Category: Non MINI

Driving Peeves of the Day

Been thinking of cataloguing my pet driving peeves for a while but never got around to it. Until today. Here are some of my current peeves, all of which happened at least once on my way home tonight.

  • Moving left just before turning right – indicator is on to turn right, then just before the turn is made the driver moves into the middle of the lane to make the turn. In theory nothing wrong except that in heavy traffic those of us behind will try to squeeze by and run into trouble.
  • Left turn traffic cutting corners – I’m at the red light waiting to turn left. The traffic on my right is turning left and decides to cut the turn and try to take out my left front bumper. Some scary moments, especially when they’re on the cell phone paying no attention whatsoever.
  • Only one car going through the green light on metered freeway ramps – sign says 2 cars per green, so just because the front car was slow off the mark doesn’t mean you have to wait because the light went to yellow. It’s 2 cars per green, not 2 cars while it’s green.

Add the usual cell phone inattention, crazy attempts to make sure I can’t change lanes etc and it’s just another evening on the CA freeways.

MINI and BMW

Today Gabe over at MotoringFile.com announced his new BMW-oriented site which I presume hopes to do for the BMW what he, and his helpers, have done for the MINI. I say presume because I have absolutely no interest in looking at the site. Nothing against the site but I’ve never understood the affection many MINI owners have for BMW.

To me, BMW is the antithesis of MINI. It is based on elitism, money and the ego that come from both. Yes, I agree that MINI owners are elitist (and you sure need to have money to buy one!) but it’s based on our affection for the brand, a desire for others to see the purity of experience that driving a MINI brings.

When I get my MINI serviced, you can easily tell the owners apart; it’s so stereotypical as to be funny. The MINI owners dressed casually, usually typing on Mac Books, often smiling. BMW owner dressed “to impress”, bluetooth headset stuck to head, blackberry out desperately trying to look important. When a MINI owner sees another, there’s almost always a conversation. Approach the BMW owner, probably get knifed (with a Gucci knife, of course!).

Yes, this is a little over the top but the underlying theme is true. I just don’t see the connection between the brands beyond the obvious one of birth.

It’s Official, the DMV Really Does Hate Me

Went to the DMV this morning to chase down my missing licence, and found out that my licence was not lost in the mail – they never sent it to me as my renewal application was on “hold”. The lady said that maybe I ticked a “yes” box by mistake and didn’t fill in the “explain answer” section but since all I did was go online and type in a password and give a credit card, that is more than unlikely. It was pretty obvious that they weren’t ever going to tell me my renewal was on hold so it was good that I went in. So they had me fill in a new form, make a signature, give my thumb print and a new picture; should get a new licence in 2-3 weeks.

Definitely been a bad year for me with the DMV.

One More DMV Rant

You may remember my earlier woes with the DMV in trying to renew my tags at the same time as getting the title. Well, now I am getting anxious because my driving license expires on Friday (which also happens to be my birthday) and as of the mail pickup on Tuesday I do not have a replacement card. I renewed online over a month ago and if I go back to the website it says that my renewal has already been received. I assume they want it to arrive just in time? Or else they just want to *!@% with me once more. Grrrr.

To celebrate my birthday, Teri and I are off to Sedona for the weekend (no thanks to the INS that are keeping me in town until mid-afternoon with the naturalisation ceremony). Usually we would take the Camry for such a trip, more comfortable and the cruise control make a more pleasant experience over a long distance, but it has developed some kind of leak this week so Carrie will get a shot at visiting the red rocks. It’s very possible we’ll hit the big 50k on the way home.

Off to Alaska

This blog has not exactly been jumpin’ recently, not much going on except driving to and from work, hardly the stuff of Pulitzer Prizes. And the silence is going to continue as on Monday the family is off to Alaska for two weeks. We’ll be spending a few days in Denali Park before boarding a cruise in Seward down to Vancouver.

I’m not expecting to see many MINIs but you never know. And when I come back I’ll see if I can’t find something to write about. Until then, happy motoring to you all, and keep safe.

Oh, yeah, one thing: why is the MotoringFile DNS unresolvable every morning? I can’t get an IP address until around mid-morning, seems to happen almost every day. Remind me not to use their webhosting supplier.