Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

andres3

I for one, refuse to contribute to insurance profits by causing a motor vehicle crash in my lifetime. In a way, my hatred for insurance companies is most definitely partially creditable for my stellar driving record.

It's also nice that I haven't been ticketed recently.

driver100

I was waiting in the left turn lane for the green arrow to appear to make my turn.....in the meantime I was watching the cars with the green light make left turns in front of me.
One car made a normal turn and went into the left lane after making his turn, the next car went directly into the right lane so that SHE, and it was a young SHE, could get around the first car and could speed ahead of everyone else. I have never seen this before. It's not as bad as some things I have seen but it was something I hoped I would never actually see.....

roadburner

jmonroe1 said:

sda said:

Defensive, undistracted driving would be a huge uptick! With so many drivers behind the wheel doing everything but paying attention, it really concerns me. Smart phones are a curse. Red light runners are the rule and not the exception.

The safety nannies that have given us all these safety do-dads think they have made the roads safer when in fact they made it worse because too many drivers think their cars will save them.

I think the only way we can make the roads safer again is to go back to the horse and buggy and start over again. Then in 100 years they can rinse and repeat again. They’ll never get it right but you gotta keep trying.

jmonroe

A fellow BMW CCA instructor once told me that he wished he could start out every HPDE student in a dead stock 1968 1600- 13" Michelin XAS tires and all. I agree; all the nannies and so-called driving aids make the typical incompetent behind the wheel think that they he/she is a decent driver- although he/she is still terrified of a RWD car because it might be necessary to drive somewhere in the rain.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

I was waiting in the left turn lane for the green arrow to appear to make my turn.....in the meantime I was watching the cars with the green light make left turns in front of me.
One car made a normal turn and went into the left lane after making his turn, the next car went directly into the right lane so that SHE, and it was a young SHE, could get around the first car and could speed ahead of everyone else. I have never seen this before. It's not as bad as some things I have seen but it was something I hoped I would never actually see.....

You have to be careful on roads with two left turn lanes as some drivers seems to get disoriented in the turn and come over to your lane. I’ve had some near misses as some clown on the phone can’t figure out what the lines are for.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

I was waiting in the left turn lane for the green arrow to appear to make my turn.....in the meantime I was watching the cars with the green light make left turns in front of me.
One car made a normal turn and went into the left lane after making his turn, the next car went directly into the right lane so that SHE, and it was a young SHE, could get around the first car and could speed ahead of everyone else. I have never seen this before. It's not as bad as some things I have seen but it was something I hoped I would never actually see.....

You have to be careful on roads with two left turn lanes as some drivers seems to get disoriented in the turn and come over to your lane. I’ve had some near misses as some clown on the phone can’t figure out what the lines are for.

2 lane left turns can be a bit tricky and you kind of have to watch what the guy beside you is doing. Down here we have some with 3 lanes turning left.
In the one I was watching only one lane was a left turn lane, but the 2nd driver immediately went around the car that did a proper left turn, SHE went directly into the right lane to get ahead of everyone. No regard for anyone who may have thought it was OK to make a right turn onto that road. That would be a risky move, but technically should be possible to do.

sda

I kid you not, the last three Sundays in a row during my drive to see my parents, someone has pulled out in front of me at the same intersection as they cross the road. My car is easily visible, with LED DRLs. It is somewhat of an awkward intersection as the primary road curves to the left (which I am navigating) and a road intersects only on the right side in a Y like formation. Those coming from the right have to make a turn left or right onto the primary road.

stickguy

Around here many intersections with multiple turn lanes have lane lines painted all the way through them. It actually helps I think

venture

sda said:

I kid you not, the last three Sundays in a row during my drive to see my parents, someone has pulled out in front of me at the same intersection as they cross the road. My car is easily visible, with LED DRLs. It is somewhat of an awkward intersection as the primary road curves to the left (which I am navigating) and a road intersects only on the right side in a Y like formation. Those coming from the right have to make a turn left or right onto the primary road.

Wow. With a configuration like that, unless there is a lot of vegetation or buildings, they should have good line of sight.

ab348

driver100 said:

I was waiting in the left turn lane for the green arrow to appear to make my turn.....in the meantime I was watching the cars with the green light make left turns in front of me.
One car made a normal turn and went into the left lane after making his turn, the next car went directly into the right lane so that SHE, and it was a young SHE, could get around the first car and could speed ahead of everyone else. I have never seen this before. It's not as bad as some things I have seen but it was something I hoped I would never actually see.....

Last summer the geniuses who design roads for the city, in league with the "urbanist" junior planner who somehow got elected as alderman in my district and took it upon himself to redesign every street he could in his own vision of what a street should look like, spent a few million tax dollars rebuilding what was already a good stretch of roadway to add bike lanes, curb bump-out at intersections, and lane reductions, for what he deemed the safety of cyclists (who seldom use the street) and pedestrians. What this led to was among other things, changes to traffic entering the street at a signalized intersection where a busy supermarket parking lot connects.

Formerly you could turn left coming out of the supermarket lot and properly enter the left travel lane. Then you had some space to eventually move to the right lane before traffic in the left lane queued up to make left turns to a number of businesses on that side. Genius-boy's changes made the entire left lane a turning lane, so you either have to (a) turn immediately into the now-single travel lane on the right curb or (b) turn into the now-left turn only lane and then cross a solid line to get into the right lane. Either way you are not following the rules of the road.

This same guy also had perhaps the busiest intersection in his district rebuilt to make it inefficient. A double-lane line of traffic also had a third lane for right turns in what they call a "slip lane", a commonly used design where it diverted to the right some distance back from the intersection like a mini-slow speed exit ramp to let you access the cross-street. He deemed this unsafe even though there were zero cases of it being a problem. So they removed the slip lane, extended the right turn lane to intersect with the cross street at a 90 degree angle, then put up a "No Right Turn on Red" sign there because he also feels those are unsafe. So now, traffic clogs there regularly. Even better, the traffic signals were not changed, so now when you are waiting for a green light to make your right turn, what you get is a vertical arrow that had always been there telling you to go straight through only.

