RICE-1

[cyng <cyng@lamere.net>]

Thought I'd share this with you ...
   I went up to the Maine Mall yesterday afternoon to do some
poking around and pick a few things up. Well, I went to park,
and found a free space beside a mid-90s, red Oldsmobile
Achieva (that's, "one who achieves," in a Maine dialect, al-
though we would phonetically spell it Achievuh, used in a
sentance much like this: "You are a wicked goo-hud achievuh,
Trevuh!" or some such). Its license plate (a red (read:
cooked) lobster plate such as we have in Maine, which is
stupid, although even that's getting changed within the next
couple of years to an only-slightly-less-stupid green (read:
mouldy) chickadee-and-pine-cone plate design) read RICE-1.
I had to laugh.
   Too bad it wasn't on a Honda.
   On another note, the '95 GLX made a superb trip from home
in Kennebunkport to Bar Harbor on Monday (I brought my girlie,
our destination unbeknownst to her, there for her birthday).
Midway through the trip out, the wear sensors on our front
pads came on. Seems there's a cut in the pads, halfway down
the pad's length and all the way through its depth, into which
a kind of wire is placed. When the pads wears thin enough for
this wire to touch the disc, you get a kind of high-pitched,
light squeal - nothing like really bad breaks or big tractor-
trailers or anything, just a light squeal when the brakes are
applied - which means, "Your pads are about 65% worn through,
and it's time to order new ones, pal." I already had new
pads ready, but hadn't been able to have 'em installed yet,
although we got the new rear pads on their two weeks ago, so
it wasn't a danger.
   Anyhow, the car behaved beautifully, which was nice to
discover, as this was our first long-duration trip in it.
   According to the MFI:
   One-way trip time: 4.5h <includes food stop at Denny's>
   One-way trip length: 190mi
   Average speed: 47mph
   MPG: 27.3
   Round-trip length: 390mi
   Total trip duration: 17.2h <includes much walking about in
        downtown Camden, a drive up to the top of Mount Battie,
        much walking about in downtown Bah Hahbah, a 2h wind-
        jammer cruise about the bay, breakfast, lunch, dinner,
        a drive up to the top of Cadillac Mountain, and Other
        Stuff>
   Nice car. :)
-T

          /=-                -=\----/=-                -=\
         /|     -=Thomas J. Boyer<cyng@lamere.net>=-     |\
O>///////|O>====================----====================<|O\\\\\\\<O
         \|      -=Tsaim Kurros<pen.mip.net 4000>=-      |/
          \=-                 -=woot=-                 -=/