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Also dealing with renewing our hurricane insurance next month so a lot of decisions and $ laid out going forward. Have to have them all but want the best bang for my buck to be honest. And want to start looking for some new wheels but have to pay off our portion of my hospital bills first. Getting bills from doctors I've never heard about and looking like this could cost me mucho denero so the new vehicle has been put on the back burner. But still can test drive so might start with a Hyundai hybrid tomorrow. That and an Elantra limited and GT and hopefully score a different gift card. The hybrid has peaked my interest with it's high mpg's so if I feel up to it tomorrow, will go give it a shot.
The Sandman
2023 Hyundai Kona Limited AWD (wife) / 2025 VW GTI (me) / 2019 Chevrolet Cruze Premier RS (daughter #1) / 2020 Hyundai Accent SE (daughter #2) / 2023 Subaru Impreza Base (son)
'24 Chevy Blazer EV 2LT
I want to plug one of those boxes in and go to the track just to hear the agent's reaction upon reviewing the data.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
Anyway, catching up. To those who are feeling under the weather, get well soon. We miss you.
TVs......having been an enthusiast of Audio-Video over the last 25 years, or so, there’s definitely a difference in build and materials between the “loss leader” TVs (by almost every manufaturer) and their upmarket offerings. Those $350 50” LCDs will be lucky to last 10 years. The ones you spend a few bucks more for are built better, with better materials, and usually built in a more modern. (Likely Korean or Chinese) facility.
That said, heat will kill any piece of electronics quickly. If you don’t have enough ventilation around your TV or electronics, they will fail prematurely. I see this most often with TVs that are mounted above fireplaces. Almost a guarantee if you use the fireplace, that TV mounted above it will need replacing in under a decade.
Also, not much you can fix in current TVs. I have a Panasonic plasma in my bedroom. It’s a tank. Still gives a beautiful 1080p picture. Bet if it went out tomorrow, I wouldn’t be able to find a repair service to even make the trip to look at it.
If possible, look at the current crop of OLED sets that are out now from Sony and LG. They are well made and offer what I consider the best picture on the market, today. I have an LG OLED that I’ve been extremely pleased with. It wasn’t cheap (about $2,500). But, I expect it will last for a good long while.
Saw some 4K movies on sale at Best Buy the other day for $14.99. Picked up a few.
Life of Pi was a breakthrough film when it was released 5 or 6 years ago. It is STUNNING, both visually and audibly in 4K with HDR.
Got a sneak peak at the new Acura RDX last night. My Acura dealer had 4 of the ‘19s tucked away in the back of their service dept. Given my TLX is a year old, my dealer offers a birthday oil change and tire rotation. Nowhere near needing an oil change or a tire rotation, the price was right.
Sales Manager saw me and took me for a look see at the RDX, which they were going to put on display this a.m. He let me sit in one. If you’re a fan of the RDX, you’re going to love this one.
They had a couple of ‘19 TLXs on the lot, too. As best I can tell, no changes from my ‘18.
Lots of stuff happening in the ‘Natti this weekend that I plan to take advantage of. Glad Summer is almost here.
I want a smart TV that I can easily hook up through my wireless internet to Amazon Prime and Netfllix for my loving bride.
I'm not shopping for larger sizes but I'd appreciate any input on quality. Right now, if the dust cleaning didn't keep some component cool and prevent the picture/sound going to black for about 30 sec, I'll buy this at BB
Samsung
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-32-class-led-n5300-series-1080p-smart-hdtv/6202106.p?skuId=6202106
Edit:
Found an LG which is also new model like Samsung is
32LK610B
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-32-class-led-720p-smart-hdtv/6229541.p?skuId=6229541
Does anyone have experience with how easily the use of wireless for Amazon and Netflix is on either TV?
The Samsung somewhere showed what looked like an easy to use list across the bottom of the screen of sources to pick if they're setup.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
Got to drive the new Ford mini CUV Ecosport yesterday. I'm guessing from the performance that it was the 1.0 turbo but overall it wasn't a bad little vehicle. IMO better than similar cars like Honda Fit.
Car and Driver trashed it with a really snarky review. Maybe the author wanted to test a Shelby and was mad he got stuck with a non sports car.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
I bought the TV originally for my bedroom but relocated it to the downstairs area about a year ago. Interestingly, despite the bedroom being closer to my router than the downstairs, its smart mode works far better there than it did in the bedroom where it was 15' or so from the router. Don't ask me why. The only useful smart app on it would be Netflix, if I used Netflix, which I do not. All the other apps are just filler of one sort or another which might keep a child entertained for a bit but there is nothing of interest for me except YouTube.
