Civic Minding; Errata

I've been driving the Civic for a few weeks now and I'm happy to report that it's functioning at full capacity again, albeit with somewhat lower fuel efficiency than I expected. Since I have not undertaken a long road trip to this point consisting of primarily highway miles, I'm left with the hypothesis that the type of mileage I am putting on the car while going back and forth to work is not conducive for achieving peak fuel efficiency for this particular make and model of vehicle. I'm sure a hybrid would shrug off stop and go traffic, but the Civic hates it.

I will be putting the Civic up to it's first real road trip soon, in order to visit the universities that have offered me good award packages to pursue a PhD. I guess I'll get a taste for what the repairs and cleaning have done for the Civic then. In the meantime, it could use another cleaning; I missed a spot on the shifter column that has been triggering my faux-CD, and apparently there was some more tree sap down in the driver's side window slide that has gotten back onto the window that I need to clean off. Other than that; vaccuming never really hurts, right?

Other thoughts on the Civic;
- No clock on the dash means I've gotten used to wearing a wristwatch again, to avoid the fumbling of pulling out my phone to check the time. I'm not really looking forward to having a lily white patch on my arm whenever I take off my watch, but watches don't really help you tell time if you don't wear them.
- All other things being equal, the Civic is a pretty easy car to break into. There's nothing to be done for this, of course, but it does give me cause for concern in an Op-Sec point of view. I'm considering putting one of my smaller safes in the Civic and using a metal cord to lock it in place underneath the passenger seat. There's a ridge underneath the passenger seat that should prevent the safe from sliding forward under braking, and it would get things out of sight. The rest of my EDC bag and it's associated contents can go either behind the driver's seat for short time periods, or in the trunk for extended time periods. Not sure what else I can do.
- I burn my running lights constantly, because it's a rather small car, painted a dark color. That makes it hard to see; the only issue is that I run the risk of burning out my running lights. I need to pick of a replacement bulb for each and store them in the trunk to be armed against that. I'd rather avoid being pulled over by the Police for a fishing trip if I can.
- My better half hates driving the car, because it's too low to the ground. Not really much I can do about that.. OR IS THERE?

Jesus, look at that. I'd almost think it was awesome if it wasn't so ludicrous. 

Speaking of my better half, I think it's time to get my rear in gear for the day. She's got a crippled coffee maker and some errands to run. Better go get her some coffee like I promised, and get started on my own chores.