Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

dino001 · April 2020

oldfarmer50 said:

dino001 said:

imidazol97 said:
The clue for hydroxychloroquin was that countries where malaria is common seemed not to have spread of the Virus.
I seriously doubt that as a logical conclusion. If malaria is a problem in your country then COVID19 is probably not even on a radar screen as a serious concern, probably a rounding error in caused of death. Indonesia for example still has zero COVID19 patients - they simply don't test for it at all.
Exactly. That has lead to the myth that folks of African ancestry are immune to the virus because of some weird perceived connection between malaria in those countries and the anti-malaria drug being investigated as a treatment. The kind of magical thinking that gets people sick.

It's understandable some people may latch to some theories that are "out there". It's quite OK that some scientists would test them (it's actually their job to come with a hypothesis and test it), but there is no excuse for supposedly rational and educated people of government and media to give those theories oxygen without any substantive evidence, just because some social science major person (or even a doctor for that matter) "feels" it "could" or "might" help. One could report that many different theories are being currently tested, but spreading those theories without proper context and qualification before there is anything scientific evidence to support it is completely irresponsible. Like you said, it gets people sick, or even killed. Some poor guy hears from self-proclaimed Pharmacist General that he is a fan of blablabla drug and he takes its industrial swimming pool cleaner version, or whatever else may be happening. Just gives me chills in my spine.

driver100 · April 2020

houdini Yes, I think they are counting every death that has any connection to the virus. An older person is always a good candidate for a heart attack. If he also virus symptons, I think his name goes into the hat. Very easy to do your own research if you are curious. Just google coronovirus and heart attacks.

Even if they didn't count everyone who may have died from a heart attack as a COVID death.....the numbers are still staggering. People who have had a heart attack or more likely to die if they get COVID, people who smoke have a much higher chance of dying if they get COVID.........doesn't matter, they would probably be around if we could stop this thing.

dino001 · April 2020

COVID19 death classifications will be subject to studies for years. Somebody had a heart failure and Covid19 and died. If the latter significantly accelerated/triggered the failure, it's certainly valid to classify it as Covid death. If the person was on their death bed anyway and somehow got it, one might say it's not a direct cause.
Then there are all these people not attended to their illnesses due to hospitals being overrun and dying. How do we classify those people? Last thing we want is politicians deciding who is or is not a victim of this pandemic. But we all know how this will go - at the end they likely will put their dirty fingers on those reports and alter their numbers to fit whatever thesis will be in vogue. Then regular people like us will use our own sources, because at the end people believe what they want to believe. I'm not immune to that, either, albeit not for luck of trying.

carnaught · April 2020

What also gets people sick is poor habits and personal hygiene for which education is badly needed.

Went to Wally World this morning and also found it roped-off at the door with a restrictive and measured approach to letting people in based on the egress. Once inside it appearing relatively sparsely populated and the shelves well stocked except paper goods and that valuable and sacred toilet paper. So far, generally good.

Now the bad: essentially all the employees had no masks on, nor gloves, and there were repeated violations of the recommended six foot social distancing. As far as the patrons - I walked in with a tail older guy with a macho attitude with neither mask nor gloves who was constantly touching his face, scratching his nose and touching food items. An elderly lady had a mask on but would crab it repeatedly at the nose and shove it down, almost off, to talk on her cell phone, but then “rinse repeat” with that routine multiple times. I estimate at least 50% of the patrons did not don a mask and/or gloves. These are just a few examples of why we are failing to keep the numbers of this unprecedentedly contagious virus from increasing, perhaps the tip of the iceberg.

So, you can “Monday morning quarterback”, politicize and be a cynical pontificator about this but generally this is nothing more than lip service, and I am getting progressively more weary about this as an unhelpful and divisive “contribution” to this crisis.

houdini1 · April 2020

On average about 7500 people die each day in the U.S. That would be about 225,000 deaths each month. It would seem to be a simple, if not exact, way to figure out how many more people are dying each month in 2020 than they did in the same month last year. You could attribute any excess deaths this year to the coronavirus. A ball park figure, but at least something. You could refine the #'s more by eliminating all accidental deaths from each year, because there would probably be fewer accidental deaths this year because of the lack of activity. I'm sure other refinements could be made.

stickguy · April 2020

Hopefully the real infection rate is 10-100x higher. That means the majority is asymptomatic, or gets very minor ones. And hopefully build up immunity and lower the future pool of carriers! Won’t get herd immunity if there is no herd.

fintail · April 2020

Not how this works. If one makes a claim, it is up to them to put up. Not doing so speaks volumes.