The Blu-ray has a few more useful apps for me like MLB.TV. However it functions in an abysmal manner. It essentially cannot make and hold a wireless connection. It was showing 85% signal strength and yet would not reliably connect to any of its apps. About a year ago I got fed up and ran a Cat6 wire from the router to it and it worked well after that. However over the winter they sent out new software for it and now it is balky again even with the wired connection. I suspect it simply does not have enough memory or processing power.
So my advice is to be careful with "smart" TVs to make sure they have useful apps and can actually run them. They seem to become obsolete very quickly.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
All I can say is, buckle-up tight guys. When @andres3 gets a hold of this subject he will be in here with a vengeance.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
We have the Allstate thing and I really question it. It tracks several things one of which is time of day. My wife gets an A+ for that while I get score of B, even though we drive at the same time. We should have the same score.
Also while it's giving us a little more than 200 a year discount on my wife's car my car is only getting 6 a year.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Anyway, I only consider Samsung and LG when I shop for TV's. Just a few months ago, I got a 50 inch Samsung smart thingy (around $430 IIRC) to replace, an old but still working, 2008 - 37 inch Toshiba LCD for the office. Mrs. j didn't know why I did that since she was satisfied the way it was and she is in the lounge chair in the office far more than I am but I just wanted to do it so I just made the decision and it's done. Now she likes it and has commented several times how it is "nice". That has given rise to the idea that maybe, when I get up enough nerve, I should just replace her 2012 Subie with just under 32K miles with a new one, without even telling her. Just bring it home one day, put it in the garage and wax it. Like I said it's a nerve thing but I'm still thinking about it. However, that could be dangerous and my mug shot might show just how dangerous that is but there are times when a guy has to man-up.
In keeping with my long standing tradition of not bragging on cars, appliances and TV's that I'm satisfied with, I won't talk about the new 50 inch Samsung other than to repeat that Mrs. j says it's "nice".
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
If I were running an insurance company, I would track how many cars pass them on the right to surcharge insurance rates exponentially.
I would track how many times the car dips 20 below the speed limit with no car in front of them for 1,000 feet. That would be a surcharge too.
If it takes them more than 20 seconds to go from 0 to 60 tack on another surcharge (sorry old MB diesel owners
If I ran the world it would be Utopia.
My Insurance company would be based on the model "Bring me your lowest quote, and your record of 22 years of no at-fault accidents, and I'll charge you 90 cents on the dollar for the same coverage."
I would have very low overhead.
I did this last year with my 1997 32" Sony Trinitron. It was a sad day for me.
Think about it like this: Most computer monitors are 1080p and are what, maybe 24" widescreen? 1080p on a 32" or 40" screen is the same definition as the 24", but stretched across twice (or more) the area! That doesn't do any favors to the quality of the picture.
And, I have not had any issues with wireless connection to my hotspot when desired. However, these "smart" devices are a weak spot for the nefarious to access personal networks, so only turn on the wireless when you actually need to use it. An always-on connection is much more vulnerable than a sometimes-on.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
It could very well be the path the signal takes to get to your TV. Like the number of walls the signal has to pass through, and more specifically, what is in the walls. Like wires that were routed there when the house was built, and since they are larger, the copper pipes that could be hiding in there. There is nothing you can do about how the house was built, so you'll just have to live with that. Hard wiring is always the best way to transmit a low power signal and when possible that is the way I do it.
I could tell you guys a story about what I just went through this week end with the FIOS HD cable box that is hard wired in the office but to tell you all about what I did, like running test coax cable wires and such from other bedrooms, is too long to tell here. To make a long story short, at least as short as I can make it, I had to call Verizon and they confirmed that they could not send a signal to that box and would have to send me a new one. Because it was a holiday weekend, even though they were over-nighting the new box, I wouldn't get it until Tuesday of this week via UPS. By 9 AM I had the box and connected it and it didn't work either. So, I called them again and they tried to send it a signal and couldn't. Even I know that ain't right. So they had to schedule a service guy to show up for Wednesday. Now it has to be in the house but the other TV's upstairs worked BUT they are not connected to an HD cable boxes. Now a light goes off in my head (maybe it went on) that it could be that the HD box needs a better signal so I went to the garage and checked the connections. The connection that was made by Verizon in the garage box was not tight. I wasn't even supposed to be in that side of the box but it's my house so I jumped in there. I found a lose coax connection to that box coming from the pole that took several turns to tighten, then I put a wrench on it just to make it snug enough so that It would not loosen again. Personally, I don't think it was ever tight enough but I never had a problem till this past weekend. Since the new box is different, but does the same thing as the old box that I like better, I re-installed the old box and when it worked, as it always did, I knew it had to be the connection. Then after a few hours I called Verizon back to cancel the service call.
Still scratching my head about that but success is success and I ain't going to complain about that other than I should have known enough to check for good connections first even if it was a connection on the Verizon side of the garage box. I won't make that mistake again and have to hear Mrs. j ask a couple times, "when did they say they were coming out here to fix it"? And worse yet, hear her say, "I thought you were and electrical guru". :@
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
Are you listening @imidazol97?