Geniuses, I tells ya.

jmonroe1

driver100 said:

I was waiting in the left turn lane for the green arrow to appear to make my turn.....in the meantime I was watching the cars with the green light make left turns in front of me.
One car made a normal turn and went into the left lane after making his turn, the next car went directly into the right lane so that SHE, and it was a young SHE, could get around the first car and could speed ahead of everyone else. I have never seen this before. It's not as bad as some things I have seen but it was something I hoped I would never actually see.....

If that bothers you, you’ve been living a charmed life. I see much worse than that almost every day.

For many years now I play a game with myself to see if I’m right about how some people drive. I say to myself, “watch this guy/gal do this or do that”. Sadly I’m right far to often. It’s also sad that I’ve passed this trait onto my sons. And it gets even worse. Grandson #2 got his license this past Spring and I’ve been with him a couple times when he’s driving and he seems to be a pretty good driver. Once I heard him say, “hey, watch this guy in front of me jump into the right lane then back into the left lane to get ahead of that slow moving car ahead of him”. Damn if he wasn’t right! That kid is a pretty good mind reader but then again he’s had good teachers.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

I was waiting in the left turn lane for the green arrow to appear to make my turn.....in the meantime I was watching the cars with the green light make left turns in front of me.
One car made a normal turn and went into the left lane after making his turn, the next car went directly into the right lane so that SHE, and it was a young SHE, could get around the first car and could speed ahead of everyone else. I have never seen this before. It's not as bad as some things I have seen but it was something I hoped I would never actually see.....

You have to be careful on roads with two left turn lanes as some drivers seems to get disoriented in the turn and come over to your lane. I’ve had some near misses as some clown on the phone can’t figure out what the lines are for.

2 lane left turns can be a bit tricky and you kind of have to watch what the guy beside you is doing. Down here we have some with 3 lanes turning left.
In the one I was watching only one lane was a left turn lane, but the 2nd driver immediately went around the car that did a proper left turn, SHE went directly into the right lane to get ahead of everyone. No regard for anyone who may have thought it was OK to make a right turn onto that road. That would be a risky move, but technically should be possible to do.

What that woman did is wrong no doubt about it but no driver making a right turn on Red should be making their turn until they are sure there is no traffic coming from their left. You should never expect other drivers to do the right thing by staying in their lane. If a cop saw this I’m pretty sure both drivers would get a ticket.

jmonroe

driver100

jmonroe1 said:

driver100 said:

I was waiting in the left turn lane for the green arrow to appear to make my turn.....in the meantime I was watching the cars with the green light make left turns in front of me.
One car made a normal turn and went into the left lane after making his turn, the next car went directly into the right lane so that SHE, and it was a young SHE, could get around the first car and could speed ahead of everyone else. I have never seen this before. It's not as bad as some things I have seen but it was something I hoped I would never actually see.....

If that bothers you, you’ve been living a charmed life. I see much worse than that almost every day.

For many years now I play a game with myself to see if I’m right about how some people drive. I say to myself, “watch this guy/gal do this or do that”. Sadly I’m right far to often. It’s also sad that I’ve passed this trait onto my sons. And it gets even worse. Grandson #2 got his license this past Spring and I’ve been with him a couple times when he’s driving and he seems to be a pretty good driver. Once I heard him say, “hey, watch this guy in front of me jump into the right lane then back into the left lane to get ahead of that slow moving car ahead of him”. Damn if he wasn’t right! That kid is a pretty good mind reader but then again he’s had good teachers.

jmonroe

First, @ab348 I think some environmentalist city councilors are making driving in the city as difficult as possible....so that people will buy bikes or use public transit.

@jmonroe1 When I was learning to drive my brother told me to always think of the worst thing the other driver could do....and then be prepared, because he will probably do it. So, I play the same game as you do, trying to guess what the other driver is going to do. Surprisingly, they actually do it a lot of the time, I can really pick out the ones who make sudden lane changes or who will find a way to get one car ahead of me.

About the turning on red, if the road is clear then you should be able to make a right turn on a red light. But, I do agree, although it should be possible to do it, I would time it so I am not turning right when the opposite traffic could turn left and go into what should be my lane.

imidazol97

A lady driver in a minivan pulled out from a T-street with a stop sign. She
was in a hurry to get the kid in the passenger seat to elementary school.
She would have hit the read of my car as I went past had I not blown the horn.

I watched junior fly forward and the seat belt lock stop him when she hit
the brakes.

THEN, she blew her horn at me! I pulled over to let her pass me after
she pulled out. She was in a such a hurry that she was quick-stopping
at the stop sign. She wouldn't go around. LOL

The kid would have benefited from walking to school 4 blocks away
instead of her driving him. But that's an aside. To her careless driving.

andres3

jmonroe1 said:

driver100 said:

I was waiting in the left turn lane for the green arrow to appear to make my turn.....in the meantime I was watching the cars with the green light make left turns in front of me.
One car made a normal turn and went into the left lane after making his turn, the next car went directly into the right lane so that SHE, and it was a young SHE, could get around the first car and could speed ahead of everyone else. I have never seen this before. It's not as bad as some things I have seen but it was something I hoped I would never actually see.....

If that bothers you, you’ve been living a charmed life. I see much worse than that almost every day.

