Greetings from behind enemy lines! I’ve slowly been taking on small projects and tasks that I’ve put aside because I’m lazy, but as I can’t do much outside my lil 3rd of an acre lot – I’m making the best of it. Finally got around to cleaning my garage (still a work in progress), washed and waxed the car (not sure if car washes are open right now anyhow) and put my summer wheels/tires on.
When I first got my Civic Type-R, it was still “winter” and the summer tires weren’t playing nice with the very cold weather. I think before I’d even put 100 miles on the car I replaced the stock 20″ wheel and tire package with a set of 19″ all seasons from Tire Rack. 2400 miles later, warm weather is returning so I swapped back. Now with the stock setup back in play, I’m not sure what I was expecting… but wow.
The car already had great handling, but now it’s locked down tight. The stock wheel/tire package is 10lb heavier per wheel, so I was anticipating a hit on the acceleration but so far i haven’t noticed anything besides not spinning tires at the top of 2nd gear. The steering is much heavier now, more feedback through the wheels and suspension, overall it feels more planted and confident. Still a ridiculous ride.
As far as the washing – I spent maybe 2 hours on that project. I’m never buying another black car – ever. Every swirl, every scratch is easily visible on this car. Probably why i stuck for silver for so long. That aside, I hit it with the pressure washer, foamed it up nicely with some Turtle Wax car wash, gave it a bit of a scrub with a wet wash mitt, then rinsed and dried with el-cheapo terry cloth rags from Auto Zone. The coup de grace here though was the wax.
Turtle Wax has this “Jet Black Spray Wax” stuff. Works like pretty much every other spray wax I’ve used. Spray it on, polish it with one towel, then buff it with another. Wax on, wax off, Daniel-San. This wax in particular has a black tint to it. I’m not sure if it’s just a marketing gimmick but the car looked shiny and fantastic after all was said and done.
Something I’ve noticed lately when I do go out for a drive… This bug and quarantine has seemingly united gearheads of all manufacturers. I’m constantly getting / giving waves to other drivers in Subaru STI’s, Nissan 370’s, Civic Type-R’s, etc… I had to cancel a planned run on Tail of The Dragon this month due to quarantine. It’s good to see other performance car drivers out and about though. Hopefully soon we’ll actually be able to stop and say hello.
Maybe once a week I’ll head out to the supermarket to get a few necessities. TP and paper towels are still nowhere to be found (correction: local businesses have been selling their commercial TP at cost, which is very good of them!). Still, I get to the store, don my nitrile gloves and my reusable bag and head in. Social distancing is the name of the game these days, and I’ll say 99% of people are handling it well. We’re humans, surprisingly, we adapt.
So I’m in the meat department yesteday, and there’s an older customer in the same area grabbing a bunch of those pre-wrapped ground beef packages. I ignore them as my two goals are chicken thighs and pork loin. So I grab the chicken (which seems to cost 2x as much now), and as I progress this other customer is a shopping cart length behind me (using their shopping cart as a gapper. Obviously they’re in a rush, and I am not because their cart is maybe an inch off my rear end.
So I’m grabbing my pork loin and feel a shuffle behind me. I look and there is the lady, standing right next to me, no more than inches between us. She’s masked and gloved up. I immediately break out my Daddy voice, honed through years of corralling two precocious then-tweens. “ARE YOU SERIOUS, LADY?” She immediately apologizes and backs off, as I walk away shaking my head. If I’ve gotta stand at 6 feet off and wait a few extra seconds, it’s not a big deal. Like I said – 99% of the people I’ve crossed paths with lately are good.
I didn’t get angry, I didn’t flip out, but it’s good to know that my Dad voice is a timeless addition to my quarantine shopping repertoire. At the checkout I ran into another stranger (6 feet apart of course), no mask, no gloves, I’m not gonna lose sleep. I mentioned how back in the day I’d cough to hide a fart, nowadays we’ve gotta fart to hide a cough (I’m not coughing, was just a joke). Got a few laughs.
While everything is undeniably serious right now, we must try to maintain some sense of levity. The healing power of laughter is no joke. The wisdom of patience is a valuable tool to employ in nearly every situation, especially as we are faced daily with people going through their own struggles on top of trying to avoid the current pandemic. Be patient, be kind, and if you can – try to keep a laugh on deck.
One last side-note. While I was washing the car the other day, I had one of the local country stations playing… and there is an annoying trend with marketing right now. Just about every advertisement is acknowledging current events, most to exemplify how they’re adjusting to it. It’s so redundant it was annoying the crap out of me.
“In this {adjective} time…”
“In this time of {adjective}….”
As all of this was ramping up, I got an email from nearly every vendor or business along time same lines. We get it already. We are all riding out this storm. Plug your product and get back to the music.
Another thing? Facebook. Man, I’m so tired of it. Panic. Politics. The same joke told 30 times. There’s no entertainment to it. I connect to the people I need to without it. I posted a dad joke the other day, going to see how long I can make it without going back. I figure if I can give up drinking for… 275 days now, I think I can manage walking away from FB for a while.
I could ramble on more, but I’ll take a break to give all 4 people who visit this blog a chance to catch up. 🙂
