We got one heck of a rain storm this afternoon. We need all the rain that we can get but all at once is just crazy. I was driving into town and was almost struck by several branches and trees that were coming crashing down left and right. I had to stop at one point and go out in the rain to pick up and move one tree that was across the road, blocking traffic from both sides. Got soaking wet, but I got there.
I had to feel bad for poor Sandra today. She had been so happy to score some cheap tickets to fly to Orlando for a week’s vacation, and she was supposed to fly back home today. Her flight was supposed to leave Orlando at 1:00pm. The flight was delayed six times before they finally took off at 5pm. When she arrived at the destination airport she wasn’t able to find her car for over an hour. She’d forgotten which level of the parking garage she had parked!
When she finally found her car, and was ready to leave, would you believe her battery was dead? Yes, it really was. She said that she got the garage attendents to give her car a jump start. She got home a full eight hours later than she was planning to get home. So she missed the high school reunion party that she had been planning to attend. She was unhappy about that; she had been planning for months to go! No, it was not a good travel day for Sandra today.
It is funny how those all too familiar blue tarps really catch your eye, in people’s yards and on many trucks that are loaded with materials that can’t get wet. I personally have never liked the look of a blue tarp and I’m glad that they are now making them in different colors that aren’t as bright and gaudy looking. I mean really, if you have a bright green truck that you take pride in the way it looks, why would you want a bright blue tarp distracting from the way it looks.
Maybe I’m just a bit too picky, but I guess it’s just a thing with me. I much prefer a clear tarp, or a nice clean looking canvas tarp, they just look a bit more classy all the way around. Having access to the Internet you can even find numerous sites that offer custom made tarps that really look sharp. Next time I have a need to replace any of my tarps you can bet that I’ll be taking advantage of some of the good deals that I have seen online lately, much better than Home Depot, Lowes or Walmart has to offer, I can tell you that!
My wife’s car is driving me crazy! The brake lights are intermittently not working. Sometimes they are fine, sometimes they don’t work. I’ve taken the car to the shop three times now and asked them to fix it, and they keep telling me that they are working fine when they check it. They even gave me an inspection sticker for the car! I think that they were just being lazy and didn’t want to troubleshoot the wiring. I really can’t blame them for not wanting to do that, it will be a pain in the neck to do it. But I guess I’m going to have to break down and do it myself, it needs to be done!
As much as I would love to be able to cruise the streets in a brand new bmw m5, my tax refund check wasn’t even being close enough to being hefty enough to afford that kind of vehicle, yet. My refund check was a good one this year and I have been doing a ton on research online ever since I sent in all the paperwork to the I.R.S back in March. At first I was pretty much dead set on purchasing a Subaru, whether its was a subaru legacy or a subaru outback, that took some time to figure out which would be the best choice for my needs and wants. I even went to a local Subaru dealership and took some test drives on several of their models that they had on the lot. They were some sweet vehicles, I can tell you that!
After talking up the Subarus with friends and family these past couple of months, I kept being told how great the toyota land cruiser is so I took the time to check into that make and model of Toyota. The Car Connection has a great website that made the whole process a much easier task to take on. The Internet sure makes things a lot easier when looking for a large purchase such as this. I remember the days of having to drive from dealership to dealership, in and out of town in order to find the perfect vehicle, what a long and painful process that was. I’m glad that I didn’t have to deal with numerous car salesmen in order to get all the information that I needed this time around!
Isn’t she a pretty looking SUV? She is big and she is powerful with her V-8 under the hood that will be sporting a nice denim blue color paint job on her.
I took my boat out of winter storage yesterday and put it in the lake for the first time this summer. I was some angry when the engine started making some horrible noises when I tried to start it up. My wife suggested that maybe the folks that were supposed to winterize it for us neglected to winterize it properly. Upon further investigation, that seems to be the exact diagnosis. The engine block is cracked.
So now I have to deal with a cracked block on the boat just at the precise time when I want to be playing on the water, not working on the engine! What a pain that is going to be!
Last night as we were watching television, we heard a loud crash outside our house. I ran to the front door and opened it to see what in the world was going on. Wouldn’t you know it, a car accident right in front of our house! It was a single vehicle, – it had run off the road in an attempt to avoid hitting a moose! I ran outside to see if anyone was hurt.
The car was firmly stuck in a ditch, and it was obvious that we needed to pull it out with my truck. The driver was a young woman, and she was quite shaken up. She had a few kids in the car with her, and they were screaming and crying. After verifying that no one was hurt, I brought them all into our house and my wife kept them company, fixing tea for the woman and letting the girls play girl games on her laptop while I got out my chains and truck and pulled the car out of the ditch.
I got the car out of the ditch after a short while, and checked the car out to make sure it was safe to drive. After about an hour the woman was calmed down enough to go on her way. She offered to pay me for my help, but I declined. After all, I was just being neighborly!
