Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

graphicguy

Interesting note, I've combed through the entire Acura TLX manual, and only saw one allusion to break in period...."Don't tow anything for the first few hundred miles" (or something along those lines).

So, I guess it's pedal to the metal.

tjc78

graphicguy said:

Interesting note, I've combed through the entire Acura TLX manual, and only saw one allusion to break in period...."Don't tow anything for the first few hundred miles" (or something along those lines).

So, I guess it's pedal to the metal.

A lot of mechanics will tell you to drive it like you stole it from day 1.

sda

omarman said:

High school graduation parties were a big thing here before covid anyway. Just 2 years ago a friend gave her 17 y/o son a $4K grad party with catered BBQ to feed 100 guests. As the party was still going on he asked her where his presents were. Single mom explained that "this party is your graduation present!" He was disappointed, she cried. I'm still telling the story.

As my grandmother would say with emphasis, BRAT.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

qbrozen said:

oldfarmer50 said:

I just heard on the financial channel that there’s a looming shortage in tires. Better get them while you still can.

Hmmm... did they say why? Seems very counterintuitive to me when far less new vehicles are being built. There should be a tire surplus.

Blame it on covid, that’s the go to response for everything.

driver100 said:

I heard a guy call in on the radio a few days ago, he was going to pay $30000 for his daughters wedding.
The daughter decided she didn't want a wedding....she eloped.
He figured the deal was off and he decided to use the money he set aside to buy a new car.
A few weeks later the daughter asked if she could have her wedding money to help put a down payment on a house!
:@

He should have offered her a ride to the bank in his new car. Our wedding cost us $20. My family gave us a refrigerator, her family gave us a stove. We bought our own furniture and paid for our own honeymoon trip to Hawaii.

That fancy wedding paid by the bride’s family is a hold over from days when women were less valued and parents had to pay a dowry to get rid of them

The best wedding besides my own have all been at a home, in the back yard, usually a tent. I like that it is informal, friendly and down to earth. The worst ones were the most expensive ones.....it was like trying too hard and was too fancy to be real.

driver100

ab348 said:

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

OK....new topic. What am I supposed to do when my lawn looks like this?

The lawn at this house has never been great, and I don't need it looking perfect, but now it is basically mud.
Oldfarmer....where are you buddy?

Call the guy.

RE: Call the Guy. My front lawn was like that in parts, and where it wasn't mud it was all weeds. Years of me trying to rehab it with both manual and chemical weed removal, new box store dirt, seeds and fertilizer just never delivered much of anything worth all the effort.

Friends who have had a similar lawn problem came over this afternoon. They said re-sodding was a waste of money...because of the trees the grass will look the same by next season.
They suggest putting mulch is the areas that have no grass....or using small rocks. Cover the ground first with material to slow down the weeds from growing, and then use stones or small rocks. They said the trees make it so the grass will never grow very well.....we could spend a lot and end up the same by next year.

ab348

driver100 said:

ab348 said:

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

OK....new topic. What am I supposed to do when my lawn looks like this?

The lawn at this house has never been great, and I don't need it looking perfect, but now it is basically mud.
Oldfarmer....where are you buddy?

Call the guy.

RE: Call the Guy. My front lawn was like that in parts, and where it wasn't mud it was all weeds. Years of me trying to rehab it with both manual and chemical weed removal, new box store dirt, seeds and fertilizer just never delivered much of anything worth all the effort.

Friends who have had a similar lawn problem came over this afternoon. They said re-sodding was a waste of money...because of the trees the grass will look the same by next season.
They suggest putting mulch is the areas that have no grass....or using small rocks. Cover the ground first with material to slow down the weeds from growing, and then use stones or small rocks. They said the trees make it so the grass will never grow very well.....we could spend a lot and end up the same by next year.

Well, it's kind of hard to assess the level of shade from a picture. You do need sun to grow grass, although there are shade-tolerant varieties. I don't know if mulch and rocks will give you a look you like.You could plant shrubs I suppose.

roadburner

If there's no grass leave it alone- less to cut.

imidazol97

@driver100

Cut down the trees. Refurbish the soil with cultivator and removing/replacing
old soil drained by the tree roots taking nutrition from it for years. Then replant
grass. Sun. Fresh soil. Green grass.

sb55

28firefighter said:

Weddings are such a racket. So much so that there is a Netflix series called Marriage or Mortgage. That people even choose between them is mind blowing.

