RWD + Rain + Bald Rear Tires = 5 hours of driving bliss.
Well yesterday when I finally got home from work at 4PM I decided to take a nap. I dozed off and woke up at 11:30PM. Usually when I wake from a nap that late I go out for a drive so the adrenaline wakes me up quickly so I can return within an hour or two tired again. This time was no different. I found out earlier Friday that I get a discount at the Mobile station down the street from work. So I drove out there to get gas because I was running low and the ground was moist from raining earlier on in the evening. I took the highway and thought nothing of it. I called up Shane on the way back and asked if he wanted to join me on the late night drive. And of course he joins me because he seriously has nothing better to do.
So we set off into the night, driving, looking for asphalt roads because its wet but not raining. We drove past one of the local ‘tuner’ hang out spots and see a black 300ZX. We can tell there is a pin strip going down the side of it and Shane makes the immediate judgment "Ricer". But I want to investigate, I drive up closer and notice the rear spoiler, 6 front slits with intercoolers, Momo seats, roll cage, and staggered setup. As we check the car out the owner comes out and says to one of his friends "Ohh a 240." At this point I’m thinking excellent at least this guy is somewhat intelligent. We talk with him for about 7 minutes before some off duty cop gets out of her and tells us to leave. I don’t even think about it, as soon as I see that she is a cop I’m grabbing for my keys and getting in the car (inspection sticker is over due and I don’t want to deal with that BS). I’m in my car and the guy is pleading to stay because he was technically allowed to be there because he did just pay to eat there. He can tell I want to get the hell out of there and just says I’ll meet you at StarBucks down the street. Fast Forward, we find out Shane apparently had a shitty Z because this kid kicks out the Z’s ass end about as much as I do in one of the turns and we exchange numbers but he puts the disclaimer he is leaving for AZ on the 1st or 2nd. And it starts to drizzle. I’m getting antsy because it is prefect weather to get sideways. About the same time he claims he needs to get home for one reason or another.
We leave the Z we continue our drive. I’m trying to recall all the good wide asphalt roads in the area that I can try to drift through. We end up drifting the old area where I used to live and it was fun. Perfect control due to the consistent drizzle. No noise from the tires. It was great. I decide I want to go to the lake for the roads over there for some higher throttle drifting. We get onto 35W going south, I realize it would be a bad idea to go above 60mph because I have bald rear tires and patches of water tend to get the back end to walk out a little. And yes I’ve walked the back end out at 70MPH on a coupe occasions but the adrenaline/risk ratio was too low for me to care to do it on this drive to Lake Worth.
So we are driving on 35W going south just about to get onto 820 West. For those of you who don’t know the area, its a large banked transition that I usually enter going 80MPH and power out of. But again, not wanting to risk it I putz through it, enter going 55MPH and just coast through. I’m just about out of the curve so I start to lightly gas it. AND WE GO SIDEWAYS, "FUCK" I THINK. I see the shoulder and think "Fuck, this is the end. This is how my 240 gets totaled." We spin around. I see the shoulder again "Fuck, its getting closer and damn this might hurt." One more time the car spins towards the shoulder and there is a little hope. "We might not fly off the fuckin’ road." And we then slide sideways until it comes to a complete stop. "SHIT THAT IS THE JEEP WE PAST" The 240 stops and this Jeep that was passed maybe 1 mile ago is now 6 feet perpendicular from the drive door. I try to get out of the way but I’m not getting any traction in the gravel (rear wheels were the only thing that touched the shoulder). It eventually catches traction and launches the car back into the fast moving traffics way. I pull over to the shoulder and get out to see if the guy in the Jeep is alright. As I’m walking up to the door he opens it and I noticed the pants, they are work issued pants. So I think how hilarious. And then I notice the hair and think "I know this guy." He gets out and asks if I’m alright. I say "Yea I’m alright. Man that was cool, I’m glad you didn’t hit me." At this point Shane decides to get out of the car and again "Are you alright?" were swapped. Shane introduces himself and take it upon myself to re-introduce myself to this guy (still don’t know his name but I think he might be gay. But he did remember mine name.)
As we’re driving off I decide it would probably be a good idea to go home. Its 1:30AM and I almost die. So I decide to take the first exit to head back to Shane’s house. The exit is one of those loops/clover leafs too. Shane makes the unfortunate mistake of sarcastically saying "drift it." I know he is being sarcastic but I do it anyways and the drive is resumed.
3 Hours later my body is in pain because I’m still driving. Now with my brother in the car and trying to drift at 40mph through longer curves.And right now I’ve realized later today is going to suck because I have to go to work in 3 hours. I’m out.
