Still quiet around here

We are slowly getting back to 'normal'.  We did finally decide we'd seen enough cars and wandered off to buy a new one.  We liked the size of the RAV4; just wanted more power and more bells and whistles.  It's a crowded market place.  We tested at least 10 different vehicles and there are at least that many more that we skipped for one reason or another.  Presenting:  our new wheels!

It is a 2016 Ford Escape.  Somehow we've become a Ford Family!  Who would have though it?  It is almost the exact same size as the RAV4 but has a ton of options that we couldn't afford to get on the RAV back in 2010 when we bought it.  It also has a LOT more horsepower thanks to turbocharging.  We'll see how it works out.  Right now we are having trouble adapting to all the new stuff.  The built-in GPS doesn't work like our Garmin; the audio system is confusing; the a/c is all via the touch screen so that's weird.  That doesn't even talk about the new key fob that unlocks the car when we near it and the 25 different checks it makes to be sure you aren't locking the fob in the car!  Suffice to say, these old dogs are having a little trouble with learning these new tricks!  (That dog reference is not about my wife needless to say!)

Otherwise this is a pretty normal spring.  There is lots of wind and varied weather but gradually we are warming up.  The pigeon population has forgiven our vacation from feeding them and are back.

I haven't counted more than seven in the birdbath at one time but it's a small bath!  They are trying.  The smaller birds are slower to return but they are showing up as well; just no photos yet. 

Pahrump got it's name up in RV blog lights when the Cheap RV Living guy visited us.  He likes the place for many of the reasons my wife and I chose to live here.  It is inexpensive, there is a fairly good infrastructure and you are close to Las Vegas which has whatever else one might require including a world class airport so you can escape all this fun.  He camped on BLM land up on the mountain fan.  There are always people up there; some are even permenent residents.  In his case a complaint was made and the Sheriff came along to enforce the 14 day camping limit on BLM land.  Usually folks around here are pretty live and let live so the Sheriff contacted him but not other folks living farther from the person who made the complaint.  How do I know this?  I've seen their vehicles out there for months!  I take the truck up there from time to time for two reasons.  First I enjoy the solitude of the desert.  It's very soothing.  Secondly, the truck is a 4x4 and there are nice gravel roads up there to exercise that option. 

So you see it's pretty quiet right now.  We are making big plans.  I have my 50th high school reunion this year and we are trying to figure out if we can make it.  The problem is that we keep adding options to the trip so it becomes a major deal.  You know how it goes:  if we are there, how can we not go another couple hundred miles and visit so-and-so.  Then we were hoping to make a trip to Europe in the fall.  We are starting the research but again it's pretty much cast in jello at this point.  (Actually we hoped to make the trip this spring but it just didn't come together.)  Thanks for stopping by.  I'll see if we can't come up with some good photos or something for next time.

It's been a while.....

Posting hasn't been high on my 'to do' list lately simply because I haven't had much to say!  Here in Southern Nevada we are transitioning from way-to-hot to downright-chilly.  We had snow down to maybe the 4,000 foot level last night (we are arougn 2,500 ft) but it's pretty much melted now at 10:00. 

Apparently my wife and I needed something to do because we've decided to look at new cars.  Our RAV4 is a 2010 model.  It's very basic with an automatic transmission and power windows but otherwise nothing.  Even though it only has 50,000 miles we would like something with more toys.  We like the car and the type (mini-suv) but would like a bit more power and, as I said, toys.  It's kind of a pain shopping because we have a Jeep dealer and a Chevy dealer here in town; anything else is in Vegas.  And, of course, going in and talking with a salesperson takes a couple hours so it pretty much blows the whole day since getting my wife out of the house before 10:00 is pretty much impossible.  (I guess if there were a fire......)

The first hurdle is the sticker shock.  You see these cars 'starting' at $2x,000.  Well, when you go for the top of the line you are closer to $35,000 and we haven't looked at any of the luxury brands.  So far we've seen the Ford Escape, Honda CRV, Subaru Forester and Outback, Mazda CX5 and Kia Sorento.  Someone told us there are 14 cars in that niche and I'm thinking it is more like 100.  At least it feels like it!  We have one request that keeps tripping them up:  a power seat for the passenger.  Only the Ford and the Kia manage that one.  How tough is it?  Everyone manages a driver side power seat but the rest don't even have an option for a passenger side seat.  Geez.  We'll see how the luxury brands handle it but neither my wife nor I are hot to spend another $10,000 to get a name and a power seat. 