I would have eloped. That said, we had a very nice wedding - not over the top, very fun - thanks to my wife’s parents (mine did the rehearsal dinner).

My Daughter got married last year. Originally it was to be 150 people in a tent on our property. We gave the caterer a 50% deposit. Yes the contract said non- refundable. But, we didn't cancel, the COVID cancelled us. Obviously, we didn't have 150 people in a tent. It ended up being 15 family members in our back yard with tables and chairs borrowed from the church.
The bi*ch caterer will not give back a penny of deposit. We asked her if she would cater the 15 people and use the deposit $. She refused. We even offered her to keep 20% for her "trouble".
We have hired an attorney to see if we can recoup something.

sda

sb55 said:

28firefighter said:

Weddings are such a racket. So much so that there is a Netflix series called Marriage or Mortgage. That people even choose between them is mind blowing.

I would have eloped. That said, we had a very nice wedding - not over the top, very fun - thanks to my wife’s parents (mine did the rehearsal dinner).

My Daughter got married last year. Originally it was to be 150 people in a tent on our property. We gave the caterer a 50% deposit. Yes the contract said non- refundable. But, we didn't cancel, the COVID cancelled us. Obviously, we didn't have 150 people in a tent. It ended up being 15 family members in our back yard with tables and chairs borrowed from the church.
The bi*ch caterer will not give back a penny of deposit. We asked her if she would cater the 15 people and use the deposit $. She refused. We even offered her to keep 20% for her "trouble".
We have hired an attorney to see if we can recoup something.

Incredible but sadly not surprising.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

OK....new topic. What am I supposed to do when my lawn looks like this?

The lawn at this house has never been great, and I don't need it looking perfect, but now it is basically mud.
Oldfarmer....where are you buddy?

That looks pretty shady which could be your problem. Bluegrass and other sun lovers won’t grow well there. Are those trees maples? The roots on those will choke out a lot of grasses. If that area isn’t a high traffic you might try replacing the grass with a ground cover like Pachysandra or maybe Bungle.

If you absolutely need grass try overseeing with some fine bladed Fescue but get the soil Ph tested first and amend accordingly.

https://www.lawn-care-academy.com/finefescue.html

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

OK....new topic. What am I supposed to do when my lawn looks like this?

The lawn at this house has never been great, and I don't need it looking perfect, but now it is basically mud.
Oldfarmer....where are you buddy?

Call the guy.

I am the guy he called. My advice is worth every penny he paid.

Michaell

Son got married in August 2019. Low key all around. Used a local golf course as the ceremony site, then the reception was in the back yard of my moms house.

I paid for the DJ at the reception and the rehearsal dinner. Everybody had a great time.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

I remember writing out about 30k in checks related to the reception for my daughter's wedding.
My wife paid for a bunch of other stuff too, which added up.
A lot of people travelled 550 to 600 miles to go to the wedding, so I was ok paying for the reception.
They had to pay for travel, hotel rooms and their other meals.
Grooms family paid for a huge tent and catered BBQ in our back yard the night before for about 100 people.
Good thing we had the tent, it rained like crazy.

My niece’s wedding was a grand affair. We flew to the Breakers in Palm Beach only to find out a hurricane was just offshore. The bride’s father was a big wheel and moved the wedding to a private island off Key West. After a midnight booze cruise cruise down the overseas highway we were greeted by a boat captain at the dock behind the Hilton and ferried out to paradise where we all had private villas.

I never wanted to leave.

driver100

sb55 said:

28firefighter said:

Weddings are such a racket. So much so that there is a Netflix series called Marriage or Mortgage. That people even choose between them is mind blowing.

I would have eloped. That said, we had a very nice wedding - not over the top, very fun - thanks to my wife’s parents (mine did the rehearsal dinner).

The bi*ch caterer will not give back a penny of deposit. We asked her if she would cater the 15 people and use the deposit $. She refused. We even offered her to keep 20% for her "trouble".
We have hired an attorney to see if we can recoup something.

I saw a Hot Bench where that exact thing happened. They made a large down payment, they couldn't hold the wedding because of covid, the wedding planner wanted to keep all the money....contract said no refunds.
The judges gave a full refund because the wedding was cancelled for reasons out of the wedding parties control....basically everything had to be cancelled.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

OK....new topic. What am I supposed to do when my lawn looks like this?

