Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

carnaught

Snake, what’s it got on it? Certainly that’s not a comprehensive ad.

explorerx4

@snakeweasel,
Carfax shows no maintenance, but something with the instrument cluster.

dino001

abacomike said:

The bridge was supposedly designed and engineered to withstand a category 5+ hurricane - so much for the engineering and architecture or the quality of materials and/or workmanship or the construction management for attempting a stress test on an incomplete bridge.

Mike, the final bridge would likely have been good for more than Category 5 hurricane. All bridges are. In fact, after a most fearsome hurricane the only structures that stay completely untouched, are bridges.

This was a partial placement of the main concrete span unit, but the cable stays and the pylon were not yet attached, or erected. I assure you engineers think about those partial placement situations and perform appropriate calculations. The main design firm is quite well known for many complex designs, so I’m really stunned how somebody could miss self weight case. It usually takes chain of many events to lead to such a disaster, but basic nature of this one is quite shocking. I’m almost certain the engineers checked it, but they must have made some terrible error in assumptions in the analysis or/end the execution of those assumptions went awry (e.g. reinforcement too short, too small).

BTW, I am not just a civil engineer, I design bridges. Mostly for Florida. This strikes so close to home, feels to me like your neighbor house burnt in fire. The only thing worse would be yours or your family’s house.

snakeweasel

carnaught said:

Snake, what’s it got on it? Certainly that’s not a comprehensive ad.

The website is run by the Chicago Automobile Trade Association, a dealership association. Chicago area dealers can list their inventory here and is a good spot to tart looking for cars in the Chicago area. Going to the dealers website it looks like this is new to their inventory (no pictures and no price) and the dealers website states to call for a price. So my guess is that they entered this into their system before they figured out what they wanted to price it at so the $28 may be a filler if their system needed a price to accept the car into inventory.

I have seen F-150's temporarily priced on this site for $1.5 million.

oldfarmer50

Mm

jipster said:

dino001 said:

jipster said:

Nice of you to help. And WOW...didn't know they didn't have self serve gas in Jersey. Too difficult for them? LOL

I think it's the union thing. Hey, Jip, why don't you call this Milan guy and offer him four grand? He might be primed by now...

LOL. Thanks Dino. I would call and offer $4,000, but in checking, the Milan is no longer listed. Now that the car is no longer available....I WANT IT!!!!  :@

Plenty more fish in the sea.

driver100

I think my brother made a good decision not to buy a trailer. This happened in St Petersburg FL today, when a car in another lane veered into the trailer;


That bridge collapse is unbelievable. Those were two large companies involved......how could you spend $millions and have that happen, almost immediately?

cdnpinhead

dino001 said:

BTW, I am not just a civil engineer, I design bridges. Mostly for Florida. This strikes so close to home, feels to me like your neighbor house burnt in fire. The only thing worse would be yours or your family’s house.

I feel your pain. As of the 18th of this month I will have spent 50 years in engineering, most of that in aerospace. In my industry, much of what used to be done here in Arizona is now done in India, Mexico, the Czech Republic and Puerto Rico. As a result, co-location of teams and solid communication has gone the way of the dodo. The people we deal with now in all these places aren't qualified to hold the jock straps of the people I came up with. It's a global economy, baby!

Either way, it's clearly a tragedy, hopefully not a result of outsourcing. Time will tell.

sb55

@driver100 said "The real inconvenience is in Canada and Europe you can use a VISA machine at your table...just slide the card in, use a PIN, add a tip, machine gives you a receipt, the card is never gone from the table. In the US, they take your card and bring it back to the table."

I wish that that the US restaurants would use the CC machine at the table rather than take the card. It would be safer and speed things up.
I had a bad CC experience once. My daughter was in the Peace Corps in Namibia, Africa. We went to visit her and every restaurant had the CC at the table. So all was fine the first trip over.
But, on the second trip we went to a restaurant the first night in the capital city of Windhoek very jetlagged after travelling over 24 hours to get there. The waiter took my CC. I thought that it was strange, but it's in the city and I thought that maybe it was the "new" way to do things. I do remember that the waiter was gone a long time. About a week later, my card wouldn't work. It didn't say denied, it just didn't work. I thought that was strange. When I got home I went online and found that over $17,000.00 was charged to my card all over southern Africa! My card was cloned and must have been shipped all over, because it was used in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.
Thank god I had all receipts and my route to prove that I didn't make those charges.
Citibank covered all of it, but it was a pain to get it cleared up!

