I am here at a local Infiniti dealer for the first scheduled maintenance servicing on my Infiniti G35. It’s a simple oil change, supposedly taking 60 to 90 minutes.

Cheaper than Flying

Last weekend I used the service offered by California Shuttle Bus to travel to and from Los Angeles (moblog entries one, two, and three). I paid $45 for each 6-hour ride during the Labor Day long weekend, for a total of $90, which was very good considering that the cheapest plane tickets at the time of booking was around $200. I booked the bus tickets directly through the company’s web site just like I would normally for airline tickets. The site provided me prices based on dates, and no human interactions was ever required.

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This evening I came home to see a police car parked two houses down.  A little inquiry with neighbors revealed that there had been a break-in in the house across where the police car was parked.  It might have been a insider’s job, so the theory went.

Safe world we live in, no?

On the bus back to Bay Area. ‘Round 2′ because the bus had to loop back to pick up one passenger.

[Update @ 2008-09-01T12:46-8:00] I blogged too early. It’s almost 50 minutes later and we are at the last pickup point before leaving for Bay Area.

I am in LA these two days, and my eyes are tired. It was like this the last time I was here, but back then I thought it was because I had driven 5 hours in the hot summer day without my sunglasses. This time I didn’t drive, and I still could barely keep my eyes open. After some soul searching and self examination, I conclude that my eyes are too dry due to the poorer air quality of Los Angeles. Sucks.

Picture was taken at a rest stop half way to LA.

How times have changed. In 2001 I also took a bus to LA. Back then I had no cellphone to call my friend when the arrival was significantly delayed due to heavy traffic. Today not only do I have voice communication, I have data network (although a slow one) at my fingertips.

I must conserve my iPhone battery now, otherwise I might be thrown back to the archaic 2001 days.

I’d like to reflect on my Infiniti G35 after 2.5 months of ownership. Might as well, since today I just completed two ownership surveys from independent parties. (J.D. Powers even included a $1 bill in the survey forms!)

Aside: Why didn’t I get any such surveys when I bought my two Hondas? Do marketing firms only care about luxury car owners?

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…are at http://www.nbcolympics.com/badminton/video/index.html.