PSA: Elaine Miller at Brown Sugar Antiques screws another over.
The antique shop I worked at at the beginning of the year, the shady one, the one who’s owner thought paying me $3.47 an hour would be alright. Yea that one. It turns out someone else started working there on March 26, 2007, quit by April 18, 2007, and threatened a suit to claim money for unpaid work by April 30th, 2007.
If anyone is searching Craigslist and comes across an ad in Bedford, Texas for an antique shop perhaps with a title similar to the ones below don’t bet on getting paid or getting paid much.
"Great, easy, job for extra ??? (retiree or student encourage to apply)"
"Responsible, Mature, Honest Sales Person needed"
"Looking for a person/student to work in antiques shop."
This store is located at:
Elaine Miller
Brown Sugar Antiques
1937 Bedford Rd.
Bedford, TX
Does every stupid person on earth shop on eBay?
You might of seen my previous post about Shane and I selling cell phones for a company in Dallas. We get numerous questions a day. Most of them are repetitive and just plain stupid.
Here are just a few of them (unformated or correct):
I am interested in one of these phones.
I am a verizon customer on a plan. Can you explain what locked to verizon means. Thanks!
does the box have a picture of the phone on it? whatcolor are the boxes?when you open the phone up do the phones have thealltel logo on the bottom of the phone? r these brand new or refurbes?
CAN WE USE THIS PHONE WITH A PRE-EXISTING PLAN. OR DO WE HAVE TO SIGN UP FOR A NEW PLAN.
when you say locked do you mean locked as in can’t unlock or that you can only use it in Alltel network….Accidentally bid on wrong E815…Oh well Do you have a buy it now? I keep bidding on several of your phones but no matter what I bid it keeps saying i’m out bid. I just want a firm price if you sell that way. does it have bluetooth? says some versions? do not understand what that means..Do you accept credit card or money order? Thanks
This phone is not refurbished, is it?I realized the cc# on file is now lost/stolen. I am setting up the new cc# today with paypal. there is no problem, I just did not remember thay had the old number. Thanks a lot.
I am not an expert in phones but when you say locked by verizon do you mean that I cannot activate because I have verizon as my provider thank youis this phone currently activated or ready for alltel activation?Are these phones packaged in a Verizon retail box? May I ask how you got these phones and your reason for selling? what does “This item is locked to the verizon network” mean?
This is only about 15% of the most recent questions. But as you might of noticed, it is the source of the title for this post. My absolute favorite though are the scammer messages we receive. They generally go along the lines of this:
Dear Sir, Sorry to bother you. But I have good news for you.That is www.violet8.com,which is a world-class electronicwebsite.You will find out the brand items on it.The items offerred have high quality and the price is fair.The site is very popular now ,especialy in Western Countries.So please log on to now and look for your surprise. Contact me: Website:www.violet8.com msn:violet_serve@hotmail.com E-mail violet_serve@hotmail.com
I’ve made it a habit to have a standard response to these futile attempt: “I don’t want to know your name, I just want bang bang bang. Please stop wasting our time and we’ll stop wasting yours.” I’ve yet to have anyone respond though. I must be doing something wrong.
The limits of eBay and PayPal.
Last month Shane and I have made a contact with a wholesaler / cell phone refurbisher in Dallas. We took about a week or so doing our own thing in terms of selling the way we wanted. We were unsuccessful. So we started doing it their way. Soon we were selling approximately ten phones a day. We make a $7 flat rate plus 9% of the final price per phone. Needless to say the pay per hour even considering the resources we use is fairly good.
The cell phone market on eBay is quite large and as such eBay’s SafeHarbor and PayPal’s Security Teams are hypersensitive about remotely possible fraudulent transactions. A week ago PayPal got worried that we didn’t have the phones we were selling and required business information, tracking numbers for transactions, invoices from our suppliers, and wanted to do a credit check on my address. We soon submitted the information they requested and waited for a response. Our account was limited in that we could not send money out in any fashion or close the account. Seems simple but when you receive close to $1000 a day for payment for phones it adds up.
All was good except that we couldn’t access the money we were making. But yesterday eBay threw in the towel for us. We no longer can list on eBay. My guess is because we can no longer pay the fees due to the PayPal account being frozen; that eBay is going to restrict us until we can. In just one month we were charged $417.37 for fees on eBay. Although we received $7757.95 in pre-fee PayPal payments. So 5.4% isn’t too bad in fees from eBay, don’t get me wrong having that in pocket would be nice but it is what it is.
We are still waiting on PayPal to get back to us on our limited account. Something about verifying the tracking numbers we supplied.