Lovely weekend, and a convertible!

So it seems my longtime friend cyranocyrano is moving to Michigan, and rather than bring Nauti, his white 1993 Honda del Sol with him to brave the winters there, or sell it to the (no doubt) large local tuner community, it struck him that he knew this chick in Arizona who was obsessed with finding an inexpensive topless car. So for whatever reason, he decided that the best option was to load it up into a trailer and drive miles out of his way to bring it to her, even though she couldn't afford to pay him for it and get it the maintenance it needed. This is because he is either an amazing friend or a little soft in the head...and considering that he owned a car with a removable top in California for nigh on a decade and didn't remove the top once? I'm going to go with a bit of both. (But we love him for it just the same.)

She's not exactly pretty, what with being a combination of primer-black, Bondo beige and several different shades of faded white, not to mention fairly dented and scarred from her long life. But! Her interior's in good shape, her top comes off just fine (insert obligatory stripper joke here), and the drive train's still running well at 189,000 miles (as well it should, being essentially a Civic). She needs a new timing belt, thermostat, and some brake work, but that's all pretty standard maintenance. The biggest issue stems from a previous accident - the interior of the hood is warped and the both the radiator and A/C condenser are twisted. Amazingly, the radiator still works, but if it goes for whatever reason, a new one won't fit without some serious body work. So I'm probably not going to invest a lot in cosmetic stuff like repainting. But considering the radiator's been like that for years now and it still runs fine, I think I can justify spending the money on the maintenance - chances are she's got another year or three left in her, and for a free car (plus an eventual grand in repairs, give or take) that's not bad at all.

One of the nice side benefits of the new car delivery was getting to host Cyrano and his traveling partner Amanda for a few days. They were excellent guests, and good company; Saturday night we had a couple of Cyrano's old friends who live in Bisbee over for a game night. I can't even express how starved I've been for socializing, and it was all great fun - I even got to mix a few drinks! I hope we'll get to see them again. Sunday night our houseguests earned extra brownie points by taking us to a lovely dinner at Feast, and I learned that no matter how lovely and full and sleepy you feel at the end of a meal, taking a shot of espresso with dessert with the intention of going to bed not long afterwards does not make for restful sleep. Coffee, yes; espresso, no.

And now, because I'm starting to ramble from sleep deprivation, I leave you with a song.

Lovely weekend, and a convertible!

So it seems my longtime friend cyranocyrano is moving to Michigan, and rather than bring Nauti, his white 1993 Honda del Sol with him to brave the winters there, or sell it to the (no doubt) large local tuner community, it struck him that he knew this chick in Arizona who was obsessed with finding an inexpensive topless car. So for whatever reason, he decided that the best option was to load it up into a trailer and drive miles out of his way to bring it to her, even though she couldn't afford to pay him for it and get it the maintenance it needed. This is because he is either an amazing friend or a little soft in the head...and considering that he owned a car with a removable top in California for nigh on a decade and didn't remove the top once? I'm going to go with a bit of both. (But we love him for it just the same.)

She's not exactly pretty, what with being a combination of primer-black, Bondo beige and several different shades of faded white, not to mention fairly dented and scarred from her long life. But! Her interior's in good shape, her top comes off just fine (insert obligatory stripper joke here), and the drive train's still running well at 189,000 miles (as well it should, being essentially a Civic). She needs a new timing belt, thermostat, and some brake work, but that's all pretty standard maintenance. The biggest issue stems from a previous accident - the interior of the hood is warped and the both the radiator and A/C condenser are twisted. Amazingly, the radiator still works, but if it goes for whatever reason, a new one won't fit without some serious body work. So I'm probably not going to invest a lot in cosmetic stuff like repainting. But considering the radiator's been like that for years now and it still runs fine, I think I can justify spending the money on the maintenance - chances are she's got another year or three left in her, and for a free car (plus an eventual grand in repairs, give or take) that's not bad at all.

One of the nice side benefits of the new car delivery was getting to host Cyrano and his traveling partner Amanda for a few days. They were excellent guests, and good company; Saturday night we had a couple of Cyrano's old friends who live in Bisbee over for a game night. I can't even express how starved I've been for socializing, and it was all great fun - I even got to mix a few drinks! I hope we'll get to see them again. Sunday night our houseguests earned extra brownie points by taking us to a lovely dinner at Feast, and I learned that no matter how lovely and full and sleepy you feel at the end of a meal, taking a shot of espresso with dessert with the intention of going to bed not long afterwards does not make for restful sleep. Coffee, yes; espresso, no.

And now, because I'm starting to ramble from sleep deprivation, I leave you with a song.