For many years now I play a game with myself to see if I’m right about how some people drive. I say to myself, “watch this guy/gal do this or do that”. Sadly I’m right far to often. It’s also sad that I’ve passed this trait onto my sons. And it gets even worse. Grandson #2 got his license this past Spring and I’ve been with him a couple times when he’s driving and he seems to be a pretty good driver. Once I heard him say, “hey, watch this guy in front of me jump into the right lane then back into the left lane to get ahead of that slow moving car ahead of him”. Damn if he wasn’t right! That kid is a pretty good mind reader but then again he’s had good teachers.

jmonroe

Reading drivers is a skill required of faster drivers to make your use of extra gas and brake worthwhile too. For instance, you can judge to 95% accuracy at times whether a driver is someone that'll do 0-60 MPH in minutes rather than seconds, and therefore it's "worth it" to get right in front of them even though the light is red 200 yards in front of you.

This is for those out there that never have a clue why someone would rush to get in front of "one car," just before a red light, well, this is a big reason why. That "one car" has been judged a probable impediment and danger.

henryn

I know there are some vintage hi-fi junkies here, so I thought I would throw this out there. A friend of mine was cleaning out a closet, and offered me some old electronics. The deal was I could have it all, but I had to take it all and dispose of it. There was the usual worthless junk, including an old TV and a couple of VCRs. But buried in the rubble was … wait for it … an Adcom GFP 555II. Wow! Check the prices for that on ebay, and be amazed.

I still have to test it, but it looks very clean, so I expect the condition to be excellent. I don’t know whether to throw this up on Ebay and pocket the money, or store it as an investment. I feel certain it will appreciate with time.

Another goodie, a Yamaha natural sound cassette deck. KX-800U, 3 heads, all of the good stuff. This one will be harder to test out, I don’t even have any cassettes laying around anymore. But it’s worth testing, and I’m definitely not going to hold on to it. No interest on my part, and too many internal moving parts which deteriorate with age (drive belts, rubber wheels, etc). Come to think of it, that may be direct drive, so no drive belts. This was one of the best cassette decks ever made, it sold new in 1987 for$569, and I’ll bet I could find a collector interested in it.

andres3

The problem with old vintage hi-fi equipment is that it takes up a LOT OF closet space. I'm trying to get my Brother in law into Hi-Fi by basically gifting him stuff from my closet over time.

Plus, he's not local so it's done on trips to see the family over time too so as not to overstuff the car.

ab348

Cassette decks are problematic as they age, as you noted. I have a Marantz SD-3030 that I bought new around 1981 or so. It was the first one I had ever seen with Dolby C and the demo of it blew me away. Served me well through the '80s/early '90s but of course cassettes went away after that and I stopped using it. I tried recommissioning it in the mid-2000s with little luck. Even found a service manual for it and took it all to the best electronics repair guy in town. He had it for months and still had problems with it. After paying lots of his bills it was working again, but I no longer trusted it and besides, what would you do with it these days except for an occasional curiosity play?

driver100

imidazol97 said:

A lady driver in a minivan pulled out from a T-street with a stop sign. She
was in a hurry to get the kid in the passenger seat to elementary school.
She would have hit the read of my car as I went past had I not blown the horn.

.

When I go to tennis or pickleball 5 or 6 times a week I have to drive by an elementary school just before the club. There are flashing yellow lights and the speed limit in the school zone is 20 mph. Most people comply, but quite often I get a speeding parent, passes me on the left going about 35 or 40, cuts in front of me, jams on the brakes to make a sharp right turn into the school drop off zone. Sometimes it seems the parents are the most careless drivers in the area.

driver100

A question for oldfarmer;
Today a school bus stopped to pick up kids on a busy road. There were about 8 cars stopped each way as the bus picked up about 6 to 8 kids. Then the driver made a right turn into a residential neighborhood onto a fairly quiet street. If he had turned right and picked up the kids on the quiet street the traffic could have kept moving on the busy street, and less chance of a kid getting hit. Does anyone actually think about those things?

snakeweasel

sda said:

I kid you not, the last three Sundays in a row during my drive to see my parents, someone has pulled out in front of me at the same intersection as they cross the road. My car is easily visible, with LED DRLs. It is somewhat of an awkward intersection as the primary road curves to the left (which I am navigating) and a road intersects only on the right side in a Y like formation. Those coming from the right have to make a turn left or right onto the primary road.

There are a few intersections I routinely go through that I have named suicide intersections because people tend to, at the last second, pull out in front of traffic that has right of way. I tend to go through these intersections very carefully.

stickguy

There’s a bunch near me that I go through coveting the brake and head on a swivel. And if first at the light, don’t even think about moving on green for a few seconds.

snakeweasel

henryn said:

I know there are some vintage hi-fi junkies here, so I thought I would throw this out there. A friend of mine was cleaning out a closet, and offered me some old electronics. The deal was I could have it all, but I had to take it all and dispose of it. There was the usual worthless junk, including an old TV and a couple of VCRs. But buried in the rubble was … wait for it … an Adcom GFP 555II. Wow! Check the prices for that on ebay, and be amazed.

I still have to test it, but it looks very clean, so I expect the condition to be excellent. I don’t know whether to throw this up on Ebay and pocket the money, or store it as an investment. I feel certain it will appreciate with time.

Another goodie, a Yamaha natural sound cassette deck. KX-800U, 3 heads, all of the good stuff. This one will be harder to test out, I don’t even have any cassettes laying around anymore. But it’s worth testing, and I’m definitely not going to hold on to it. No interest on my part, and too many internal moving parts which deteriorate with age (drive belts, rubber wheels, etc). Come to think of it, that may be direct drive, so no drive belts. This was one of the best cassette decks ever made, it sold new in 1987 for$569, and I’ll bet I could find a collector interested in it.

The problem with holding them as an investment is the ones who would pay that kind of money are getting fewer each day. Few of the younger set would be willing to invest in them or have an interest in them.

snakeweasel

stickguy said:

There’s a bunch near me that I go through coveting the brake and head on a swivel. And if first at the light, don’t even think about moving on green for a few seconds.