If someone has a heart attack that wouldn't have happened without COVID, it seems logical to blame COVID.

houdini1 said:

Yes, I think they are counting every death that has any connection to the virus. An older person is always a good candidate for a heart attack. If he also virus symptons, I think his name goes into the hat. Very easy to do your own research if you are curious. Just google coronovirus and heart attacks.

roadburner · April 2020

I had an E-Visit with an MD today about a very minor issue; he wants a blood test but that is considered an elective procedure- he told me that he attended a meeting yesterday concerning the crisis and was told that the restrictions on elective medical procedures would probably not be lifted until mid-June.

fintail · April 2020

Wow, I hope you fight it off and can get the treatment you need. Fingers crossed for you.

Fortunately, this area is doing more than many, which might help, but I too wouldn't want to go to the doctor right now. Even going to PT or a chiropractor is weird these days.

28firefighter said:
Continuing my streak of bizarre health issues, in the middle of a global viral pandemic I have somehow picked up a bacterial infection that migrated to my chest and has caused pneumonia.

You can imagine how much fun it is trying to be seen by an actual doctor when you have any respiratory symptoms right now...

andres3 · April 2020

driver100 said:

jmonroe said:

driver100 said:

tjc78 said:
Looked it up.. yep two batteries.

I have to wonder. With all the extra things that have to be engineered/built to make a car with start/stop technology "work" is it really worth it in an "Eco" sense?
Not really, pay extra few dollars a year for gas, or pay $100s for a new battery, plus the impact of the battery when it is tossed out!
Surprise, surprise. Now you know the car biz is directly related to the replacement parts biz. Gee, I wonder when that started?

jmonroe
That's why I prefer a new car with a warranty.....I don't get surprises like an extra battery I didn't even know I had. :@

It's all because you used a non MB branded trickle charger!

driver100 · April 2020

I don't know if I told my Instacart experience:
Here, they get their groceries from a chain called Loblaws. We placed a large order, for us, almost $200, got a delivery date for about 10 days later. Supposed to deliver Tuesday between 6 and 8 p.m. They email at 7:45 running late, be here at 8:15 to 8:45. No problem. At 8:05 they say they can't keep up, we can either cancel our order or reorder it again. Delivery days for a rebooked order would take at least 10 days and they could pull the same trick again. Fortunately, we had a small order booked for today at Wallymart for pickup, and we added all the Instacart items to it. The lot was packed and people had to wait outside in the freezing cold...we felt guilty sitting in the car waiting for the guy to fill up the trunk. Surprisingly they had almost all 30 items we ordered, just one was out of stock. I wrote to Loblaws that they lost almost $200 worth of business to Walmart, and we will never use Instacart again.

Well, we had a great outing today, actually had somewhere to go. Never saw Wallymart that busy before, I think people are bored and have to go to a store. About 10% wore masks, saw staff close together talking outside.

driver100 · April 2020

andres3 said:

driver100 said:

jmonroe said:

driver100 said:

tjc78 said:
Looked it up.. yep two batteries.

I have to wonder. With all the extra things that have to be engineered/built to make a car with start/stop technology "work" is it really worth it in an "Eco" sense?
Not really, pay extra few dollars a year for gas, or pay $100s for a new battery, plus the impact of the battery when it is tossed out!
Surprise, surprise. Now you know the car biz is directly related to the replacement parts biz. Gee, I wonder when that started?

jmonroe
That's why I prefer a new car with a warranty.....I don't get surprises like an extra battery I didn't even know I had. :@
It's all because you used a non MB branded trickle charger!

Actually it is an official MB trickle charger that the dealer added. More likely because the trickle charger is attached to the main battery under the hood, not the alternate one in the trunk...didn't even know about that one.

houdini1 · April 2020

fintail said:
Not how this works. If one makes a claim, it is up to them to put up. Not doing so speaks volumes.

If someone has a heart attack that wouldn't have happened without COVID, it seems logical to blame COVID.

houdini1 said:

Yes, I think they are counting every death that has any connection to the virus. An older person is always a good candidate for a heart attack. If he also virus symptons, I think his name goes into the hat. Very easy to do your own research if you are curious. Just google coronovirus and heart attacks.

