The Magic of Life » Diary

NSU Prinz 4 – My First Car

Merlin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 09:59:37 +0000

First I read in an auto-biography about the writers first cars. He thinks that you might forget the name of your first girlfriend or the birthday of your first wife, but you will forever remember your first car.

And then Dark Roasted Blend has a post about Adorable Micro Cars which, deplorably, leaves out my first car.

So, I decide to research what I can still find out about my first car and report about it here – all this despite the fact that I still know my first girlfriends name and my first wife’s birthday.

My first car was an NSU Prinz 4 (prinz = prince) which I bought for 1050 German Marks at the very end of my high school days in preparation of going to college, a half hour drive away. My web research showed me that my memory of it’s shape was not quite clean any more – this is what I found it looked…

…and I am one hundred percent sure that it was blue. No, I am not female! And, no, this is not my girlfriend, and neither is this me.

We did some good trips together and for one of the trips where I planned to sleep in the car I actually got my tools out and converted the passenger seat to a full reclining seat. It was indeed used and came handy in some other occasions as well.

But one day, in early December, on the way to a lecture on math, or was it physical mechanics, poor littel Prinz 4 came to a sputtering halt and all attempts to convince him to start up again failed. When dad was done with his daily work, we got the rope out and pulled le petite prince home and he got a place in he garage because he was sick – and I wanted to doctor on him.

We had pretty good service manuals for all kinds of cars for the do-it-yourselfer, so I got one of those and as soon as the winter break was upon us I was out in the garage with manual, hammer and wrench. But all attempts to fix this baby were met with persistent resistance and finally I broke down and pulled Mr. Prinz down to the dealership, for them to take a look. The first test they did, which I could not because if required more than a hammer and a wrench – a compression test – revealed that one of the two cylinders had burned through and suddenly I understood many of he effects I had seen during my own doctoring – like flames back-firing out of the carburetor.

Repairing this was out of the question for this old baby, as the repairs would have been much more that the car was worth.

I did by a new (for me) car at the same dealer – a Ford Taunus 20M – a car which I owned the shortest of them all – because I totaled it on the way from the dealer to the (German) DMV to get the license plates…

Marion, September 5th

Angeles Crest Highway (Hwy 2) Finally Open Again

Merlin — Wed, 27 May 2009 06:18:47 +0000

After being closed for more than four years, the Hwy 2 between La Canada and Wrightwood is finally open again! Rumors were heard in April that May would see the day when repairs would finally be completed.

A landslide had taken down part of the road in 2004. Estimates had then been that it would take until 2006 to have those damages repaired but in 2005 more landslides had destroyed even more of the road and so to took a bit longer – three years to be exact.

The latest rumor was that the road would be open for Memorial Day 2009 – which was last weekend. So, on Friday, to avoid the traffic on the 210 and 15 going around the bend, we drove up Hwy 2 in the hope that rumors would be true.

And they were! At the turn-off towards Palmdale, the Angeles Forest Highway, there was the sign: Wrightwood – Open!

Traffic was very light probably because the new (old) road will have to be re-discovered by the residents over time. We were not the first to take the road this Friday but certainly were amongst the first. We did not save any time in comparison to taking the 210 and 15 (without traffic) but the ride was definitely much nicer.

On the following Monday we took the same route back, for one expecting traffic on the 15 and 210 flowing back into LA but also to set the trip counter to see how long it really is – not trusting Google Maps completely yet.

And it was a beautiful drive! Saw two deers on the road – I guess they will also have to rediscover that its not all their turf any more – some mini-glaciers and beautiful scenery…

So, what’s the result of the distance measurement with the trip counter? Google Maps is pretty close and if you just want to get there with the least costs it is probably better to take the trip around the bent through Rancho Cucamonga (love to say that) when going outside of the rush hour – easier drive, less wear on the car and possibly a bit shorter on the clock, not on the odometer – that’s about seven to eight miles more.

But it is great to have the option of taking the leisurely drive through beautiful mountains.

Ritalin and Parenting

Merlin Silk — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:52:17 +0000

While driving down the 101 here in Los Angeles I noticed the following sign…

… and it made me think.

NO – Come on! There is no such sign in Los Angeles – - – yet!

But you can find bad surprises in places where they are really surprising – - huh?

Anyways, I want to tell about an old friend of mine. A friend I had hung out with during the last year of high school and most of the college days, and I thought we really knew each other well.

Me moving to the US of A interrupted that friendship somewhat, but meeting each other after both our divorces and a few year of hardly hearing from each other, the spark was there again immediately and we could talk as if no time had passed when we met on one of my visits to Germany.

But I went back to California, we both got married again and had kids – OK, our wifes had. Then it was his time to visit us here with the whole family.

During on of our long talks he told me that his daughter had become so difficult in school that she was now on ritalin. That blew my mind! I mean I hear all those bad stories about our school kids being drugged into obedience but I had never met any such kid. I guess because my reality is so that this stuff does not enter it. But then the only first degree of separation person to introduce me to ritalin is my old best buddy from the college days.

I guess our realities did develop into different directions. Even though I don’t really think in his case it was a replacement for parenting because he was and is a loving father. He must have gotten some really bad information, and that’s the danger of it, that if you are not actively looking for the correct information and trust ‘experts’ you might be traveling down the wrong path.

I know how that is!

Stephen Eley Ordered Me to Have Fun

Merlin Silk — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:27:38 +0000

… and I did – again!

Let me explain. Stephen Eley is the mastermind behind a podcast called Escape Pod. Weekly he offers science fiction stories as a podcast and I hardly ever miss one of the stories, although I sometimes lag several podcasts behind the current story. The reason being that it’s a podcast, right?

I usually fire up my iTunes once in a while (when I run out of stories on my smart-phone), and download new content onto said smart-phone.

One more element then has to come into play for me to be able to actually listen to the podcast – I have to be in the car going somewhere. Today was such a day, and a good one. Ninety minutes drive back from the mountains, late, the son sleeping in the back so that I could plug in those ear phones and work on my mp3s on my phone.

I got nearly two shows done, Escape Pod 115 -Conversations With and About My Electric Toothbrush all finished and Escape Pod 116 two thirds done.

The story “Conversation With and About My Electric Toothbrush” was really surprising and enjoyable. The title gives away most of what this story is about and I will tell no more about the funny twist because I want you to go check it out yourself.

OK, the epilogue of that show also announces that bloggers like me can get prizes that Steve gives away to those who blog about Escape Pod, but this is really not the reason for this blog – even though it might have been the straw that broke the camels back.

Looking at the Escape Pod website again also reminds me that I really should donate to the site – it would be only just for all the enjoyment I get out of it, but maybe I can do even better by advertising on his site for one of my commercial sites.

One reason for the generally above quality of the stories presented is that the author is actually paid for his story. Obviously this created a cloud of much better stories than those submitted by authors who just want to be published, not caring if they will be compensated for their effort. I actually submitted a story once and it was fortunately rejected, creating the incentive to work on my writing.

To Sleep or Not to Sleep

Merlin Silk — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 08:07:14 +0000

Don’t know what happened but lately I just don’t manage to go to bed when it’s prudent to go. In the old days I could sleep in when it got 3 or 4 in the morning, but with a kid that need to go to school that is not possible.

But actually the most satisfying sleep is the one on the keyboard, so I started that for some of my little power naps.

This makes for some nice pattern work even though I still have some work to do to compete with a sith lord.

Global Warming and Faith