Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

jmonroe1

roadburner said:

From columnist Victoria Taft:

So, let's go to the tote board of shame:

Suspicious character.
Photos taken of the suspicious character on-scene.
Possessed a rangefinder and was let in.
Was in sites of snipers for 20 minutes before shooting.
No one was monitoring the roof from which he took the shots.
Dan Bongino reports that local police were supposed to keep watch of that building. All of it.
Mom and Dad called to report son's suspicious activities.
And after all this, they let Trump go out on stage.
DHS Inspector General now investigating, which could take months or years.
It looks like a lot of people need to lose their jobs. This is a cluster from beginning to end.

————————————————
I can’t believe the director of the Secret Service is going to have her job very long.

With everything having odds these day I’m sure you can pick one, even an over/under if you want to go that way. I can’t wait to hear her excuse for stepping down but it won’t take too long for us the hear it. I’m going with 6 days.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

I have so many strong opinions on this issue but this is not the venue to express them so I’ll just say I agree with the above posts.

Just an aside I loved John Candy and Donald Sutherland’s performance in the movie ‘JFK’.

imidazol97

I think history will expose many of the same kinds of threads that occured in the JFK Dallas plot.

nyccarguy

It looks like a lot of people need to lose their jobs but will keep their pensions & benefits

DHS Inspector General now investigating, which could take months or years. at the expense of the American tax payer

local police were supposed to keep watch of that building. All of it
Passing the buck off. This is a poor excuse from someone who obviously didn't do the job that they are highly paid for. Regardless of who it is, you are talking about protecting a former US President. local police should be there to direct traffic and provide logistical support, not be responsible for a sniper.

Possessed a rangefinder and was let in. This reminds me of one of my favorite George Carlin bits.

"Please check around your immediate seating area for any items you might have brought on board."

"I might have brought my arrowhead collection. But I didn't. So I'm not going to look for it!"

Why on earth does anybody need to walk around with something like this? Again, a case of someone with a high paying Government job that's going to either get demoted or fired but get to keep their pension and benefits.

No one was monitoring the roof from which he took the shots. Again, I just can't believe this. I've been to games at Yankee Stadium with more security. The NYPD counter terrorism unit is no joke. There was a famous General that said: "I have the high ground," I've got his name on the tip of my tongue...

Mom and Dad called to report son's suspicious activities
"Sweetie! there is an Amazon package here for you."
"Fantastic. That's the range finder I ordered from Amazon. By the way, I'm heading to the Trump rally this afternoon. Can I borrow the AR?"

kyfdx

Okay.. please forward all future comments on current events to the FBI.

We won't be parsing that information, here.

Anyone buy a dishwasher, lately?

nyccarguy

kyfdx said:

Okay.. please forward all future comments on current events to the FBI.

We won't be parsing that information, here.

Anyone buy a dishwasher, lately?

Sorry.

cdnpinhead

See -- I can stay quiet.

stickguy

Our beach rental has a little half width unit. Very weird.

tjc78

@stickguy said:
Our beach rental has a little half width unit. Very weird.

I’ve seen those down here as well. Very common in the “condotells” in the Crest.

tjc78

So …I’m curious.

How many of you actually “shop” at the grocery store still?

I think we have transitioned to 90% delivery or curb side pickup.

Yes - there is a cost to it, but at what point is me or my wife’s time more valuable? I figure we do 8-10 orders a month. With tips and/or member fees it probably costs $100 or a little less.

To me that’s reasonable to not have to deal with the store.

We typically use Walmart and ShopRite at home and down at the shore we have the same options but the Acme (Albertsons elsewhere) on the island is amazing and picks orders so fast. Their prices can be higher but have a lot of sales so if you are careful in picking the total cost is similar. Plus it’s only a few blocks away and I can run over in the golf cart

kyfdx

We like grocery shopping. Of course, we don't have jobs or children at home.

explorerx4

Still go grocery shopping. I like to pick out my own stuff and don't always know what I want ahead of time.

ab348

During Covid and the aftermath I did online groceries. Here, I found Walmart generally better at it than the two large grocery chains we have. For pantry items, they were great. Now while I think they still offer it, demand seems way down and the spots they once reserved for pickup have mostly gone away.

