Really sorry to hear that JP.
The battery price isn’t really that high. Depending on the year $160 seems about average. You can go as low as $130, but need to be careful due to Michigan winters, may not have the CCa needed of your car lives outside.
Ok thank you. I feel better about that. The guy could quote practically anything and I’m be/am clueless about whether it’s a realistic price.
I have news on many fronts!
I’d long since given up on finding that lost set of keys. Gotten replacements made, got a new gym entry card, all that stuff. Out of the blue today, I learn that there’s a lost set of keys that’s been hanging in our clubhouse for a while now. Checked it out, and sure enough, there’s my lost keys. I must have dropped them right before I went to check for them at the end of my run, and despite going back and forth a bunch of times never did see them lying wherever they’d fallen. One of my neighbors must have found them and that’s how they ended up in the clubhouse.
Saw the very nice foot doctor this morning, and he was pretty optimistic! It’s a clean break and not in the worst area, so should heal given time and assuming I don’t do anything too dumb in the meantime. Bad news is that full healing takes about six months, but the good news is that I should only need the boot for about half that time. Then it’ll just be a matter of avoiding too much strenuous activity for the remainder. And even in the boot, I can move around as long as it’s not hurting.
Maintenance guy came by today to take a look and he’s fairly confident we’re just looking at cosmetic water damage (inside a utility closet, so I don’t care how it looks). He poked around up in the ceiling, around the light fixture and electrical outlet, etc and said the moisture was all dried out. As long as the folks upstairs don’t have further issues, all should be well.
Lost keys are the worst. It feels like you’ve placed a beacon saying, “come rob my house”.
I might have missed it, but what was the culprit for the upstairs leak?
Just a loose hose leading to her water heater. A fairly easy fix, once she knew it was happening!
Technically it hasn’t happened yet, as it will start this afternoon. Going to lock myself away in a small holiday cottage for a full week, to make some serious progress on my thesis. It’s a weird feeling: on the one hand, I’m really excited about it and I’m really looking forward to being able to immerse myself completely into my research, without distractions. On the other hand, most of those distractions came from my wife and daughters, and as such were very welcome distractions. The prospect of missing them for a full week is rather daunting. I don’t think I’ve been away for more than four days since my girls were born…
Anyway, what has to be done, has to be done, right?
Not sure if you wanted any tips, but in case you would like some, I have some suggestions. If you find your mind wandering back to them too much in a distracting way, try to think in the present. Look at your surroundings, inside and out. Focus on small details and draw whatever remote parallels (even if none exist) you can between that and your research. Scheduling a block of time where you dedicate your thoughts to your family can be very helpful as well. This can keep the mind from wandering too much when your brain knows it will have a break from your task to just think about those you miss and love.
Thanks! To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I wanted tips either, hadn’t thought about it, really. But yours are very useful, and they are much appreciated!
Just settling in now, starting the real stuff tomorrow. And if I find myself being unable to focus, I’ll definitely use your suggestions!
So your holiday cottage has internet? I was thinking more Cabin in the Woods.
Yeah, it’s in the woods allright, but it’s not Cabin in the Woods (luckily). No such remote places in the Netherlands, really, unless I spend a fortune on it, which I am not prepared to do just yet. Not to mention I will need internet every now and again to find certain publications, reports etc. But you wont see me here too often during the following week! If I miss you guys to much, I’ll just use jpinards tips to get over it ;-).
My grandpa passed away last month. One of the things he left my mom was his 1936 Chevy Towncar(?) he bought about 20 years ago. Today, she and I took it to a car show in town. One of the things he loved to do was show off his car, so we’re doing our best to carry on in his stead.
It’s a beautiful car. We have no idea what we’re going to do with it long-term, but it’s important that we keep it for a while.
Wow that thing is incredible. Looks like it’s straight out of a Dick Tracey comic
It would be a shame not to keep it in the family, but I fully understand that it’s a huge commitment as far as maintenance, storage, and even keeping it clean to that degree. Looks like you’ve done a wonderful job with it. It’s a gorgeous car.
So, thanks to this post, I am touring the fleet of a local boat club next weekend. We visited by brother a few weeks ago, who has a house on a lake with a boat in a slip, and had a great time. My girlfriend extracted a promise from me (while drunk, of course) to buy a boat. But I don’t have storage or towing capability at present so it seems like a boat club might be a better way to go. We’ll see, but thanks for mentioning it here!
No worries. There are good and bad points with either option. The good points for being in a club matched where I’m at, thus the choice.
- No space for boat stowage (lift out stowage on waterways is an option.)
- No vehicle for boat towing (lift outside on the waterway are again an option.)
- Dont want to have to pay for boat insurance.
- Dont want to have to pay for boat maintenance.
- Dont want to have to deal with boat cleaning.
- Dont want to have to deal with boat fueling / pumping. (Many boat clubs take care of this but bill for fuel use. Mine does.)
It’s not super cheap, that’s the flip side. It’s the equivalent of a somewhat cheap boat payment, akin to something like a cheap lease.
Around here a daily boat rental can get super costly. So the monthly club dues and me going out nearly every weekend make that look really costly in comparison.
An unmentioned item is that with a club you make your reservation, walk up and go right then. The boats are ready, clean, fueled and dealt to get to due to premium locations for most clubs. You can also usually leverage your club membership with other nationwide locations for that club, like on vacation.
Booking for the club I’m in is done online. Weekend slots are the hardest to get. Holiday weekends harder still. Weekdays are so open that it’s literally worth taking a day or two off mid week and going out with the family or friends if you can. Getting the most out of a club involves working the system of booking. If things are clear two weekends out, book one weekend slot and rotate and re-book as soon as you use one. If things are only clear every 3 weekends, then you have to be flexible and on top of long range weather forecasting.
A good club will constantly add to their fleet and cycle older boats out, that is a top priority to ask about. They will also be on top of boat repairs, since 1-3 boats might have issues at any given time (another advantage for a non-boat owner.)
Good luck, man!
I would never lease a car and I pay cash for everything, but I will grant you a boat is a totally different beast. I did some brief research and it actually sounded like it would be a pretty nice fit for me, at least before I came to my senses. The rest of the family gets seasick at the drop of a hat. That and I am sure OC sets record highs in joining and monthly fees.
Ah well, a guy can dream.
I’m on a lake, so seasickness is at a very low point. That and I’m ex-Navy. :)
Boats get expensive. There are a lot of fun jokes that are pretty on point, my favorite is, “what does BOAT stand for? Bust Out Another Thousand.” It’s somewhat true. Repairs on a boat are usually more expensive than cars.
Sweet, thanks for the tips! Availability is my main concern. I’ll ask about cycling new boats in. Weekdays may be the way to go. I’m happy to take boats out in the evening. My kids’ school is 5 minutes from the boat club launch. And here in San Diego, weather is fine year-round.
I attended a funeral yesterday for my elderly neighbor, who recently passed due to Parkinson’s. It was at a local Catholic church. It was during the Mass that I realized out of the 100+ people there, I was the only person of color. The church workers were Filipino, Vietnamese, and a few Hispanics, but among those in attendance, I was the only one.
It just struck me as very interesting that even here in Orange County, California, that there are places and situations that made me just go “Huh. This is very damn interesting.”