tbirdmarco

 Interesting on the engineering the bridges and stuff yes it’s a big-time tragedy 

tbirdmarco

 Mike what adventure you had yesterday at Cosco filling up the gas pump I agree I rather deal with the regular station ha ha Ha if it were me to crazy people out there 

tbirdmarco

 Happy Friday all 

dino001

sb55 said:

I wish that that the US restaurants would use the CC machine at the table rather than take the card. It would be safer and speed things up.
I had a bad CC experience once. My daughter was in the Peace Corps in Namibia, Africa. We went to visit her and every restaurant had the CC at the table. So all was fine the first trip over.
But, on the second trip we went to a restaurant the first night in the capital city of Windhoek very jetlagged after travelling over 24 hours to get there. The waiter took my CC. I thought that it was strange, but it's in the city and I thought that maybe it was the "new" way to do things. I do remember that the waiter was gone a long time. About a week later, my card wouldn't work. It didn't say denied, it just didn't work. I thought that was strange. When I got home I went online and found that over $17,000.00 was charged to my card all over southern Africa! My card was cloned and must have been shipped all over, because it was used in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.
Thank god I had all receipts and my route to prove that I didn't make those charges.
Citibank covered all of it, but it was a pain to get it cleared up!

I look at my credit card balance on line every day, so I'd catch any unauthorized spending right away. I had my card cloned twice. Once it was Chase visa, used across the to steal movies from Dropbox. Another time it was Amex, used in a mall in Virginia. The second time was a bit more hassle, as I believe the card was cloned in my route to Poland and I learned about it while overseas. Amex acted quickly cutting the account, but they also cut my internet access off in the process. Fortunately, I didn't need the card, I just called them collect (another painful experience, as Poland's mobile carriers don't have that feature and majority of people don't use land line anymore - I had to find the access number from Amex first).

Anyway, Chase handled my issue much better than Amex. They took the charges off right away, sent me a prefilled form with the charges in question, I signed it and that was the end of trouble. Amex took the charges off first after my phone call and sent a quick letter that they're investigating, then they send me copies of bills with the fake signature as a supposed "proof" of me charging it with a letter stating they'd put it back. I had to call them back and say these were not signatures (like a prior emphatic statement that I was not at that mall in Virginia at the time stated was simply not enough) and then the charges went away permanently. Stupid process, if you asked me.

abacomike

I just heard on the news that the death toll from the bridge collapse was much less than originally thought - 4 I believe instead of 10+ - yet still tragic.

The FIU President stated in an interview that the bridge was undergoing stress tests as the collapse occurred.  Who does stress tests on a bridge during heavy traffic times without closing the Tamiami Trail to vehicular traffic?  Why not test the bridge after 12:00 AM under lots of artificial light?  All construction on the Florida Turnpike, I-95 and I-75 is done from 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM.  

graphicguy

Costco gas......the store is probably 15-20 minutes from me (depending on traffic) and I’m in the general vicinity of that store a couple of times/week. Given that my car spends a lot of time parked at the airport for days at a time, there are times I won’t fill up for 2-3 weeks.

But, I find the busiest times to be early afternoons on Saturday or Sunday. So, I stay away from those times to fill up. NEVER had to wait 20 minutes to get fuel, though.

Like most have found, 99.9% of the time Costco is cheaper than any other station, let alone stations which are top tier. My Costco credit card is also my membership card. So, not sure about why a seperate credit card was needed when it was Costco branded plus an additional membership card.

Bathroom update.....really it seems some of the contractes really are shady. My bids for a total tear out and rebuild range from about $14K to $30K, with no appreciable difference in materials or labor needed. Had one “sales” guy (the one that quoted $30K) who supposedly was a former plumber (find that hard to believe based on his lack of knowledge) ask if I was willing to sign a contract on the spot? I told him I wasn’t until I received more bids. He then started pulling the old car sales routine....”if I offered to do the bathroom and knock off $2K, would you sign the contract?”.

Anyway, you get the picture. State Farm, who up until this juncture had been a pretty good insurance provider, has been either reluctant to engage, or totally non-existent in the amount of help they’ve provided. Had one adjuster call me telling me what State Farm WON’T cover. Had another one call saying he was my adjuster but was coming from Wichita (to cover Cincinnati?) and didn’t know when he could make it to look at the damage.

