Stories from the Sales Frontlines

driver100

We also have a new 46" Samsung LED TV that we just picked up but the pitchers and catchers haven't arrived yet.

Be sure to plug it into the "fail safe" outlet.

abacomike

Maybe there is a Chick-Fil-A nearby
We have a brand new one here in town that opened in December

"...You can eat at Chick-Fil-A on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday...is best...BUT NEVER, NEVER ON A SUNDAY, A SUNDAY, A SUNDAY 'CAUSE THAT'S THEIR DAY OF REST!"

Even Zorba the Greek knows that!

kyfdx

That's what I just got.. I wasn't really expecting it to be any better than my four year old Sony LCD, but it is.

driver100

That's what I just got.. I wasn't really expecting it to be any better than my four year old Sony LCD,

I don't know much about these things, there are people here who obviously do, but, from what I have read, there have been huge gains in LCD TV technology in the last few years. The technology is improving rapidly, so I would suspect a new TV should be much improved over a 4 year old TV.

But, if the Sony is 4 years old, why did you need a newer one?

Some good articles;
LCD TV Buying Guide

kyfdx

The 52" LCD is in the lower level. The 46" LED replaces a 36" Sony tube in the great room.

boomchek

There used to be quite a few boards sprinkled around Edmunds that had the spirit of comradery that this one exhibits, but owing to a big Edmunds philosophy change several years ago, all but this one are gone, so far as I know.

It's funny because after being away for a couple or so years I came back last week and on the main Edmunds page couldn't find a link to the forums pages. It was hidden under the "what's hot" heading. I thought that was just a section on new stuff :confuse:

Anyways it's amazing that this specific forum has such a tight knit circle of people who've been here for years. Never saw that online anywhere else.

explorerx4

The plow came by, but he was only putting some ice melter down and fixing some trouble spots.
This was good because I was able to do some other snow clean up jobs.
I raked some snow off one side the the garage and widened the sidewalk in front of the house to full width.
Then, I walked over to my mothers and climbed up on her roof a couple of times to rake some snow off her roof. Going up a third time would have been pushing it.
I had to get on my belly and dangle my leg over the side of the roof to find the step ladder I had propped against the porch, in order to back down.
After that, I was sitting in my chair reading a Michael Connelly, when I saw my next door neighbor working on widening his driveway.
In clearing our driveway, my wife and i worked out a good system. She would break up the snow and I would follow with the snow blower.
I worked the shovel and he the snow blower and we widened it by about 6 feet in less than 1/2 an hour.
Next weekend we are driving to South Bend and Chicago, so I hope the weather is better.
We are taking the 11 Explorer, but it just sits in the garage when the weather is bad, so I'm thinking of going back to a Fusion, which can do just a good a job sitting in the same spot.

stickguy

I really have grown to dislike snow as I have gotten older. Ready to move a bit south to take it out of the equation!

fezo

Which Michael Connelly are you reading? I just finished the Brass Verdict which was pretty good.

The 46" LED is our second high def set. Have a 6 year old 50" Toshiba plasma which is definitely OK but it dominated the room it was in and I had to replace the set in the family room anyway so it got moved.

The 46" is just right for the living room and since the room get a lot of sun during teh day it's perfect that the LED go in there.

explorerx4

Fezo, I've read just about all of them by now.
I think it was Driver was who recommended his books.
Right now, I'm reading Blood Work, which doesn't seem the feature either of the characters of most of the others.
Bought a 46 inch Sony last month. The 120 refresh rate seems to really improves the picture.

driver100

The 46" LED replaces a 36" Sony tube in the great room.

Where is the 36 inch Sony tube going....to a museum?

Flat screens have become so cheap now. We had one of the first black and white TVs in our neighborhood in 1952. We weren't wealthy or anything, but my father loved electronic stuff. So he bought a G.E. TV and it cost $300 in Canada, it looked similar to this Admiral. That would probably be like about $4000 in todays money. So, TVs have come a long way, and have become relatively less expensive.

driver100

I think it was Driver was who recommended his books.
Right now, I'm reading Blood Work, which doesn't seem the feature either of the characters of most of the others.

