Reserved Parking for Tree Huggers 
Apparently Ikea is going to start setting aside parking spaces reserved for hybrid or fuel efficient cars. How they determine who qualifies is yet to be disclosed. Perhaps the same idiot who determined which cars or "trucks" qualified for the government rebates will make a list for them.

It pisses me off when people misuse handicap parking spaces, and I'm more than happy to give up spots reserved for knocked up chicks, but I'll be damned if I think I should park farther way so tree huggers can be closer to the doors!!!

Will they be able to give out tickets? Will they have cars towed? Or will tree huggers just key your car if you're parked in one of these spaces?

This is something I just can't respect or get behind.

If they want to be environmentally conscious, they should reserve spaces for gas guzzlers so they don't have to drive up and down the aisles looking for a spot. If the hybrids make a couple extra laps trying to find one, it's of far less impact to the environment.

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Car Stuff Should Involve People Who Know Cars 
This blog hasn't been abandoned. I just haven't had much to bitch about lately.

I've generally been in a great mood as my wife and I are waiting on a new car to show up.

Of course, on that topic, the government has just introduced a new plan to give rebates on what they deem to be energy efficient vehicles and a levy on those that are very much not.

This is all well and good in theory, but they've done such a piss poor implementation that it just saddens me to read about it.

I've been happy with Stephen Harper's Conservative government all this time and didn't really expect this sort of bonehead move out of them.

As it stands, they've taken pretty much everything on the road (except pickup trucks, which are exempt because businesses need them) and they've divided them all up into two groups. Cars, and trucks.

Then they gave some target mileage figures that they had to meet in order to pay levies or get rebates.

I'd just love to find the person who decided that all vehicles fit conveniently into those to categories and just smack them upside the head.

As if to prove just how stupid it is, they've even gone and put the same car into BOTH categories!

If you buy a Dodge Caliber, then it's just a car with mediocre fuel mileage.

If, however, DCX puts a Jeep badge on your Caliber, then you've just bought a Jeep Compass and it's a truck with great fuel mileage and you get a grand back from the government.

It's just plain stupid.

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It's not my fault. 
After driving for nearly 4 hours to get home on Thursday because so many people were getting stuck and were unable to drive in the snow, I came across the best excuse on an online forum.

First he posted this, admitting his stupidity, though with no apology for the countless people he was holding up with his selfishness and inconsideration:

Just tonite as you all know I thankfully braved the storm and managed to inch myself up the massive Yonge St. south hill just after York Mills. So as I finally came home, I realized that the tread pattern was next to nothing, and by nothing, I mean like a few mm's higher than the bottom of a coin sitting inside the tread. Yes it's VERY stupid of me, but I know that already

What really irks me though is that he followed it up with this:

I'm sorry I did that, but blame the city more than I, because the city should've cleaned up the white crap before drivers set foot in their car..

Now I know we live in a world where everyone tries to blame everything they do on someone else, but this just seemed flat-out ridiculous to me. I imagine that's the same sort of person who will drive into a parked car and then blame the owner for parking his car there.

It baffles me how people can be so openly inconsiderate. People really need to beat some sense into their kids and teach them a few things about personal responsibility.

The Gas Station of the Future 
This is cool. It's the gas station of the future, in your own garage.

Solar Powered Hydrogen Station

I'm sure it's still quite some time away, but imagine a future where you're no longer dependant on others for your daily energy needs!

I don't really know enough about hydrogen use as a fuel to know how far reaching this will be, but it's nice to dream about a future where your weekly and monthly expenses don't fluctuate at the whims of the gas companies.

I wonder what sort of fuel cell installation you'd need to power your entire house...

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I like God. 
I like God, and I think he likes me too.

Last night on my way home from work, I ran out of gas on the highway. I thought I had enough to make it home. It turned out that I was wrong.

What followed, however, made for some great entertainment. I had just come out of the express lanes when the juice ran out and the engine turned off. I tried to get it restarted, hoping maybe there was enough left sloshing around to get some pressure back in the system, but it didn't happen so I went to neutral and proceeded to safely get us out of harm's way.

I moved over 3 lanes to the far left and proceeded to coast all the way to the end of the offramp... and through a right turn (on a red light... shame on me for not coming to a complete stop), and then up a slight hill, down a bit of a grade, into a gas station and up to a pump. I barely had to touch the brake to stop at the pump.

Bear in mind that all this happened right at the height of rush hour. So many things just fell perfectly into place to make this happen it was unbelievable.

If there weren't two other people in the car with me to witness it, I wouldn't even bother telling the story.

Thanks again, God!


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