Speaking of my wife; she's signed up with a personal trainer for twice a week workouts.  He's a young guy, born the year our daughter graduated high school, but pretty low-key.  He's putting her to work though.  She never perspires but she sure is after almost every workout with him.  The gym has all kinds of machines and she's learning to use every one.  I'm staying away because my theories of working out are completely different from his.  (Yes, I do have opinions on working out.  You might not think it considering my rather round shape.).  She's enjoying the experience but is already wondering how she can keep exercising after the string of lessons runs out.  (She signed on for 24 or 36 lessons; I didn't pay much attention.)  It should be interesting though. 

So you see it's been pretty dull around here.  Maybe next week something will turn up.  I wouldn't count on it though!  Have a good one.

It takes me a while....

I finally got up the guts to go into the registry and fix my id.  I can't tell you how much I dithered back and forth about doing it but finally made it.  One of the things I read about fixing the problem was that you ought to have more than one id with administrative priveliges on your machine.  Gee, that would have been nice to have known several years ago when I bought the darned thing!  Anyway, I'm back.  I'll be fooling around with photos from our travels now that I can access them again.  We did have a great trip but felt a little rushed.  Don't know how we managed that but we were.  Drove a bit over 3,300 miles (5,300 km) in about three weeks.  Tow miles were probably 2,400 (3,800 km) but I'm guessing there. 

The Ford dealer has been calling asking if we would like to trade in the truck.  It's an '08 but has only about 35,000 miles (56,000 km) and pretty much does what we ask of it.  We talked about it a while because we like bells and whistles and this truck doesn't have them but in the end decided we'd rather not have a truck payment.  As a trade-in it is probably worth about $25K but we'd end up owing at least $15K and who needs that?  Especially as our travels may be more about flying overseas than in the past. 

Here is a shot from Yellowstone showing the Gibbon River just  downstream from Gibbon Falls.  Note the haze from the fires farther west. 

I'll manage more photos later.  Have a good one!

San Diego sadness

We did have a very nice time visiting San Diego; did lots of tourist stuff, had a great parking spot, looked at water a lot since we can't do that here at home but there was one very large downside:  no dog.  We had stayed in this same park once before and taking the same walk we took last time only with no dog was pretty sad.  There is an excellent place for walking, complete with little doggie bags so you can pick up after Rover, but we had no dog.  We still have the cat and he is an annoying little sh!t but it's not the same.  Well, we'll just have to get over it.

We have an appointment to have the trailer axles lubed next Wednesday over in Las Vegas.  We are taking the trailer back to the people who sold it to us.  They want us to get there early so they can get us out the same day.  It shouldn't be too tough but who knows.  We had Camping World lube the axles on our old trailer and that was the start of a number of problems.  They didn't bother to use the right size dust caps so they came off, spread grease all over & just generally made a mess.  Of course, without grease, the bearings went south.  It was bad.  I don't think I've been back to a Camping World since.  After getting the maintenance done, we'll put the trailer away until our trip next summer.

It's funny how the human mind works; or at least how mine works!  I was reading a guy's blog and he discovered that his car is without an oil dipstick.  We've had the Toyota for three years and I don't remember ever looking under the hood so of course I had to rush out to the garage and look to see if it has a dipstick.  Sure enough; in fact it has one for the engine and one for the transmission.  I don't really care but if I hadn't gone to check, it would have bothered me until I did.  I'm so easy!  The car is coming up on 29,000 miles so I'll be taking it off to the dealer one of these days to have it serviced.  This driving to Vegas is getting habit forming.

I've been trying to figure out if I should take the truck over for an oil change.  The thing is that it was due 'by time' in January but we really haven't used it much so we are about 3,000 miles short of needing to change it 'by mileage'.  Seems kind of silly to change it but I would like that engine to keep going for a long time.  I imagine I'll split the difference and take it to get fresh oil just before our summer trip.

Well, that's all the wheeled news that's fit to print.  Have a good one! 

