AMG Mercedes-Benz - The winning edition

So I ended up with a silver one, instead of a red one. The car is still in San Jose as I type this, but I wired the payment for it today.

So what do we have? It's a 1997 Mercedes-Benz C36 AMG. AMG is Mercedes in house tuner division. Basically the same thing as the BMW M division, SVT for Ford or SRT for Chrysler. It's the zoomy one. It has a hand build I6 with 276 horsepower at 5750 rpm and 284 lb-ft of torque at 4000, sport suspension and all the luxury of a Mercedes-Benz. 1997 was also the only year this car was made with the 5 speed automatic transmission. I wish the car had a manual, but AMG products have never used manual transmissions.

My car has ~103,000 miles. And has lived it's entire life not in the Midwest. This was important. If I was going to buy a car older than 10 years that'll be driven on a nearly daily basis and have to live outside, as this one will, I wanted one that hadn't been exposed to Midwestern winters and salt. So basically I was looking for a Florida, Texas, Arizona or California car. According to Carfax this one was sold in Georgia, lived in Florida for two years and then moved to California in 2000 where it has lived since then.

It has black leather interior, a sunroof, Bose sound system, and a worthless built in Mercedes phone that only works on a now non existent network. It has four doors for easy access to kids and car seats. That is important, for it was a big selling getting Anke to agree to this.

The C36 replaces the Alero in our household. It'll be my car while the Vibe will essentially become Anke's. But it still won't get driven most days as Anke and I commute to work together 85% of the time. I'll have to get some snow tires for winter duty, as it's a rear wheel drive car with bloody wide tires. The transmission does have a winter mode though, but I'm not quite sure what that does.

I'll be in San Jose next month for an IBM conference so I may drive the car back then, but we're also thinking about having it shipped back on a truck. I'm not sure what we're going to do yet. All in all I pretty pleased with it and very happy with the price that I paid. No reserve auctions on Ebay rule.

DKM

Dropkick Murpheys played at Sokol last night. I had no idea they were in town until about 7:30 last night when I saw a small blurb about it on the Omaha World Hearld web site. So I quickly put Corwin to bed and drove down to Sokol to see if I could still get in. I couldn't, sold out. As I was driving home, it occured to me that I had a rainy day $50 hiding in my wallet. I should have pulled that out and started asking the kids outside if any of them wanted to sell there ticket for double face value. Oh, well.

What really bugs me is that I didn't even know they were playing. I checked their tour schedule on their web site a couple of weeks ago, and Omaha wasn't on it. How did all the punk kids know that they were going to be here and not me? I need to pay more attention.

Initiative

I'm a rather laid back, easy going person for the most part. And this has served me well in many areas of my life including being a father, husband and parts of my job.

It makes me easy to get along with and I can work with most people and don't cause clashes. But there comes a point where if you're only letting the job and work come to you, you sort of plateau. And that's been OK for the last couple of years. I've been preoccupied with having a pregnant wife and raising infants and toddlers. But with Conrad turning one on Friday, life at home is getting a bit easier. I'm truthfully at a better place and happier than I've been for a very long time. Having kids and being a good parent is hard. But it's getting easier now and I can put a bit more focus back being a better employee. And getting that next promotion, which is what this is really about. More money.

I have the skills and ability to do that. My coding skills are good and have served me well the past couple of years, while I've been on auto pilot a bit. But to advance, it means being more proactive and taking initiative with my job and not just letting it come to me. The non-technical aspects. So I've started carrying this little orange dice around with me in my pocket as a reminder. It's a 10 sided die, which is what one rolls for initiative when playing Dungeons and Dragons. I've owned this particular die for somewhere around 20 years now. There is even a chip on it from where it sat in Billy's driveway for a few weeks lost. We found it later, after Bill Sr. had run over it a few times with the Subaru.

It's kind of a corny thing do to, I know. But I'm going against my nature with this and the reminder helps me.

AMG Mercedes-Benz

I tried to buy this Mercedes yesterday. It's a 1995 C36 AMG, with 110,000 miles. I've been eyeing these cars for months now, and this one came up on Ebay with no reserve. I was all ready to fly down to Florida ($180 via Southwest) to pick it up and drive home. I tried to swipe it for the low amount of $5000, but it sold for $5100. It's annoying because you might think that for only 1 or 2 hundred more, I could have had it. But you never know how high the other person is willing to go. And you really shouldn't play that game on Ebay. One needs to decide what you are willing to pay, and go no further. And that's what I did, but damn I really wanted that car!

Well I probally won't find one going for this cheep again anytime soon, so I'll have to continue on with the plan to wait two more years for Corwin to get to daycare. By then I'll have more money to spend and can maybe get a C43 with lower miles, which is mostly the same car as the C36 but with a V8 instead of an I6.

Elmo

On Sunday we had my parents give birthday presents to Corwin and Conrad in a small joint birthday ceremony. One of the gifts that Conrad got was a Tickle Me Elmo that Mom had bought a couple of years ago, but didn't give away. Corwin is a big Elmo fan and was very happy to play with Conrad's new toy. When bedtime came around, Corwin was asking where Elmo was. I didn't know off of the top of my head, but I said that he's sleeping in Conrad's room, because Elmo is Conrad's toy and I didn't want Corwin taking too much posetion of him. That's cool with Corwin. OK, off to bed.

Around half and hour after bedtime, I hear desperate crying coming from Corwin's room. I go into check on him. First I ask him if he bonked himself as he does sometimes while playing after bedtime. He tells me, through his tears that no he hasn't bonked himself. He says he's scared of the alligator. Alligators are the only thing at the zoo that sometimes scare him. I tell him it's OK, nothing to worry about, but he is still crying and sobbing in a way I'd never seen him do before. He's really freaked out. Anke thinks that we should take him to the living room where it's brighter to remove him from the traumatic situation. I'm holding him, hugging him in the living room when he says, "Elmo's in Trunki!"

Trunki is a small blue suit case on wheels with a pull strap that can be pulled and is sturdy enough for Corwin to ride around on. Corwin wanted Elmo to ride on Trunki, but Elmo didn't stay on Trunki so well. Anke helped Corwin open Trunki and put Elmo inside. We had forgotten where Elmo was. It seems that Corwin had remembered and was really scared for Elmo. Anke rushed off to Corwin's room to rescue Elmo.

Corwin hugged Elmo and through his tears insisted that we take him to Conrad's room. So we put Elmo in Conrad's crib and Corwin was ready for bed again. It touches and pleases me that Corwin is growing into a loving, caring person.