My situation is that I make about 3 small buying trips per week because I buy a lot of produce and want to select what I think is the best quality. With online I found you got quite variable quality, sometimes not even fit for sale. Same with fresh fish or whatever.

ab348

kyfdx said:

Anyone buy a dishwasher, lately?

Funny you should ask…

I finally found a contractor to renovate my kitchen and dining area. The place across the street used two guys to do a major reno of that house and they were coming and going for months. I got into a waving “hi, how’s it going?” mutual greeting with them over time and recently was talking to the homeowner about the experience. She invited me over to take a look and they had done a very nice job. Upon talking to them, I mentioned my place and a few days later they came over to take a look. After some discussion, we agreed they would be the ones to take it on. The price they threw out as a best guess seemed very fair.

So, I am again looking at dishwashers. Probably also a bigger refrigerator.

explorerx4

Watched the segement below about how signing into Social Security is changing,
I went ahead and did the transition although not sure why it's needed.
Once you log in to the new site, you have to click on Linked Accounts or something like that to get to SSA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0nqQozEKeU

pensfan83

tjc78 said:

So …I’m curious.

How many of you actually “shop” at the grocery store still?

I think we have transitioned to 90% delivery or curb side pickup.

Yes - there is a cost to it, but at what point is me or my wife’s time more valuable? I figure we do 8-10 orders a month. With tips and/or member fees it probably costs $100 or a little less.

To me that’s reasonable to not have to deal with the store.

We typically use Walmart and ShopRite at home and down at the shore we have the same options but the Acme (Albertsons elsewhere) on the island is amazing and picks orders so fast. Their prices can be higher but have a lot of sales so if you are careful in picking the total cost is similar. Plus it’s only a few blocks away and I can run over in the golf cart

We are the inverse, maybe 10% of the time we'll use curbside pickup. Our normal rotation of stores includes Costco, Sam's Club, Giant Eagle (mainly in PA and Ohio), Aldi, and Fresh Thyme. Our bulk purchases though allow us to supplement with smaller grocery store runs so I'm rarely in the store more than 30-40 minutes 2-3 times a month. We also source our meat through a local butcher and will usually stock up there as well.

28firefighter

We still shop in store. Way way cheaper.

jmonroe1

kyfdx said:

We like grocery shopping. Of course, we don't have jobs or children at home.

————————————————
Can’t exactly say we like it but it seems to be a necessary evil. I can only accept so many spots on my bananas and fat on my rib eyes.

jmonroe

qbrozen

We largely do curbside. Doesn’t cost additional, as far as I know.

stickguy

We never do curbside or delivery. Like to pick out our own items.

tjc78

@28firefighter said:
We still shop in store. Way way cheaper.

I’m not talking Doordash or Instacart etc

We use Walmart+ which is like $10 a month and then we tip per order (delivery) The prices are the same as in store.

Acme and ShopRite charge $5 to pick the order but the tip is a bit smaller to the person dropping the order to car.

At any rate it seems like the majority of you still go into the store. I’m a bit surprised.

jmonroe1

tjc78 said:

@28firefighter said:

We still shop in store. Way way cheaper.

I’m not talking Doordash or Instacart etc

We use Walmart+ which is like $10 a month and then we tip per order (delivery) The prices are the same as in store.

Acme and ShopRite charge $5 to pick the order but the tip is a bit smaller to the person dropping the order to car.

At any rate it seems like the majority of you still go into the store. I’m a bit surprised.

————————————————
If we had your money we’d change our shopping method too.

jmonroe

stickguy

My wife won’t let me pick out fruit veggies and meat. Zero chance she will let a stranger. Plus we make decisions based on what looks good that day.

laurasdada

I/we still grocery shop live and in person. Two reasons (for me, at least):

• I'm cheap.
  