9/11 again

I doubt if there are many in the Western world who don't remember 9/11; where they were, what they were doing.  My smartphone tells me it is Patriot Day.  Well, I don't mean to be a grouch but who really needed a named day?  And what the hell does it have to do with patriotism?  Tragedy Day; Terrorism Day; those mean something but Patriot Day?  The soldier who gets killed today in Afghanistan is a patriot.  The people killed in the terrorist attacks were mostly victims; the first responders might be called heroes; but I just don't care for the term Patriot Day. 

Ok, rant is over.  My wife and I are self-described weird people.  Take our eating habits for example.  We will start out a week with the fridge almost empty then we cook several days in a row and then darned thing is stuffed with leftovers.  Does anyone else do that?  For example, right now we have a big tub of ham & bean soup; another of a beef & barley stew; several pieces of leftover steak; some leftover salmon; leftover taco filling and more!  There is enough food for a dozen people; no wonder I'm overweight.  One thing we are both proud of is that we don't eat a lot of processed stuff.  No Hamburger Helper in our cupboard though we do have at least 30 different spices.  We might cook up some noodles and put hamburger in with them but it won't be out of a box. 

Of course that isn't our only weirdness.  Take vehicles; we keep them quite a while. It's not a contest or anything; I don't like unreliable vehicles but we keep them and take care of them.  Our last truck stayed with us for 9 years; the car 15 years; the one before that 10 years.  We are having a party in December; we'll be paying off the RAV4 after three years.  (Toyota was offering 0% interest & I just couldn't say 'no'.)  That means we'll have 6 to 10 years without a car payment.  That makes life a lot nicer!  The truck is an 08 model, nearly five years old, paid for, but it's only got 30,000 miles (48,000 km).  We are planning on keeping it for quite a while too.  What do we care if it's old? 

Being atheists marks us as weird too.  I doubt if I could get elected dog catcher in this country; much less in this town.  We have a church around every corner and at least two church related schools.  (Oddly, there is  no Catholic school here though there is a fairly large church; the fundamentalist sects are the ones with schools.)   It must be a reflection of my age and upbringing that I am unfamiliar with churches like The Rock Vineyard Church or The Foursquare Faith Fellowship or the Heritage Bible Church.  I'm more used to the couple different kinds of Lutheran or Baptist Churches. 

Speaking of religion; I came across an article on Thomas Jefferson and his religious beliefs.  Apparently he didn't care for the entire bible so he selected the parts he liked and physically made up his own version.  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/multimedia/videos/A-Brief-History-of-the-Jefferson-Bible.html  For me it is an astonishingly thoughtful and ambitious undertaking.  Apparently he was a person who took his religion seriously.

On that odd note I will leave you.  Have a good one.

My ......

I don't know what to call this but the simple answer is 'my MG'.  It is a 1969 MG-B that I bought used in 1971.  There was a problem with the paint on the hood (bonnet) so I had the dealer re-paint it.  BIG MISTAKE; in a couple of years the paint wasn't even close to matching.  Oh well, guess I learned from that.  In this photo it has an aftermarket fiberglass top; it was ok but wore through the paint on the rear deck even though it was supposed to be mounted in such a way as to not put pressure on it.  This was when I lived in the Pacific Northwest and the additional protection from the rain and the cold was worth quite a bit!  I kept the car until 1996;  bought it in Texas, moved to Washington, moved to Orlando, back to Washington and finally sold it when we lived in New Jersey to a guy who wanted to restore it for his wife.  For much of it's life it carried my tool kit around in the trunk.  It's embarrassing how often I needed something from that kit!  I bought the RAC emblem before I had the car!  I'm that much of a nerd.

Photo copying is still in progress.  I should be done with the slides in another week or ten days.  Heaven only knows how the photo copying will go since just getting them out of the albums will be a chore!  Sent one to a friend and she responded the next day with a couple old photos of me.  Hmmm, I guess there are people in this world who are much more organized than I.  We were attending Western Washington University at the time and helping each other through Calculus.  I'll close with that.  Have a good one!

Silly market

There is an old saw about getting out of the market in April and returning in September.  Isn't working well this year!  Dow is down over 300 points today.  Up a hundred one day, down a hundred the next, makes you seasick watching the darned thing.  Oh well.  Not much I can do about that!

