Joe and Jamie's Blog

All week long I have been watching the odometer because I was getting near 100,000 miles. I get home Thursday night and notice that I am really close to that number and I had to travel to White Plains the next day, surely enough to put me over the mark.

Well of course I completely forgot to pay attention while driving down there, but by some stoke of luck I stopped at a light two blocks from where I needed to be and looked down and saw this:

99,999 just looks cooler for a picture I think

So I was able to get the shot I wanted for this post! Not so bad really for a 2001 Honda Accord that I got in 2004 with 9,801 miles on it. This baby should last me another six years or so.

I apologize in advance but this really bugged me today…

Received my vehicle registration in the mail today, not really too excited over it. I have a very small two door car that weighs 3000lbs. Two years ago it cost me $40 to renew its registration. Guess how much it costs this year? $110!

You have to be kidding me, almost triples in two years?!?!?!?!? I guess we can all thank Gov. Paterson for this bullcrap. I love the $10 Use Tax on it. WTF is use tax? I can’t wait until Jamie’s car has to be renewed in a few months and that special new plate fee crap will be added on to it, freekin’ ridiculous.

So bottom line is that New York State and all its mighty loves to suck the crap out of us little people so idiots in government can get a bonus at the end of the year, one that they get to give themselves…isn’t that great…

Oh yeah and I know he can’t read this small of print but I’m going to type it anyway, F@%K Paterson. Can’t wait to see how much he loses by at the end of this year, idiot actually thinks he’s going to get re-elected! HAHAHA

[UPDATE] So a few days after posting this I see that Paterson officially said he’s dropping out of the race for the end of this year…was it something I said? LOL.

Last year Jamie really wanted a remote car starter for Christmas but I never got around to it. This year she kept reminding me like a kid looking at the Toys ‘R Us catalog each night.

Last Friday I had one installed for her and I let her have the remote to use since it was about 15 degrees outside. I did want to keep the remotes from her but just couldn’t do it since it was so cold.

I went to Solar Shades on Route 9 in Poughkeepsie. I chose them because they have been there for awhile and haven’t gone out of business like most places around here. That gave me some confidence that they must be good or they wouldn’t keep getting business to stay open. I also did a Google search for “remote car starter poughkeepsie” and boom they came up first, so it was a sign from Google that I should go with my gut and use them.

They did a great job on the install, very clean and neat. No wires showing or any paneling damaged during install. The starter works just as its supposed to with no glitches or issues. I do recommend them, I am very impressed with the quality of the job.

I had an Autopage CS-RS-603 remote starter installed. Well actually I just asked for a basic remote starter and that’s what they installed. Didn’t need any fancy remote lowering the windows or other “toys”. The system can remote start/stop the car, leave it running while you go in the store with the key, lock/unlock, and start from about 1,000 feet away.

I’ve had a remote starter in my car for a few years now, but it only worked for the first year. I think I kicked some wiring loose and it hasn’t worked for about two years now. I’m going back to Solar Shades after the holiday to get it fixed.

Solar Shades also offers window tinting (hence the name), detailing, vinyl graphics, and vehicle accessories.

I finally got to cash in my birthday present on Monday. My parents purchased a 20 Mile Super Speedway Program, part of the Stock Car Racing Experience at Pocono Raceway. This program allows me to drive a 600hp stock car around the 2.5 mile Super Speedway for 8 laps, reaching speeds over 160MPH.

When my father booked it he got a free 3-lap ride-along for free, so we gave that to Jamie. She got to ride in a car with an instructor who went around 170MPH for 3 laps. She thought it was awesome and crazy fast. Around the first turn she thought she was going to slam into the wall.

Now I spent around an hour in class watching videos on safety, the track, and how to operate the car. We took a test run in a big van around the track so we could see all the markers we saw on the videos. After getting fitted in the racing fire suit and helmet, I waited my turn to strap in and drive one of those puppies. Well over an hour went by and of course, I was the last person to go. Not fun waiting in 90 degree heat and sun in a fire suit. Anyway, it was absolutely awesome to drive. It’s amazing how much damn power they have. The turns felt sketchy the first few laps, but I got used to them after awhile. I got up to around 8500 RPMs, which is over 160MPH, just amazingly awesome. Needless to say this is probably the best gift I’ve gotten so far, even trumps my first laptop and Xbox.

