How to mount the iPhone in the MINI


I finally joined the ranks of the iPhone users last week and am loving my new toy, never before did I think that using a phone could be fun. But, despite owning about 8 mounts for my Flip camera, I don’t have a good way to secure the iPhone in the MINI. Right now it just sits on the passenger seat but one tight curve and it’s off onto the floor. Or worse, with the windows open I could see it bouncing up and out into the wild blue yonder.

So as much as I hate to buy yet another mount, looks like I need something. I know Ian has a convertible and an iPhone – what do you do? RB – you have an iPhone, too. And anyone else care to say what they use?

btw, the picture is of a mount sold by MountGuys.com.

Mother of All Storms

Last Friday I on my way home from San Diego I could see huge cumulus clouds building up in the East but one thing I have learned from flying, it is impossible to know how far away they are – could have been over home, or all the way to AZ or CO.

Got down to the Valley floor and there was a wall of grey 10 miles ahead. A huge storm cloud tilted in the sky, the left hand side tipping all the way to the desert floor. To the right, a veil of darkness. Hmm.. this was going to be interesting.

Inside the cloud it started to hail, giant balls of hail banging on the glass. The wind was fierce and visibility went down to maybe 20 feet. A lot of people had pulled off onto the hard shoulder but the storm wasn’t moving and I figured I could be stick there for ages. So I kept going, but at 20 mph or so, watching the white line real close. Yeah, I had the camera for a while but soon realised I was in enough danger as it was, no need for more.

Finally got outside the storm but it looked filthy in the sky in all directions,. A few miles later, a large brown curtain masked the road ahead. No rain this time but the storm winds had whipped up tons of sand and dirt and for a few seconds it was almost total brown-out. Scary stuff.

I was glad to get home and, I thought, get to enjoy experiencing the storm from under our patio roof (I have an extreme weather fetish) but the storm stayed to the west and the north of us. Naturally, I had washed the car on Sunday and now on Friday it was all dirty again.

It was also the first time for me to try out my new Anywhere Travel Companion, an aviation and street GPS unit. Maybe more on the latter in a future post.

Minor Malfunction

This Friday when I went to leave work my fuel gauge showed totally empty, despite me having filled up that morning. I checked around the car in case the fuel line had broken, or maybe someone had stolen the gas out, but could see no evidence of any damage. There’s a gas station a couple of miles away so I decided I’d try and make it there and see if I could put any fuel in. About half way I was stopped at a light and decided that I couldn’t have gotten that far on nothing so turned the engine off and gave the car a good shake. Put the engine back on and the fuel gauge was alive and showing full.

Most likely a stuck needle in the tank (do modern cars still work that way?) but then yesterday I was driving around town and noticed that the needle was way below what it should have been, but after about 15 minutes it finally went up to what I thought was the proper mark. Hopefully just a transient issue or am I going to have raid the piggy bank for some repairs.

Talking of piggy back, I’m only about 3 months away from my Inspection II being due – I don’t even want to know what Brecht will charge for that.