Not a good experience, so far.

dino001

abacomike said:

I just heard on the news that the death toll from the bridge collapse was much less than originally thought - 4 I believe instead of 10+ - yet still tragic.

The FIU President stated in an interview that the bridge was undergoing stress tests as the collapse occurred.  Who does stress tests on a bridge during heavy traffic times without closing the Tamiami Trail to vehicular traffic?  Why not test the bridge after 12:00 AM under lots of artificial light?  All construction on the Florida Turnpike, I-95 and I-75 is done from 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM.  

Nobody should. FIU president doesn't really know what he's talking about, though. He heard the word "stress", but it's in a wrong context. There was no stress test there - for that you'd need actual external loading placed on the bridge (e.g. blocks of ballast placed, or similar). I don't see that evidence of that in the rubble. From what I heard, there were prestressing adjustments happening during this time (which should not have happened over traffic, either). Prestressing is a technology of concrete construction involving placing compressive stress into concrete in places where it is expected to experience tension. Concrete has compressive stress around 10 times of that tensile, so when you expect tension somewhere, if you can place opposite (compressive) stress prior that, the concrete will nicely hold. The adjustments most likely involved releasing some of that precompression and placing it back, increasing, changing location, etc. Perhaps there were some tests being done on those prestressing tendons (steel wire rope pieces threaded along or across the structure to provide that stressing force). None of that should have happened over traffic, regardless of what exactly was being done.

Yesterday I did not know that the bridge structural capability was being adjusted during the collapse, so I thought it had to be the engineer's error. Now, it seems the responsibility may be laying in the contractor's and inspection's court, especially if they did not ask the engineer's opinion prior the activities (which should not happen, but it sometimes does). I'm sure, tomorrow we will learn something new and then there will be lots of noise, too.

imidazol97

Bridge builder had another one fall in Virginia. Fell on railroad tracks...

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/fiu-bridge-collapse-construction-firms-accused-of-unsafe-practices-10176596

dino001

imidazol97 said:

Bridge builder had another one fall in Virginia. Fell on railroad tracks...

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/fiu-bridge-collapse-construction-firms-accused-of-unsafe-practices-10176596

The article is mixing issues. I can understand, why but those items are not likely relevant. The contractor has had a problem in the past with the workmanship issues. The engineer has had problems with worker's safety and training (most likely sending people where they didn't belong or without proper equipment, like say harness). The fines levied on them by Virginia were side effect of the collapse investigation, not relevant to the collapse itself, just OSHA violations that were uncovered by chance. These things may be only somewhat relevant to this collapse in terms of possible issues with those company's general cultures, but the collapse seems to be rooted in much more fundamental aspect of design/construction work than a guy climbing without harness, or even building some shoddy temporary walkway.

houdini1

dino001 said:

abacomike said:

The bridge was supposedly designed and engineered to withstand a category 5+ hurricane - so much for the engineering and architecture or the quality of materials and/or workmanship or the construction management for attempting a stress test on an incomplete bridge.

Mike, the final bridge would likely have been good for more than Category 5 hurricane. All bridges are. In fact, after a most fearsome hurricane the only structures that stay completely untouched, are bridges.

This was a partial placement of the main concrete span unit, but the cable stays and the pylon were not yet attached, or erected. I assure you engineers think about those partial placement situations and perform appropriate calculations. The main design firm is quite well known for many complex designs, so I’m really stunned how somebody could miss self weight case. It usually takes chain of many events to lead to such a disaster, but basic nature of this one is quite shocking. I’m almost certain the engineers checked it, but they must have made some terrible error in assumptions in the analysis or/end the execution of those assumptions went awry (e.g. reinforcement too short, too small).

BTW, I am not just a civil engineer, I design bridges. Mostly for Florida. This strikes so close to home, feels to me like your neighbor house burnt in fire. The only thing worse would be yours or your family’s house.

Local news here said they were in the process of tightening loose cables. I assume they did not think this was very critical, else they would have stopped traffic?

dino001

houdini1 said:

Local news here said they were in the process of tightening loose cables. I assume they did not think this was very critical, else they would have stopped traffic?