We've spent the morning cleaning the house.  At least that's productive!  A friend mentioned cleaning their deck with a pressure washer.  I don't know why we hadn't thought of getting one before but we did and it sure makes short work of the deck.  It looks a 1,000% better in half an hour and the pressure washer uses less water than we'd use with just a hose and a brush.  Life is good!

I was reading Random Roger (as usual!) and he commented that it seems many people of retirement age still have a lot of mortgage debt.  Well, why not?  Having EXCESSIVE debt is always bad regardless of the origin of the debt but the key word is 'excessive' not 'debt'.  We owe $10K or so on our car as well but Toyota offered us a 0% loan.  We get to keep our money invested and pay off the car over several years.  What's wrong with that?  It's not like we trade vehicles every year.  Our cars last us a while:  Mazda 626 (10 years); BMW 325 (15 years); Bronco II (10 years); GMC pickup (9 years).  Aside from this 0% deal we haven't had a car payment since about 1995.  Well, that's not quite true.  When we bought our current Ford F250 they had a deal where if you financed the truck you got an additional $1000 or so off the truck.  We financed it for something like three months then paid it off.  The things we'll do for a grand!

Gotta go.  Keep your head.  The sky isn't falling quite yet!

Primary Election Time

The primary election is over.  The Republicans and Democrats have their candidates for the election in November.  Here in the valley I'm not sure there was a lot of change.  In the state Senate race there was a pretty interesting result.

To quote from Time (via Yahoo):  "Reid couldn't have asked for a better candidate in Angle than if he'd picked her himself: the former State representative is a ultra-conservative who supports phasing out Social Security and Medicare; wants to abolish the EPA, and the Department of Energy and Education; and most recently got into trouble for supporting a prisoner drug rehab program that included massages." 

You gotta wonder what this country is doing.  On one hand you hear how much people want to change things in Washington, 'throw them all out'.  Then you have some nutbag elected to face Harry Reid, the incumbent.  Give me a break people.  Apparently the voters have lost their minds; well at least the Republicans who all loved President Bush.  Maybe I should be happy; this gives Harry a great chance.

Perhaps I should elaborate.  Wikipedia tells us that in 2000 Las Vegas had almost 1.4 million of the 2 million people in Nevada.  The numbers have probably grown but the proportion hasn't changed much.  The people out in the rural areas might be Republican (they certainly are here!) but Las Vegas is where the action is.  Harry Reid isn't stupid so he comes out here to ask for our vote but it is really Las Vegas where the election is won or lost.  And Las Vegas is Democratic.

In other news, I took our truck in to Las Vegas to have the oil changed yesterday.  It took 2.5 HOURS!!!  Not that I was expecting anything else since I've been there before.  Gotta find another dealer and see what they can do.  I really like using the dealer while the vehicle is under warranty (just don't want to argue with some idiot about what was done or wasn't done) BUT this is totally stupid.  I'm going to write to the service manager and unless they come up with something really special, it's the last time for Gauden Ford. 

Summer is here; Vegas had a 110F (43C) day already but this weekend is supposed to be better like 85F (29C); a welcome break.  But we all know it's coming; do you hear the theme from 'Jaws' in the background?  We are now about three and a half weeks from heading north for a while.  We'll visit relatives then trickle back down the Pacific coast for a couple weeks.  Should be cool and refreshing to be so near the ocean for a while. 

Have a good one.

"Liberty of thought is the life of the soul." --Voltaire

Just another day in ......

Pahrump! Got up and walked early before the sun warmed the world. Showered then went to the casino for breakfast. It's as good as anywhere and is cheaper. Then each of us got our $5 and started playing video poker. It took about 10 minutes for my wife to lose her stake; I still had $2.75 but the deal is that we quit when one has lost (or if one gains!).

Got the title for the truck from Ford Credit the other day. We only took out the loan because they gave us an extra $1000 off; paid them three monthly payments and paid it off. Went up the the DMV and got the lien taken off the title so now it's all ours and we have proof. (Or will when the DMV gets around to sending it to us.) It took at least 45 minutes for those lazy clowns to get to us. They have four people working but only two seem to do anything at the same time. Then there are three others who wander around between the offices but don't actually help people. What a cluster f*&k.