The lawn at this house has never been great, and I don't need it looking perfect, but now it is basically mud.
Oldfarmer....where are you buddy?

That looks pretty shady which could be your problem. Bluegrass and other sun lovers won’t grow well there. Are those trees maples? The roots on those will choke out a lot of grasses. If that area isn’t a high traffic you might try replacing the grass with a ground cover like Pachysandra or maybe Bungle.

If you absolutely need grass try overseeing with some fine bladed Fescue but get the soil Ph tested first and amend accordingly.

https://www.lawn-care-academy.com/finefescue.html

Actually,, this advice was worth every penny, plus and extra 10%. Really good. The friends said they used Pachysandra once, and it worked out well, until weeds started growing in the middle, and it is impossible to pick out the weeds without stepping on the rest of the plants.
Much appreciated....glad I asked and glad you replied.

driver100

roadburner said:

If there's no grass leave it alone- less to cut.

If it were up to me that's what I would do....I mentioned Astro-turf but that didn't go over too well.

driver100

imidazol97 said:

@driver100

Cut down the trees. Refurbish the soil with cultivator and removing/replacing
old soil drained by the tree roots taking nutrition from it for years. Then replant
grass. Sun. Fresh soil. Green grass.

I don't want to cut down the trees....they will grow in soon and we won't be able to see our neighbor. I don't want to do all that, and for it to fail and I am right back where I started only $2500 poorer. I need something new....maybe a giant fish pond......or asphalt or a gravel path........something.......

sb55

driver100 said:

sb55 said:

28firefighter said:

Weddings are such a racket. So much so that there is a Netflix series called Marriage or Mortgage. That people even choose between them is mind blowing.

I would have eloped. That said, we had a very nice wedding - not over the top, very fun - thanks to my wife’s parents (mine did the rehearsal dinner).

The bi*ch caterer will not give back a penny of deposit. We asked her if she would cater the 15 people and use the deposit $. She refused. We even offered her to keep 20% for her "trouble".
We have hired an attorney to see if we can recoup something.

I saw a Hot Bench where that exact thing happened. They made a large down payment, they couldn't hold the wedding because of covid, the wedding planner wanted to keep all the money....contract said no refunds.
The judges gave a full refund because the wedding was cancelled for reasons out of the wedding parties control....basically everything had to be cancelled.

My favorite TV Judge is People's Court, Marilyn Millian. She seems to concur with the Hot Bench judges. BTW, the caterer got sizeable PPP loan which is now a grant. She did better than me. I'm out 5 figures and she just thumbs her nose at us.

oldfarmer50

sb55 said:

driver100 said:

sb55 said:

28firefighter said:

Weddings are such a racket. So much so that there is a Netflix series called Marriage or Mortgage. That people even choose between them is mind blowing.

I would have eloped. That said, we had a very nice wedding - not over the top, very fun - thanks to my wife’s parents (mine did the rehearsal dinner).

The bi*ch caterer will not give back a penny of deposit. We asked her if she would cater the 15 people and use the deposit $. She refused. We even offered her to keep 20% for her "trouble".
We have hired an attorney to see if we can recoup something.

I saw a Hot Bench where that exact thing happened. They made a large down payment, they couldn't hold the wedding because of covid, the wedding planner wanted to keep all the money....contract said no refunds.
The judges gave a full refund because the wedding was cancelled for reasons out of the wedding parties control....basically everything had to be cancelled.

My favorite TV Judge is People's Court, Marilyn Millian. She seems to concur with the Hot Bench judges. BTW, the caterer got sizeable PPP loan which is now a grant. She did better than me. I'm out 5 figures and she just thumbs her nose at us.

I wonder what that caterer would have done if the venue burned down? Would they still keep your deposit? Seems Act of God should prevail here.

qbrozen

stickguy said:

that bolt is so obvious ...
... it drives me nuts ...

Ah, I see what you did there.

qbrozen

driver100 said:

OK....new topic. What am I supposed to do when my lawn looks like this?

Move.

qbrozen

stickguy said:

I still have my standing offer. I will pay for plane tickets to Vegas and they can get married in the Elvis chapel. Then I will give them money toward a car.

My daughter was all in on the car part.