Exactly what claim that I made are you talking about?

fintail · April 2020

Took a quick trip to a few stores, as I was due for a chiro/PT appointment and they are all within 5 minutes of each other. Sparse traffic on the roads. All stores were fairly empty, no lines at the entrances or checkouts, although they all had lines on the ground for people to keep a distance. WM had maybe a 30% stock of TP, and I even bought a mega pack, as my mom lives in a small town at the end of the supply chain (sometimes being a small town isn't an advantage), and says she's having trouble getting any. She'll be pleased. Fred Meyer had maybe 20% stock, but not empty. Pasta aisle and cleaning supplies were pretty decimated though. Safeway had maybe 10% stock.

I might go to Costco next week, as my grandma wants something only sold there, and I am officially the errand boy now. That should be a fun trip.

On the mask front, maybe 2:3 were wearing one, most looked store bought. I don't have a proper one, and the ones I made are either my balaclava (with helmet for extra fun) or something I put together from a cloth napkin and rubber bands. Maybe not the best. I didn't wear either on this outing, didn't get any noticeable complaints from others. Some store workers didn't have one either.

andres3 · April 2020

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

jmonroe said:

driver100 said:

tjc78 said:
Looked it up.. yep two batteries.

I have to wonder. With all the extra things that have to be engineered/built to make a car with start/stop technology "work" is it really worth it in an "Eco" sense?
Not really, pay extra few dollars a year for gas, or pay $100s for a new battery, plus the impact of the battery when it is tossed out!
Surprise, surprise. Now you know the car biz is directly related to the replacement parts biz. Gee, I wonder when that started?

jmonroe
That's why I prefer a new car with a warranty.....I don't get surprises like an extra battery I didn't even know I had. :@
You’d buy a new car rather than change the battery? Must to be nice to be rich.
My theory is that it probably doesn't cost a huge amount more to drive a new car over many used cars. Sometimes you get lucky with a used car and it doesn't need many repairs. But, if you consider the cost of repairs, the disruption to your life getting a car fixed all the time, the lack of reliability so you are late for appointments or work, or say the big fix....a $5000 electrical or transmission repair, then yes, maybe it is worth $3000 more a year to trade in when the warranty is up.
When you get to a certain age....you probably live longer if you don't put up with a lot of frustration......getting a car repaired constantly.
The E400 has one more year on warranty.....but, I will probably keep it for a few more years, in one year it will have less than 24k miles on it.....doesn't make sense to trade it in for what I would get for it...it is like the C250....for what I will get better to gamble that it won't need a major repair. Kind of like the simplicity of the C250.....no stop/start...no alternate battery.

I don't think I've had a car outside the Neon and the Honda transmission that needed 4 figure repairs, under warranty or not (meaning no one had to pay, not even the manufacturer.)

I suppose my A3's air conditioning system repair under warranty was one, but certainly less than $3,000. That's the only "big" warranty repair I've had and I took the A3 to 106,000 miles, the S4 to 49,000 miles, and the TTS is at 36,000. No big out of warranty repairs either. Perhaps I'm buying the right kinds of cars, or I'm just lucky.
The TTS' rear shocks TSB might clear 4 figures at dealership prices I suppose. Certainly not $3,000 either though.

driver100 · April 2020

carnaught said:

So, you can “Monday morning quarterback”, politicize and be a cynical pontificator about this but generally this is nothing more than lip service, and I am getting progressively more weary about this as an unhelpful and divisive “contribution” to this crisis.

And in case you didn't know it, Carnaught is a medical doctor, and knows what he is talking about!

qbrozen · April 2020

I was supposed to go see my ortho today to follow-up on my knee, but also to get an injection in my wrist for a different issue. My wife complained of lung pain the past 2 days, so I complied with their wishes and canceled my appt (if anyone in house feels ill in any way, please don't come in). Oh well. Who knows when the heck I'll be able to cure my wrist pain.

stickguy · April 2020

I’m guessing that there will be a lot of permanent changes once the crisis is over. One is a lot more WFH happening, even in areas companies resisted. Another is a big uptick in telemedicine. Both things leading to more natural distancing!

imidazol97 · April 2020

28firefighter said:
I'm COVID negative, so the only thing to do is antibiotics for 10 days and, you know, not contract COVID while I'm fighting this - that would be counterproductive.