Click here for more information on the stock car that I drove.
Click here for more information on the driving programs they offer.

Enjoy the videos and pictures from the day.

Begin rant.

I had to do some work in White Plains yesterday, which is about an hour or more away from home. As usual, something happened over and over again on the drive back that always ticks me off something fierce. Why can’t people get out of the left hand lane on a highway/thruway/interstate/any multiple lane road?!?!?!?!

Now I understand that not everyone likes to pass that number posted on the speed limit sign, but do they have to prevent me from going past that number? Not to mention they create miles of traffic during rush hour.  Oh and I love the ones that do ten to fifteen miles UNDER the speed limit and refuse to move out of the left hand lane, those are the best and probably Darwin award winners.

I just don’t get it. Why must people just sit there with a mile long line of traffic behind them because they don’t want to get out of the way. Are they just that naive to their surrounding? There is a perfectly good lane on the right where people won’t force you to get out of the way, because that’s what it is meant for. These people just really tick me off sometimes, just like people who don’t turn on their headlights when its raining or storming out.

Why can’t New York be more like New Jersey and make it illegal to drive in the left hand lane except for when passing a vehicle? That is an excellent law. Hats off to NJ for making a great law.

End rant.

While doing the bills tonight, I realized I just made the 30th payment on the car, completing the first payment booklet. I can’t believe it’s been two and a half years already. Seems like we just got the car in the summer. Well since this is our first car together I guess this is some sort of milestone, apparently important enough for me to blog about it.

Car payment coupon

2006 Acura RSX

With all the excitement of storms, Christmas, and fooling around with this blog I almost forgot to mention the car accident. Nothing major, so don’t fret.

Jamie was rear ended (again) in the Acura. Maybe that small car just has a sign on the back bumper that says hit me or something. I don’t have a post of the first time this happened, it was before this blog started. The first time Jamie was sitting at a light and someone on their cell phone didn’t notice traffic was stopped and ran right into her. This time it was unfortunate for both Jamie and the other car. Some idiot in the center lane of a three lane road crossed over the left lane into a parking lot without signaling, cutting off Jamie to the point where she had to slam on the brakes and come to a full stop and barely avoided him/her. Sadly the lady behind Jamie didn’t have as great of breaks/reaction time and hit Jamie. To me it was no one but that idiots fault, but he/she kept on driving and wasn’t found. Now the car is in the shop awaiting to be fixed again.

As you can see the damage isn’t that bad, but what sucks is that it bent the exhaust forward, so that has to be replaced as well. All you see in the picture is the muffler tip being bent, but it really jammed the whole exhaust pipe forward. Oh well, guess we’re getting our money’s worth out of the insurance.

Bumper and exchaust damage

More bumper damage

Jamie’s car needed new tires two weeks ago to pass inspection. You can read more on that in the previous post. I decided to get four of Firestone’s Firehawk GT’s. This is an all-season tire with a 460 treadwear, so we’ll get about 50-60,000 miles out of it, which is about 3 years for us on that car. Its rating is A for both traction and temperature. For the northeast I don’t recommend anything less than A/A.

The tire looks really good on her car. Since its an RSX and a bit sporty, the tire fits in well. The tire has the look and feel of a sports tire because its a bit wider and sleeker, but has the dependability of an all-season tire and less rapid treadwear of a sports tire (like mine). It also is pretty decently priced, only about $100 a tire.

You can check out more at the manufacturer’s website here.
The Firehawk GT’s asymmetrical design provides optimal balance and evacuation of water. It’s advanced technology called Veri-Pitch Noise Reduction helps reduce road noise. It has a high-silica compound and wider tread profile for improved cornering coefficient for superb handling.