My bride-to-be's dad offered a cash payout to forego the wedding. HIS wife, however, was having none of that. My wife regrets not taking the deal. We did get a fair bit of money at the wedding from the guests, but about 50% less than he was going to give us. Oh well. We had already purchased the house a couple of months before the wedding, so no worries there. We did spend A LOT on restaurants during our honeymoon, though.

venture

Mrs. venture thought we should replace the sidewalk that goes from the driveway around to the front door and down to the road out front because it looks shabby and she sweeps up many small stones when sweeps the walk. I said it looked quaint and we should leave it alone.




Construction should be finished next week.

ab348

Don’t forget to fix the lawn once the Bobcat finishes tearing it up.

qbrozen

A bobcat and backhoe for a little sidewalk.
Must have called the Shirk Brothers.

venture

ab348 said:

Don’t forget to fix the lawn once the Bobcat finishes tearing it up.

That's when they get their final check, when the grass is fixed. There's a lot worse then that.

explorerx4

I wouldn't worry about the lawn, that's Venture's jam.

driver100

venture said:

Mrs. venture thought we should replace the sidewalk that goes from the driveway around to the front door and down to the road out front because it looks shabby and she sweeps up many small stones when sweeps the walk. I said it looked quaint and we should leave it alone.


Construction should be finished next week.

Sorry Venture....it looks like you lost that one!
Gotta say though...you gave it a good try!

sb55

qbrozen said:

stickguy said:

I still have my standing offer. I will pay for plane tickets to Vegas and they can get married in the Elvis chapel. Then I will give them money toward a car.

My daughter was all in on the car part.

My bride-to-be's dad offered a cash payout to forego the wedding. HIS wife, however, was having none of that. My wife regrets not taking the deal. We did get a fair bit of money at the wedding from the guests, but about 50% less than he was going to give us. Oh well. We had already purchased the house a couple of months before the wedding, so no worries there. We did spend A LOT on restaurants during our honeymoon, though.

We offered our daughter a $ gift instead of a wedding. But the younger crowd wants an “experience”. So, we agreed to what they wanted.
She got screwed both ways. No guests = no gifts.
A great small wedding, but not the original plan.

henryn

Ah, wedding parties, what can I say. Before the pandemic and the resulting lockdown, I had a part time gig as a DJ. Which meant I did a lot of weddings, mostly the back yard variety or the rented hall (VFW, Knights of Columbus, whatever). I see absolutely no need to spend a fortune on a wedding. Everything is negotiable, and can be toned down, and still have a memorable experience. For instance, I do most weddings for $300 or so, depending, where the big commercial guys get an average closer to $1k.

I’m not a big church goer myself, but a wedding is a great time to belong to a church. You can truly get married, have a great experience, and spend very very little. For my friends, I have been known to donate my services.

Michaell

henryn said:

Ah, wedding parties, what can I say. Before the pandemic and the resulting lockdown, I had a part time gig as a DJ. Which meant I did a lot of weddings, mostly the back yard variety or the rented hall (VFW, Knights of Columbus, whatever). I see absolutely no need to spend a fortune on a wedding. Everything is negotiable, and can be toned down, and still have a memorable experience. For instance, I do most weddings for $300 or so, depending, where the big commercial guys get an average closer to $1k.

I’m not a big church goer myself, but a wedding is a great time to belong to a church. You can truly get married, have a great experience, and spend very very little. For my friends, I have been known to donate my services.

I think the DJ for my son's wedding was something like $350. He did a great job.

fintail

2 weeks!

qbrozen said:

A bobcat and backhoe for a little sidewalk.
Must have called the Shirk Brothers.

venture

qbrozen said:

A bobcat and backhoe for a little sidewalk.
Must have called the Shirk Brothers.

I don't know what that means, but there is a lot more than what is in that picture.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

OK....new topic. What am I supposed to do when my lawn looks like this?

The lawn at this house has never been great, and I don't need it looking perfect, but now it is basically mud.
Oldfarmer....where are you buddy?

That looks pretty shady which could be your problem. Bluegrass and other sun lovers won’t grow well there. Are those trees maples? The roots on those will choke out a lot of grasses. If that area isn’t a high traffic you might try replacing the grass with a ground cover like Pachysandra or maybe Bungle.