Good luck, 28FF. Quick recovery.

pensfan83 · April 2020

Unless my hand is forced through enterprise guidance or pressure from other groups in my LOB I have no plans to expand our telecommuting when things return to normal.

imidazol97 · April 2020

driver100 said:
I don't know if I told my Instacart experience:
Here, they get their groceries from a chain called Loblaws. We placed a large order, for us, almost $200, got a delivery date for about 10 days later. Supposed to deliver Tuesday between 6 and 8 p.m. They email at 7:45 running late, be here at 8:15 to 8:45. No problem. At 8:05 they say they can't keep up, we can either cancel our order or reorder it again. Delivery days for a rebooked order would take at least 10 days and they could pull the same trick again. Fortunately, we had a small order booked for today at Wallymart for pickup, and we added all the Instacart items to it. The lot was packed and people had to wait outside in the freezing cold...we felt guilty sitting in the car waiting for the guy to fill up the trunk. Surprisingly they had almost all 30 items we ordered, just one was out of stock. I wrote to Loblaws that they lost almost $200 worth of business to Walmart, and we will never use Instacart again.

Well, we had a great outing today, actually had somewhere to go. Never saw Wallymart that busy before, I think people are bored and have to go to a store. About 10% wore masks, saw staff close together talking outside.

Interesting. I suspect a lot of stores are going to find their inefficiencies hurt them.

fintail · April 2020

I can think of a few micromanagers who will resist WFH, but many more "leaders" who will support it. I think in this area anyway, in tech/telecom, it is going to become trendy. Trade home distractions for office gossip, it'll probably even out.

Michaell · April 2020

How often are you all leaving the house? I haven't been anywhere since last Thursday, and the wife and stepdaughter last left the house a week ago, for grocery shopping. Other than that, we are home bound - had pizza delivered once.

Haven't tried any of the on-line shopping options - wife points out that introduces another set of hands onto the goods. A friend of mine who has availed himself of this takes the delivered goods, sanitizes them immediately, and puts non-perishable goods into the garage for 3 days before using it. Perishable goods go into the refrigerator or freezer.

snakeweasel · April 2020

dino001 said:
COVID19 death classificaitions will be subject to studies for years. Somebody had a heart failure and Covid19 and died. If the latter significantly accelerated/triggered the failure, it's certainly valid to classify it as Covid death. If the person was on their death bed anyway and somehow got it, one might say it's not a direct cause.
Then there are all these people not attended to their illnesses due to hospitals being overrun and dying. How do we classify those people? Last thing we want is politicians deciding who is or is not a victim of this pandemic. But we all know how this will go - at the end they likely will put their dirty fingers on those reports and alter their numbers to fit whatever thesis will be in vogue. Then regular people like us will use our own sources, because at the end people believe what they want to believe. I'm not immune to that, either, albeit not for luck of trying.

25 years ago we had a heat wave here in Chicago that was supposedly responsible for over 700 deaths, they are still debating the accuracy of those numbers.

houdini1 · April 2020

driver100 said:

carnaught said:

So, you can “Monday morning quarterback”, politicize and be a cynical pontificator about this but generally this is nothing more than lip service, and I am getting progressively more weary about this as an unhelpful and divisive “contribution” to this crisis.
And in case you didn't know it, Carnaught is a medical doctor, and knows what he is talking about!

Carnaught is "The Man". Our go to man for all things medical.

explorerx4 · April 2020

For the last 3 weeks, other than going for a walk or going for medical treatment, I have pretty much been staying home.
Today, however, I took the MKZ in for it's first service.
Dealer has Quick Lane service, but is about 40 miles away.
Haven't found a great way to get there, but was first in line for service.
When I went to leave, a NAV fault error message was showing on the screen, so I went back in and waited another 45 minutes fr that to get straightened out.
It was nice to take a drive.

houdini1 · April 2020

imidazol97 said:

28firefighter said:
I'm COVID negative, so the only thing to do is antibiotics for 10 days and, you know, not contract COVID while I'm fighting this - that would be counterproductive.
Good luck, 28FF. Quick recovery.

Ditto FF !

laurasdada · April 2020

Last true outing was a week ago (? days are blending together) to Costco to get supplied for GFs mother. Mother was very appreciative, said she's set for a very long time TP and Poland Spring water wise. And, she now loved Pirate's Booty!

Only other outings are to pickup takeout food, trying to help some favorite local restaurants. One small world moment, went to greek pizzaria, kid wearing sweatshirt of my son's college; yes he knows my son. Said they were both "talkers," in other wise guys...

imidazol97 · April 2020

I get coffee in the morning from a clean quick market. Usually 1 other customer. I don't touch the door handle and they have hand sanitizer on each register. Sneeze shields between customer and clerk.

