{"id":259,"date":"2006-06-01T17:11:31","date_gmt":"2006-06-01T17:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/blog\/?p=259"},"modified":"2009-02-25T17:12:33","modified_gmt":"2009-02-25T17:12:33","slug":"new-car-and-new-apartment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/?p=259","title":{"rendered":"New Car and New Apartment"},"content":{"rendered":"

  The civic died in Orlando and I pawned it off ona mechanic for the cost it took me to tow it from the side of the road the 50 miles. We caught a rental car back here to Tallahassee and I proceeded my search for a new car. After investigating several new SUV's and Vans and seeing just how tight I can squeeze my money belt, I found a 1995 Nissan Altima. It's in awesome condition, a guy in town left for grad school at UC Berkeley and couldn't take it anymore, he lived with his dad who is a professor here for the entire duration he had the car and the 2 of them shared it, so they made sure it worked well and had all it's maintenance. It is 11 years old, but it's in nicer shape than the civic was when I lost it. It had some paint scrapes, minor body wear, a few things on the inside needed some help, but with some minor mechanic power of my own I've made it very good. For a total of $2500 after tax, title, registration and a bunch of extras I have a nice new car.
\n  I also left the shit hole that was the exchange, to finally move into an apartment that's not a maintenance nightmare. But more on that later.<\/p>\n

\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Here's the front of the new car. The front bumper has a bunch of crap caked onto it so I haven't fixed the paint yet. I'm gonna get it washed, then paint it, wash it again myself, then get the whole thing waxed.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
When I got the car, it didn't have hubcaps, so a quick $40 fix and they're better. The stickers on the windshield won't come off, I haven't tried chemicals yet but that's not a big crisis. Notice where I fixed the paint on the side? Of course not \ud83d\ude42
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Other side of the car.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Back of the car, notice retractable antenna, the little hidden key slot behind the Nissan logo, and my new plate. There was some back bumper damage but it's almost invisible after the paint fix.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
The trunk open.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
The back seat doesn't fold down, but it has this neat little trap door for 2x4's, and for people in the back seat to sneak snacks in the trunk.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
The inside of the drivers seat, the wire you see hanging is my ipod connection. Notice my floormats, my steering wheel cover, and my skull shift knob.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
THe back seat, it's weird having 4 doors, when I go grocery shopping I have options for where to store things, and I can cart people around.
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The passenger seat from the driver seat. Like the luxury wood finish?
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Here's the center console, you can see there's cup holders in the glove box, and there's 2 more in the console, plus an ash tray and my stereo I installed. Also see the skull!
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Ok, so I know it's silly, but his eyes light up red when you hit the button on the left, which is every time you shift. It helps make the car feel like mine, you know?
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Dashboard, the mileage is wrong, and you can see I zero out the counter showing it doesn't work. One of the only things that doesn't work for real on the car.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
To prove it's a manual, here's 3 pedals. I had to learn to drive it.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
This pasta noodle is the engine.
\n  So, I have a new place with guys I know, and the rent is a whole bunch cheaper. I had to acquire furniture since this is unfurnished, but all in all it's a much better situation. Let's take a look:
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Leaving the parking lot, you can see the building I live in. I'm around back, and you can see the path. Notice the fenced area on the right? That's the Pit of Despair, you'll see more of it later.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
The path, those are the stairs up to my apt at the end. The Pit is to the left now.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
So, this is our very own Pit of Despair. It's a 30 by 30 foot pit at about 5 feet deep. Maybe a drainage runoff, maybe they planned a swimming pool or something, but now all that's there is despair. We want to put a trampoline or a pirate ship there or something, I'll keep you posted.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Here's the bike I built, made from the parts of 9 broken bikes.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Looking up to the front door.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Here's the view once you get inside, with Bret sitting in front of the TV. His giant TV.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Just to the right of the entrance, there's also a fireplace and the door to my room back to the right. Ryan's futon is there in front, so is his extra monitor. The inflatable chair Meg gave me is there, but slowly deflating. Also, you can see the wireless router and cable modem up on the wall, away from anything that will block the signal.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
More of the living room and entertainment center. You can also see the Baron's tank, he can see outside and watch TV, plus behind the recliner is the door to the patio. The guys kind of handed it over to me for workspace.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Looking out onto the patio, I made that workbench for $20, and it's solid as a rock.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Spare wood and bike parts.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Better view of the work bench, I like it a lot, plus a bunch of our collective tools, and my welding torch.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Back inside, the entertainment center. HD 37 inch plasma, 7.1 surround sound stereo, DVD player, HD TV with DVR and On Demand, plus an Xbox, PS2, PS1, Atari 2600, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gamecube with Advance and Game Boy Color Player, Original Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, Virtual Boy, Dreamcast, and finally we will soon get a Wii.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
You can see the kitchen and the eating area, and the way back to the boy's bedroom. There's also the white stackers that make up our makeshift pantry.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
View of the kitchen and the laundry room, not that glorious.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Ryan's turtle in the corner, it's a girl and about half the size of the Baron, but she's happy.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Here's the back hallway that leads to the boy's bedroom and to their bathroom, and our storage closet.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
The Hallway.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Here's our storage closet, with all its junk. Maybe it could have been a pantry in a former life, but not now.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Here's the view of behind the futon, of the entrance door and to my room. And the fireplace, and our back 2 speakers.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Here's the way into my room.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
The back of the entrance door, and the way into my bathroom.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
The bathroom, my organizational thing, and some of my in room entertainment center.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Entertainment.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
My closet, the start of the dresser.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
My walk in closet, where my guitars are and stuff.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
My dresser which we re did, and the window where I keep my books on the sill. Also, the start of my HUGE BED!
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
My lamp and bed.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Bed, underbed storage, nightstand, and chair.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
DESK and ALL COMPUTERS!
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Supercomputer and entrance door.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
My bathroom, I just fixed the second towel rack. Also, my sink.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
The behind the toilet thing, and the toilet.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
The shower. Wow.
\n\"Blairstons<\/a>
Finally, an analysis of my bed. I first got a bed for $70 from some international students, but it was nothing more than a 4 inch foam pad, I got ripped off. So when another queen sized bed came available, I got that for $30. I threw away the original box spring, used the original frame, put the new box on, put the new mattress on, then the foam pad, then the egg crate, then the pillow top, then the fitted sheet, with a stack of straps to keep it all together. All in all, it's the most comfortable bed ever made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The civic died in Orlando and I pawned it off ona mechanic for the cost it took me to tow it from the side of the road the 50 miles. We caught a rental car back here to Tallahassee and I proceeded my search for a new car. After investigating several new SUV’s and Vans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surfrock66.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}