Contemplations by Thor /tɔː(r)/

I've had a lot of cars. Most of them I've kept for 1-2 years, but my latest car I've had for almost five years. A record. So why change car now? BMW E61 525 XI M sport My last car was a 2006 BMW E61 525 x-drive M sport. I bought it in 2011 when it was just outside the 5-year warranty in Norway. That cost me dearly: driving it back from Oslo I noticed a low oil level. Back in Trondheim I had this confirmed; the car used one liter oil for approximately 1500 km. So the engine needed an overhaul with new pistons. In order to avoid future disasters, I decided to have the transmission flushed as well. Cost: 62,000 NOK. Over the five years, the car lost about 40,000 of its value annually.  In addition, I' ve estimated the maintenance cost of about 30,000 NOK each year. The car had never failed me on the road, but it was not a car I would take for a family vacation in Europe. Some corrosion issues the last couple of years, although covered by the 12-year BMW warranty...

As I was writing my last post on blogger I was told to upgrade my template. After two hours of failed attempts I decided to make a new blog. I'd appreciate any help in migrating to the new format. Edit: Although I never manged the upgrade, I made a new blog and transferred the contents by export/import.

Road trip in Northern California April 2016 What was originally planned as a motorcycle trip, turned out to be a fantastic road trip to the North of the state I have visited most frequently. California has it all: the golden with deserts and sunny locations along the Pacific coast, the fantastic forests of the North and the Sierra Nevada mountains to the East. The objective of the trip to California this time around was an ISO meeting in Sacramento. As usual, I planned to have a couple of days off in front of the meetings in order to adjust to the nine hour time difference. As I had never visited Highway 1 North of San Francisco, I discussed this route with a colleague that frequently visits San Francisco. He definitively recommended the route up to Fort Bragg, but his preference was to ride by motorcycle. By looking at the map, I found some attractive routes East towards Redding. Finally, driving South again either on Interstate 5 or some of slower highways I could make it ...