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Random thought: Life is too short for cheap orange juice.

Thanks. For the record, there is a bottle of Patron Silver in the freezer with my name on it tonight. There is also the option of some sweet tea moonshine (not the strong stuff lol). Both were early birthday presents and will probably last two or three years because I rarely drink. I will enjoy some samples today though because that's what you're supposed to do. Besides, its a tradition and... (apologies in advance for the "language" but it's funny as "F")

And I am definitely high mileage with some busted OEM parts.

I can't put this in the joke thread because it's not really a joke, but it is sort of funny and @David will probably get it. When I lived in the Seattle area, I knew many of the areas and many suburbs, but didn't know the south end, south of Southcenter Mall and north of Tacoma, very well. I had a friend who had an investment rental property in Renton. I always looked at real estate ads. It's something I've always done. And the Kent area came up, for lower prices. So I asked him if he knew what Kent was like. This was around 2000. He said: "Put it this way. If Tonya Harding were from the Seattle area, she'd be from Kent." (I've mentally filed that away.)

School districts are fiscally out of control... but they make sure to hit the kids first with real tangible, gut checks, like 'we can't afford tissues anymore' when pleading for millions. I've railed before here about the local city high school. They tore down the existing building, moved to a new site and built a $190 MILLION dollar building "for the future leaders of the country. $190,000,000 for 2300 students, or $93,000 per student. Could only find a couple pics of the interior, but the entrance had marble flooring and stained woodwork everywhere. Expensive as hell to build. Client of mine worked there, told me the building has TWO nurseries for babies. Maybe that's indicative of the unchanged mid 70% graduation rate and the national school ranking of 10,8xx. What angers me the most is that energy-efficiency wise, the building footprint is horrible. In order to make it look absurdly upscale in a depressed city, they gave it a disproportionately high exterior surface area (TONS of jogs & levels & glass). But it was pitched 'for the children', so how dare you speak against it (I do not live in the city).

Ive got slightly more time than you to feel this way.

Happy Birthday @surreal1272! Hopefully today is stress-free (may need to stay off here! ?) and relaxing!

Would love to have travelled on it. Happy Birthday Surreal!

Happy Birthday! @surreal1272 I hope it's a great one!

Despite the 'evidence' that C&G says I am 40, I am a handful of years ahead of you, and often feel like trampled death. You know you're getting old when you open your eyes in the morning and think "OK, what's going to hurt today?'

Moderna and Pfizer both say your are at your maximum in anti-bodies for fighting Covid after 14 days. CDC says the following: “The booster shot will have a similar response as the second dose of the primary series. The highest antibody level will be around 10-14 days and then things will level off. The antibody levels will decline as it would with all vaccines, however the boosters help to stabilize the antibody levels,” Both my wife and I had no affects from the Booster nor the original 2 shot vaccine. Was a little tired the initial night and went to bed early, but fine after that.

Or is it simply a more accessible 'luxury brand' credit wise........ Hyundai and Kia dealers seem to offer easier entry to new car leasing and sales than the longer established brands. Genesis is just a way to extend that to the luxury brand set. Meh, Hyundai Kia Genesis still has that faux look to me. Kind of like buying 'off brand' stereo equipment.

Interesting question, tho the answer is probably 'it varies from person to person'. Got our boosters yesterday. I've had no issues now (1.5 days after), wife had marked soreness at injection site and her joints ached. She took ibuprofen today and went to sleep early.