The ones I have are not full intersections they are T intersections with a street terminating at a major road and the only stop sign is for the terminating street.

andres3

snakeweasel said:

henryn said:

I know there are some vintage hi-fi junkies here, so I thought I would throw this out there. A friend of mine was cleaning out a closet, and offered me some old electronics. The deal was I could have it all, but I had to take it all and dispose of it. There was the usual worthless junk, including an old TV and a couple of VCRs. But buried in the rubble was … wait for it … an Adcom GFP 555II. Wow! Check the prices for that on ebay, and be amazed.

I still have to test it, but it looks very clean, so I expect the condition to be excellent. I don’t know whether to throw this up on Ebay and pocket the money, or store it as an investment. I feel certain it will appreciate with time.

Another goodie, a Yamaha natural sound cassette deck. KX-800U, 3 heads, all of the good stuff. This one will be harder to test out, I don’t even have any cassettes laying around anymore. But it’s worth testing, and I’m definitely not going to hold on to it. No interest on my part, and too many internal moving parts which deteriorate with age (drive belts, rubber wheels, etc). Come to think of it, that may be direct drive, so no drive belts. This was one of the best cassette decks ever made, it sold new in 1987 for$569, and I’ll bet I could find a collector interested in it.

The problem with holding them as an investment is the ones who would pay that kind of money are getting fewer each day. Few of the younger set would be willing to invest in them or have an interest in them.

Yes, you're much more likely to see hi-fi gear in a 90+ year old's home than you are in a Millennials.

henryn

andres3 said:

snakeweasel said:

henryn said:

I know there are some vintage hi-fi junkies here, so I thought I would throw this out there. A friend of mine was cleaning out a closet, and offered me some old electronics. The deal was I could have it all, but I had to take it all and dispose of it. There was the usual worthless junk, including an old TV and a couple of VCRs. But buried in the rubble was … wait for it … an Adcom GFP 555II. Wow! Check the prices for that on ebay, and be amazed.

I still have to test it, but it looks very clean, so I expect the condition to be excellent. I don’t know whether to throw this up on Ebay and pocket the money, or store it as an investment. I feel certain it will appreciate with time.

Another goodie, a Yamaha natural sound cassette deck. KX-800U, 3 heads, all of the good stuff. This one will be harder to test out, I don’t even have any cassettes laying around anymore. But it’s worth testing, and I’m definitely not going to hold on to it. No interest on my part, and too many internal moving parts which deteriorate with age (drive belts, rubber wheels, etc). Come to think of it, that may be direct drive, so no drive belts. This was one of the best cassette decks ever made, it sold new in 1987 for$569, and I’ll bet I could find a collector interested in it.

The problem with holding them as an investment is the ones who would pay that kind of money are getting fewer each day. Few of the younger set would be willing to invest in them or have an interest in them.

Yes, you're much more likely to see hi-fi gear in a 90+ year old's home than you are in a Millennials.

You never know. I held onto a reel to reel for many years past the point where I was actually using it for anything. When I did decide to unload, it was bought by a young man in his early 20's. It was a direct drive, no belts, and I had refurbished or replaced all of the rubber parts, so it was working perfectly. I asked top dollar, he showed up, listened, played with, and handed over hundred dollar bills. I asked him on his way out the door what he was planning to do with it.

"Why, use it to listen to music, of course!"

Many of the younger men I was working with, up until retirement in 2020, were into vinyl. Which totally astonishes me. I spent many years collecting vinyl records, caring for vinyl records, cleaning, adjusting, setting the tracking angle, yada, yada, yada. When CDs came along, I was very happy, ecstatic even, to quit doing that.

Back around 1998 or 1999, I found an old Dynaco tube amp up in my attic. I tested the tubes, cleaned all of the connections and the rheostats, and stuck a note on the bulletin board at work. You never saw such a commotion.

Nostalgia rules.

sda

In the early 70s, per Consumer Reports, dad bought a Lafayette receiver, Lafayette 8 track/recording 8 track player, Gerrard stack record player and Dynaco speakers.

stickguy

my son is 30 and a couple years ago he went out and got a turntable and started collecting albums. He bought a receiver and some speakers (though mostly using ones he swiped from me!)

tjc78

I know I’ve mentioned I’m an AV nut. You know you have reached a certain level of insanity when you switch your systems out.

I just put my Marantz away for a little while and brought out the early 90s JVC setup in my office. Same turntable and speakers. Using a Sony EQ since JVC didn’t make a matching titanium colored EQ during this generation. I like an EQ on this system since the Marantz speakers need a little boost at low volumes. At high volumes I switch it off.

I’m currently researching in-wall speakers for the theater so I’ll have a pair of B&W 610s to match up with the JVC gear once I do that work. They are a better match with this equipment.

I’ll roll with all that for awhile and switch back. Maybe I will pull out the beast Denon POA-2200 and buy a pre-amp next. That monster with the older Marantz speakers will effectively rock your world.

Pictures of course of it didn’t happen

tjc78

@henryn said:
I know there are some vintage hi-fi junkies here, so I thought I would throw this out there. A friend of mine was cleaning out a closet, and offered me some old electronics. The deal was I could have it all, but I had to take it all and dispose of it. There was the usual worthless junk, including an old TV and a couple of VCRs. But buried in the rubble was … wait for it … an Adcom GFP 555II. Wow! Check the prices for that on ebay, and be amazed.

I still have to test it, but it looks very clean, so I expect the condition to be excellent. I don’t know whether to throw this up on Ebay and pocket the money, or store it as an investment. I feel certain it will appreciate with time.

Another goodie, a Yamaha natural sound cassette deck. KX-800U, 3 heads, all of the good stuff. This one will be harder to test out, I don’t even have any cassettes laying around anymore. But it’s worth testing, and I’m definitely not going to hold on to it. No interest on my part, and too many internal moving parts which deteriorate with age (drive belts, rubber wheels, etc). Come to think of it, that may be direct drive, so no drive belts. This was one of the best cassette decks ever made, it sold new in 1987 for$569, and I’ll bet I could find a collector interested in it.

