pencrypted

Well, it has now been officially one year since I took possesion of my car. What a year. This one little car has change my life in such a positive manner, my social life has improved dramatically (well, up until recently that is), I look forward to going out, I have a massive new hobby to occupy my time, and I have made a lot of new friends. Oh, not to mention the money I saved in fuel costs :P.

Cost Analysis:

Total Value of Fuel: $754.13 CAD
Total of All Repairs: $323.35 CAD
Total of All Service: $451 CAD
Overall Cost To Run: $1,528.48 CAD ( 8 cents / KM )

Fuel Economy Analysis:

Total Times Refuelled: 48
Total of Fuel Quantity: 785 Litres
Total Distance Driven: 19,411km
Overall Fuel Economy: 4.00L/100km (71mpg)
Overall CO2 Emissions: 106g/km
Best Tank of Fuel: 3.09L/100km (91mpg)
Worst Tank of Fuel: 7.06L/100km (40mpg)
Total of SMILES: Tonnes!

Yeah, went to pull a u-turn, and apparently there is no shoulder on this road, just a ditch filled with snow (perfectly level with the road) immediately off the road surface. Right side of car went in, and the bottom of the car was within 4cm of the ground…poop. Only time I have ever gotten stuck. So called my dad and he came out with a shovel. Yes, I feel retarded now.

Have some pics and a video of le stuck auto.

YouTube Video - Mats Stuck Smart
Poor car

A good 30cm deep

Only about 3-4cm clearance Max.

Haaaaaaaay

:-/

Something about this view is wrong

The aftermath

—————-
I got bored while waiting, so started just snapping pics

Oh wow, this last month has been a nightmare. So many things going on, so little time.

I’ve been meaning to update this the past couple weeks, but as I said, I’ve been extremely busy, and when I did get a lul, I just didn’t have the motivation to sit in front of my computer again and type this out.

Anyways, three weeks back, Iain called me on a Saturday morning wondering if I would like to go for a spin in the new 451 at to Performance Cars - Mercedes in St. Catherines. Looking outside and seeing it was sunny out and cloudless, I agreed to go with him and he arrived at my apt to pick me up shortly thereafter. When we arrived at Perf Merc Iain was given the key to a white and silver passion cabrio and told that it was all ready. Off we went.

I must say, the car itself sounds magnificent, a very nice engine note. The acceleration is light years ahead of the 450 CDI, which should come as no shock since it has a 1L 3 Cyl 71HP Petrol engine in the back, 75% more power. However, I found the handling seemed softened a bit, and the braking doesn’t seem to be as hard as the 450. The lag between gear shifts is still there and I honestly don’t think there is any difference. It may be a faster shift, but since there is no torque up where you would shift, there is the lag as it spins the engine back up. Either way, the fit and finish is a lot better in this revision, the only thing I have to complain about there is the fact that a) it is not as quirky and b) the padding around the A pillars makes the interior feel more constrained compared to the 450. I would definitely buy one now if my 450 suffered some terrible misfortune. Oh, quick note, when we got back to the dealership, it turns out that there was NO dealer plates attached to the car, and Iain was driving it like he stole it…must have been funny to see fro someone else’s point of view.

<doddles away from writing for 2 hours>

OK! The big news, I suppose, involves work. My boss, who taught me 3/4 of what I know, has been let go. This in essence means that I am in charge of IT (which is evident by my new title of IT Coordinator). However, I must say that the day off his dismissal was the mostnerve racking day of my life, I felt bad for him, but I also had to lock him out of EVERYTHING he had access to. Usually this is no issue, since most employees have limited access, however since he was head of IT, he had access to all the systems. It took about a good 3 hours that night to ensure the doors were all locked. Then I had the busiest week i have ever seen, I don’t think I was at my desk more than 10 minutes at a time, all these loose ends to correct, all sorts of things that we are finding out. GAH.

It is just now slowly…well slowing down. But not for long it seems. Part of my previous responsibilities were to cover the processing of incoming data. This is a full time job in and of itself. The issue I now face is that the data guy will be leaving on Friday for a weeks vacation…I will then have to do his job, my job, my old boss’ job, while preparing to go to chicago in a week.

Oh yes, I need to mention about Chicago. We have been their only IT support for the last god knows how long. it turns out that NO ONE WHO SUPPORTS THEM HAS EVER BEEN DOWN THERE. We have no clue what their network looks like, nothing. So we need to go down in a week and a bit to map out everything and try and bring some semblance to the facility.

To sum up my last 2.5 weeks, I can honestly say I have never felt so needed, so useful, so stressed, and so happy. Organization is now comming to my work life, and I smile everytime I think about my job. I now have a purpose.

My what a long post for me….this is why I need to keep updated more often.