Trying to Make the Driving World a Little Less Annoying

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Traces of My Life

I was playing around with Excel the other day, as engineers who obsessively collect data are wont to do. I had plotted an interesting convergence—three of my cars (if I count my wife’s) had almost the same mileage last week.

The mileage of my Honda Civic was overtaken by my wife’s Subaru Legacy, which was later overtaken by my Subaru STI. This took over 148,300 miles and 15.3 years of meticulous planning to achieve (note: no actually planning conducted).

Bentley. James’s Bentley.

I’ve just finished reading/listening some of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. I had never read these before. We all have our image of the dashing James Bond based on the movies. He drinks dry vodka martinis—shaken, not stirred. He carries a Walther PPK as his main weapon. And he drives an Aston Martin.

Except when he doesn’t.

Live Long and Prosper

Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock on the show (and movies) Star Trek, died on Friday, February 27, 2015.

123456, #2 – While You Were Sleeping

I realized after taking this picture a couple of months ago that while my 944 was hibernating, it got passed by my daily driver. The 944, my oldest car, now has the fewest miles of my cars.

Dr. John W. Melvin

John Melvin - Good Guy
John Melvin (1938 – 2014)


Update

A memorial service is expected to be scheduled on Sunday, August 10, at 2:00 pm in the lounge at West Side Methodist Church, 900 S. Seventh St., Ann Arbor, followed by a Memorial Service for John in the Sanctuary at 3:00 pm.

There will be a Celebration of John’s Life at the Ann Arbor City Club, 1830 Washtenaw Ave., following the service.


I was saddened to hear that John Melvin passed away on July 17th after a brief illness. John was one of the good guys in the automobile and racing industry, working for the safety of drivers. He worked from 1968-1985 for UMTRI (University of Michigan Transport Research Institute) and from 1985-1998 at General Motors Research Laboratories. He had been working exclusively on racing safety from 1992 until his retirement in 1998. He had been a safety consultant to NASCAR for the last 13 years.

Empathy

STI Shifter

Grrrrrind…

“It’s been a while since I’ve driven a manual transmission,” said my colleague.

I was in the passenger seat logging data, feeling a little glad that this was a test car and not mine. I mumbled some acknowledgement as I fiddled with my software.

VROOOOM… lug… lug… stall…

New Snowfall Record!

As of 6 am on April 15, 2014, Detroit has broken the record for snowfall in a season with 94.8 inches total. The old record was 93.6 inches back in 1880-1881. Presumably there could have been higher snowfalls prior to that, but no one posted it on Facebook or YouTube back then, so it didn’t really happen.

So take that, 1880 and 1881! 2013 and 2014 rules! We’re #1! And all that.

123456

I don’t know if I’m an engineer because I like numbers, or I like numbers because I’m an engineer. Statistically speaking, numbers are better in math than letters.

Snow Close

We didn’t break the record today. As of 8:00 pm on March 12, our snowfall total for this winter is 90.7″. The record from 1880-1881 is 93.6″.

Wheel on the Subaru Goes Round and Round

So there I was, just a mile from my house when I felt the vibrations. After a few seconds, I decided to pull over and see if I had a flat tire. I went around the car, but all four tires seemed normal. As a precaution, I walked around again and checked the lug nuts by hand. As far as I could tell, those were okay, too.

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