Adcom was such nice low frills quality equipment. Reminds me a bit of NAD during the same era, but I prefer the Adcom.

snakeweasel

henryn said:

andres3 said:

snakeweasel said:

henryn said:

I know there are some vintage hi-fi junkies here, so I thought I would throw this out there. A friend of mine was cleaning out a closet, and offered me some old electronics. The deal was I could have it all, but I had to take it all and dispose of it. There was the usual worthless junk, including an old TV and a couple of VCRs. But buried in the rubble was … wait for it … an Adcom GFP 555II. Wow! Check the prices for that on ebay, and be amazed.

I still have to test it, but it looks very clean, so I expect the condition to be excellent. I don’t know whether to throw this up on Ebay and pocket the money, or store it as an investment. I feel certain it will appreciate with time.

Another goodie, a Yamaha natural sound cassette deck. KX-800U, 3 heads, all of the good stuff. This one will be harder to test out, I don’t even have any cassettes laying around anymore. But it’s worth testing, and I’m definitely not going to hold on to it. No interest on my part, and too many internal moving parts which deteriorate with age (drive belts, rubber wheels, etc). Come to think of it, that may be direct drive, so no drive belts. This was one of the best cassette decks ever made, it sold new in 1987 for$569, and I’ll bet I could find a collector interested in it.

The problem with holding them as an investment is the ones who would pay that kind of money are getting fewer each day. Few of the younger set would be willing to invest in them or have an interest in them.

Yes, you're much more likely to see hi-fi gear in a 90+ year old's home than you are in a Millennials.

You never know. I held onto a reel to reel for many years past the point where I was actually using it for anything. When I did decide to unload, it was bought by a young man in his early 20's. It was a direct drive, no belts, and I had refurbished or replaced all of the rubber parts, so it was working perfectly. I asked top dollar, he showed up, listened, played with, and handed over hundred dollar bills. I asked him on his way out the door what he was planning to do with it.

"Why, use it to listen to music, of course!"

Many of the younger men I was working with, up until retirement in 2020, were into vinyl. Which totally astonishes me. I spent many years collecting vinyl records, caring for vinyl records, cleaning, adjusting, setting the tracking angle, yada, yada, yada. When CDs came along, I was very happy, ecstatic even, to quit doing that.

Back around 1998 or 1999, I found an old Dynaco tube amp up in my attic. I tested the tubes, cleaned all of the connections and the rheostats, and stuck a note on the bulletin board at work. You never saw such a commotion.

Nostalgia rules.

While there will be young people interested in that stuff they will be in a very small minority. Much smaller in number than those interested in it back in the 80's.

oldfarmer50

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I was waiting in the left turn lane for the green arrow to appear to make my turn.....in the meantime I was watching the cars with the green light make left turns in front of me.
One car made a normal turn and went into the left lane after making his turn, the next car went directly into the right lane so that SHE, and it was a young SHE, could get around the first car and could speed ahead of everyone else. I have never seen this before. It's not as bad as some things I have seen but it was something I hoped I would never actually see.....

Last summer the geniuses who design roads for the city, in league with the "urbanist" junior planner who somehow got elected as alderman in my district and took it upon himself to redesign every street he could in his own vision of what a street should look like, spent a few million tax dollars rebuilding what was already a good stretch of roadway to add bike lanes, curb bump-out at intersections, and lane reductions, for what he deemed the safety of cyclists (who seldom use the street) and pedestrians. What this led to was among other things, changes to traffic entering the street at a signalized intersection where a busy supermarket parking lot connects.

Formerly you could turn left coming out of the supermarket lot and properly enter the left travel lane. Then you had some space to eventually move to the right lane before traffic in the left lane queued up to make left turns to a number of businesses on that side. Genius-boy's changes made the entire left lane a turning lane, so you either have to (a) turn immediately into the now-single travel lane on the right curb or (b) turn into the now-left turn only lane and then cross a solid line to get into the right lane. Either way you are not following the rules of the road.

This same guy also had perhaps the busiest intersection in his district rebuilt to make it inefficient. A double-lane line of traffic also had a third lane for right turns in what they call a "slip lane", a commonly used design where it diverted to the right some distance back from the intersection like a mini-slow speed exit ramp to let you access the cross-street. He deemed this unsafe even though there were zero cases of it being a problem. So they removed the slip lane, extended the right turn lane to intersect with the cross street at a 90 degree angle, then put up a "No Right Turn on Red" sign there because he also feels those are unsafe. So now, traffic clogs there regularly. Even better, the traffic signals were not changed, so now when you are waiting for a green light to make your right turn, what you get is a vertical arrow that had always been there telling you to go straight through only.

Geniuses, I tells ya.

Evil genius perhaps. Those “traffic calming” measures are there to make it ever more uncomfortable to drive a car thus forcing people to walk or bike. Of course this ignores the needs of people who are old or handicapped but they don’t matter to zealot idealists.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

A question for oldfarmer;
Today a school bus stopped to pick up kids on a busy road. There were about 8 cars stopped each way as the bus picked up about 6 to 8 kids. Then the driver made a right turn into a residential neighborhood onto a fairly quiet street. If he had turned right and picked up the kids on the quiet street the traffic could have kept moving on the busy street, and less chance of a kid getting hit. Does anyone actually think about those things?

Oh yes, they do. Most districts do extensive research to determine the safest, most efficient place for bus stops.

Then some parent pitch’s a fit over their precious darling having to walk 10 more feet and the whole thing goes down the drain.