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
The only thing I will say is....it doesn't cost much more to go with a 40 inch screen, and you will never be sorry you went larger....you may be sorry you only went up to a 32 inch. And, consider a wall bracket....they have ways to hide the cord....looks nice flush against the wall.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
TV stand can be a concern and decision point. Within similar specs TV's seem to be getting pretty much a commodity, so check a few different ones out. Most of the screens come from China these days regardless of brand.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Either I underestimated you or you are mellowing. Either way we'll take it.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
I just thought that was awful intrusive especially since other people in line could hear the conversation. What's the deal with that?
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
They put me on some new pills because my kidneys were not functioning properly - but on discharge, the kidney functions were good. It took them 2 hours to find an IV line in my arm which delayed procedures.
At least I am home and no longer in pain. Thanks to those of you who prayed for me and/or wished me the best. Much appreciated. Hopefully I will heal up well and not have any recurrences.
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
Many happy days ahead for you we hope.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
Actually, it's a township school building long before my time which eventually joined with many others to form the school district where I attended high school decades later.
Later, I'll change my picture to the elementary school I did attend which was shown at a Worlds Fair as a modern progressive school. K-12 in one building with about 12 rooms.
.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
We are about to pay off our mortgage but not at the local bank where we may have the problem that I mentioned above. Our mortgage is very small, some people pay more for their car loans than we pay for our mortgage. We carried it just because I guess you could say, "just because". When we moved back to the Burgh from SC in 1997 Mrs. j didn't want any mortgage. I remember her saying, "people our age should not have a mortgage anymore". I said the interest was low (at the time just under 7% but we refinanced to get 3.75 about 15 years ago) and I wanted the lump of money if I chose to invest it, which I did but not all of it by any means. So that and more is in the local bank as the "jmonroe hedge fund" as I like to call it.
Where the riff may come is because of what I just got as a notice today from the mortgage company. I never heard of this before but some of you may have known this but not me. My mortgage bank will not accept a personal check for the last payment. It must be a wire transfer or cashier's check which must be sent to them "overnight delivery". I checked with my local bank and the fee for a wire transfer is $20 and $5 for the cashier's check without the mandatory "overnight" charge and that I will have to get from the post office. All said and done the cashier's check with overnight charge may be the same or very close to the $20 wire transfer fee. I plan to go to my local bank and ask them to waive the $20 wire transfer fee and get set to hear why they can't do that. My come back will be OK, charge me but get ready to see me leave this bank. With what I have with them, I don't think it is unreasonable to ask them to waive that fee in order to keep my account but I will have to see how they respond.
One more thing that I never heard of before is, the "County Recording Fee" of almost $170 that I will have to pay the mortgage bank. When I asked about this I was told that this is very common throughout the USA and each county sets their own fee. It does not go to the mortgage bank, they simply pass it onto the county. This is something else that totally blind sided me. I have to call the county tax office and find out what the hell this is because I don't think it is any business of county that I will no longer have a mortgage. They can't use the excuse that they want to know because I will no longer have an escrow account to collect my taxes. I have been paying my taxes directly to the county since we refinanced so they know where to send the bill and as I said that would not be a good excuse. As far as I'm concerned, as if that means anything, as long as I pay my county taxes on time that should be all they care about but I'm sure I won't win that battle but with my local bank I have a shot with them waiving the wire transfer fee.
In any case, not having a mortgage payment anymore we will have more disposable money like to get a new car to replace Mrs. j's 2012 Subie. Listening to me complain about that over the years, how far do you think I'll get with that idea? No reply is necessary I just wanted to belly ache again. :@
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
but, pretty sure every jurisdiction charges fees for recording deeds and mortgages. government ain't free!
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
2021 VW Arteon SEL 4-motion, 2018 VW Passat SE w/tech, 2016 Audi Q5 Premium Plus w/tech
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
@abacomike, scar tissue sucks, but it’s something you can live with. So happy you’re home and feeling better Mike!
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
They will process your payment and as long as it covers the balance due your mortgage is paid off.
I’m kind of surprised they are asking you to pay the recording fee. I don’t recall having to pay it myself.
2021 VW Arteon SEL 4-motion, 2018 VW Passat SE w/tech, 2016 Audi Q5 Premium Plus w/tech
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
I have until the end of the month to decide what I want to do. If I do what you suggested, I'm going to tell her you put me up to it. I'm sure she doesn't know where Mechanicsville, VA is but if she has a problem with that she'll find you.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
It’s all marketing data they want. And, they want me (and you) to provide it to them instead of them paying for their own research.
Ain’t happening. If I want to provide it, throw me a bone to do so (and not some made up type of “chance to win” garbage). Otherwise, my personal information is just that....PERSONAL!
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.