old car, new car, toy cars

classic toyota honda service dept. called me yesterday. they were going to do the 60k maintenance and the free windshield replacement, but they called to ask whether i wanted to go ahead and get my brakes done. i decided as long as it was in the shop i might as well. they said they’d do the work and send it back to the body shop. no one has called yet to say it’s done.
while talking to the service guy, i asked them if they had any opinions in-shop as to what the problem was with the 2003 and 2004 element front windshields. (because i really don’t want to have the windshield crack on its own again.) he said they thought it was because the original glass was too tight of a fit, and with the large opening and big cabin space there was too much stress put on the tight glass from the vehicle roof and pillars bending. he said the new glass they use doesn’t fit in as tight, and they haven’t had the same problems. hopefully that’ll be true. although i’m not planning on keeping the vehicle a whole lot longer, so i guess i hope it’s true for the next owner’s sake. but it’ll also have just gotten a good service job, as well as new brakes.
i haven’t driven the bel air lately, as i’m waiting to get it worked on. (which — with the element in austin — means i’ve mostly been driving the pickup.) the car is an attention grabber for sure — it’s just not the right kind of attention to be drawing if everyone looks because your car squeals loudly at times, and rattles when going over bumps. i’ve been meaning to take it to the shop the last couple of days, just haven’t gotten around to it. perhaps tomorrow.
speaking of the new car, i got some 1955 plates for it on ebay a while back. i was wanting some others, but — though i got the high bid — i didn’t meet the reserve. he has not decided to re-list them so far. the ones i didn’t get have a pattern that would be very easy for me to remember. oh well. so i went ahead and bought a different pair, since i managed to get them at what i thought was a decent price. i figure i can use them if nothing else comes up by xmas time. and if something else does, i think i should be able to sell these i bought and get most of my money back (at the least). so we shall see.
i’m still waiting to get the bel air titled and registered though, because of some extra legwork i’m having to do with the title. i had to track down the previous owner via google searches, but i eventually got in touch with him/them. on the good side, i managed to find out some more stuff about the vehicle. hopefully i’ll be able to get all of the loose ends tied up in the next week or two and the car will be in my name with 1955 plates on it. and be fixed up and running nice and smooth.
i can’t remember if i’ve mentioned on here or not, but i’ve sort of tentatively named the ’65 ford f-100 “hank” (since there are plenty of good hanks in country music). i’m still not 100% set on that though. as for the ’55 bel air, i’m leaning toward “loretta”. because i want a female name — but a kind of a tough, bad4ss female name. and loretta lynn certainly fits that. if you listen to her old songs, she was all woman — but she would kick your butt if you messed around with her or her man.
this evening i went to a toy drive kickoff event at the corkscrew (chris reminded me about the invitation luis had sent, which i’d completely forgotten about). i brought all toys for boys. i had originally thought i’d try to get things for both, but once there i realized i really had no clue what girls are into these days or what i think they’d like. oh well, i’m sure someone else made up for my gap. chris put my name into the drawing without me knowing, then my name ended up getting drawn. i won a couple of framed 8×10 black and white prints from a local photographer (whose name i am currently not recalling). then i went over to rudyard’s with chris and mary and ate supper. i’d never been there before. the burger and tater tots were good.
i think my solidly single status is slowly driving me crazy. sometimes i don’t care, but generally i’d enjoy some kind of relationship. not that i’m actually making any kind of meaningful effort to get myself into any kind of relationship. it kind of sucks being a lonely loser, when you have time to think about such a status hovering over yourself. even if you do have some freakin’ cool vehicles, an interesting and somewhat eclectic music and dvd collection, and think you’re a pretty decent guy. seems like someone should be at least a little interested in what i have to offer. maybe i just need to figure out how to actually get my information into the hands of the appropriate people. of course, i guess that’s what i’ve not known how to do pretty much all of my life. which brings us back around to the category i find myself falling into. ah, sweet bliss.