We often go to Chick Fil A. A nice drive.

We eat a light meal at home in the evening. My wife spends lots of time working in the dirt, on plants, in the yard.

We have cabin fever, and have made two Sunday drives 50 miles to Cincy to arboretum where the blooming trees and plants are gorgeous, and are 1-2 weeks ahead of ours in Dayton.

driver100 · April 2020

Michaell said:
How often are you all leaving the house? I haven't been anywhere since last Thursday, and the wife and stepdaughter last left the house a week ago, for grocery shopping. Other than that, we are home bound - had pizza delivered once.

Haven't tried any of the on-line shopping options - wife points out that introduces another set of hands onto the goods. A friend of mine who has availed himself of this takes the delivered goods, sanitizes them immediately, and puts non-perishable goods into the garage for 3 days before using it. Perishable goods go into the refrigerator or freezer.

We go for a walk around the block 2 or 3 times a day with Trixie...usually see a neighbor we can talk to, from 6 feet away. About 3 times a week we go somewhere, post office, get a pickup grocery order, take the car for a spin. Often the cars are in the garage for a day or two in a row.

I think pickup orders are pretty safe. Pop the trunk, the guy who loads it usually shuts it. When you get home carry plastic bags in - wear gloves if you can. Still not a problem, but if you put them on the counter: immediately wash hands good for 20 seconds. Put food away, you can sanitize containers but there is no proof the virus is on the containers. Wash hands after storing. Use disinfectant on the counters. Put bags away, wash hands again thoroughly.
I think that should do it....try to never touch your face - that is the only way it gets into your body. btw, food going into the stomach is not a problem....even if it is on the food it only hurts you if it gets into your nose and lungs.

suydam · April 2020

driver100 said:
I don't know if I told my Instacart experience:
Here, they get their groceries from a chain called Loblaws. We placed a large order, for us, almost $200, got a delivery date for about 10 days later. Supposed to deliver Tuesday between 6 and 8 p.m. They email at 7:45 running late, be here at 8:15 to 8:45. No problem. At 8:05 they say they can't keep up, we can either cancel our order or reorder it again. Delivery days for a rebooked order would take at least 10 days and they could pull the same trick again. Fortunately, we had a small order booked for today at Wallymart for pickup, and we added all the Instacart items to it. The lot was packed and people had to wait outside in the freezing cold...we felt guilty sitting in the car waiting for the guy to fill up the trunk. Surprisingly they had almost all 30 items we ordered, just one was out of stock. I wrote to Loblaws that they lost almost $200 worth of business to Walmart, and we will never use Instacart again.

Well, we had a great outing today, actually had somewhere to go. Never saw Wallymart that busy before, I think people are bored and have to go to a store. About 10% wore masks, saw staff close together talking outside.

Re Instacart: I’ve had good, bad, and indifferent service with them. There are 7 stores in my area that use them. Right now Instacart is overwhelmed due to the sudden demand. Before all this happened they were a niche company catering to well off people with no time to shop. Now everyone wants to use them. Naturally the service is suffering as a result. I generally place 2 orders with different stores for around the same time. If one doesn’t work out (I had one newly hired shopper who couldn’t pay for the items so just left the cart in the store and went home)the other probably will be fine. It’s expensive and time-consuming but I am dealing with 1 shopper who comes to my doorstep rather than entering a store full of people and touching items handled by other people. So I’m doing it.
It isn’t your store’s fault if Instacart screws up. The stores are doing the best they can, and some of their employees have gotten sick.
Basically, I figure this is temporary, and we are all making do as best we can. I am lucky I have a large open public space with trails behind me for walking. Other than that I haven’t been out in public for 2 weeks. We do have to take the dog for her monthly shot this afternoon. It will take place in the vet’s parking lot and we will all be wearing masks (except for the dog).
I am loving Zoom though. I’ve played bridge with friends, taken online gym and yoga classes, and chatted with adult children and friends. We even had an online Zoom family Seder last night. These are strange times!

dino001 · April 2020

I've been working from home for over two weeks now, so I stay home pretty much all except going to a grocery store or sometimes other errands. I should probably get out to some kind of woods/park, but they're all officially closed, so not much to do. Getting a bit of cabin fever, especially that my mother is here. She was supposed to be visiting for a few weeks, now she's completely stranded - Poland's airspace is closed, all flight canceled till further notice.

driver100 · April 2020

imidazol97 said:
I get coffee in the morning from a clean quick market. Usually 1 other customer.