Funny, I just finished Blood Work too, and I like that it was a stand alone book with different characters.

My favorites are the Mickey Haller Lincoln Lawyer books, Brass Verdict, Fifth Witness, The Reversal and of course the Lincoln Lawyer.

A new Mickey Haller lawyer book coming in November!

driver100

We are taking the 11 Explorer, but it just sits in the garage when the weather is bad, so I'm thinking of going back to a Fusion,

Wouldn't the Explorer be the one to use when the weather is bad? If you go back to a Fusion you will have to change your name.

Would you get an AWD Fusion?

Sounds like you had a very busy weekend shovelling snow. Hope the roads are clear for tomorrow.

driver100

I really have grown to dislike snow as I have gotten older. Ready to move a bit south to take it out of the equation!

Yeh, the older you get the more you want sun and warmth. I'd be happy to never have to see or be in snow ever again.

nyccarguy

Here's a shot of my 2011 328xi parked in the driveway after the great blizzard of 2013.

Driver, how come I cannot post a picture? It only works when I post the url.

stickguy

cdnpinhead

for different folks.

I had the occasion to visit Minneapolis for a few days on business recently. One morning it was -13F, which reminded me of milder winter mornings in Edmonton. For the four days I was there, single-digit temperatures were the rule. I truly don't mind cold weather -- I can put on clothing until I'm comfortable.

In Phoenix, the options are limited when the six-month summer kicks in. Many people love the desert, and they deserve to be here. Me, not so much.

In the winter, when the PHX weather really is quite nice, the days are short and the place is full of tourists. Oh boy.

roadburner

I am just about finished reading the Kurt Wallander series by Henning Mankell, Swedish Noir.
Now on to Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus...

driver100

Driver, how come I cannot post a picture? It only works when I post the url.

It looks like you got a lot of red snow! Kind of a "Red Out".


If you check the link the picture isn't there...just red.

driver100

Henning Mankell, Swedish Noir. Now on to Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus.

Good for you....reading some top quality stuff. Nice to see. I assume you started reading Mankell because you read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series.

jmonroe

Jmonroe: I agree. Edmunds should give us our 100K post pins.

I wasn’t talking about anyone other than me. I was almost promised that a hold could be put on this site when we reached 99,999 posts. It was so long ago I can’t remember what I offered up for that. :confuse:

In fact, Edmunds should set us all up at a five star resort for a week. This should include a wide variety of automobiles for all of us to try. At the end of the week, we each take home the car of our choice.

If you can pull that off I’m in. Hell, I’d even let everyone wear my pin while they did their test drives but I want it back before we go home.

jmonroe

Kirstie_H

What a wonderful surprise this will be for her!

That made me giggle. But of course, as I was reading through the "central location" suggestions, I couldn't help but think that I'm probably about as "central" as it gets in the US. Come one, come all!

:confuse: Still trying to figure out why bwia thinks Earth City would be a good location. :confuse:
I used to live not far from there, and can't remember anything but a giant office/warehouse park.

jmonroe

That's what I just got (referring to a 46 inch Samsung LED).. I wasn't really expecting it to be any better than my four year old Sony LCD, but it is.

Two weeks ago Son #1 bought a 32 inch Insignia (Best Buy brand) LCD for their bedroom when their 21 inch CRT finally died. He said it looked good in the store but when he got it home and got Comcast to bring in the HD box, he was not satisfied with the picture quality. Yesterday he told me he took it back on Thursday, bit the bullet and got a 40 inch LG LED. He said there is no comparison. I could have told him that. I didn’t have a chance to ask why he didn’t get the Samsung (we were heading off to see his 8 year old play hockey) but I suspect the LG was on sale. My experience is that Samsung seems to hold the line on their prices a lot more than other brands. Relating this to cars, they think like Honda.

jmonroe

imidazol97

>how come I cannot post a picture? It only works when I post the url.

Snapfish doesn't let you get a link that has .jpg or .mpg or some other picture designations. It looks like they store you picture and call it up using a program that doesn't need or doesn't show the suffix.

They want you to link to the page so they can tell people they have give snapfish their information before using the picture. They said I couldn't save your picture even without giving them my info including email so they could solicit and sell it to others.

