A lot of people are complaining about the price of gas which jumped from $1.22/litre to about $1.37 overnight on thursday. The reason given is the landfall of hurricane Ike (or Gustav, who can keep track) in the Texas oilfields. Not sure why that should affect us but for a $12/tank increase, I can't really get too upset (plus I had already filled up at the lower price). People who don't understand that owning a car is a L U X U R Y need to have their heads slapped.
Having said that, I had the luxury of paying $2000 to have my Pathfinder fixed last week. Front brakes done and split resonators replaced. The brakes conveniently started grinding the day
before I took it in for the weird noise that started just after the March trip to Florida. The mechanic showed me on the hoist - both resonators were split at the seam and exhaust was pouring out of both. After I got the car back, I thought it didn't start when I turned the key, it was that quiet! The mechanic says I'll be saving money on gas now becasue of it so it all works out in the end. And considering I haven't really spent a cent on that car since I bought it in 2002, except to put on new tires, I couldn't be too upset about this repair bill.
Another potential luxury expense is a new camera - digital, of course. I actually went to buy one a couple of weeks ago but after putting the package together, the sales guy went into the back and discovered they were sold out of the body I wanted - Canon 40D. I decided to hold off since it was such a big expense at one time but when I pulled out my old SLR this past weekend to take photos at the Knockout, I discovered that the film loading mechanism is shot. The worst part is it's all automated so there's no way to override and load it manually. I was finally able to get some of the rolls loaded by pushing them around the spool multiple times but it meant I only got about 13-15 shots per roll. Plus I missed some of the action because it was impossible to do a quick load between rolls. Anyway, hopefully I'll get those rolls into a Blacks soon. I think I'm going to need to lay out the cash for the new one.
The knockout was a lot of fun. I almost didn't go because the original forecast was for rain/thunder storms all day. In the end it was just overcast. Everyone who isn't away at university was there! More importantly, it was the ideal opportunity to see all those paddler babies that have appeared in the past year or two...I wish I'd taken a shot of them all together.
Another potential luxury expense is a new camera - digital, of course. I actually went to buy one a couple of weeks ago but after putting the package together, the sales guy went into the back and discovered they were sold out of the body I wanted - Canon 40D. I decided to hold off since it was such a big expense at one time but when I pulled out my old SLR this past weekend to take photos at the Knockout, I discovered that the film loading mechanism is shot. The worst part is it's all automated so there's no way to override and load it manually. I was finally able to get some of the rolls loaded by pushing them around the spool multiple times but it meant I only got about 13-15 shots per roll. Plus I missed some of the action because it was impossible to do a quick load between rolls. Anyway, hopefully I'll get those rolls into a Blacks soon. I think I'm going to need to lay out the cash for the new one.
The knockout was a lot of fun. I almost didn't go because the original forecast was for rain/thunder storms all day. In the end it was just overcast. Everyone who isn't away at university was there! More importantly, it was the ideal opportunity to see all those paddler babies that have appeared in the past year or two...I wish I'd taken a shot of them all together.
Sign of time passing: one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, Richard Wright ,died today.
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