We go back and forth between getting smoke from the fires down by Los Angeles and getting clear air. Mornings are clearer; evenings are smoky. The moon last night was an amazing orange even when it was quite high in the sky. Sure hope the fires are brought under control soon; two firefighters have been killed already.

Gotta go bbq a salmon. It's not like up in the NW because this is an Atlantic salmon probably raised in Chile but it's not all that bad!

Take it easy. It's dangerous out there!

Truck

Ok, I'm going to shut up about this new truck soon, I promise; just not today. Have to post a photo of it.



It's a big beast; much taller, longer and heavier than our previous truck but that's what we need for towing our trailer. Back East the mountain grades aren't like the grades out here and our old truck wasn't dealing with them very well. Still, it's a shock. Those running boards were an option but without them my wife found it very difficult to get into the truck - and she's 5'7" (170cm).

Gotta go - play with the new toy. Take care, it's dangerous out there!

Local Yokels

As I responded to Lawyer Mom's comment; we drove the Chevy the local dealer has that would be acceptable. Honestly, it was a very nice truck. GM has made a lot of intelligent changes to their vehicle in the last nine years. The transmission especially was very nice and the ride quality was excellent. It was a little twitchy on the road but not bad. It has a "short bed" rather than the longer bed (and wheelbase) that I would prefer but that's not a deal breaker. There is, however, a slight problem or two.

They made it VERY obvious that they wanted to close the deal today. When my wife explained that we wanted to drive a Ford tomorrow, they tightened up even more. Then the salesman started saying bad things about Fords. That's a chump ploy; the kind of thing I expected from the idiot salesman. I haven't had a lot of experience with Fords but we did have one we bought twenty years ago that did 122,000 trouble free miles before we gave it to our son who drove it several more years.

Now the deal that they presented was confusing but didn't look too bad but when I got home and dissected it I figured out that they are cutting about four percent off MSRP and the rest of the deal is direct from GM. Hmmmm, guess they aren't really interested in doing business. This is in an environment where there were no other customers in the building during the two hours we were on the premises.

We are also thinking of buying a little car that might get a bunch better mileage that a big truck so we did test drive a Chevy HHR. It's a little "retro" styled station wagon thing. It was comfortable and has some room for carrying stuff but had the acceleration of an elderly VW. No longer on our list!

All in all, an instructive day. The Chevy is a nice truck. The dealership is going to have to completely change their approach though to remain in contention. Right now, it's the Ford dealer's deal to lose. (However, I have high hopes that they will manage it!) Stay tuned for the next inning. Don't know how many there will be but they will all be fun!

Be careful out there, it's dangerous!

The Local's Turn

After checking out the Fords in Vegas we decided we needed to check out the local Chevy-GMC dealer. Of course they had absolutely nothing along with the worse salesman I've ever met. The guy didn't even know the product line. GMC's have an SL package and an SLT package that is a little nicer. Chevy has an LT1 and an LT3. This guy kept getting them confused. This only aggravated the fact that they didn't HAVE either of the upgraded vehicles. So we spent some time standing out in the 95 degree sun (35C) looking at trucks we wouldn't buy.

Finally we went in and the salesman gets us to sit at his desk (way off in a corner) while he goes and talks to the only person in the place who can use their computer. Eventually we figured this out and went over and talked to the computer guy ourselves. After a tremendous amount of effort he manages to find two, count them two, trucks that have most of what we want. The big problem seems to be that we want both front seats to have power controls. Most of the trucks they have have a power drivers seat but only these two have a power passenger seat. (That's not quite true, we don't want a 4 wheel drive and maybe they have some of those with a power passenger seat; don't know.)

Anyway, we spend two hours at this dealership talking to the idiot and the almost-an-idiot. They have a storage lot in Vegas where these scarce vehicles are kept so they are bringing one of them over here today. We are to see it this afternoon. Damn, it's hard to try an do business with people in this small town. I was ready to walk out just trying to get that idiot salesman to listen to what we wanted. We'll see today if the computer guy actually found something or not.

A Lawyer Mom suggested that I might check out http://www.fightingchance.com/. It sounds like an interesting approach to buying a car. At least I wouldn't have had to meet the idiot! If what we are doing falls through I may be a fightingchance customer before long.

Take it easy, it's dangerous out there.