I Got Hugged Today

...but not in the way you think.

Tonight my partner in crime and I went out on a mission to scout out some vehicles for our drive this summer. After the epic fail of my honesty on Monday, we decided to say that we were looking at the differences between two cars, and let the salesman make all the assumptions. To catch you up, or perhaps involve you in the meeting, my last outing left me doubting my intention of getting a convertible for the trip, and going with a more gentle, long road trip cruiser. Well, thanks to our friends at the new car dealership, I believe we've made a good decision. So, the reservation with our friends at Hertz is set, and let's just say I think we made a good decision.

The safety features on this car are legendary, and the comfort of it will keep us both at ease for the 9 hour trip. Plus it should have enough technological toys to keep me interested and entertained the entire time. Yeah, we decided on an E-Class. When we got in, the seat firms itself up, and the seat belt tightens up a little bit because as the salesman explained, that when it detects an impact, the seat gets to a proper crash position, and the seatbelt snugs up to freeze you in to the seat and supposedly limit the impact on the driver and passengers. There were several other odd features that seemed so incredible that I can't really describe them. I can sum it up with this little tale; We were testing out the spaciousness of this model compared to the other (smaller) one, specifically if/how our elbows wouldn't bump in to each other very readily. This particular model of car has an armrest that splits open a lot like the Ghostbusters containment module (look it up, kids) in the middle, so when it was closed there was a bit of a crack. So, when the dealer heard us talking about the amount of space, he said, "Yeah and if you cross over the gap there you get a little shock." I looked at him, and semi-seriously say, "With the list of the other features you've gone over, I'm not entirely sure if you're kidding or not.". He of course was kidding, but the car is German made after all.

So, anyway, I'm glad to have that part settled, and our travel plans are firmed up, and things are looking good. Now to focus more on promotion and awareness. I'll be travelling next week for work, so update frequency may change. Not sure if it will be more or less. Depends how bored I get in the hotel. Again, thank you for watching.

Drive on

Good news!

The donations keep on coming in, and I'm starting to get some things finalized. I want to make up a flyer/poster/card thing to maybe strategically place around. Since I like to obsess about details, and I consider it a good quality, I wanted to 'sample' drive some examples of the cars I was thinking of renting while in California this summer. In order of preference they were a Corvette, Mustang, and Camaro, all convertibles. They're all convertibles, because I've always wanted to drive a convertible on the PCH, and it ties in to the whole 'solar powered' part of my personality. So, after doing a quick search on cars.com, I found a few samples of Corvettes and Camaro's, the best selection being at a certain dealer in Ankeny. So I headed there to the used (Excuse me, 'Pre-Owned') side, and told my story, what I was doing and why. It was cold out and I had to pee, so maybe I was talking a little fast. Anyway, they brought me inside, the salesman talked to his manager person, which I thought funny. All I wanted to do was sit in them, and possibly drive them a little bit to see how rough the ride might be. After what seemed like a long discussion, they came back out and said I couldn't even sit in them.

So...I went to another dealer lot, still gave my spiel, but I didn't ask to drive one until after I had sat in the Corvette. They said no, because I wasn't a buying customer, which I was fine with, because he at least gave me a reason. Anyway, I decided that a Corvette is not the car for this trip, and probably not for me at all ever. They do say never meet your heroes. I'm an American, so the Corvette was one of my cars that I've always wanted, before my tinkle was fully developed so to speak. The 2nd dealer also said that I wouldn't want a Camaro, either because the sightlines are so terrible on it, especially in the blind spots. Which wouldn't matter as much on the PCH trip, but driving in and around the cities, it could become an issue. He also advised me that if I wanted to drive one, go to the new dealer lot, they are a little more liberal with the test drives. So, now I'm back to a Ford Mustang convertible, the Mustang shares an anniversary this year with the PCH itself, so there's that. I'm also trying to figure out if I want to ditch the convertible plan and go for the 'Grand Touring' type car in a sedan/coupe and such.

So, some things to do, but for the first time I actually feel happy in my job, and my life for the first time in my memory.

There is Awesome In the World

A couple of weeks ago, an incident happened here at work where a coworker had a reaction to some medication he was taking or something, and long story short he basically had a panic attack. It was a tense few minutes here in our workplace, but we got it handled, and there were some lessons learned. After the coworker was helped out to his car by our security staff, there were some comments being made about the coworker and the situation. I don't remember exactly what the comments were, but they did upset me enough to send out a message to our immediate team, and the team that this coworker was part of. I added some links to the NAMI site, and also one to my Crowdrise page. I got some comments at work after I sent my email that some people realized they had said some off color things, and that they were surprised it came from me. My message started off with 'It could have been me', and explained how I was dealing with my own mental illness.

Anyway, after sending the links, I did get some hits on fundraising which is awesome. I'm currently up to 25% of my goal, with three months to go. So thank you for that, it is 25% more than I thought I'd get at all.

Today is of course the equinox, which means we are in spring. One more season until I start my drive. I've been messing around with Google maps street view, to get somewhat familiarized with the route, and just for something to do. I'm weird like that. I also have set up a Facebook event to meet up on the Santa Monica Pier before we leave, a sort of launch party so to speak. IF you want added in on that, just let me know in some comments. I'll also start updating this more often. Thanks again, and keep being awesome!