Good Day

After experiencing some overheating and poor acceleration problems, I had a great day today with the Midget.

First, let me preface the story with a note about my extreme stupidity. I realized the other night whilst driving home from Greg's house, that hot air was blowing on my legs. I usually get warm air coming in from the engine, but this seemed more substantial. Turns out, I have the freakin' heater on. I thought I had the heater valve turned off under the hood, but apparently that was open as well. I closed the valve and I was anxious to take a trip and see if it fixed my overheating problem.

I headed out to the Lehigh Valley Mall and right away noticed the car had more pep to it. So that was good. But after about 20 minutes it started idling real rough and almost shutting down. I pulled over and decided to experiment more with the idle adjustment screws on the carbs. Ultimately, I ended up pulling them out about a half turn. Although it now idles high (1500 rpm with the clutch out), I can now stop at a stop sign with the clutch in and not have to worry about the car dying. With the clutch in, the car idles perfectly. I still think something else is at play, but this will let me enjoy the car for the time being.

I plan to replace the rubber fuel hose between the carb with a steel braided hose to help with any overheating. Victoria British sent me one that was too short so I'm still looking for a seller.

But anyway. Back to my day.

I arrived at the mall (in a great parking space!), did what I needed to do, and sat on a bench near my car to relax and make a phone call. During this time, a group of four or five guys starting looking at my car. Naturally, they were not speaking English so I couldn't understand anything. And at one point one guy took another guy's picture by my car. I guess they don't have Midgets wherever they're from. I like how no one ever thinks the car is mine.

When they left, I left, and I headed over to Wendy's for dinner.  I ate inside and made up my mind to go to a drive-in movie theater. I called my awesome friend Greg to look up some directions for me and as soon as I hung up it started raining pretty good. I was convinced it would pass, so I put the top up and took off on 22 west. The theater wasn't very full. The rain was down to a light drizzle and it fizzled to a stop as the movie started (Wall•E). So I put the top down and was able to enjoy the movie in the cool evening air. Audio for the movie was broadcasted through FM 90.7. My stereo worked great for this. This is the only time I was happy enough with the quality of my speakers.

I left after the first movie at about 10:30 and headed home. As if it knew I was leaving, it started drizzling again. It didn't warrant putting the top back up, but it got progressively worse as I got closer to home. It was still raining when I pulled into the driveway, but surprisingly the interior was hardly wet.

All in all I probably spent close to 5 hours in my car today. I often dream of selling the Mini and using the Midget as my daily driver. I honestly think this could work if I lived closer to my job. Car payments would just be replaced with buying car parts and getting bodywork done. Ideally, I'd have a garage at my house and I have covered parking at work, so rust wouldn't be as much of an issue. Of course, everybody would tell me this is a horrible idea. And it might be. But I can dream.