I believe people are deluding themselves that they're going to see ONLY battery-electric vehicles on the road in their lifetime. The NYState 2035 'ban' is only on new, light-duty vehicle sales. Medium & HD are still permitted (until 2045). And existing IC vehicles are still permitted (indefinately). As of 2019, there are about 12.1 million registered drivers with 4.5 million vehicles registered in NYS. [Frankly; that seems strangely low- NJ has 6.3M drivers and 2.8M vehicles. There's 11M people living outside NYC). NYS is about 6% of the new car UDSM (900K units on a 15M unit year). BE vehicles are about 3% of all new vehicle sales (27K in NYS). Assuming a market share climb of even 2%/yr (which would be unprecedented), BE's would only have a 30% market share in NY 'naturally' by 2035. What no one knows is what consumers will do come 2035- will they 'binge' on IC in the years before, and will new vehicle sales see a sharp downturn in 2035? Will the average lifespan of 11 or 12 years maintain that depressed sales state until 2047? No one knows. But the NYS Gov claims NY would see a 85% reduction in state greenhouse emissions, despite transportation (vehicles AND planes AND rail AND trucks) being only an estimated 29% of greenhouse gas emissions. How they hell did they come up with "85%"????

Ive got lots of miles on this frame myself. Lots of partying. Lots of alcohol. Weekend alchy if you will. No drugs though! Although alcohol is a drug too. Banged up knees playing sports. Hockey and skiing. Yes, skiing. I dont know how sous-bois is called in English, but its a ski run with trees in the run at the side of the ski hill and Ive wrecked my knee by stopping thanx to a tree... with my knee. Damaging that knee further by getting body checked (playing hockey) and the target was that right knee. Eventually, reconstructive knee surgery was made because there was no ligaments and tendons holding my knee in its socket. Not too mention the hard hard work of doing 70-80-90-100 hour work weeks at the restaurant when the restaurant was at its infancy. But knock on wood, I fell great! Although 50 is right around the corner for me too, I feel like Im, well, maybe not 20, but at max 32. But Im still like a child in my heart!

IT's not the age but the miles!

Life is too short for orange juice.

So True, save and enjoy the best when you have it, never go cheap, the experience is such a letdown. After skiing yesterday, enjoyed a both of Cab Sauv 2014 from one of my favorite wineries while watching a movie. Great way to relax after a awesome day of pounding the slopes.

I'll defend the dealership model just a tiny bit here as one of my buddies works at one and he told me this a couple weeks ago and I thought it was really awesome. So we all know the markups on new vehicles (MARKET ADJUSTMENT) on some pretty common/basic vehicles. He was telling me how they won't mark any vehicle up to anybody who's local to us (not sure what kind of radius he's talking) but if somebody is calling from Chicago looking for a Tahoe or Silverado that they have in stock, they mark those up. They don't want to piss up their local customers who have been buying from them for years or will be buying from them for years to come. I just thought this was a pretty cool thing because they could mark things up across the board and still sell them but they won't for their local clientele. When do you want your vehicle? If you're wanting something now or even within the next month or two, you don't have much of a choice. I'd wager to say the vast majority of the buying public are not willing to wait it out like you did or I would to get exactly what I want AND for the best price. These people who don't care about debt just see $40/month instead of $3,000. Ignorance is bliss and the general public is really freakin stupid and terrible with money.

100% the same! As recently as two months ago, I was diagnosed with two herniated discs in the L3 to L5 area, a small "normal" fracture in my L2, and discovered that I have congenital spinal stenosis, which explains a whole lot lol. That was from just one MRI and thats just for starters. That is the result of being the most rigid person on earth (my fingers have never been able to bend back like just about everyone else) and having no regard for body for the first 46 years of my life. Just told someone that yes, I am 49 today but 50 is looking at me like...

@surreal1272 Happy B-Day Old Man, I got ya beat by 5 years. 54 isn't bad, Like @balthazar I do wake up and wonder what body parts are gonna hurt, but today was day 5 of ski season, nailed 16 miles of skiing, so not too bad on this old body. For you, a young 49, Keep Rocking life to the fullest, have a great drink, dinner and after dinner drink and enjoy the perks of another year of Life on this big blue marble!

Carvana and all like it are not long for this world because they are a joke in clown shoes. I'm with @smk4565 on this one. There have a few stories (industry related) that confirm this. I know you're a dealership fan but that is simply a fact that many folks have viewed dealerships as a failed model in the 21st century. Just saying.