I saved it to my computer using right click and then uploaded to my preferred photobucket.com free storage where the link they give ends in ".jpg" and I can show it as a picture without the advertising link Snapfish wants to force people to use.

graphicguy

kirstie.....we be there. By the way, can you heat the towels for us when you put them by the shower? I really like heated towels in the a.m. after showering. :P

nyc......looks like you aren't driving anywhere, anytime soon. Stay safe.

Have to be in Chicago later this week for work. Will try to get to the Chicago Auto Show and post some pics, if I have time.

tjc78

They want you to link to the page so they can tell people they have give snapfish their information before using the picture

They must have changed something recently. I've never had a problem using Snapfish to host a picture.

If that is the case I will be switching to PB or Flickr.

***Edit*** Just did a test and you are correct, it no longer works. Like Livia Soprano. It's dead to me!

jmonroe

We had one of the first black and white TVs in our neighborhood in 1952. We weren't wealthy or anything, but my father loved electronic stuff.

We were the second family on our block to get a TV. I think it was 1948. We were certainly not rich but for some reason we got a TV. I remember coming home from a friend’s house and telling my mother about a “thing” that had cartoons on it right in the living room. My mother said that she and my father had seen one at one of their friend’s homes when they were over there playing cards a few weeks earlier. The next thing I knew the department store was delivering one.

Fast forward to 1950 and my father was working for his brother and cousin who opened an appliance store. Every time a bigger TV came out we always got it. My father took the one we had back to the store and it was sold as a used set. We kept inching our way up every year (sometimes less than a year) from a 12 inch to a 14 inch to a 15 inch to a 17 inch and so on. We always had the biggest set in the neighborhood. The kids in the neighborhood thought we were rich. So, I never wanted to burst their bubble.

You can’t believe the hubbub that took place when the women in our neighborhood came over to our house in 1951 to see the 12 cubic foot Philco refrigerator that my father got for my mother. I think he sold a new refrigerator to almost every family in our hood when they saw the beast that he had just gotten for my mother. Believe it or not, that refrigerator is now in my youngest brother’s basement as their third refrigerator. I know the ones that are built today will not last that long.

jmonroe

tjc78

I know the ones that are built today will not last that long.


My cousin and I took a early 50s vintage GE fridge out of a neighbors basement. He was going to put it in his garage as a storage chest/conversation piece.

The cord was barely mangled, so for sh**** and giggles I threw a new plug on it. I plugged her in and it came to life. In an hour we could tell it was working. It is now the official beer fridge as his house. I'm sure it guzzles electricity, but I think its really cool that after all these years it still purrs like a kitten. It sat unused for at least 10 years.

driver100

Two weeks ago Son #1 bought a 32 inch Insignia (Best Buy brand) LCD for their bedroom when their 21 inch CRT finally died.

I have never seen a store made brand that was very good. They are made for people who just go by price alone, and don't realize there is a difference.

Sometimes, you don't need a great TV set..it might be used just to watch on a treadmill or something. But, you never know how the TV may get used, so it is well worth spending an extra 20 or 25% more to get the real thing.

I have bought the cheap store brand before and had to learn my lesson. Bought cheap tires a long time ago for my 81 Cutlass....I learned my lesson. Those cheap tires ruined the ride of the car.

Let's face it, those cheap company branded TVs are to get you into the store so you will compare and get an upgrade TV anyway. I just ignore any ads for store branded stuff. Your son has learned a valuable lesson, hopefully....and it didn't cost much to learn it.

imidazol97

>you are correct,

It's the advertisement they want and this way people can't link to the picture from outside websites, like Edmunds, and use Snapfish bandwidth to access without Snapfish having any chance to advertise.

They must use something like a Flash or Java to present the picture to a user on their own site so it can't be linked.

driver100

I saved it to my computer using right click

Thanks for sending the picture. It is making me feel so good not to deal with "SNOW".

