Buzzing around the Los Angeles Freeways

Buzzing around the Los Angeles Freeways
I was out buzzing around on the local freeways over the weekend. It was warm, sunny, and slightly breezy.

Perfect for driving with the top down as I was.

I was on one freeway and I had to slow for construction. I think half of the stimulus program must have been spent on Los Angeles Freeway repairs.

A guy pulled up next to me in a 5 or 7 series late model BMW sedan. It looked nice and had those wide low profile tires. He was starting to pull ahead of me when his right rear tire exploded in a loud bang or pop.

I’m not certain which; I had the radio on and my station was playing a favorite song of mine so the volume was cranked up.

Anyway, I immediately slowed so I could let him pull over. I was hoping her would get through my lane and off to the side of the road. It looked as if I was watching a slow motion film of the tire coming off of the wheel. He crossed in front of me riding on the wheel rims. Sparks were flying and I could hear the wheel grinding on the pavement.

It was almost like a NASCAR crash only without the smoking tires and car decals and stickers and stuff.

It took forever for him to finally get off the main road and on to the shoulder.

I was extremely happy the tire failed at a slower speed. If it had happened at normal freeway speeds, I might not be here. I might have been in a hospital.

Weather in Southern California and the MINI
I had to drive to school on last Friday. [See MINI JAX posting] The weather gods had turned against me and the MINI. There was thunder and lightning and rain. Large rain drops.

I put on my windshield wipers and the wiper blades disintegrated. They fell apart. This was not what I was expecting to happen. The car is only fifteen months old. That is way too soon to replace wiper blades.

Maybe I have been spoiled by owning a Honda.

Tomorrow, I am going into the dealership to have the wiper blades replaced.

I think this Summer was cooler than last year.

I have a simple weather gauge.

Last year, I was able to drive home from school after class, around 9:45 PM or so, with the top down and not have to turn on the heater for a couple of days. This year, I haven’t been able to do that at all.


Be well and stay happy

MINI JAX

MINI JAX
MINI JAX is the personalized license of a 2008 or 2009 MINI Cooper. It is a crème colored convertible.

I had a chance to say hello and wave at the young female driver last Friday on my way to school. MINI JAX was in the lane to my right. I first passed her on the 405 Freeway when we slowed down for traffic. I had lowered my top because I had driven out of the rain in Redondo Beach.

It was warm and sunny and a perfect day for top down driving.

We kept pace with each other until we got close to the 405 – 710 Freeway Interchange and then I lost sight of her.

The traffic began to ease in North Long Beach and I saw MINI JAX probably three quarters of a mile ahead of me.

I decided to catch up with her. In retrospect, my decision to catch up with MINI JAX was probably really foolish and risky. I checked my speed once as I darted between very large trucks. The needle indicated we were traveling somewhere north of 75 miles an hour.

It was exhilarating to do something foolish like this.

I pulled in behind her and stayed there for a couple of miles. She might have waved at me after I got behind her; I’m not certain since I was changing lanes and looking for traffic. Then I changed lanes and passed. She followed my move.

We continued on like this for a few miles more until she took either the 605 Freeway exit or the 7th Street exit.

MINI JAX made my drive to school certainly very memorable.


Be well and stay happy.

September by the Numbers

September by the Numbers
September was an interesting month for me.

The blog traffic and page views jumped to the highest point in a year. There was no one page that stood out. The highest any individual page had in terms of traffic volume was only 19%.

The blog had 504 visitors who viewed 915 pages.

The blog has had 60,558 visitors since its inception.


My driving time in the MINI was off for the month. Spending a week in a hospital and then resting for a week after the hospital stay and doing mostly nothing killed any hopes of top down driving time.

I did manage to pick up 15.25 hours of top down driving. My year to date total time is 174.50 hours. The MINI rolled on to 24,203 miles.


Be well and stay happy.