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My office is on the 18th floor. Every couple of months, two Latino dudes hanging from ropes and what looks like seats made out of a 2 x 4 come swinging by my window. I wonder if they are legal? I wonder if they get hazard pay? I wonder if they have cojones of steel? I wonder if they write home about the crazy ass work that white men pay them to do?
So I'm reading a CNN article on how the image of the Pit Bull is being further marred by the Vick case, and I come across these paragraphs:
The blood sport has operated underground for years, but many agree the hip hop use of pit bull images moved it out of the shadows -- and the Vick case placed it at center stage.
The star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, who is black, is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in U.S. District court in Richmond, Virginia, on charges of sponsoring, along with three others, a brutal dogfighting ring on property he owns in Smithfield, site of their Bad Newz Kennels.
What does Michael Vick being black have to do with price of tea in China? It's an absurd, racist comment that has no bearing on the article. The context of the article doesn't justify the need to call out Vick's ethnicity either. Hip Hip isn't exclusively Black. The Rural South is not exclusively black. The commentary is total unnecessary.
An CNN editor somewhere should get their wings snipped.
Layin' in bed. Just out of the shower. Still a little drippy. With a Movie On. In Wide Screen. Window Open. Sound of Mosquitos at Dusk. Just out of the shower. With BBQ chicken. Baked Beans. Coke.
And Watermelon.
Juicy, red, ripe, savory watermelon.
This is summer deluxe.
PS - I'm assuming this is Japanese. I could be wrong though...
Well, I'm back in the Vue again, and it seem to be driving ok. The problem seems to have been with an engine wiring harness jumper and a hybrid resolver circuit. The installed harness was causing a high resistance on the resolver circuits, which led to the battery light being triggered as an alarm of some sort, which led to the 12 volt battery being drained. Or something like that.
In any event, I'm back in the Saturn. Here's hoping I don't have to go back again too soon!
I took Boris to my Atlanta Photography Guild meeting and he transformed into AMERICAS NEXT TOP MODEL. Seriously. He looks so hard core. This photo was taken by my buddy Justin. The colors just pop!
I've had my hybrid about 7 or 8 months and I've put about 9800 highway miles on it. Until a few weeks ago I would give it a 8 out of 10. I'm pretty pleased with overall performance. Rides smooth. Has nice punch when I need it. I'm getting about 29 to 31 mph depending on driving conditions -- not too shabby for an SUV.
A few design complaints:
- It has a lot of squeaks and moans that seem to come and go, especially in the dash. At about 70, I get an almost impercetible squeak in the dash -- it comes and goes -- but when the stereo is off, it's just enough to really annoy me.
- The placement of the window buttons is totally dumb. As a single driver, I have to reach over the gear shift to lower the passenger side windows. Seeing as how they put emphasis on having more controls at the drivers finger tips, seems like a total "DOH."
- The biggest, and perhaps most annoying design flaw is the rear cargo door. The didn't include any handles, latches, etc. that one can use to tie the door down if you are transporting an object that won't entire fit inside the car. I've made at least 3 trips to home depot where I had to just drive home with the tail gate all the way up!
All these complaints are MINOR compared to the complete SHUTDOWN OF THE ENGINE GOING 80MPH ON THE INTERSTATE. Yep, you read that right.
About 3 to 4 weeks ago, the battery light came on. Seeing as how the Vue is an ELECTRIC HYBRID, I figured this wasn't good. I took it in to the dealer. After a day, he said that it was a faulty sensor on a harness of some sort, and that it would be a few weeks to get the part in. No worries though, just turning off the car would 'reset' the computer and the light would go off. So they had me come back and pick up my car and sent me on my way.
And no real problems, other the annoyance of the battery light coming on, or check engine light, etc. But I'm not worried right? The Saturn Tech told me not to worry about it and that they would let me know when the part came in.
So I'm driving home yesterday and while traveling about 80 up I 85, the engine shifts into neutral, the RPM red lines, all the lights on the dash come on, and all I can do is coast (IN RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC) across the HOV lane into the center median. I turned off the car, waited a few minutes and then tried to turn it over again -- nothing. As if the battery were totally dead.
Anyway, after calling Saturn Roadside Assistance, the tow truck showed up around 70 to 80 minutes after calling. So, my happy ass just stood in 95 degree heat, in the middle of the interstate, staring at my new Vue, wondering if I made a terrible, terrible mistake purchasing this vehicle.
I dropped it off at Saturn, and I"m in a rental car today. I'll update you next week to let you know if Saturn's customer service comes through when I need it to.