I wanted to stop for a coffee one day, but, thought why risk it....who knows what the kid is doing behind the counter. We have a Keurig, get coffee as good as the coffee places, buy the K-Cups from Costco online, free delivery. I think Keurig coffee is better than most take-out coffee.

stickguy · April 2020

Walk a few times a day. Getting our steps in! Plus gotta service the dog.

Going other places, generally 1 day per week. To Replenish supplies, from anywhere 1-4 places depending on needs and which place has what. And Friday evening food pick up.

It’s not enough out and about!

ab348 · April 2020

Michaell said:
Haven't tried any of the on-line shopping options - wife points out that introduces another set of hands onto the goods. A friend of mine who has availed himself of this takes the delivered goods, sanitizes them immediately, and puts non-perishable goods into the garage for 3 days before using it. Perishable goods go into the refrigerator or freezer.

I'm not sure that concern is warranted. No idea how often items on the shelf have been touched, plus you are dealing with cashiers who are touching all sorts of items, cards, cash and god-knows what else in the course of a shift. Plus of course whatever the risk of something actually carrying the bad thing and having it survive in open air. There is caution, and then there is something well beyond that.

I would much rather risk whatever is involved in an online order & pickup versus wandering through a busy store.

ab348 · April 2020

Michaell said:
How often are you all leaving the house? I haven't been anywhere since last Thursday, and the wife and stepdaughter last left the house a week ago, for grocery shopping. Other than that, we are home bound - had pizza delivered once.

I have made a habit of going somewhere every 3 or 4 days just to keep the battery up on the Caddy and more so to get out of the house even if I have no specific destination in mind. There are some here who say that is A Bad Thing - "what if you get in an accident, or if you have a breakdown and need a tow?" they plead - but the risk of cabin fever or depression is far worse, it seems to me. Up to now I have done a weekly/10-day online grocery order cycle and a quick visit to a smaller local store every 4 or 5 days for perishables. I have an online order which I will pick up Saturday and likely will visit the small store on Monday or Tuesday for milk, bread and veggies.

driver100 · April 2020

suydam said:

driver100 said:
I don't know if I told my Instacart experience:
Here, they get their groceries from a chain called Loblaws. We placed a large order, for us, almost $200, got a delivery date for about 10 days later. Supposed to deliver Tuesday between 6 and 8 p.m. They email at 7:45 running late, be here at 8:15 to 8:45. No problem. At 8:05 they say they can't keep up, we can either cancel our order or reorder it again. Delivery days for a rebooked order would take at least 10 days and they could pull the same trick again. Fortunately, we had a small order booked for today at Wallymart for pickup, and we added all the Instacart items to it. The lot was packed and people had to wait outside in the freezing cold...we felt guilty sitting in the car waiting for the guy to fill up the trunk. Surprisingly they had almost all 30 items we ordered, just one was out of stock. I wrote to Loblaws that they lost almost $200 worth of business to Walmart, and we will never use Instacart again.

Well, we had a great outing today, actually had somewhere to go. Never saw Wallymart that busy before, I think people are bored and have to go to a store. About 10% wore masks, saw staff close together talking outside.
It isn’t your store’s fault if Instacart screws up. The stores are doing the best they can, and some of their employees have gotten sick.

I know it isn't the stores fault that Instacart trashed our order, but Instacart doesn't have a customer service line here. I wanted the store chain to know that they should put pressure on Instacart to do better......it hurts the chains reputation and it chased me to go to the competition. It would be easier for me to forget it and move on, but, I think the store chain should know what is happening. Besides, now that I have lots of time on my hands.......

andres3 · April 2020

qbrozen said:

fintail said:
Be sure to check the origin of the product, too. Simply being shipped from a US address won't help at all. I learned this when ordering some USB charging cables that ended up being counterfeit.
I prefer to analyze the quality rather than origin. 9/10 times, there is a superior aftermarket solution. One example is Apple lightning cables. Those things are JUNK. I eventually found an aftermarket solution sold by Amazon that have been flawless and show no signs of wear after a couple years of use. Cheaper and longer than OEM cables, too.