Mud season will be here before you know it, and I can’t wait to go to some Mud runs! With all of the snow we’ve had this winter, we’re sure to have plenty of mud! I really enjoy watching the competition; to see who gets stuck in the mud and who doesn’t. I like the smell of the exhaust and the noise of the engines. The louder the better as far as I’m concerned!
It wasn’t very long ago that I heard that asbestos is still actively mined in some countries. I think I was told that Canada is one of those countries. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but I was certainly surprised to hear that because asbestos is so closely linked to Mesothelioma Cancer. When my wife was working for the phone company, one year her boss put her in charge of an OSHA inspection that included inspecting the building that she worked in for asbestos. That was when she learned that exposure to asbestos could cause Mesothelioma.
Since then we’ve learned a lot about how millions of people suffer, and die from that horrible cancer. I just can’t imagine that any country would allow mining of asbestos to continue! But apparently asbestos is found in lots of things – from insulation to car brakes! I would think that the scientists could come up with a different product that works as well with fewer health hazards!
Our Lumina needs to be inspected, and we knew that there were a couple of issues we needed to address in order for it to pass inspection. So we dropped it off at the garage this morning and came home. We expected to be able to pick it tomorrow.
Well, the dreaded telephone call came in. The repairs are going to cost more than we had anticipated. We told the representative that we talked with to go ahead and do the repairs, but now we are going to have to put a few things that we wanted to do (like put in a remote starter) on hold. The car will be in the shop for an extra day or two. We have to repair it; we can’t afford a new car! That’s discouraging, but that’s life!
Part of growing up includes buying a car. What an irritating process buying a car is! Especially buying from a dealer. When you go into a dealership and the salesman asks you if you have a trade-in, the smart thing to do is to say no, that you are paying cash! If you say you have a trade-in, and say that you brought it with you they are going to ask for your keys so they can give you a trade-in value estimate. Well, once you hand over your keys, you are at their mercy until they agree to give your keys back to you! The last time that happened to us, my wife got irate that they weren’t forthcoming with the keys so she told the salesman that he had five minutes to return the keys or we were leaving anyway, since she brought another set of keys with her! She got her keys pretty fast then!
Another important part about buying a new car is getting car insurance. One should have a good idea how much the auto insurance is going to cost! Take some time to shop around for cheap car insurance. I can remember the last time I bought a new car that the cost of the insurance went sky high! That was an unpleasant surprise and now I’m careful to shop for that before I commit to buying the car!
Winter would be a lot easier if our equipment didn’t keep breaking down! I don’t understand it at all. We take really good care of all of our equipment. It is supposed to be built well, yet it seems that the equipment is constantly breaking down! I’m tempted to buy brand new stuff because then the warranties would cover the costs of repair, but it is hard to justify the extra expense. Sometimes even having the repairs covered under warranty isn’t enough – breakdowns incur lost opportunity costs, not just repair costs. Built in obsolescence is the villain here, of that I am certain!
You just gotta love how the Internet makes looking at car reviews so much easier. There are many website dedicated to assist consumers with their search for the perfect vehicle. I have been looking at some nice chevy silverado 1500 pics on Thecarconnection.com website that is filled with all the information anyone could ask for on new and used cars. I have always been a Chevy man and I can tell you that they (Chevrolet) is still cranking out some nice looking vehicles. The chevy Volt specs that I stumbled onto there were very interesting and the picture intriguing, to say the least. Check out this 2007 beauty:
I certainly would like to take advantage of the program that has been extended, the Cash for Clunkers program, before it finally comes to an end. A lot of people have taken advantage of this extension and I don’t want to be left out in the cold on the deal. I’m taking this offer seriously and hopefully my tax refund check will go a long way this year and I can use a good portion of it for a decent down payment.
I’ve even taken a gander at the honda element, now you can really fit a good amount of stuff in the back of this sport-utility. I have to say is an unique alternative to the other conventional sport-utility vehicles, with it’s awkward looking boxy shape, along with it’s dent-absorbing plastic body panels, and rear-hinged “suicide” back doors, it’s truly sporty and stands out from all the others. Not sure if that is good or bad in this instance. I do like to be unique but not necessarily standing out from the crowd. The older I get the more I feel the need to blend in most of the times, heck I don’t even want to put any bumper stickers on any of my vehicles any more.
Well, the electric company has goofed up again! There was widespread power outages in our town and the next town over earlier today. Seems that they were scheduled at midnight to swap out a transformer; a process that should have only taken 5 or 6 hours. The new transformer blew and they had to find a new one, which took several hours. All in all, 11,000 people were without electricity from midnight Friday night until around noon on Saturday.
I’m really glad that we have back-up generator for when we lose electricity! I would be very ugly to be without power that long! I love my electricity!