Temperature today will be a high of 81. A good day for a swim, water temperature 86.

jayrider

Earth City has a Casino/Hotel and a clean gas station/food mart. Hot dogs are 2 for $2 everyday. St. Charles is just over the bridge with an Old Town shopping district and another casino/hotel.

jmonroe

My cousin and I took a early 50s vintage GE fridge out of a neighbors basement.

If that fridge is anything like the Philco that my parents had the top was slightly rounded. My sons remember when my father would put them on the top of the refrigerator. When my grandkids were small I’d put them on the top of our refrigerator telling them that their fathers were put on top of their grandparents refrigerator so I was just carrying on the family tradition. I can still hear Mrs. j saying, “you better stand there and make sure he (she) doesn’t fall off”. When Son #1 heard that he said, “the top of your refrigerator is totally flat for crying out loud. All they have to do is sit there. It’s not like when we were put on our grandma’s refrigerator where we had to balance ourselves and sit perfectly still so that we didn’t slide off onto the cook top on one side or into the garbage can on the other. There is no challenge today. Kid’s today have it too easy”.

jmonroe

Kirstie_H

Yeah, I've been to the casino. I'd rate it as average to slightly above. In fact, the evening my last vehicle was totaled, I was headed back to Chesterfield after having spent the day there learning to play craps. The area is OK, but really, not much of a tourist attraction overall.

Actually, now that I think about it, Chesterfield would be a better place. They've got this, for one: http://www.stl-ms.com/

(Side note: I went to a big charity party there a few years ago and had my photo taken sitting on the fountain in the pic on their home page.)

nyccarguy

Thanks for the help! I appreciate it. I'll have to open up a photobucket account to host & post car pics here on edmunds. I didn't realize snapfish was the problem. I have a Facebook account, but don't like to post car pictures there.

nyccarguy

Believe it or not, they had all the streets plowed by early afternoon on Saturday. I had to use my electric snow blower to clear the snow around my BMW & a small path in front of it. Backed the Pilot out of the garage, locked the center differential, & blasted through my unplowed driveway.

I pulled the BMW in the garage where it sat until last night.

It worked out nicely though. I took my kids sledding on Saturday & Sunday. We had a blast!

tjc78

Yeah it was slightly rounded at the top. I tried to Google a pic of it and I may have misspoke. It may actually be from the 40s.

This is similar to it.

driver100

Yeah it was slightly rounded at the top. I tried to Google a pic of it and I may have misspoke. It may actually be from the 40s.

We had a G.E. fridge just like that. Those were the good old days, remember de-icing the freezer? That's always a lot of fun.

jmonroe

Yeah it was slightly rounded at the top.

OK, me more than anyone should have been more specific about what “slightly rounded” meant. The pic you showed has a top that is essentially flat. No kid would have a problem sitting on that one. The top of the one I was talking about was probably 5/6 inches high at its peak. The more I think about it, the top on my parent’s refrigerator was probably rounded as much as you could round it. Maybe it was built like that so it wasn’t a dust trap. :confuse:

FWIW, when the original handle had to be replaced in the early 60’s, as best as I can remember, the replacement pretty much looked like the one in your pic.

‘driver’: because of the ice buildup in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator that my brother has now, it’s only half useable. I’ve asked him several times, “why bother”? and he says, “the fridge section is still OK”. :surprise: He’s right but he’ll need a hammer and chisel to get anything out of the freezer from what I last remember seeing. No telling how long those weenies have been in there. :sick:

jmonroe

tjc78

Those were the good old days, remember de-icing the freezer

My Grandparents had an upright freezer in the basement that didn't defrost automatically.

It took forever to do. We would put the food in a cooler, shut it off and use a hair dryer to melt off the ice.

I don't know how old that thing was either, but it was there when I was a little kid and looked old then. It still worked when we sold the house a few years back. I wonder if the new owner is using it?

houdini1

I am probably the only one here who remembers actually using an old "ice box". It sort of looked like a refrigerator, but had no power. Every once in a while you just put a big block of ice in the top of it. No problems at all with defrosting.

driver100

was probably rounded as much as you could round it. Maybe it was built like that so it wasn’t a dust trap.

Are you saying tjc's refrigerator has lots of dust on the top?

You aren't suppose to notice that, or mention it.