Somehow some Apple devices are able to make some aftermarket cables not work with certain features. Found one that works for charging (most of the time), but can't connect to USB to upload to a computer.

driver100 · April 2020

ab348 said:

Michaell said:
How often are you all leaving the house? I haven't been anywhere since last Thursday, and the wife and stepdaughter last left the house a week ago, for grocery shopping. Other than that, we are home bound - had pizza delivered once.
I have made a habit of going somewhere every 3 or 4 days just to keep the battery up on the Caddy and more so to get out of the house even if I have no specific destination in mind. There are some here who say that is A Bad Thing - "what if you get in an accident, or if you have a breakdown and need a tow?" they plead - but the risk of cabin fever or depression is far worse, it seems to me.

Particularly hard on people who are single I imagine....it is hard to live with no 2 legged humans around all day.

I see in Canada at least some car insurance companies are going to give rebates because people are driving a lot less....fewer accidents. We have been back for almost 4 weeks and I have more than half a tank of gas still, normally need a fill up every 10 days.

andres3 · April 2020

snakeweasel said:

dino001 said:
COVID19 death classificaitions will be subject to studies for years. Somebody had a heart failure and Covid19 and died. If the latter significantly accelerated/triggered the failure, it's certainly valid to classify it as Covid death. If the person was on their death bed anyway and somehow got it, one might say it's not a direct cause.
Then there are all these people not attended to their illnesses due to hospitals being overrun and dying. How do we classify those people? Last thing we want is politicians deciding who is or is not a victim of this pandemic. But we all know how this will go - at the end they likely will put their dirty fingers on those reports and alter their numbers to fit whatever thesis will be in vogue. Then regular people like us will use our own sources, because at the end people believe what they want to believe. I'm not immune to that, either, albeit not for luck of trying.
25 years ago we had a heat wave here in Chicago that was supposedly responsible for over 700 deaths, they are still debating the accuracy of those numbers.

As does the debate continue on how many respiratory related deaths VW is responsible for due to "cheating" diesels on emissions.

ab348 · April 2020

fintail said:
On the mask front, maybe 2:3 were wearing one, most looked store bought. I don't have a proper one, and the ones I made are either my balaclava (with helmet for extra fun) or something I put together from a cloth napkin and rubber bands. Maybe not the best. I didn't wear either on this outing, didn't get any noticeable complaints from others. Some store workers didn't have one either.

Heh. I made one of those rubber-band ones using a cotton handkerchief the other day. Haven't dared wear it in public yet. I complained on Twitter about not being able to find masks the other day and a total stranger messaged me with an offer to make me a couple - she likes to sew and has been making them in bunches for people. I picked up two from her today, she refused any money. Unreal. Hers have a pocket sewn in where she says people are inserting paper towel, coffee filters or other paper media to add to the filtering capability.

ab348 · April 2020

driver100 said:

Well, we had a great outing today, actually had somewhere to go. Never saw Wallymart that busy before, I think people are bored and have to go to a store. About 10% wore masks, saw staff close together talking outside.

Stores are closed tomorrow and Sunday, and people are still planning to celebrate Easter in some way or another, so that explains why stores are busy.

You mentioned your experience with Instacart. I explored that but abandoned it. Locally the Loblaws stores have their own online ordering function called PC Express which works well, though you have to pick up the order at a store (they put it in your car for you so no need to enter the store).

28firefighter · April 2020

carnaught said:
What also gets people sick is poor habits and personal hygiene for which education is badly needed.

Went to Wally World this morning and also found it roped-off at the door with a restrictive and measured approach to letting people in based on the egress. Once inside it appearing relatively sparsely populated and the shelves well stocked except paper goods and that valuable and sacred toilet paper. So far, generally good.

Now the bad: essentially all the employees had no masks on, nor gloves, and there were repeated violations of the recommended six foot social distancing. As far as the patrons - I walked in with a tail older guy with a macho attitude with neither mask nor gloves who was constantly touching his face, scratching his nose and touching food items. An elderly lady had a mask on but would crab it repeatedly at the nose and shove it down, almost off, to talk on her cell phone, but then “rinse repeat” with that routine multiple times. I estimate at least 50% of the patrons did not don a mask and/or gloves. These are just a few examples of why we are failing to keep the numbers of this unprecedentedly contagious virus from increasing, perhaps the tip of the iceberg.

So, you can “Monday morning quarterback”, politicize and be a cynical pontificator about this but generally this is nothing more than lip service, and I am getting progressively more weary about this as an unhelpful and divisive “contribution” to this crisis.

