No Happy End

Well, Michigan State didn't win the NCAA title. It wasn't even close.
The bar was eerily quiet during the game and when it was finally over,
most of the people already went home. It was a stark difference from
the victory last Saturday when the crowd erupted in big cheers everytime
the team scored. So, no happy ending for the local team.
But, life will go on.
Now, that the NCAA tournament is over, I think it is time for SPRING!!!
Not that I don't like snow per se, but I could really do without in April.
Its time for some warmer weather.

Come on Spring. Stop on bye on kick old man winter out of here :)

Final Four

I am usually not a big March Madness fan, but tonight I went to
BBW for some beer and the Michigan State game. The atmosphere
was fantastic and luckily MSU won so everybody was happy.
Now, they are going to play North Carolina. It's been a while since
I've been to a bar full of sport crazy fans. Yelling, cheering and
high-fiving everytime MSU made a basket.
Afterwards we went to a movie. "12 Rounds', mindless action movie
with a predictable fun. 2.5 Stars will do for that piece of work.

Adios Toluca

My time here in Toluca is coming to an end. I finished up my work and I am
heading back home tomorrow. Most of the week I didn't see much of the
town since I spent a lot of time at the GM plant, but tonight one of the
GM engineers took me to downtown Toluca to walk around.
Since it was Friday the downtown center was bustling with activities.
There was music played and people were dancing just for the fun of it.
There were market places with all kinds of stuff for sale.
The city center also has a lot of older buildings and churches.
Most notable was the botanic garden. It is housed in a former
market hall, but all the windows are just amazing pieces of stained glass.









Over all the town area was quite interesting. It took as a while to get out
of the city, since the traffic was just unbelievable. As for the whole week
as I am sitting in the passenger seat, watching how this traffic functions
where lanes are merely suggestions and everybody making sure that
you hear their horns. Good thing I didn't drive myself.

Toluca

I finally made it to Toluca. Not without any hick-ups, of course.
We were leaving Detroit early Sunday morning with a stopover in Houston.
When we got close, the plane started doing waiting loops and the pilot
explained that there was fog on the ground. GREAT! As I count down
the minutes I have to catch the flight to Toluca, the plane finally descends
and we are going to land. Wait for it......... Of course not. As we approach
landing, the pilot all of a sudden pulls up the nose and hits the throttle.
He than announced that it was to foggy and that we need to fly to Austin
for a pit-stop, since we are running out of fuel. So, by the time we are back in
Houston, 2 hours later, the connection flight is gone and there is only one flight
to Toluca a day. There was an option to fly to Mexico City and drive to Toluca,
but our contacts in Mexico strongly discouraged us from doing that.
So we spend the night in Houston and take the flight Monday morning.
After spending all day at the GM plant, I am finally resting in my hotel.
I can certainly tell that Toluca is 2700m high. The air is thin and the sun
is just beating down. But is is 25dC so I am not complaining. I hope I get to
see a little bit of the town. I had plans to do some sigh seeing yesterday ,but
got to see Houston instead.

Looooong Night

Its 2:35AM and I am still sitting in front of the computer. Why??
Because, I am leaving for Mexico in a couple of hours. The trip
will start at 6:00AM from Detroit airport and take me to Toluca in
Mexico. But no fancy vacation or thirst for foreign culture is taking me
there. It's work. We delivered a simulator to a customer down there and
it is my turn to do the commissioning. So, I will be spending a week in
Toluca. From what I read it sounds like an interesting city and I hope I'll
have some time to go about the city. Usually, these trips mean long hours
in the customers lab, but it should be fun anyway.
I'll keep you posted.

PC free

Today, I gave away my PC. The thing was just collecting dust, since I am
mostly using my MacBook. So no more Windows jingle on startup, no
more 15 minute boot up times and no more programs that are
'not responding'. I still got my work PC, so if I ever get Windows withdraw
I can fire it up for a quick XP fix.

Cars

All this talk about GM and Opel going under made me think about the
cars I have been driving through the years and it made me realize
that my current car is the first non GM/Opel car I've owned.
So, let see. It started with my first car. The great Opel Kadett C. It used
to be the family car before I took it over and
I drove it for about 4 years.
The roaring 1.2litre engine with
55hp, automatic trans, and bright
red color made it a real racer. The
picture shows an ad from the 70's.



My second car was a Kadett as well, but the later D model.
This time the color was green and I drove it through college.
When the car failed the TUV inspection I sold it to an Estonian sailor and used public transportation until I left for the US.
Again, the picture is just an ad pic.

The first car in the states was a Pontiac 6000.
The car was banged up, but did its duty. I remember
losing a muffler on the interstate, denting the door
on a light pole and finally letting it go to the junkyard.


After that I bought the Chevy Corsica. The car looked
good, but was more in the shop
than anything else. Overall,
I must say the Corsica was
the most disappointing car
I had, considering what I paid for it.




After the Corsica experience I was
sick of driving junkers and so I
decided to buy a brand new VW.
The car that was named 'Schnitzelwagen'
and it has been a great ride for
almost 8 years now.
I still enjoy driving it.




So there you have it. All the cars I have driven through the years.