• I get to drive to the store and back!
  

laurasdada

Spent Tuesday in Boston, my brother and niece were in from LA, she's heading up to summer camp in Maine from here today.

Did a Duck Tour, my second, first was over 20 years ago. Fun, but temp in the high 80s/low 90s with humidity worthy of South Carolina. Walked about 12,000 steps as we did some Freedom Trail mostly to quite historic cemeteries.
We also Uber'd a couple of times due to h&h. Both current Accords (smelled nice, one driver Brazillian, no English but got us where my brother told him we wanted to go. Which was incorrect, my bros mistake. He programmed Old Granary Pub vs Old Granary Cemetary!), what a nice, roomy car!

kyfdx

When we were in Boston, we did a walking history/food tour. From 10 am to 3:30 pm. We were worn out, but it was probably the best city tour we've done.

laurasdada

It's a nice town, I've much preferred living in the burbs of Boston vs NYC. I enjoyed the NYC burbs I grew up in, but never much enjoyed NYC itself. Even though I was born in NYC, prefer Boston as a city/town.
Of course, the NYC of the latter years is much nicer than the NYC of my youth. But I guess the same could be said of Boston (e.g. Combat Zone!).

andres3

Oh OH OH OH!!!!! The exclusions for cars and motors is fantastic reading on my extended warranty/service contract:

Ineligible vehicles include Acura NSX, Alfa Romdeo, Aston Martin, Audi R's, RS's, and S's, Bentleys, BMW M-Series, Cadillac V-Series, Mercedes AMG models, and so on and so forth........

Then, they go further and say vehicles equipped with the following engines are excluded:

Caddy 4100, Caddy Northstar, any Rotary, W8, Chrysler/Dodge 2.7's, and Audi/VW 2.7's. Shame about those 2.7L engines!

laurasdada

My advice (and I'm pre-med/law) is to self-insure. Especially in today's "high" interest savings rate environment.

Late last night, my bro took the M240 for a joyride, sans asking me if he could (forgiveness vs permission). He said he knew if he asked I'd have said yes, but "let me explain how things work." And he took the car down the oldest unpaved road in the country; "it was a lot longer and darker than I thought it would be!" Serenity now!

explorerx4

Took a Duck tour about a dozen years ago.
When we went by City Hall, all I could think about was The Departed.

kyfdx

I'm not getting on one of those Duck boats.

imidazol97

I equate being on one of the duck boats to being on the Maid of the Mist boats at Niagara FAlls.
It's not for me.

oldfarmer50

tjc78 said:

So …I’m curious.

How many of you actually “shop” at the grocery store still?

I think we have transitioned to 90% delivery or curb side pickup.

Yes - there is a cost to it, but at what point is me or my wife’s time more valuable? I figure we do 8-10 orders a month. With tips and/or member fees it probably costs $100 or a little less.

To me that’s reasonable to not have to deal with the store.

We typically use Walmart and ShopRite at home and down at the shore we have the same options but the Acme (Albertsons elsewhere) on the island is amazing and picks orders so fast. Their prices can be higher but have a lot of sales so if you are careful in picking the total cost is similar. Plus it’s only a few blocks away and I can run over in the golf cart

Too cheap and too paranoid to have to pay for a stranger to touch my food. I enjoy the exercise of running around the supermarket trying to find the one item my wife says “used to be right next to the soup” but turns out to have been discontinued a decade ago.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

Watched the segement below about how signing into Social Security is changing,
I went ahead and did the transition although not sure why it's needed.
Once you log in to the new site, you have to click on Linked Accounts or something like that to get to SSA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0nqQozEKeU

I got an email on that, thought it was a phishing scam so I called social security directly. They confirmed that the government was indeed fixing what ain’t broke. After, I realized that I could just call them if I needed something so I probably won’t bother. With the hacking epidemic going on I’m not real confident that they can keep my info safe anyway.

oldfarmer50

tjc78 said:

@28firefighter said:

We still shop in store. Way way cheaper.

