Song by Craig David. Only the title has anything to do with the post so I'm leaving the song out. :P
Alright, first and foremost, one of my prized headlights burnt out last night. Prized not just because I terrorize bad drivers with them. They are my warning system and my heavy artillery. In a car so freaking small and low, people in SUV and large trucks tend to not see you. (By the way, these are also the people I see most often on the phone and driving or texting and driving so this is extra frightening.) So, they're attention getting, and people see me coming and are aware...I started using just the xenons at night and noticed the incidents of people almost hitting me decreased. The rate of people flashing their lights at me increased, but to hell with them. Me and the del Sol against a larger vehicle means my ass is in trouble. Trip to the hospital kind of trouble. If the lights help prevent that, then I'm using them. Flashing your lights at me means you get to see a flash of what xenon brights look like, and it's obnoxious, so I've been told. :P
My light are completely street legal and certified by the department of transportation. They have a much larger area of light, a higher safety record because of such, and are very common in Europe. For reasons I don't know, people here dislike the brightness of them, even though they are less bright than day light. So they haven't caught on here because they're bright, so people don't see them very often and get pissy when they do. They're used to seeing the standard bulbs which are very dim, so anything different is unacceptable. If more people had the lights, people would be used to them.
That being said, regardless of my being a public nuisance with my lights, they've come in handy a few times and saved my ass in one.
As far as saving my ass, had I been using my standard lights, I would have been in a very horrible accident. See, here in NM we have deer. I'm not talking the slender Bambi kind. I'm talking about mule deer. They're called that because they are built like mules. They're also a pain to see at night in standard lights, I've almost hit one when I had my 190, and I had extra bright standard lights on it. These things kill people in regular cars on a regular basis here. If I had hit one in my little del Sol, that would not end well for me or the deer. Since my lights light up a much larger area, I saw it in plenty of time to stop and scare it off with some loud music. They're dumb as hell and will just stand there if they see lights or a car, but apparently they're not fans of Oasis. :P
There have also been misses of pedestrians running across the street at night, random crap on the road, and other animals. They're also badass in times of limited visibility.
For example, there was a HEAVY fog on my way out of Mustang on Mustang Road. I saw someone coming from the other direction with standard lights, they had visibility of about 30 feet. Considering deer like to run across that street, that's scary. You also can't see someone until you are up on them. I'm saying 30 feet was the very VERY furthest they could see anything at all. I had my xenons on, but not my auxiliary lights. I see that fog while I'm stopped at the light, and I hit my aux lights. I had visibility of about 100 yards. That fog was nothing to me. As a matter of fact, I had a train of cars BEHIND me because I was tearing my way through the fog without going 35 miles an hour afraid of something that I might not see in time. You could see all around my car too. I noticed 2 people behind me and laughed a little thinking they were behind me because of the lights. I'm driving along paying attention to in front of me because I still have limited visibility, I stop at a light and look back, and all in one lane are about 7 cars dead behind me. Most honked and waved or gave a thumbs up as they passed me once we were out of the fog.
When you drive a manual, you become part of the machine. You control that engine. You become so in tune with it you know what's up by touch or sound. So think of me as my car. My headlights are my weapons, my force, my strength, my notice of hey, you can't bully me, that spark I carry that can cut through the darkness in life, the times where I can't see what's ahead for me, and the surprise that I am a lot stronger than I seem. It's like "wow, that little car can put out a hell of a lot light!" Yes, yes it can, and so can I.
I guess also I'm like my car in another way. It's lowered, and because of that you feel every little bump and crack in the road much more intensely that others. When I hit bumps in the road in my life, I tend to feel them and get upset by them more than others.
So not having my headlights bothers me, and I'm having a hell of a time tracking down a bulb. I can't drive around with just one light because the lopsided area of light bothers me. (Another one of my autism quirks, certain things HAVE to be even.) So I'm stuck with regular headlights like everyone else till I track down a bulb. It's confusing though, because I have to hit the switch that in most cars would turn on the brights, and it's supposed to be the brights in this car, but they're wired to the backup standard lights which are definitely not bright.
Yes I did just totally wax poetic and got philosophical about headlights and my car. The car has a name, you know. I didn't name it, but the I liked the name on sight. It's Aerisol. Like Aeris + del sol smashed together. Plus it's said like aerosol, and I'm definitely bad for the environment. :P I like that more than one meaning thing.
Pic I took in the middle of nowhere on my way back to NM:
My Honda del Awesome. :P
Oh no, this post isn't over yet. See, tonight is the b-ball game, and I couldn't sleep last night I'm so excited. I got my Lobos gear ready to go, got my ticket, got my "that was some bullshit" phrase nice and warmed up, I'm ready! Did I mention I have matching red Converse shoes to go with my red Lobos shirt and hat?
My tickets for the next 6 games:
I've been messing with my Droid as far as recording video and the settings, I'm definitely gonna grab some video of the insanity tonight. Still being harassed to make a Youtube channel, so we'll see.
Ok, I was going to go on, but I'm gonna go back to trying to track down a bulb. Next post will probably be about the game. :P
~A.
0 comments:
Post a Comment