If you absolutely need grass try overseeing with some fine bladed Fescue but get the soil Ph tested first and amend accordingly.

https://www.lawn-care-academy.com/finefescue.html

Actually,, this advice was worth every penny, plus and extra 10%. Really good. The friends said they used Pachysandra once, and it worked out well, until weeds started growing in the middle, and it is impossible to pick out the weeds without stepping on the rest of the plants.
Much appreciated....glad I asked and glad you replied.

An application of pre-emergent herbicide and mulch should control most of them. While not as good at foot traffic as grass, ground cover can take occasional stepping on.

tjc78

qbrozen said:

stickguy said:

I still have my standing offer. I will pay for plane tickets to Vegas and they can get married in the Elvis chapel. Then I will give them money toward a car.

My daughter was all in on the car part.

My bride-to-be's dad offered a cash payout to forego the wedding. HIS wife, however, was having none of that. My wife regrets not taking the deal. We did get a fair bit of money at the wedding from the guests, but about 50% less than he was going to give us. Oh well. We had already purchased the house a couple of months before the wedding, so no worries there. We did spend A LOT on restaurants during our honeymoon, though.

Our bar bill from our honeymoon cruise was pretty scary lol. I guess getting stuck at sea during super storm Sandy does that! 9 day cruise turned into 13.

snakeweasel

tjc78 said:

graphicguy said:

Interesting note, I've combed through the entire Acura TLX manual, and only saw one allusion to break in period...."Don't tow anything for the first few hundred miles" (or something along those lines).

So, I guess it's pedal to the metal.

A lot of mechanics will tell you to drive it like you stole it from day 1.

Well to be honest if you stole it you should drive very conservatively and carefully follow all laws as not to draw attention from any police.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

ab348 said:

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

OK....new topic. What am I supposed to do when my lawn looks like this?

The lawn at this house has never been great, and I don't need it looking perfect, but now it is basically mud.
Oldfarmer....where are you buddy?

Call the guy.

RE: Call the Guy. My front lawn was like that in parts, and where it wasn't mud it was all weeds. Years of me trying to rehab it with both manual and chemical weed removal, new box store dirt, seeds and fertilizer just never delivered much of anything worth all the effort.

Friends who have had a similar lawn problem came over this afternoon. They said re-sodding was a waste of money...because of the trees the grass will look the same by next season.
They suggest putting mulch is the areas that have no grass....or using small rocks. Cover the ground first with material to slow down the weeds from growing, and then use stones or small rocks. They said the trees make it so the grass will never grow very well.....we could spend a lot and end up the same by next year.

Have you thought of Astroturf?

snakeweasel

sb55 said:

28firefighter said:

Weddings are such a racket. So much so that there is a Netflix series called Marriage or Mortgage. That people even choose between them is mind blowing.

I would have eloped. That said, we had a very nice wedding - not over the top, very fun - thanks to my wife’s parents (mine did the rehearsal dinner).

My Daughter got married last year. Originally it was to be 150 people in a tent on our property. We gave the caterer a 50% deposit. Yes the contract said non- refundable. But, we didn't cancel, the COVID cancelled us. Obviously, we didn't have 150 people in a tent. It ended up being 15 family members in our back yard with tables and chairs borrowed from the church.
The bi*ch caterer will not give back a penny of deposit. We asked her if she would cater the 15 people and use the deposit $. She refused. We even offered her to keep 20% for her "trouble".
We have hired an attorney to see if we can recoup something.

Read the contract carefully to see what it does say about refunds. If it doesn't give any exemptions then you may be out of luck.

oldfarmer50

tjc78 said:

qbrozen said:

stickguy said:

I still have my standing offer. I will pay for plane tickets to Vegas and they can get married in the Elvis chapel. Then I will give them money toward a car.

My daughter was all in on the car part.

My bride-to-be's dad offered a cash payout to forego the wedding. HIS wife, however, was having none of that. My wife regrets not taking the deal. We did get a fair bit of money at the wedding from the guests, but about 50% less than he was going to give us. Oh well. We had already purchased the house a couple of months before the wedding, so no worries there. We did spend A LOT on restaurants during our honeymoon, though.

Our bar bill from our honeymoon cruise was pretty scary lol. I guess getting stuck at sea during super storm Sandy does that! 9 day cruise turned into 13.