This goes into multiple issues. Public doesn't like to be inconvenienced, so the authorities are very strict and dismissive about applications for traffic closures. Then, there is judgment regarding how critical the particular cable tightening might be to the whole structure at the time. If you have proper redundancy (ability to channel loads through more than one path), doing one at a time can be easily done and it is proverbial "no big deal". However, if the structure doesn't have much redundancy, then it's a huge deal, requiring proper preparation and logistics. I can tell you that the main slabs (top and bottom) appear to have decent redundancy in the cables, but the diagonals do not. They are rather small in proportion to the slabs and there is only single line. I have seen a frame-by-frame footage of the collapse itself and it looks like a very unusual "shear" failure mode, when point of origination is near the support and those diagonals are involved. This type of collapse is also very sudden and violent in nature, worst kind. Think of it this way - take a ruler and bend it in half. You see a lot of deflection before you can break it (this serves as a warning). Now think of a brittle rock overhanging the cliff. It's constantly eroding at its base, so the supporting section gets smaller and smaller. It looks fine and one day it's just gone - no warning, just gives in. Similar are so-called rupture failures in steel, also sudden - those were more common in the past way back when metallurgical impurities in steel could affect its performance, especially in very cold temperatures.

As engineers we like to design structures that when something goes wrong, they give a lot of warning before they let go. Say something is corroding, something is too weak, something is fatigued, or overloaded. You see it - walls get crooked, slabs deflect, structure slowly sinks into the ground, cracks form, then they get bigger and bigger. Anything, but sudden. You have time to call somebody and it gets fixed or closed. Obviously not the case here.

pensfan83

I'm going to be in Hollywood, FL for a work conference from April 8th-April 12th and I'm debating whether to rent a car or just use the hotel's airport shuttle. For those who know the area is there anything near The Diplomat Beach Resort that would be worth checking out in the evening?

carnaught

pensfan83 said:

I'm going to be in Hollywood, FL for a work conference from April 8th-April 12th and I'm debating whether to rent a car or just use the hotel's airport shuttle. For those who know the area is there anything near The Diplomat Beach Resort that would be worth checking out in the evening?

Hollywood Beach is in proximity to multiple areas with various restaurants, beaches and other nice sightseeing venues. It depends on whether you want to cruise the area from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami Beach, or whether you would be happy just hanging around the hotel. If you are debating a car rental, check out the rates at or near the hotel vs. those with a rental pick-up at the airport.

driver100

Pensfan, I will answer you now in case someone more knowledgeable doesn't reply. Check tripadvisor or google what to do near Hollywood FL. Rental cars are very expensive in Florida these days, $100 to $120 a day is pretty common, could be more at airports. May not help a lot, but, at least you got something to start your search.

oldfarmer50

carnaught said:

pensfan83 said:

I'm going to be in Hollywood, FL for a work conference from April 8th-April 12th and I'm debating whether to rent a car or just use the hotel's airport shuttle. For those who know the area is there anything near The Diplomat Beach Resort that would be worth checking out in the evening?

Hollywood Beach is in proximity to multiple areas with various restaurants, beaches and other nice sightseeing venues. It depends on whether you want to cruise the area from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami Beach, or whether you would be happy just hanging around the hotel. If you are debating a car rental, check out the rates at or near the hotel vs. those with a rental pick-up at the airport.

Why not just use Uber or Lyft?

Mr_Shiftright

Or call Mike! He has a nice car.

jmonroe

Mr_Shiftright said:

Or call Mike! He has a nice car.

Good idea, just make sure he has already filled up at Costco.

jmonroe

Mr_Shiftright

Decaf only for this guy--

pensfan83

oldfarmer50 said:

Why not just use Uber or Lyft?

I would prefer to have the freedom to come/go as I please but there's no way I can expense $500+ for a rental car alone so it will probably be a ride sharing service. I was already warned that the resort is very nice but without transportation it's sort of on an island away from most everything.

Mr_Shiftright

I think the Trip Adviser suggestion is a good one. It's only 4 days so you can pick out only the best few attractions and Uber your way, (if Mike isn't available all 4 days ).

Michaell

Mr_Shiftright said:

I think the Trip Adviser suggestion is a good one. It's only 4 days so you can pick out only the best few attractions and Uber your way, (if Mike isn't available all 4 days ).

Yeah, and you can break in the big back seat of that S-Class.

graphicguy

pensfan83 said:

I'm going to be in Hollywood, FL for a work conference from April 8th-April 12th and I'm debating whether to rent a car or just use the hotel's airport shuttle. For those who know the area is there anything near The Diplomat Beach Resort that would be worth checking out in the evening?