Now that December is officially here, my thoughts are turning to snow. I’ve put the garden and boat to bed, finished up hunting season and the fall cleanups and am getting all of the work and fun equipment for winter ready for the long cold months ahead. I understand that the Farmer’s Almanac is calling for record snowfalls this year! I bought a new 9′ plow and a new sander, so I am ready for it! In the meantime I’m tinkering with the snowmobile, and making sure that is ready for action too! I hope to have the time to go ice fishing with Joe sometime this winter. It’s always fun to take the snowmobiles out on the lake to his ice shack and spend the day fishing and relaxing!
My wife has been telling me that one of the brake lights on our car is out, and asks me to fix it. So I go out to check it, and it seems to work fine! So I tell her that I fixed it. Then a few days later she tells me it is out again. Apparently someone she works with has been telling her that. So I go out to the car again and check it, and it works fine. Well, wouldn’t you know it, this morning I saw her driving the car down the driveway on her way shopping, and I saw that the brake light is not working. Very aggravating! So I guess it’s a short in the electrical system, which is going to be a pain in the neck to try to troubleshoot!
Almost every morning I head out to the local Mom & Pop deli, where I meet up with my friends. We have been friends since elementary school, and although we have different jobs, we like to take a morning break and sit with each other for about an hour or so and drink coffee, have a pastry and talk. My wife calls it “gossip” but I keep telling her that men don’t gossip! We talk about a wide variety of things, not just who has done what to who!
Joe was telling me that he was looking at some car pictures on the Internet the other day. He just got himself a new laptop computer, and has been spending a lot of time browsing around the Internet. His latest toy! He was checking out the thecarconnection.com website that I had told him about a few days ago when he mentioned that his son was thinking about buying a ferrari down the road. We all laughed at him when he said that because his son doesn’t even have a job right now!
Today we were driving around town running a few errands. The weather was really nice for a change, and a lot of people were driving with their windows open, enjoying the warm weather. We were driving down a divided highway; two lanes on each side. The traffic light stopped, and I stopped behind a car to wait for the light to change. We were in the left lane. The car in the right lane next to the car in front of me, and the car in front of me both had their windows open. The driver in the car in front of me decided that his windshield was dirty and turned on his windshield wipers and pushed the washer fluid button. Well, something had happened to the squirter; it didn’t squirt the windshield at all! It squirted into the driver’s window of the car next to it! It got the driver right in the ear! Of course that was a big surprise and everyone involved laughed. That must have been the funniest thing I’ve seen in months! What a riot!
I’ve been seeing a lot of those new smart car vehicles on the road lately. I’ve heard a lot of hype about how economical they are; they cost about half as much to buy as a “regular” size car, cost less to run (better fuel mileage) and that some parking garages only charge 1/2 price for them because they can park two cars to a spot. And I’ve seen interviews on television from people who own them that say that they love the cars, but I really don’t think that I would feel safe in one of them. And I’ve heard that the gas mileage on them is about 30mpg. Our Chevy Lumina gets 24 mpg, which is really good for a mid-sized car!
I’ve seen enough car accidents involving compact cars that I really feel vulnerable when I’m out on the road in a small car! And I really don’t want my wife to be out driving in a sub-compact car either! I want her to be driving something a little bit more substantial. Not that I’m trying to force her into a muscle car like a chevy camaro, but I think it will take some serious proof to me that a sub-compact car is a safe one to drive.
Besides, I think that cars like the ford fusion and the honda element are better looking, safer, and economical as well. And I suspect that the insurance rate on them might be lower than on a sub-compact car too. So I think that for now, I’d prefer to adopt a “wait and see” attitude on the new smart car.
The price of gasoline sure keeps me guessing from day to day! It’s very aggravating how much the prices change overnight! It just does not make any sense at all. I know there is a “logical” explanation about “supply and demand” but as far as I’m concerned the REAL reason is that there are a lot of greedy people in the higher ranks of the oil business that don’t NEED to make more money than they already have, but they WANT more money just the same. If I recall correctly, isn’t the “love of money” one of the biggest sins? Seems to me that this is a perfect example of that sin in action!
Well, regardless, I want to buy a hybrid car when I can afford to buy a new car. I love the idea that I can spend less money on gas. The only drawback, as far as I can see, is that electricity is still going up because we burn oil to make electricity too! So we need more ways to generate electricity, such as windmills and solar energy! I really don’t know which hybrid car I would want to buy. I know a few people that have them and they love them, but I don’t know which one would fit our needs the best. So I plan to be spending some time researching the different cars on thecarconnection.com website.
I found out about the website a few months ago when my sister was telling me that she was thinking about buying a mazda 6 or a lexus and that she was researching both of them on the Internet. My sister has been owning and driving mini vans for a long time now and she says that she wants to make a big change by buying something smaller and more luxurious now that her kids have grown and left the house. Besides, her current 8 year old van is just about on its last legs; she certainly got her money’s worth out of it!