I once substituted on a run where a parent filed a complaint against me because I stopped one driveway up from her kid’s house. Even though it was the first time on the run she claimed I deliberately humiliated her kid and I had been doing it ALL YEAR.

All the nut jobs aren’t behind the wheel.

andres3

oldfarmer50 said:

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I was waiting in the left turn lane for the green arrow to appear to make my turn.....in the meantime I was watching the cars with the green light make left turns in front of me.
One car made a normal turn and went into the left lane after making his turn, the next car went directly into the right lane so that SHE, and it was a young SHE, could get around the first car and could speed ahead of everyone else. I have never seen this before. It's not as bad as some things I have seen but it was something I hoped I would never actually see.....

Last summer the geniuses who design roads for the city, in league with the "urbanist" junior planner who somehow got elected as alderman in my district and took it upon himself to redesign every street he could in his own vision of what a street should look like, spent a few million tax dollars rebuilding what was already a good stretch of roadway to add bike lanes, curb bump-out at intersections, and lane reductions, for what he deemed the safety of cyclists (who seldom use the street) and pedestrians. What this led to was among other things, changes to traffic entering the street at a signalized intersection where a busy supermarket parking lot connects.

Formerly you could turn left coming out of the supermarket lot and properly enter the left travel lane. Then you had some space to eventually move to the right lane before traffic in the left lane queued up to make left turns to a number of businesses on that side. Genius-boy's changes made the entire left lane a turning lane, so you either have to (a) turn immediately into the now-single travel lane on the right curb or (b) turn into the now-left turn only lane and then cross a solid line to get into the right lane. Either way you are not following the rules of the road.

This same guy also had perhaps the busiest intersection in his district rebuilt to make it inefficient. A double-lane line of traffic also had a third lane for right turns in what they call a "slip lane", a commonly used design where it diverted to the right some distance back from the intersection like a mini-slow speed exit ramp to let you access the cross-street. He deemed this unsafe even though there were zero cases of it being a problem. So they removed the slip lane, extended the right turn lane to intersect with the cross street at a 90 degree angle, then put up a "No Right Turn on Red" sign there because he also feels those are unsafe. So now, traffic clogs there regularly. Even better, the traffic signals were not changed, so now when you are waiting for a green light to make your right turn, what you get is a vertical arrow that had always been there telling you to go straight through only.

Geniuses, I tells ya.

Evil genius perhaps. Those “traffic calming” measures are there to make it ever more uncomfortable to drive a car thus forcing people to walk or bike. Of course this ignores the needs of people who are old or handicapped but they don’t matter to zealot idealists.

Don't forget that most of the "bike lanes" added have zero research behind them to predict if 1, 2, 10, 100, or 1,000 bikes will use the lane in a year.

snakeweasel

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

A question for oldfarmer;
Today a school bus stopped to pick up kids on a busy road. There were about 8 cars stopped each way as the bus picked up about 6 to 8 kids. Then the driver made a right turn into a residential neighborhood onto a fairly quiet street. If he had turned right and picked up the kids on the quiet street the traffic could have kept moving on the busy street, and less chance of a kid getting hit. Does anyone actually think about those things?

Oh yes, they do. Most districts do extensive research to determine the safest, most efficient place for bus stops.

Then some parent pitch’s a fit over their precious darling having to walk 10 more feet and the whole thing goes down the drain.

I once substituted on a run where a parent filed a complaint against me because I stopped one driveway up from her kid’s house. Even though it was the first time on the run she claimed I deliberately humiliated her kid and I had been doing it ALL YEAR.

All the nut jobs aren’t behind the wheel.

In our first house which was new construction the school bus stop for our block was right in front of our house. That was because our kids were the first on the block to sign up for the school bus so the made our house the bus stop.

snakeweasel

andres3 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I was waiting in the left turn lane for the green arrow to appear to make my turn.....in the meantime I was watching the cars with the green light make left turns in front of me.
One car made a normal turn and went into the left lane after making his turn, the next car went directly into the right lane so that SHE, and it was a young SHE, could get around the first car and could speed ahead of everyone else. I have never seen this before. It's not as bad as some things I have seen but it was something I hoped I would never actually see.....

Last summer the geniuses who design roads for the city, in league with the "urbanist" junior planner who somehow got elected as alderman in my district and took it upon himself to redesign every street he could in his own vision of what a street should look like, spent a few million tax dollars rebuilding what was already a good stretch of roadway to add bike lanes, curb bump-out at intersections, and lane reductions, for what he deemed the safety of cyclists (who seldom use the street) and pedestrians. What this led to was among other things, changes to traffic entering the street at a signalized intersection where a busy supermarket parking lot connects.

Formerly you could turn left coming out of the supermarket lot and properly enter the left travel lane. Then you had some space to eventually move to the right lane before traffic in the left lane queued up to make left turns to a number of businesses on that side. Genius-boy's changes made the entire left lane a turning lane, so you either have to (a) turn immediately into the now-single travel lane on the right curb or (b) turn into the now-left turn only lane and then cross a solid line to get into the right lane. Either way you are not following the rules of the road.

This same guy also had perhaps the busiest intersection in his district rebuilt to make it inefficient. A double-lane line of traffic also had a third lane for right turns in what they call a "slip lane", a commonly used design where it diverted to the right some distance back from the intersection like a mini-slow speed exit ramp to let you access the cross-street. He deemed this unsafe even though there were zero cases of it being a problem. So they removed the slip lane, extended the right turn lane to intersect with the cross street at a 90 degree angle, then put up a "No Right Turn on Red" sign there because he also feels those are unsafe. So now, traffic clogs there regularly. Even better, the traffic signals were not changed, so now when you are waiting for a green light to make your right turn, what you get is a vertical arrow that had always been there telling you to go straight through only.

Geniuses, I tells ya.