We used to have a nosy neighbor that used to come in and casually run her hand over the top of the fridge, I am sure she was checking to see how clean it was.

because of the ice buildup in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator that my brother has now, it’s only half useable.

I have seen that before....so much ice the door on the freezer won't close.

houdini1

Hmmm...sort of a self defrosting mechanism.

driver100

t took forever to do. We would put the food in a cooler, shut it off and use a hair dryer to melt off the ice.

I got pretty good at getting ice off of the freezer. I would boil two pots of water. When one boiled I would remove it from the stove and put it in the freezer, and put the other pot on the stove. It would make a whole through the ice to the metal, and the ice would get weak on the bottom of the freezer cabinet. I would get a chisel in there and take out massive hunks of ice. Of course, keep alternating the pots of water.

So glad we don't have to do that any more. Refrigerators haven't gone up in price over the last 20 years too, unless you get one with lots of extra features. I guess that is why they make them so they won't last too long.

driver100

I am probably the only one here who remembers actually using an old "ice box".

I don't remember having an ice box in the house but I have seen them....maybe in a museum....ha ha.

I do remember the ice man coming around with a truck and he'd have these big pincer things to carry the ice into the house.

Those were the good old days!

Of course, this was before my time.....

jmonroe

I don't remember having an ice box in the house but I have seen them....maybe in a museum....ha ha.

I saw one first hand and it was not in a museum either. My father’s mother had one and I remember the ice man with his ice pick chopping out a hunk of ice from a huge block of ice to put in her ice box. Like you said they used pincers. I remember seeing him put a piece of burlap on his shoulder and lifting the hunk of ice to his shoulder with the pincers and then schlepping it up two flights of steps to her ice box.

As for the ice truck, it was a lot newer than the one you showed but I also remember the horse drawn ice wagon. That’s about as far back as I can remember.

I understand that those old ice boxes are worth a pretty penny today. Uppies like them as storage units. Who knew? My parents sure didn’t. They were very pleased with themselves when they finally talked my grandmother into getting an electric refrigerator.

Those were the good old days!

I don’t know how good they were but they were OLD.

jmonroe

kyfdx

.. but, I remember milk being delivered... and, my aunt used to have Charles Chips deliver... potato chips and cookies... :surprise:

explorerx4

I like how his books hook me early on and usually end up being a good story.
It took a while before I understood the title to the Fifth Witness.
Harry Bosch can be over the top sometimes, but there are a lot of good books with him in it.

explorerx4

We still have the '02 Explorer, which gets a lot of winter duty and my wife and I are completely comfortable driving it, as we have had it for over 10 years.
If I remember right, its' 11 year old birthday was yesterday.
It's a long story, but I had a Fusion before and things didn't quite work out the way I expected, so I traded it in on the 11 Explorer.
This was based on the 02 Explorer turning into a money pit.
It hasn't worked out that way, so I'm thinking about down sizing and putting money into the 02 Explorer, as needed.

abacomike

.. but, I remember milk being delivered... and, my aunt used to have Charles Chips deliver... potato chips and cookies...

When I was a kid, we had a man who yelled up and down the streets and alleys in New York (Queens) wanting to sell bottled "seltzer" on these thick glass bottles with a push lever on top of each bottle which dispensed the soda water under pressure. When the bottles were emptied he would pick them up and replace them with refilled bottles. There was a 5 cent deposit on the bottle and each bottle cost 25 cents. We would serve ice cold seltzer (club soda) with dinner and have the bottle on the dinner table. Sometimes I would put a little milk and chocolate syrup in a glass, add seltzer, and I made what they called an "egg cream"! Had no eggs in the drink and why they called it an egg cream I have no idea. But they were delicious. Sometimes we would add ice cream and make ice cream sodas.

But this old man would lift 12 bottles in a case and carry it up 5 flights of stairs - each bottle weighed at least 4 or 5 pounds. Those were the good old days. We had a milkman who delivered fresh, whole milk in bottles every other morning at 5 AM. We had alike box outside our front door. He also delivered cream cheese, sour cream and American cheese and cottage cheese. No one ever stole our milk or cheese from the milk box. Things are different today, that's for sure!