In honour of National Lampoons Christmas vacation. The year goes by and I always forget that a baby blue Continental is quietly parked slightly out of frame minding its own business until l I see the movie again. I get all giddy looking at it and New Year's Day comes along and I forget the car until... the following year. And the cycle continues... And yeah, Im watching the movie with my wife right now as I type this. I gotta say, its my favorite XMAS movie.

like I said... A used car dealership or a private sale WILL be asking 10 grand for a Camry. Only a blind, Toyoter fool will fork over that money for one. HOWEVER, the dealership on a trade will NEVER buy a used Camry for that much... $10K for a Hybrid Camry with 130-165 k miles? The dealership will offer to buy that car for 5 thousand... And not a penny more. Will probably put it up for sale for $12K... I wont buy it. Balthazar will certainly not buy it. But a blind Toyoter faithful lapdog certainly will. The Camry will fall apart on him the very next day, but the fool will certainly ignore the problems and will praise it. And the reason being is because he had an uncle back in the day 40 years ago in '81 who bought a Chevy and the radio knob fell off and therefore he swore off American cars forever...

Commemorative pistons given to employees in Plant 9, following the discontinuation of Pontiac V8 production. 14 million+ Pontiac V8s.

I found this photo and it was incorrectly captioned as the "Andrea Doria." It is not. It was the replacement for the "Doria," the "Leonardo da VincI," upon seeing a few lounges with picture windows all across the lower part of the forecastle. This might even be its maiden arrival to New York, with the fireboats spraying water and other watercraft remaining downriver by the Statue of Liberty. There are also more tugs than needed and a helicopter circling above. It served from 1960 to 1978. And it got repainted with the new white Italian Line livery, with the green stripe and hull, after about 5 or 6 years of being in service. And I was on it as a toddler on an eastbound crossing out of NYC. I don't remember a thing. But those were the days.

I would fit into those miatas I love so well had I not discovered Italian food during Ohio winters. ' Thankfully most Greek food is quite healthy. Merry Christmas...

I also like Mexican and Cuban food. I had a Cuban sandwich tonight. Definitely add Portuguese food to the list for me. Casual French, if there is such a thing, is so hard to find that French food is almost like an anomaly to me. What I've had has been delicious. Of the Asian cuisines, only Cantonese and Japanese for me. But these stack up quite a ways away from the ones I've mentioned. @Robert Hall I'm swapping out Greek for Mexican on my list compared to yours, so I'm not that far off. I never tire of my Top 3.

People keep saying that Genesis is doing better than ever. Which cars/crossovers/trucks/SUVs are being traded in for Genesis vehicles? Is Genesis really conquering customers from other luxury marques OR is Genesis netting customers coming from more mainstream brands?

Even though I am a 'tech guy', I have no interest in opening or starting my car w/ my phone. I don't need to connect to everything via my phone, I don't mind carrying the key fob. When I leave my house, I always have my wallet, phone and car key & house key. I do like the way my Jeep unlocks when I grab the door handle w/ the fob in my pocket and the push button start is fine. I keep my phone locked and unlock w/ a finger print, don't need face recognition. But the younger digital native resource units probably find keys to be an antiquated concept and want to control everything via their phone or smart watch. So face recognition for opening a car or starting it is for them...

Online sales snapshot; works OK when tiny/starting up, but problems multiply with growth.

^ Built in 2010. Today that would be $230M. 407,000 square feet (average Home Depot : 105K SF) for 2300 students. Zero improvement in graduation rates. Ranked 287 out of 339 NJ high schools. Because, you see; it's not buildings that teach students. It was orchestrated thru a State-run "Schools Construction Corp", so you KNOW it was rife with waste & corruption. This Corp was a result of a State Supreme Court finding stating that "students in the poorest city schools should have the buildings and resources [meaning; the buildings] comparable to those in the wealthiest suburbs." In other words, a vanity project. Because [see above comment about buildings]. To that point: a 2005 State audit found the Corp was susceptible to "mismanagement, fiscal malfeasance, conflicts of interest and waste, fraud & abuse of taxpayer funds". You don't say. The new 'failed model' for car sales- online 'dealers'?? ?