Twinkle Twinkle Little Head Unit, Send My Hot Pink Leather Now

I called Admir on Friday right before I got on a plane to New Orleans to attend a wedding. We're still trying to figure out what to do about the lighting. He said the fiber optics guy is convinced we're going to need two converter boxes to give the ceiling all the power it needs and minimize the start-up time. Having two extra boxes to supply energy for something I don't even need did sound rather excessive. It turns out that with just one, I won't be able to have shooting stars and twinkling stars. FINE! I just wanted stars anyway. I don't care what they do. I mean, I care to some extent, but I don't want to enter a spacial (har!) and logistical nightmare over it. Get the parts, make 'em twinkle, move on to the stereo.

The stereo! I finally bought a head unit, the Pioneer F90BT. (Thanks for the input, Joe and Eric.) The "price" is a rather cute suggestion, so take a second to gawk, laugh, and then check out all the features. I'm sure "does dishes" and "gives blowjobs" are in there somewhere. My favorites are the ipod adapter, voice controls, and sophisticated navigation.

I looked at a similar unit by Kenwood, but the navigation map looked dated and I didn't see it having any redeeming features over the Pioneer. My curiosity about Kenwood sprang from a young man at Stereo Masters, a different car audio place from the one I'm working with. (LA is full of them!) Unlike Central Auto Sound, I thought I might be able to buy my head unit from them directly. But much like CAS, they don't keep units in the store because of theft. The guy I talked to said they get their units from a nearby warehouse, so I could easily obtain a unit that day and just give it to Admir to install. But obviously, that would require my choosing one.

The young salesman was eager to tell me how great the Kenwood unit works in his show car. Although he seemed roused to drop what he was doing and let the rest of the store watch him talk to me about my project, he never offered to actually show me his car, so I didn't ask.

He suggested I go to one of the big box stores with head units on display, so I went over to Best Buy. Anyone who has ever tried to buy anything there knows what happened next. I didn't see what I was looking for. I spent way too long getting way too little help. I eventually decided that stealing the thing I want from somewhere else would be less of a hassle than simply buying something from Best Buy. So it goes.

I spent a little time looking at Kenwood models similar to the one I sought and was unimpressed. Admir drove the nail in the coffin when I told him I was considering a Kenwood over a Pioneer, and he told me he'd run into nothing but problems with Kenwoods. I may have a bit too much preemptive trust in Admir, but he knew no matter which head unit I chose, I wasn't buying it from him. And I value his opinion, especially since he's going to be the one installing it and making sure everything works.

So my Pioneer is being delivered and everything is okay on that end.

But (there's always a but), I was starting to feel more troubled than usual because I hadn't heard back from Francisco about the A/C, the rear door handles, and the wood paneling on the dash and armrest controls. In fact, I hadn't heard from him at all. Although my rational mind knew there must be some explanation, I was still concerned about the time this is taking and whether or not I'd make it back to Seattle for any part of the summer or what its natives consider a correct interpretation of the season to be.

I finally got in touch with Francisco this morning/afternoon (I'm still in Baton Rouge as I write this). We made plans to meet with the A/C guy on Thursday, and he explained that his people haven't started working on the upholstery yet because the leather for the seats had to be special-ordered. What, you mean the materials dealer doesn't have a dozen yards of hot pink leather on hand?

Francisco wants to make sure the leather matches the vinyl that will go into the other parts of the car (like the door panels) before they construct anything. I wish I'd known it would take 10 to 12 days to get leather; at this point I know they mean business days instead of regular. But Francisco seems ready to work once he does have everything, so that's good.

I believe some wiring for the effect of twinkling stars needs to take place first anyway. I left Admir a message today...