Stargazer's Garage

The rain that we've had this past week has allowed me to try another feature of our new 2006 Honda Odyssey: traction control. Or maybe I should say: the lack of traction control?! Of course, my tongue is firmly planted in cheek, because it's a "feature" that I was pleasantly surprised to discover. I guess the 240 ft. lbs. of torque are plenty enough to get the wheels spinning--especially on a slick surface with all-season treads. My first experience with spinning tires on the Odyssey was at a 4-way stop. I was going uphill so I thought the force of gravity assisted with the pleasant sound of going nowhere. Actually, it startled me at first so my reaction was to release the gas pedal. I don't think the traction control ever activated. The next couple of times were on level roads. It seems very easy to make the tires chirp when the roads are damp. To avoid drawing unwanted attention, I actually had to control myself and consciously feather the throttle very gently--...

It's been a really dry fall this year and yesterday was the first time I had a chance to drive our new 2006 Honda Odyssey in the rain. Here are a couple of observations from yesterday: The speed sensitive wipers worked well. After going through two other vehicles with just regular intermittant wipers, it was nice having this feature since I could just turn on the wipers and not worry about having to constantly adjust the speed. They worked probably better than the rain sensor wipers I had on our 1999 VW Passat GLX. An interesting "feature" of the wipers on the Odyssey is that when you have the front wipers on and shift into Reverse gear, the wiper on the rear window will also turn on-- even when the rear wiper switch is off . It's a good idea because the rear window collects water very easily. Also, the rear view camera can be hard to see through because of water droplets on the lens. This clears the window for you and you don't have to worry about taking the extr...

Headstones among the trees Originally uploaded by istargazer . I was very flattered a few weeks ago when the manager at Mountain View Cemetary where this picture was taken contacted me and asked if he could print out two of my images to use in his office. I emailed him the high-resolution versions and he sent me copies of the enlargements. I guess it's time for me to buy some frames! Missing hand Originally uploaded by istargazer . Mountain View Cemetery began operations in 1887 and is one of Vancouver's oldest. They began renovation projects including restoring headstones in 2004. They just recently had a dedication ceremony for their new infant area.

I washed and detailed the van yesterday and took pictures this morning. You can see them in this thread I posted at Odyclub.

The picture of my STI was posted to this blog: Subaru STI road construction « CAR [directory] 車

One of the first things I did when I brought our new 2006 Honda Odyssey home was remove the dealership sticker on the rear hatch and replace the dealership license plate frames on the car. Today I debadged the hatch and added this sticker to show my Subaru love :0).

Whoo, hoo! I was able to hack the Honda navigation system and install my own splash screen! Detailed steps to follow. UPDATE: I posted the steps I did to hack the screen on this page . Additional info is on this thread at the OdyClub .