They didn’t comp your booze for the delay?

jmonroe1

sda said:

I took the Q5 to have two tires replaced, which I special ordered. Got home only to find they installed the wrong ones with a V speed rating instead of H, the receipt showed H. Back to the store, correct tires installed. On the way home the tire pressure lights up. Grrr. I found one tire over inflated, all adjusted to spec 33 and reset the monitor. What a comedy of errors though really no biggie.

Yes it is a biggie. When you hire someone to do something for you, you have every right to expect them to do it correctly. This is why I want to do things myself. I can screw it up just as good as the pro can but I can do it cheaper and I don’t have to run back and forth to have things redone.

If I were you I’d check my lug nuts for proper torque. From what you explained I don’t think that shop pays attention to what they do. I’d never go back there again. Once bitten twice shy.

jmonroe

snakeweasel

sb55 said:

driver100 said:

sb55 said:

28firefighter said:

Weddings are such a racket. So much so that there is a Netflix series called Marriage or Mortgage. That people even choose between them is mind blowing.

I would have eloped. That said, we had a very nice wedding - not over the top, very fun - thanks to my wife’s parents (mine did the rehearsal dinner).

The bi*ch caterer will not give back a penny of deposit. We asked her if she would cater the 15 people and use the deposit $. She refused. We even offered her to keep 20% for her "trouble".
We have hired an attorney to see if we can recoup something.

I saw a Hot Bench where that exact thing happened. They made a large down payment, they couldn't hold the wedding because of covid, the wedding planner wanted to keep all the money....contract said no refunds.
The judges gave a full refund because the wedding was cancelled for reasons out of the wedding parties control....basically everything had to be cancelled.

My favorite TV Judge is People's Court, Marilyn Millian. She seems to concur with the Hot Bench judges. BTW, the caterer got sizeable PPP loan which is now a grant. She did better than me. I'm out 5 figures and she just thumbs her nose at us.

One thing to remember is that those TV judges are not required to follow the law. Think of it as mediation.

explorerx4

@jmonroe1,
Just think, you've been wrong this whole time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FANT1O7tR0A

snakeweasel

oldfarmer50 said:

sb55 said:

driver100 said:

sb55 said:

28firefighter said:

Weddings are such a racket. So much so that there is a Netflix series called Marriage or Mortgage. That people even choose between them is mind blowing.

I would have eloped. That said, we had a very nice wedding - not over the top, very fun - thanks to my wife’s parents (mine did the rehearsal dinner).

The bi*ch caterer will not give back a penny of deposit. We asked her if she would cater the 15 people and use the deposit $. She refused. We even offered her to keep 20% for her "trouble".
We have hired an attorney to see if we can recoup something.

I saw a Hot Bench where that exact thing happened. They made a large down payment, they couldn't hold the wedding because of covid, the wedding planner wanted to keep all the money....contract said no refunds.
The judges gave a full refund because the wedding was cancelled for reasons out of the wedding parties control....basically everything had to be cancelled.

My favorite TV Judge is People's Court, Marilyn Millian. She seems to concur with the Hot Bench judges. BTW, the caterer got sizeable PPP loan which is now a grant. She did better than me. I'm out 5 figures and she just thumbs her nose at us.

I wonder what that caterer would have done if the venue burned down? Would they still keep your deposit? Seems Act of God should prevail here.

Non refundable deposits are usually put there to protect the caterer for circumstances beyond their control. Once the contract is signed the caterer starts to incur costs and other contractual obligations that they are responsible for.

driver100

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

ab348 said:

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

OK....new topic. What am I supposed to do when my lawn looks like this?

The lawn at this house has never been great, and I don't need it looking perfect, but now it is basically mud.
Oldfarmer....where are you buddy?

Call the guy.

RE: Call the Guy. My front lawn was like that in parts, and where it wasn't mud it was all weeds. Years of me trying to rehab it with both manual and chemical weed removal, new box store dirt, seeds and fertilizer just never delivered much of anything worth all the effort.

Friends who have had a similar lawn problem came over this afternoon. They said re-sodding was a waste of money...because of the trees the grass will look the same by next season.
They suggest putting mulch is the areas that have no grass....or using small rocks. Cover the ground first with material to slow down the weeds from growing, and then use stones or small rocks. They said the trees make it so the grass will never grow very well.....we could spend a lot and end up the same by next year.

Have you thought of Astroturf?