I’m not talking Doordash or Instacart etc

We use Walmart+ which is like $10 a month and then we tip per order (delivery) The prices are the same as in store.

Acme and ShopRite charge $5 to pick the order but the tip is a bit smaller to the person dropping the order to car.

At any rate it seems like the majority of you still go into the store. I’m a bit surprised.

Don’t get me started on those services like DoorDash, they’re horrible. My kids use them occasionally and at least 50% of the time the order is not delivered, delivered to the wrong house or is partially eaten on delivery.

I can’t imagine what they would do to your groceries.

oldfarmer50

andres3 said:

Oh OH OH OH!!!!! The exclusions for cars and motors is fantastic reading on my extended warranty/service contract:

Ineligible vehicles include Acura NSX, Alfa Romdeo, Aston Martin, Audi R's, RS's, and S's, Bentleys, BMW M-Series, Cadillac V-Series, Mercedes AMG models, and so on and so forth........

Then, they go further and say vehicles equipped with the following engines are excluded:

Caddy 4100, Caddy Northstar, any Rotary, W8, Chrysler/Dodge 2.7's, and Audi/VW 2.7's. Shame about those 2.7L engines!

How USED is your car if it has a Caddy 4100 motor in it? Are you applying for antique coverage?

explorerx4

@oldfarmer50,
The new password needs to be 12 characters long, which is a pain.
The authentication code went from 8 numbers to 6.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

@oldfarmer50,
The new password needs to be 12 characters long, which is a pain.
The authentication code went from 8 numbers to 6.

So is that one of those deals where they text or call the code? My 401k at Fidelity started doing that. I hate it.

explorerx4

@oldfarmer50,
Your new login id is your email. I liked having a unique login id that I made up.

imidazol97

Two-step authentication.
Wow.
Love the requirements for passwords and user names from some of these
sites who are so anxious to make sure they protect you. So complicated I
can't remember them. I keep a little black book of those.

28firefighter

@kyfdx said:
I'm not getting on one of those Duck boats.

Big, big, BIG +1. I was living in Seattle when they had that major fatal duck boat accident on Aurora Ave N and then another less severe, but still disconcerting, crash after.

kyfdx

28firefighter said:

@kyfdx said:

I'm not getting on one of those Duck boats.

Big, big, BIG +1. I was living in Seattle when they had that major fatal duck boat accident on Aurora Ave N and then another less severe, but still disconcerting, crash after.

Dangerous on the road, and dangerous in the water..

andres3

My biggest problem with the all terrain duck boats is it was slower than slow on the water.

jmonroe1

andres3 said:

My biggest problem with the all terrain duck boats is it was slower than slow on the water.

————————————————
It’s not a racetrack and further, how fast do you think a duck can swim? They’re trying to make it authentic.

jmonroe

laurasdada

Wow, didn't expect so much Duck animosity!
I know of no major Duck disasters in Boston (or that I can remember...). Been running forever. And I can swim.

explorerx4

@laurasdada,
I don't think people understand about Boston traffic and anyways The Charles is probably a no wake zone.
Never felt at risk on the road or in the water when in a Duck.

kyfdx

Duck boat catastrophes are numerous. Google is your friend.

And, if you think your swimming ability is going to save you when a boat goes down in the river? Well, it's better than not being able to swim, but it's a crapshoot, either way.

explorerx4

The Head of the Charles regatta has over 70 years old singles categories, male and female.
I wouldn't go out on a lake on a Duck boat.

stickguy

I did the duck once in philly. About a week after they started up again after a fatal water event.

It was a work sponsored activity. Foreshadowed a lot about that place.

https://www.cnn.com/2012/05/09/justice/pennsylvania-duck-boat-settlement/index.html

laurasdada

kyfdx said:

Duck boat catastrophes are numerous. Google is your friend.

And, if you think your swimming ability is going to save you when a boat goes down in the river? Well, it's better than not being able to swim, but it's a crapshoot, either way.

As is life.

I stared the Duck in the face, the Duck flinched first.
Winning.