No way a rental car should cost anywhere near $500 for 4 days, unless you're renting Hertz or Avis "Premium Cars". I would think you could get by with ½ that amount.

fintail

Looks like the work of corrupt cowardly trash Duterte, who a certain stable genius seems to think is a great guy.

Notice the Panzer W140 appears to be resisting the attack.

Mr_Shiftright said:

Decaf only for this guy--

abacomike

pensfan83 said:

I'm going to be in Hollywood, FL for a work conference from April 8th-April 12th and I'm debating whether to rent a car or just use the hotel's airport shuttle. For those who know the area is there anything near The Diplomat Beach Resort that would be worth checking out in the evening?

As carnaught mentioned, there are many restaurants near the Diplomat.  I suggest NOT renting a car since you are going to be in conferences most of the day and paying for a rental car that you won’t use very much is wasteful.  UBER or LYFT should be fine.

If you like gambling and great food, the Seminole HardRock Hotel and Casino is right in Hollywood - perhaps a 15-20 minute ride from the Diplomat.  It’s the only Casino in South Broward with live Blackjack, Poker, 3-Card Poker, Bacarat, and 2000+ slot machines.  They have great bars there as well and live entertainment.

I suggest that you not travel south as the neighborhoods down there can get rough.  Stay close to the Diplomat and definitely spend an evening at the HardRock.  Stay with UBER and Taxicabs.

I live about 25 miles north of Hollywood and rarely get down that way - but the Diplomat used to be a 4 Star Hotel back in the 1980’s - they have refurbished the hotel and resort recently.  My Dad had golfing privileges at their Presidential Course in North Miami Beach.

Take some evening walks along A1A (road adjacent to the Beach and Ocean).  Hollywood Beach is one of the nicer beaches in South Florida.

Hope this helps.

abacomike

pensfan83 said:

Why not just use Uber or Lyft?

I would prefer to have the freedom to come/go as I please but there's no way I can expense $500+ for a rental car alone so it will probably be a ride sharing service. I was already warned that the resort is very nice but without transportation it's sort of on an island away from most everything.

Yes, the hotel is surrounded by high-rise condos.  Your need for transportation is understandable - but I still recommend Uber or Taxis.  A rental for 4 days will cost about $300+.  I don’t know if the Diplomat charges for parking.

You will probably meet other conference attendees who will have rental cars - and I am sure they will want to go to the HardRock Resort and Casino,

abacomike

graphicguy said:

I'm going to be in Hollywood, FL for a work conference from April 8th-April 12th and I'm debating whether to rent a car or just use the hotel's airport shuttle. For those who know the area is there anything near The Diplomat Beach Resort that would be worth checking out in the evening?

No way a rental car should cost anywhere near $500 for 4 days, unless you're renting Hertz or Avis "Premium Cars". I would think you could get by with ½ that amount.

GG, it’s “SEASON” now here in South Florida with Spring Break in full swing.  So there will be a premium on rental cars.  Lots of tourists down here now.

abacomike

jmonroe said:

Or call Mike! He has a nice car.

Good idea, just make sure he has already filled up at Costco. jmonroe

Car’s full of gas - come to think about it - SO AM I! 

tbirdmarco

S b wow what an story you g  had over sees with your c c  glad all is good now

tbirdmarco

Look at my c c statements on line once  an week 

tbirdmarco

 GG wow crazy I was going on with your bathroom 

abacomike

@pensfan83

BTW, I have been to the HardRock once or twice quite a few years ago.  It’s a very large complex and an exciting venue for great food, live entertainment, and great table gambling games, not to mention all the top rated slots.  My neighbors go there every week and love the place because they have a large no-smoking casino wing.  Their hotel - which is above the casino - is first rate.  Parking (valet) is not very good - which is why I recommend UBER or taxi.

imidazol97

I've seen snow birds flying north through Dayton the last few days, typically pulling a camper behind a larger SUV.
They're hurrying back to northern Ohio, Michigan, and Canada to catch a little bit of this beautiful winter weather before it's gone for yet another year. LOL

driver100

imidazol97 said:

I've seen snow birds flying north through Dayton the last few days, typically pulling a camper behind a larger SUV.
They're hurrying back to northern Ohio, Michigan, and Canada to catch a little bit of this beautiful winter weather before it's gone for yet another year. LOL

Yes, it is that time when we have to start heading back. Lots of people from Michigan and Ohio around the Tampa area. A lot of people want to head back to see family etc., then there is me. I would like to stay in Florida until the end of April but because we came for a Halloween party we have used up 5 1/2 months of our 6 months allowed into the US for 1 year. We fly back in 2 1/2 weeks.......April 4th.

