Friday, January 2, 2009

Driving home for New Year's

Damn is it ever snowing up in heah'! Twice today we've had to shovel our driveway, and I'm not exaggerating a bit if I estimate that more than 50 cm have fallen since last night. Move to the East Side of Trondheim, they said. Milder climate, way less snow, they said.

Motherfu*ker; as I type this, having just come in from the shovelling, the fu*kin' snow plow just pimp-cruised by, leaving a gigantic heap of dense, packed snow all across the entrance to our driveway. Our tax dollars hard at work.

Fuckin'...........

Oh well. It's been snowing hardcore since New Year's anyway. We spent New Year's at my dad's, about an hour and a half away north-east of here. Usually, we really dread driving there this time of year owing to the roads up there being icy, narrow and rarely plowed, but with our new spiked snow tires, this was gonna be a relaxing drive for once. And going there, it really was - our tires did their work, and the ride to was peachy.

However, when we arrived, my dad commented that one of our head lights was out. At the time, I didn't think about it much. As we were fixin' to leave for home, I still didn't think too much about it, owing to the fact that I nearly went offroad backing our car out of my dad's driveway. Pure amateur hour, but it went well in the end. As we started to drive for real and came out past the street lights, it became pretty damn obvious that the other headlight had decided to call it a day as well, leaving us with two options as far as lighting on our journey back home: highbeams or parking lights. Seeing as how there was a blizzard goin' on at the time and it was in the middle of the night, neither choice provided us with nything even close to optimal driving conditions. For obvious reasons, the parking light option was no go; a firefly would've provided us with more light and visibility. And with high-speed oncoming traffic - including heavy trucks - visibility ranks near the very top of the list of priorities. Which left us with the option of having to drive home with the high-beams blaring. That didn't really do anything for our popularity among the oncoming traffic though, resulting in many angry high-beam flashes. Including from the heavy trucks previously mentioned, and lemme' tell you; them suckers are decked out with some intense wattage. Occasionally I'd switch to parking lights when other traffic approached - if the lighting conditions were decent. Sadly, that prompted the oncoming motherfu*kers to flash their high-beams at us in an attempt to warn us that our light were out. You're damned if you do, and you're mos def damned if you don't. We were quite pleased to have made it home, lemme' assure y'all of that.

Rather optimistically, we figured that changing the light bulbs wouldn't be such a big deal - how difficult can it be, right? After consulting the owner's manual, our optimism grew. There was even a section on how to change the liht bulbs in three easy steps in case of a roadside emergency. As we moved on from theory to practice and actually popped the hood open, it became rather obvious that the steps depicted in the owner's manual - in this case technically the ownee's manual - were only applicable to one of the headlights. Consequently, we rode out to the friendly neighborhood garage as soon as we'd shoveled our driveway AND daylight had come today. Quite frankly, there was some shame associated with having to go to the garage in order to have such a thing taken care of, but this feeling subsided the moment the mechanic started working on the situation. It took a trained mechanic one hour to change the light bulbs, of which 55 minutes or so were spent working with the left side of the car. The grill had to come out. The headlight casing had to be loosened, and the battery cradle had to be moved in order to change that one freakin' bulb. Not to mention an array of tools we sure enough never carry in the car on either long or short trips. Three simple steps to be used in case of a roadside emergency my ass.

Happy New Year, y'all

11 comments:

Anders said...

That's allright, Wilhelm. A lot of people have problem with changing light bulbs in their cars. It's only embarressing if you have a university degree in techical science or technical know-how is a part of your job description. Or something like that.
:-D

Seriously, why can't car manufacturers make the bulbs more accessible? In my car, you also need to remove the battery and a lof of stuff to get the bulb out, and one side is worse then the other.

Wilhelm said...

It's only embarressing if you have a university degree in techical science or technical know-how is a part of your job description. Or something like that.

Good thing I don't have any such thing, then

Seriously, why can't car manufacturers make the bulbs more accessible?

Well; according to the mechanic who dealt with our car, it's because cars don't break down as much as they used to, and so it's good bidness sense to make ordinary maintenance operations beyond the scope of the general public

Anders said...

