paulyblog

Winter has arrived in Northern Ontario.  We have been dumped on once again with tons of snow.  Last year was the same and I think part of it has to do with the fact that I sold my Polaris RMK snowmobile exactly one year ago today.   It’s alright though, that was a good thing because with the money I paid off my student loans and bought a snow blower which came in handy.

This year however I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a second hand snowmobile.  Yep, I got my dad’s old Polaris Indy Lite 340.  The thing is a 1991 and only 340cc but it’s fun as hell to drive!  I took it out for a ride tonight to make sure it was working fine.  It started to bog a bit but once I filled it up with some supreme gas it was good to go for the rest of the night.  I can’t wait until we get more snow.  I’m actually looking forward to going ice fishing with it.

Apparently we are supposed to get another 5-10cm of snow tonight.  Should make for a fun winter!  I gotta go shower now, I smell like gas.

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Pita Pit is now opened here.  I remember the good old college days where we would go out to the bars in downtown Sudbury and afterwards walk over to Pita Pit to get a chicken caesar pita.  Those days are long gone now but we finally have a Pita Pit of our own here!!  I was patiently awaiting for it to open and last Thursday was the big day. We had a pita for supper Thursday night, a pita for lunch on Friday and a pita for lunch on Saturday.  Now I am all pita’d out.

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It seems like the US have taken one step forward by electing the first black President ever.  It only took 232 years for that to happen.  Where they took two steps back is with Proposition 8.  Three states, California, Florida and Arizona, voted yes for Proposition 8 which bans gay marriages.  What I really don’t understand is the fact that voters in California elected Barack Obama which supports gay marriages.  I wonder how long it will take for them to realize that two people of the same sex should be able to get married?  Until then, it just means that Canada will have more American tourists…..especially now that the Canadian dollar is low.

2008, barack, california, election, gay, marriage, obama, paulyblog, proposition 8 barack, Canada, election, gay, marriage, obama, president, proposition 8

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I can’t believe it’s almost over.  It’s been over a year now. I, like many others, am sick of hearing about the US Presidential Elections all over the news.  I think it’s gotten to a point where I more less tune it out completely.  It’s like all the news stations are reporting on nothing other than what Obama and Sarah Palin are doing.

I’ve got to admit though, I do feel bad for that poor Sarah Palin.  First, all the media spotlight.  Then she’s got look alikes staring in porno’s.  Finally, Montreal radio show hosts are tricking her into doing an interview with the fake president of France and making her look like a complete idiot.  After tomorrow I doubt that Sarah Palin will make any more headlines.  Hopefully tomorrow it will be back to normal life for her.

I’m happy that in Canada we only had to put up with the elections for a month.  Eventhough they were useless and a total waste of money, it was over and done with it no time.

Happy voting tomorrow to my southern friends!!  I hope the voting machines don’t get messed up.

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It’s official, I am going to see AC/DC in Toronto.  November 7th, my brother and I will be making our way down to Toronto.  I was lucky enough to score some floor tickets.  The trick was to join the AC/DC fan club for $40.   When you join the fan club you get to purchase tickets from a different pool that is available to the general public.  It was worth every penny.  I’m pretty excited, can’t wait to go.

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This weekend was pretty cool.  We got to play Amazing Race.  A co-worker invited us since they were looking for an extra team this year.  The guy who set it up spent months of thinking and weeks of planning to get this race organized.  He did an amazing job at it.  I mean we had to dig through sand piles, go into a loon shit infested lake and race all around town to get clues.

The race started at 10am and finished around 8pm.  It was a long rainy day.  We drove way faster than we should have and probably pissed off tons of people but it’s hard not to when you see your competitor is right behind you.

Some of the challenges were pretty cool and some just took too long to do in the pooring rain.  Overall the race was wicked.  I hope to be invited again next year.  Who knows, maybe I will organize something like it in the future.

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It’s 2AM and I can’t sleep.  I am in the same boat as I was last night.  Actually it was the same exact thing as last night.  I was super tired after supper and at around 8:30PM I passed out for 2 hours.  Now I can’t fall asleep.  I was lucky enough to pull it off on Monday.  I passed out at around 8PM, woke up at 11:22PM and fell back asleep until morning.  Lately I have been super tired and I’ve been having a hard time to fall asleep.  It might be because my mind is wandering all night.  I have so many things to do, so many things on my mind and don’t have enough time to do it all.  So when I go to bed that’s all I really think about and the things that I haven’t accomplished.  I need a break

I talked to my dad today about our August trip.  I will be going to Ottawa, Trois Rivieres, Quebec, Gaspe and maybe Moncton with him.  He wants to go check out the Grand Prix Molson in Trois Rivieres with me.  He remembers when he was younger and went to the Grand Prix with some friends and would like to do it again.  After the Grand Prix Molson we will spend a few days in Quebec city.  So far we don’t have it all planned out but I will do that in the weeks to come.  I think I might have convinced him to take my our (mine and Jenn’s) Civic for the road trip instead of his truck.  Gas is at $1.40/Litre here and my Civic get’s 50 MPG.