I mentioned that was my plan, Astroturf, not sure how Trixie would like it! Trixie is the dog btw, not Mrs D.

bwia

Watch this CBS Morning News short video clip on the next step in the world of sound of music. Jonathan Weiss produces some of the world's finest sound gear with materials that are far from high-tech. Jeff Glor sat down with Weiss to talk about his passion for sound and his quest to build the most refined sound amplification system ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoN4mleFlvA

driver100

jmonroe1 said:

sda said:

I took the Q5 to have two tires replaced, which I special ordered. Got home only to find they installed the wrong ones with a V speed rating instead of H, the receipt showed H. Back to the store, correct tires installed. On the way home the tire pressure lights up. Grrr. I found one tire over inflated, all adjusted to spec 33 and reset the monitor. What a comedy of errors though really no biggie.

Yes it is a biggie. When you hire someone to do something for you, you have every right to expect them to do it correctly. This is why I want to do things myself. I can screw it up just as good as the pro can but I can do it cheaper and I don’t have to run back and forth to have things redone.

If I were you I’d check my lug nuts for proper torque. From what you explained I don’t think that shop pays attention to what they do. I’d never go back there again. Once bitten twice shy.

jmonroe

...........except for oil changes!

driver100

snakeweasel said:

sb55 said:

driver100 said:

sb55 said:

28firefighter said:

Weddings are such a racket. So much so that there is a Netflix series called Marriage or Mortgage. That people even choose between them is mind blowing.

I would have eloped. That said, we had a very nice wedding - not over the top, very fun - thanks to my wife’s parents (mine did the rehearsal dinner).

The bi*ch caterer will not give back a penny of deposit. We asked her if she would cater the 15 people and use the deposit $. She refused. We even offered her to keep 20% for her "trouble".
We have hired an attorney to see if we can recoup something.

I saw a Hot Bench where that exact thing happened. They made a large down payment, they couldn't hold the wedding because of covid, the wedding planner wanted to keep all the money....contract said no refunds.
The judges gave a full refund because the wedding was cancelled for reasons out of the wedding parties control....basically everything had to be cancelled.

My favorite TV Judge is People's Court, Marilyn Millian. She seems to concur with the Hot Bench judges. BTW, the caterer got sizeable PPP loan which is now a grant. She did better than me. I'm out 5 figures and she just thumbs her nose at us.

One thing to remember is that those TV judges are not required to follow the law. Think of it as mediation.

Could depend on if wedding venues were closed down by law....if that is the case it makes it much stronger that a refund should be given. Even if there is a no refund clause....you can't break the law to hold an event, and hard to collect your fees when you haven't provided a service, through no fault of the wedding party.

snakeweasel

henryn said:

Ah, wedding parties, what can I say. Before the pandemic and the resulting lockdown, I had a part time gig as a DJ. Which meant I did a lot of weddings, mostly the back yard variety or the rented hall (VFW, Knights of Columbus, whatever). I see absolutely no need to spend a fortune on a wedding. Everything is negotiable, and can be toned down, and still have a memorable experience. For instance, I do most weddings for $300 or so, depending, where the big commercial guys get an average closer to $1k.

I’m not a big church goer myself, but a wedding is a great time to belong to a church. You can truly get married, have a great experience, and spend very very little. For my friends, I have been known to donate my services.

Most churches do not charge their regular church members for the church rental or the officiator fees. It is considered part of the normal pastoral services to the congregation. When we got married we weren't charged for the services but we did give the pastor a gift (cash) for his time and service.

snakeweasel

tjc78 said:

qbrozen said:

stickguy said:

I still have my standing offer. I will pay for plane tickets to Vegas and they can get married in the Elvis chapel. Then I will give them money toward a car.

My daughter was all in on the car part.

My bride-to-be's dad offered a cash payout to forego the wedding. HIS wife, however, was having none of that. My wife regrets not taking the deal. We did get a fair bit of money at the wedding from the guests, but about 50% less than he was going to give us. Oh well. We had already purchased the house a couple of months before the wedding, so no worries there. We did spend A LOT on restaurants during our honeymoon, though.

Our bar bill from our honeymoon cruise was pretty scary lol. I guess getting stuck at sea during super storm Sandy does that! 9 day cruise turned into 13.

Our honeymoon cruise had a honeymooners package which included an open bar. Big mistake.