Attack of the Smart Shark!!!

My neighbor Jerry had a little custom paintwork done on his Smart Car...pretty creative and rather humorous.....

Breakfast ride tomorrow

I am getting together with a few work mates Saturday a.m. for a motorbike ride. We are going to head to Tavares, FL to have breakfast at a place called the Soup to Nuts Diner.

Mmmm, VERY GOOD breakfast for not too many $$.

The Guzzi Breva is cleaned up and ready to roll!

The Soob is back

Well, I thought I had made a deal to sell the Soob to a friend of mine. Let's just say it didn't work out and leave it at that.

6 weeks later the Subaru Legacy is back in my garage. It needed a good cleaning inside and out and the right front tire is not holding air pressure for very long but at least she's back home where she'll get taken care of properly.

Know anybody that wants to buy a low mileage (32.5k) 2005 Subaru Legacy wagon? :=)

A package from the Orient

Today I received a package from Chun Kau Chow, a fella from Hong Kong whom I bought something from on eBay.

The item took about 2.5 weeks to arrive but it was quite nice, especially considering the price of $2.50 (plus $8 shipping from Hong Kong).

They are keen seat belt pads for the Alfa Spider. They slip over the seat belt and are secured with Velcro. The have a cushiony feel to them and I am sure my shoulder will appreciate them whilst I tool about in the Alfa.

Thanks Chun....you're A#1 in my book pal :)

Tuesday travels

Today I left work early in order to take the Alfa Spider to Daytona Beach for a wheel alignment. Since I had the front suspension taken care of (new ball joint), I wanted to finally get the wheels aligned to ensure even tire wear and good, straight tracking.

I took the car to Steven's Tires in Daytona Beach for the alignment. Whilst waiting I killed the time by walking the few blocks east to the ocean. It was a fairly windy day and the waves were crashing in. I stopped at the Daytona Boardwalk/Pier area for a hot dog...been so long since I had one. So I got a footlong with cheese and I was shocked when i saw the elderly fella there drop that big wiener into a deep fat fryer! But man was it ever GOOD! Chased it with a cherry Coke...

The fellas at Steven's Tire (just across the bridge from AlfaMeister Ric Lovecchio of RML Automotive) got the Spider tracking straight and true. It's nice to have the steering wheel perfectly centered now and to have the Alfa roll on down the road without drifting :)

This (hopefully) completes the mechanical repairs to the Graduate. Someday I would like to replace the vinyl top with a nice padded/insulated cloth top and I'd also like to get the car repainted, but those are just niceties and not in the near future.

She's running well and shifting well and handling just fine now.

After the alignment I met Cap'n Jim for a couple fine ales and some smoked chicken wings. He showed up in his BMW Z3 convertible. A nice car no doubt, but it's no Alfa :)

Go south old man

I have been working in Miami, Florida all this week at a bank which uses our software. Kinda long days. Boy they sure do speak alot of spanish here. Quite amazing actually how fluent they are in both english and spanish here. I am jealous of the multilingualism :)

I will head back home (5 hr drive) tomorrow afternoon and then am scheduled to be back here all next week...unless Hurricane Ike changes my plans.....

It's looking like a really good chance Ike is going to wreak some havoc on Florida.

CLICK HERE TO SEE IKE's FORECAST PATH

A little Alfa Spider vid

I took a brief cruise in the Alfa Spider this morning. Here is a little vid as I run the Alfa through gears 1-4. Sorry about the camera angle but I had to set the camera on the dash so I could drive unfettered. But if you turn up the volume you can hear the motor running, etc. She sounds oh so GOOOOOOOOD... :=)