I am kind of looking forward to morning as we are supposed to go canoeing down a scenic river nearby.  I hope it doesn’t rain.  I don’t want to cancel this excursion.

I will try to sleep again.

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We picked it up last Friday.  It was pretty cool to buy our first car.  The official mileage after the pre-delivery and inspection was 11km.  Now it’s at about 150km.  It rides nice, way better than my older 96 Civic.  The best part is the MP3 CD player.  I doubt I will ever need a satellite radio again.  Jenn has been making MP3 CD’s like crazy.  The fact that you can fit about 200 songs on one CD is pretty cool too.  I won’t need a dozen CD’s anymore.

Last week we were also supposed to buy a 2000 Nissan Xterra.  On Friday I went to the bank to get a bank draft for the price of the Xterra and the safety certification.  I was told by the dealer that all it needed for the safety certification was a few lights and the safety would only cost $205 plus taxes.  It sounds too good to be true since I remembered the brakes pulsing during the test drive.  The person in the service department assured me that the brakes were fine to pass the safety and that the pulsing was probably due to fact that the vehicle was sitting on the lot.

On my way to the dealer on Friday I was called back into the office to help someone with an e-mail server problem and I didn’t make it to the dealership before closing.  I was alright with it because I was told the safety certification still needed to be completed before the vehicle could be licensed.  I also was second guessing myself and wanted to take the weekend to think about it.

On the weekend Jenn and I went back to see the Xterra and decided that we would get it.  The price was right, it didn’t need much to safety and we were in the need of a more reliable vehicle.  The weekend went by and this morning I went to the dealer and dropped off the bank draft.  The vehicle was supposed to get its safety certification and I was to be called once it was complete.

This afternoon I got a call from the head of the service department and was told that the person that had done the safety check last week didn’t have time to complete it because he spent too much time lubing the gear for the 4wd because it wouldn’t go in 4-low.  That’s when I was informed that the front brakes, rotors, wheel bearings, pinion seals, and a few more critical things needed to be done for the vehicle to be safetied.  It went from $205 to an extra $500 for the safety certification.  The dealer did give me a good price on the work that needed to be done but I just couldn’t spend an extra $500.

I was already cutting it close since I was using the money that I needed for my basement repairs and this would have made things way too tight.  I was hoping to get most of that money back by selling my 2 older vehicles but I haven’t gotten any offers on them yet.  I just couldn’t risk being stuck with 4 cars.  Disappointed, I picked up my refund at the dealer this afternoon.  I wish I would of known this earlier on because I really did want the Xterra.  It got my hopes up.

I am doing my basement wall in 2 weeks. I hope I sell one of my vehicles by then.  Now I am not sure what one to get rid of.  I have wheel bearings coming in for the older Civic.  Once the wheel bearings are installed the car will be good to go.  The S10 is in rought cosmetic shape but it runs like a dream.  Doesn’t burn an ouce of oil.  It has never given me any problems.  I will clean up the rust and give it a coat of tremclad rust paint.  I guess I will just have to wait and see which vehicle sells first.  The one that’s left will be the one I end up keeping.

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It’s official!  We bought a new Civic.  After many test drives, comparisons, and research we decided to go with the Civic LX.  Why?

Local Service
I don’t want to have to tow my car 4 hours away if something goes wrong with it.  We don’t have a VW and Subaru dealer here.  I know that the service at the Honda dealer here is awesome.  On various occasions they have bent over backwards for me to get me all fixed up.  I have spent a lot of money there and they realized that.

Value
I know that Civics hold their value.  I know that Civics are reliable cars.  I will get 34 mpg in town and 50 mpg on the highway.  The price was reasonable for the features I was getting. The Corolla with the convenience package didn’t come with cruise control and it wasn’t available as an option.  You had to move to the enhanced convenience package and that one was the same price as the Civic LX and didn’t come with aluminum rims.

Availability
The model and colour that I wanted was available.  I got lucky because they only got it this weekend.  The Corolla was another car I was considering but they are so hard to find because they are new.

Financing
The  Honda has bi-weekly financing which lowered the monthly payment.  The reason why it’s lower is because there are two months a year that have 3 pays.  So you actually make two extra bi-weekly payments per year (which lowers the payment).  This option is not available from Toyota and Volkswagen.  It was available with Subaru.  The interest rates were reasonable. I am paying 2.9% interest for 60 months.  The new Corolla was 5.9% interest and the Subaru was 4.9%.  I am sure the interest rates will drop in August some time because the new 2009 Civic will come out but I wanted one now

We get it on Friday.  They will install the automatic car started and tint the windows.  I saw it at the auto glass shop after work.  It will look sweet with tinted windows.

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