly not, as Cat had an accident on Thursday last week, where she seems* to have been distracted by the GPS unit and failed to notice that she was at a red light (she apparently missed the existence of the lights, not just whether it was red or green). As a result, she had a - fortunately minor - prang with a car crossing in front of her: just her front corner and the other party's rear bumper, but a nasty shock (to both drivers, I'm sure).
The actual damage seems to have been trivial on both parts, but it left her very shaken and unsure for the next three days, unsurprisingly: so we spent quite a bit of the weekend with her driving, and taking things slow & careful, to rebuild her confidence.
I'm feeling quite ready to try driving myself now, but we still can't afford it - the rental company insurance is already preposterously exorbitant, and jumps another huge step if more than one person is listed as driving, so this'll have to wait until we have our own car.
Which looks like it's going to be the project for this weekend - not least because the cost of renting is killing our budget severely: due to the difficulties of getting financing arranged, it's already dragged on twice as long as I had projected originally. Of course, if my employer would just pull finger and pay me the promised relocation expenses, then this would be a lot simpler (not that they are refusing to, just that it takes place at the speed of continental drift). Oh well, more on that later, I guess.
* I wasn't present, so can't say for myself
To celebrate, or not, I'm off to Albuquerque again today - just for a meeting tomorrow, then home tomorrow night in time for our weekend guest arriving Friday.
Last weekend was a nice change - the first weekend we haven't had to spend, frenziedly comparison-shopping and dashing around trying to fit out the house and make it livable. Instead we could spend it at a more leisurely, even lazy, pace, just adjusting ourselves slowly to life here. Haven't really tried to explore the city for adventures and places of interest yet, but that will happen soon enough. We also had to spend a certain amount of time dealing with the car rental company and exchanging our rental -
We had picked up a GPS system so Cat could steer around without constant resort to the map book - possibly we should have done this much earlier! Or possibly not, as Cat had an accident on Thursday last week, where she seems* to have been distracted by the GPS unit and failed to notice that she was at a red light (she apparently missed the existence of the lights, not just whether it was red or green). As a result, she had a - fortunately minor - prang with a car crossing in front of her: just her front corner and the other party's rear bumper, but a nasty shock (to both drivers, I'm sure).
The actual damage seems to have been trivial on both parts, but it left her very shaken and unsure for the next three days, unsurprisingly: so we spent quite a bit of the weekend with her driving, and taking things slow & careful, to rebuild her confidence.
I'm feeling quite ready to try driving myself now, but we still can't afford it - the rental company insurance is already preposterously exorbitant, and jumps another huge step if more than one person is listed as driving, so this'll have to wait until we have our own car.
Which looks like it's going to be the project for this weekend - not least because the cost of renting is killing our budget severely: due to the difficulties of getting financing arranged, it's already dragged on twice as long as I had projected originally. Of course, if my employer would just pull finger and pay me the promised relocation expenses, then this would be a lot simpler (not that they are refusing to, just that it takes place at the speed of continental drift). Oh well, more on that later, I guess.
* I wasn't present, so can't say for myself
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