Evil genius perhaps. Those “traffic calming” measures are there to make it ever more uncomfortable to drive a car thus forcing people to walk or bike. Of course this ignores the needs of people who are old or handicapped but they don’t matter to zealot idealists.

Don't forget that most of the "bike lanes" added have zero research behind them to predict if 1, 2, 10, 100, or 1,000 bikes will use the lane in a year.

Most bike lanes are created because there is a very vocal group of bikers who want them.

imidazol97

snakeweasel said:

In our first house which was new construction the school bus stop for our block was right in front of our house. That was because our kids were the first on the block to sign up for the school bus so the made our house the bus stop.

When we moved into this home it was six years old. The bus stopped right in front, probably because there had been high school kids in this house and adjacent houses. The kids came up under our front overhang in rainy weather!!!

So I called up the Bean guy who was in charge of the buses and asked him to move the bus stop and explained why it needed to happen!

jmonroe1

imidazol97 said:

snakeweasel said:

In our first house which was new construction the school bus stop for our block was right in front of our house. That was because our kids were the first on the block to sign up for the school bus so the made our house the bus stop.

When we moved into this home it was six years old. The bus stopped right in front, probably because there had been high school kids in this house and adjacent houses. The kids came up under our front overhang in rainy weather!!!

So I called up the Bean guy who was in charge of the buses and asked him to move the bus stop and explained why it needed to happen!

Geeze, I guess when it’s not raining you yell to the kids…”get off my lawn”.

jmonroe

venture

imidazol97 said:

snakeweasel said:

In our first house which was new construction the school bus stop for our block was right in front of our house. That was because our kids were the first on the block to sign up for the school bus so the made our house the bus stop.

When we moved into this home it was six years old. The bus stopped right in front, probably because there had been high school kids in this house and adjacent houses. The kids came up under our front overhang in rainy weather!!!

So I called up the Bean guy who was in charge of the buses and asked him to move the bus stop and explained why it needed to happen!

In the house we are in now, the kids waiting for the bus would stand on our porch if it was raining. The driver knew, of course, to stop so they could walk down to the bus.

I haven't seen a kid on our porch for many years after the parents decided the kids can't walk to the bus stop. There are so many vehicles parked along our road now waiting for the bus that I have difficulty even getting out of the driveway.

snakeweasel

Take the bus to school and get driven to the bus stop. What is wrong with this world. In Jr. High I walked almost a mile one way to school and I wasn't the only one doing that. No wonder we have the problems we have today.

OK I had my grumpy old grandpa moment for the day.

ab348

venture said:

imidazol97 said:

snakeweasel said:

In our first house which was new construction the school bus stop for our block was right in front of our house. That was because our kids were the first on the block to sign up for the school bus so the made our house the bus stop.

When we moved into this home it was six years old. The bus stopped right in front, probably because there had been high school kids in this house and adjacent houses. The kids came up under our front overhang in rainy weather!!!

So I called up the Bean guy who was in charge of the buses and asked him to move the bus stop and explained why it needed to happen!

In the house we are in now, the kids waiting for the bus would stand on our porch if it was raining. The driver knew, of course, to stop so they could walk down to the bus.

I haven't seen a kid on our porch for many years after the parents decided the kids can't walk to the bus stop. There are so many vehicles parked along our road now waiting for the bus that I have difficulty even getting out of the driveway.

The school bus used to stop right in front of my house. The kids waiting at 0715 or 0730 in the morning (some with a helicopter parent overseeing them) would sit on the steps down to the sidewalk or on the stone wall adjacent to it. Last year for reasons unknown the stop was moved around the corner to an area further away from the majority of houses the kids lived in to a spot where there was no place to sit. Govt doing what govt does.

ab348

snakeweasel said:

andres3 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I was waiting in the left turn lane for the green arrow to appear to make my turn.....in the meantime I was watching the cars with the green light make left turns in front of me.
One car made a normal turn and went into the left lane after making his turn, the next car went directly into the right lane so that SHE, and it was a young SHE, could get around the first car and could speed ahead of everyone else. I have never seen this before. It's not as bad as some things I have seen but it was something I hoped I would never actually see.....

Last summer the geniuses who design roads for the city, in league with the "urbanist" junior planner who somehow got elected as alderman in my district and took it upon himself to redesign every street he could in his own vision of what a street should look like, spent a few million tax dollars rebuilding what was already a good stretch of roadway to add bike lanes, curb bump-out at intersections, and lane reductions, for what he deemed the safety of cyclists (who seldom use the street) and pedestrians. What this led to was among other things, changes to traffic entering the street at a signalized intersection where a busy supermarket parking lot connects.

Formerly you could turn left coming out of the supermarket lot and properly enter the left travel lane. Then you had some space to eventually move to the right lane before traffic in the left lane queued up to make left turns to a number of businesses on that side. Genius-boy's changes made the entire left lane a turning lane, so you either have to (a) turn immediately into the now-single travel lane on the right curb or (b) turn into the now-left turn only lane and then cross a solid line to get into the right lane. Either way you are not following the rules of the road.

This same guy also had perhaps the busiest intersection in his district rebuilt to make it inefficient. A double-lane line of traffic also had a third lane for right turns in what they call a "slip lane", a commonly used design where it diverted to the right some distance back from the intersection like a mini-slow speed exit ramp to let you access the cross-street. He deemed this unsafe even though there were zero cases of it being a problem. So they removed the slip lane, extended the right turn lane to intersect with the cross street at a 90 degree angle, then put up a "No Right Turn on Red" sign there because he also feels those are unsafe. So now, traffic clogs there regularly. Even better, the traffic signals were not changed, so now when you are waiting for a green light to make your right turn, what you get is a vertical arrow that had always been there telling you to go straight through only.

Geniuses, I tells ya.

Evil genius perhaps. Those “traffic calming” measures are there to make it ever more uncomfortable to drive a car thus forcing people to walk or bike. Of course this ignores the needs of people who are old or handicapped but they don’t matter to zealot idealists.