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p_-h4EgqDcc

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p_-h4EgqDcc

isellhondas

driver100 said:

A day in the life with Mike. You should have a head cam so we could watch all this stuff......it is better than watching "Parking Police".

I would rather pay 30 cents a gallon more and not have to waste my life away like that.

I do and Costco's National Headquarters complete with a huge gas station is five minutes from our home.

The frustration simply isn't worth it....to me abyway!

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WpfruZr8vo0

explorerx4

Here's a story from the land down under pumping up the Stinger.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/autos-sports/turns-out-the-kia-stinger-gt-can-beat-a-ford-mustang-gt-in-a-drag-race/ar-BBKjEgo?li=BBnb4R5&ocid=DELLDHP

qbrozen

wow, that Scotty dude is ANNOYING!

iluvmysephia1

abacomike- man, your story about the Costco gas brings to mind another thing people do that my wife and I choose not to, and that is: wait for an hour for a good meal at a great restaurant. I don't know if it's just that I'm a baby boomer and grew up eating McDonald's and A&W Drive-In burgers that you got fast and ate fast, or what, but I'm not waiting for a meal for an hour in line. Same with ghastly - that's why I don't call it gasoline - I call it ghastly - because it's cost is just plain ghastly!

Not that I can complain about our current situation - I filled up here in Alamogordo about a week ago - I put in $20 of regular unleaded and the range on the information center of the '11 Kia Soul told me that I was good for something like 261 miles. Cool - I've gone about a week now and I still have a third of a tank of ghastly left, Edmunds-ites! How you like those desert goats-heads?

abacomike

iluvmysephia1 said:

abacomike- man, your story about the Costco gas brings to mind another thing people do that my wife and I choose not to, and that is: wait for an hour for a good meal at a great restaurant. I don't know if it's just that I'm a baby boomer and grew up eating McDonald's and A&W Drive-In burgers that you got fast and ate fast, or what, but I'm not waiting for a meal for an hour in line. Same with ghastly - that's why I don't call it gasoline - I call it ghastly - because it's cost is just plain ghastly! Not that I can complain about our current situation - I filled up here in Alamogordo about a week ago - I put in $20 of regular unleaded and the range on the information center of the '11 Kia Soul told me that I was good for something like 261 miles. Cool - I've gone about a week now and I still have a third of a tank of ghastly left, Edmunds-ites! How you like those desert goats-heads?

I know the feeling, iluv!  If I had not been so intent on filling up at Costco yesterday morning, I’d have nothing to post here on Edmunds.  You have to look at the positives as well as the negatives in life.

I also agree with you when it comes to waiting in line for a good meal at a top rated restaurant.  When I was up to Ponte Vedra in November to see my brother, he took me and his SO to a small Italian restaurant in South Jacksonville.  We waited over an hour for our “reserved” table.  But after tasting the best garlic rolls and the very, very best chicken parmigiana I’ve ever tasted, I’d wait in line for a table at that “ristorante” any day of the week.  I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!

abacomike

@pensfan83

Hey, pensfan, if you get the opportunity, I’d love the opportunity to meet you when you’re down here for your conference.  As mentioned in several posts here, my passenger seat sure could use a passenger for a night out.

If you’re game, send me a private message and I’ll give you my phone number.  Just a thought.

tjc78

You guys were talking about credit card and fraud. I had two interesting experiences with my corporate card today. First one was a large (5k) purchase getting declined. I felt it odd, so I called Wells Fargo to see what was up. Apparently the vendor I was using had a business code that my employer has blocked. No harm done, quick walk down to accounting cleared that up.

Second one was strange too. I had to buy a TV to be picked up in the next state by one of my team members. So I logged onto Walmart.com and did the deal. Before I even got the email confirmation from Walmart, Wells Fargo popped into my email asking if the charge was fraud. Thought that was weird but I guess two odd charges back to back set off an alert. Amazing how quick the technology is.