The hygiene habits I see in public are absolutely astounding. They were astounding to me before, now they're just deadly.

oldfarmer50 · April 2020

Fintail said: “post your source or refrain...”

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

Hope the CDC’s alternative facts agree with yours.

andres3 · April 2020

snakeweasel said:

tjc78 said:

graphicguy said:
Thanks all. Do you have to call them to get those XM rates? I loath doing that. Or, can I do it on line and get those rates?
Unfortunately in my experience you have to call them.
When I called them I was only talking to them for less than 5 minutes. I found it easy and a bit of a pleasant experience, all i did was ask and didn't have to argue or threaten to cancel.

They used to make it very unpleasant. Never any arguing, but they'd make 3 or 4 long spiels and force you to listen to the long winded high dollar offers, where you have to say "no or no thank you" at the end, to get the next better offer.

I admit the last time I only had to say no once to get to the correct price.

nyccarguy · April 2020

driver100 said:

imidazol97 said:
I get coffee in the morning from a clean quick market. Usually 1 other customer.

I wanted to stop for a coffee one day, but, thought why risk it....who knows what the kid is doing behind the counter. We have a Keurig, get coffee as good as the coffee places, buy the K-Cups from Costco online, free delivery. I think Keurig coffee is better than most take-out coffee.

I take serious offense to this post & request it be stricken from the record.

-

oldfarmer50 · April 2020

28firefighter said:
Continuing my streak of bizarre health issues, in the middle of a global viral pandemic I have somehow picked up a bacterial infection that migrated to my chest and has caused pneumonia.

You can imagine how much fun it is trying to be seen by an actual doctor when you have any respiratory symptoms right now...

Oh man, that’s a bad break. You had a serious health scare recently. Does this have anything to do with your previous health problems?

driver100 · April 2020

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

Well, we had a great outing today, actually had somewhere to go. Never saw Wallymart that busy before, I think people are bored and have to go to a store. About 10% wore masks, saw staff close together talking outside.
Stores are closed tomorrow and Sunday, and people are still planning to celebrate Easter in some way or another, so that explains why stores are busy.

You mentioned your experience with Instacart. I explored that but abandoned it. Locally the Loblaws stores have their own online ordering function called PC Express which works well, though you have to pick up the order at a store (they put it in your car for you so no need to enter the store).

Thanks....forgot it was Easter tomorrow.....every day seems the same....no one to say it is Easter.
We have used PC Express and that works well. We have about 5 sources going, have to stagger them so you can get one or two orders a week.

BTW....this could be a bit of a breakthrough in the fight against coronavirus. They call it a game changer;
https://thepostmillennial.com/new-game-changing-app-to-manage-coronavirus-at-jewish-general-hospital

28firefighter · April 2020

oldfarmer50 said:

28firefighter said:
Continuing my streak of bizarre health issues, in the middle of a global viral pandemic I have somehow picked up a bacterial infection that migrated to my chest and has caused pneumonia.

You can imagine how much fun it is trying to be seen by an actual doctor when you have any respiratory symptoms right now...
Oh man, that’s a bad break. You had a serious health scare recently. Does this have anything to do with your previous health problems?

I had a fungal infection 3 years ago that spread from the entirety of my lungs to my kidneys and liver and nearly killed me. It’s probably not related (other than bad luck and weakened immune system), though the repeated lung trauma probably isn’t great. I’d ask the doc, but they’re not returning calls. I consider myself lucky they called in my antibiotics.

imidazol97 · April 2020

driver100 said:

imidazol97 said:
I get coffee in the morning from a clean quick market. Usually 1 other customer.

I wanted to stop for a coffee one day, but, thought why risk it....who knows what the kid is doing behind the counter. We have a Keurig, get coffee as good as the coffee places, buy the K-Cups from Costco online, free delivery. I think Keurig coffee is better than most take-out coffee.

This store brews the coffee into thermos bottles that are perhaps 2 quarts in volume. Then the customer uses the tap on the thermos type bottle to put coffee into their paper cup and mix it with any of the cappuccino or other flavored hot items they have. Clerk doesn't touch the cup. In fact, the company quit allowing refills of customer's own containers because of possiblity of cross contamination by touching the spouts on the thermos bottles. They have perhaps 8 flavors of coffee.

Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

Comments

Helpful Tools

Most popular vehicles

Your Privacy