On a side note: I had a 13 hours drive back home, in almost constant snowing. Those 13 hours including waiting 1 hour for a ferry, which we missed by 50 meters. Meaning, the ferry was 50 meters from the dock when we cruised in...

I also had the pleasure of getting to know some of advanced feature of my car. For one, I discovered that the anti-spin (or whatever it's called) system actually takes disconnects the engine when it detects that the driving surface is slippery. Great, since I discovered that this makes me unable to drive up a half steep road that is coverd with 5 cm of snow. Even greater, I discovered that after speeding off the ferry, giving the rest of the cars the virtual finger and getting first in the car queue. Guess if the cars behind me were pleased when my speed slowly went from 60 km to 50 to 40 and nearly 10 km in a 80 km zone?

Anders said...

it's good bidness sense to make ordinary maintenance operations beyond the scope of the general public

Well, bidness before pleasure, so it's Ok then. For the record, I do all my bulbs by myself. But then we've already established the fact that I do posess the Tim The Toolman Taylor gene...
;-)

Wilhelm said...

Meaning, the ferry was 50 meters from the dock when we cruised in...

Beats the other way those 50 meters could've been missed

Great, since I discovered that this makes me unable to drive up a half steep road that is coverd with 5 cm of snow.

It's not a bug, it's a feature

Guess if the cars behind me were pleased when my speed slowly went from 60 km to 50 to 40 and nearly 10 km in a 80 km zone?

..look at it this way; you got the chance to flip them off twice

For the record, I do all my bulbs by myself. But then we've already established the fact that I do posess the Tim The Toolman Taylor gene...

If you face similar dificulties as with our car, I'm mighty impressed, A-man. Provided of course that the car is still functional AND with working lighting post "repair", that is

Wilhelm said...

I had a 13 hours drive back home, in almost constant snowing. Those 13 hours including waiting 1 hour for a ferry, which we missed by 50 meters.

13 hours? Really? Using E-39 from K-town? That snow must've really sucked, huh?

Anders said...

13 hours? Really? Using E-39 from K-town? That snow must've really sucked, huh?

Jupp. But those 13 hours includes the 1 hour wait at the ferry and a 45-60 minutes dinner stop. But it is incredible how much extra time you need when it's impossible to drive more then 60 km/h. Dang it was a long drive.

Anders said...

If you face similar dificulties as with our car, I'm mighty impressed, A-man.

No, you just bought a particular crappy car. :-D
My car is a few years older then yours, so I guess it's slightly easier to get out. I do not spend 55 minutes changing a bulb. Well, maybe the first time.

Provided of course that the car is still functional AND with working lighting post "repair", that is

Taping a flashlight to the hood is close enough to "working lights", no?
;-)

Anders said...

Beats the other way those 50 meters could've been missed

:-D
I didn't think of it that way when I typed it.

It's not a bug, it's a feature

After discovering how to disable the function, it was OK. If if it hadn't been possible to disable, I would now have been on my way to Göteborg with my trusty baseball bat to have a face-to-face conversation with the top management of Volvo Cars...

..look at it this way; you got the chance to flip them off twice

LOL
Well, I'm a bit restricted with flipping the bird when I'm having trouble with my get-away car...
:-D

Wilhelm said...

No, you just bought a particular crappy car. :-D

With Ford in Trondheim, the problem ain't with the car, but with the brand garage. Gaden Wist sucked bigtime. Hopefully Kværneland is able to do things better

I do not spend 55 minutes changing a bulb. Well, maybe the first time.

..when a trained mechanic spends that time, things do suck, A-man

Taping a flashlight to the hood is close enough to "working lights", no?

In Soviet Russia; sure

If if it hadn't been possible to disable, I would now have been on my way to Göteborg with my trusty baseball bat to have a face-to-face conversation with the top management of Volvo Cars...

I'd pay top dollar to see that :-D

Well, I'm a bit restricted with flipping the bird when I'm having trouble with my get-away car...

That's the beauty of it; first you flip them off not once but twice, and then you get to open a can of whoop-ass on their candy asses :-D

Anders said...

That's the beauty of it; first you flip them off not once but twice, and then you get to open a can of whoop-ass on their candy asses :-D

LOL
Yeah, that sounds just like me...