Don't forget that most of the "bike lanes" added have zero research behind them to predict if 1, 2, 10, 100, or 1,000 bikes will use the lane in a year.

Most bike lanes are created because there is a very vocal group of bikers who want them.

The term "squeaky-wheel activist group" surely must have originated when talking about cycling activists.

jmonroe1

snakeweasel said:

Take the bus to school and get driven to the bus stop. What is wrong with this world. In Jr. High I walked almost a mile one way to school and I wasn't the only one doing that. No wonder we have the problems we have today.

OK I had my grumpy old grandpa moment for the day.

When my family moved to the suburbs, to a newly built development, I started 9th grade and the bus stop was just a house away at a T intersection. By the time I started 11th grade they moved the bus stop to the beginning of the development a little more that a 1/2 mile away and no one was driven to the bus stop. I thought the world came to an end, then I realized it didn’t.

For years now we’ve created a bunch of wimps.

jmonroe

abacomike

Ever since I was promoted to School Principal, I developed a strong aversion to school buses. The two schools I was principal of over a period of about 20 years each had approximately 12 buses arrive each morning, 3 buses picked up my morning kindergarten kids at 12:00 noon, 3 buses delivered the afternoon kindergarten kids at 12:30 PM, and 12 buses arrived at 3:15 to pick up the students at dismissal. But you might ask, "...why would you detest school buses?..." The answer is simply Murphy's Law - inevitably at least once a week, I'd have to deal with late buses, buses that broke down or were involved in a traffic accident (one happened during a snow storm when the bus was rear ended at a stop sign and I had to get in my car a rush over to the site to assist with injured children). Then, of course, there was the discipline problems on the bus when the bus driver would call my office and inform me of a fight or some abusive kids that I had to deal with when they arrived at the school.

The reasons my schools had so many buses was because they were at rural ends of the school district - if a student lived a mile or more (1/2 mile for kindergarteners) from their assigned school, they were bussed to and from the school. With that many buses (12 at the start of school and 12 at the end of school), it took many hours to work out bus routes, bus stops, assignments, etc. Not an activity I enjoyed. The only reason I did the routing and assignments was because my assistant principal did not know how to input data and download data from the Apple IIe computer I used with floppy disks and an IBM Selectric printer attached to the computer. Once I had the Bus Numbers and routing numbers printed out with the names and grade levels of the students assigned to each bus, I was able to hand the printouts to my assistant principal to work out the details of parking incoming buses and making sure each student got on the right bus and each driver had a list of the names and bus stops for each student.

Just one of the many joys of being an Elementary School Principal.

When I became the Headmaster of private schools in Californian and Pennsylvania, I did not have to deal with school buses because parents delivered and picked up their kids by car. But school buses, to this day, cause me untold stressful memories of my school principaling days!!!!

oldfarmer50

abacomike said:

Ever since I was promoted to School Principal, I developed a strong aversion to school buses. The two schools I was principal of over a period of about 20 years each had approximately 12 buses arrive each morning, 3 buses picked up my morning kindergarten kids at 12:00 noon, 3 buses delivered the afternoon kindergarten kids at 12:30 PM, and 12 buses arrived at 3:15 to pick up the students at dismissal. But you might ask, "...why would you detest school buses?..." The answer is simply Murphy's Law - inevitably at least once a week, I'd have to deal with late buses, buses that broke down or were involved in a traffic accident (one happened during a snow storm when the bus was rear ended at a stop sign and I had to get in my car a rush over to the site to assist with injured children). Then, of course, there was the discipline problems on the bus when the bus driver would call my office and inform me of a fight or some abusive kids that I had to deal with when they arrived at the school.

The reasons my schools had so many buses was because they were at rural ends of the school district - if a student lived a mile or more (1/2 mile for kindergarteners) from their assigned school, they were bussed to and from the school. With that many buses (12 at the start of school and 12 at the end of school), it took many hours to work out bus routes, bus stops, assignments, etc. Not an activity I enjoyed. The only reason I did the routing and assignments was because my assistant principal did not know how to input data and download data from the Apple IIe computer I used with floppy disks and an IBM Selectric printer attached to the computer. Once I had the Bus Numbers and routing numbers printed out with the names and grade levels of the students assigned to each bus, I was able to hand the printouts to my assistant principal to work out the details of parking incoming buses and making sure each student got on the right bus and each driver had a list of the names and bus stops for each student.

Just one of the many joys of being an Elementary School Principal.

When I became the Headmaster of private schools in Californian and Pennsylvania, I did not have to deal with school buses because parents delivered and picked up their kids by car. But school buses, to this day, cause me untold stressful memories of my school principaling days!!!!

That must have been a small school system. We had well over 200 buses and a separate transportation department with at least a dozen office staff. Of course we moved 10,000 students twice a day. I seldom wrote kids up for behavior unless someone got injured or pulled a gun.

snakeweasel

Gas price check. I am seeing $4. for RUG and $4.80 for PUG.

mjfloyd1

RUG 3.24., PUG $3.65 at Sam’s here

Michaell

I paid $4.10/gal for PUG this past Monday in the Denver suburbs

snakeweasel

@Michaell said:
I paid $4.10/gal for PUG this past Monday in the Denver suburbs

Have you checked lately? After Putin did his voodoo gas around here shot up like 10% since yesterday.

tjc78

@snakeweasel said:

@Michaell said:
I paid $4.10/gal for PUG this past Monday in the Denver suburbs

Have you checked lately? After Putin did his voodoo gas around here shot up like 10% since yesterday.

This crap continues and say hello to $5+ everywhere.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

Gas price check. I am seeing $4. for RUG and $4.80 for PUG.

Wow! Did Russia invade your neighborhood? It’s up to about $3.80 for RUG around here.