General Chat Thread - Please Participate
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Mission accomplished. Here it is, looking more shiny and pristine than it ever will again in its lifetime:
It's a 2024 Honda CRV Sport Hybrid (AWD).
My car "philosophy", if that's a thing, is to buy new and keep for a long time. I'm no mechanic, so I'm reassured by knowing that what I'm driving hasn't been abused or under-maintained. I'd had the previous car (2009 Toyota RAV4) for about 15 years, and I'd still be driving it - probably for several more years - if I hadn't crunched it, or the insurance company hadn't totaled it. I'm not careful with my cars cosmetically, but am careful about functional maintenance. There's a non-zero chance that this could be my last car ever, if I don't repeat the RAV's early demise.
@mtaratoot, if anything, I think I wore the dealer/sales guy down, or out.
Once I decided on a make and approximate model, I was pushing for speedy resolution. This morning, I called for a "can we make a deal" appointment, which was at 1PM. By their 6PM close (OK, 6:03), I was driving out in it, though I'll have to go back for a couple of things, like roof rack rails they didn't have in stock. There were a lot of steps in there, given the financing, insurance, rental car, etc.
Also, I'm a very curious woman (probably in multiple senses). I ask very, very many questions, some of them unfair, and apparently some of them . . . statistically unusual? They (sales guy & manager) did try hard to answer, I'll give them that. They were good to work with, not pushy. I went in with the best idea I could get online of how much I might be able to negotiate on this thing that's a very popular vehicle, was assertive, and I feel like I got a decent result. I got little extra, don't know whether I could've gotten more by being a jerk, but I won't do that.
I couldn't be happier to be out of the rental Nissan Sentra, for reasons I mentioned in my PP. Not the car for me! Buh-bye to that, with enthusiasm.
I (well, husband and I) had a Honda a few cars back, and I liked it. I hope I'm going to like this one, too. For sure, given the radical changes in cars since 2009, the owner's manual will be bedtime reading for a while.
Looks very good. Pre=divorce I bought a 2011 Toyota Tundra and I loved it... 8 years later, I crashed the Tundra. I went back to the dealership where I got the 2011, explained what had happened... and got basically the exact same truck 2019 model... Year 5 of ownership and I'm loving it too. Toyota added a few more bells and whistles... I prefer basic, actually... but it's solid, quiet and reliable.
Another RAV4 was also on my shortest short list. Honestly, one of the biggest factors was that the local Honda dealer had several CRVs (various trim levels) on the lot and available, but local Toyota needed to swap with a sister shop a ways down the road to even get one I could see in person. I would've been happy to own either make, but because I valued speed (of the deal, not the vehicle) in this case, Honda won out.
Insurance company was covering the rental Sentra through Monday, and I could've kept it for around $31/day afterward, but I really wanted to be out of that scull-bruising, limited-vision, back-paining, cute sporty blue thing that I couldn't even put my bike in if I needed to. 1 -
Mission accomplished. Here it is, looking more shiny and pristine than it ever will again in its lifetime:
Honda makes very good automobiles. I know people who won't drive anything else. I've been a Toyota person since 1987 when I bought a ten year old Celica. I would be happy to drive a Honda automobile, but maybe not a truck, although they seem to even be making good trucks these days.
I'm happy for you that you can close the book on this chapter, although I wish you didn't have to let the older car go. I'm with you on the buy once cry once. I never EVER thought I'd buy a new vehicle. I looked for years to find my truck. I found a couple that were close. I found one REALLY close, but there was a brand new one next to it for "only" a thousand dollars more. I took that one and took very good care of it mechanically. I always tell my mechanic, "There's nothing wrong with my truck; that's why I'm bringing it in."
My ex was considering a CRV. There were a few things she liked better about the RAV. I'm sure you'll love the new car. Enjoy it. If you ever buy another car, it won't be liquid fueled. I may buy one more liquid fueled vehicle if I have to replace the truck. After that, it will be motors at the wheels and no engine.
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Mission accomplished. Here it is, looking more shiny and pristine than it ever will again in its lifetime:
Honda makes very good automobiles. I know people who won't drive anything else. I've been a Toyota person since 1987 when I bought a ten year old Celica. I would be happy to drive a Honda automobile, but maybe not a truck, although they seem to even be making good trucks these days.
I'm happy for you that you can close the book on this chapter, although I wish you didn't have to let the older car go. I'm with you on the buy once cry once. I never EVER thought I'd buy a new vehicle. I looked for years to find my truck. I found a couple that were close. I found one REALLY close, but there was a brand new one next to it for "only" a thousand dollars more. I took that one and took very good care of it mechanically. I always tell my mechanic, "There's nothing wrong with my truck; that's why I'm bringing it in."
My ex was considering a CRV. There were a few things she liked better about the RAV. I'm sure you'll love the new car. Enjoy it. If you ever buy another car, it won't be liquid fueled. I may buy one more liquid fueled vehicle if I have to replace the truck. After that, it will be motors at the wheels and no engine.
I was hoping I could hold onto the RAV long enough that full electric would be a more viable choice for someone with my vehicle needs, as well as when the support infrastructure is more built-out in the US. I really don't want to own two vehicles, one for local without boats and such, another for long trips and hauling inconveniently-shaped things. (I'm not saying I think it's wrong for others to have 2, just that it's not my jam. After my husband died, I had a full-sized (old school full sized ) pickup truck plus a car for a while, and it was more trouble than help for me, so I sold the truck. It was a relief.)
I think I will like the hybrid. I think I've put around 30-something miles on it, maybe 40, mostly non-liquid-fueled.
So far, so good.
Today, I figured out the basics of Android Auto. Amusing (to me) moment when I went to Best Buy to quickly pick up what my phone said was needed: A USB-A to USB-C cable that was 3' or less long, and that had been USB-IF certified within the last two years. I was standing in the aisle at BB with my phone in one hand and a cable box in the other, and asked a young man in a blue shirt to help me. I was puzzling over the "last 2 years" part, and couldn't find their cable on the USB-IF online certification list at usb.org.
I won't belabor the whole kind of lengthy conversation in which he politely asked me multiple questions I already knew the answers to, and kindly told me less than I'd already figured out.
Finally, I decided to buy the $6 cable, and see if it worked. (He did tell me I could return it within 5 days if it didn't work, which was helpful. Other than that, he'd genuinely tried. ) Thanking him as I walked away, I said "You probably didn't expect me to ask that question". With a certain amount of sincere emphasis, he said that he did not.
The cable worked.
I do have one small bump: I asked the dealer for a 2" hitch to accommodate my Thule multi-bike rack, and they mixed a hitch into the deal. That seemed easier than going to aftermarked, as I'd done with the RAV. When I got the car home, I realized they'd given me a 1.25" hitch. Oops. I emailed, they were good, but they don't have a 2" hitch assembly, though they have a 2" adaptor for the 1.25" hitch. We'll see if that works. Hope so, otherwise we'll need to talk.
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Mission accomplished. Here it is, looking more shiny and pristine than it ever will again in its lifetime:
Honda makes very good automobiles. I know people who won't drive anything else. I've been a Toyota person since 1987 when I bought a ten year old Celica. I would be happy to drive a Honda automobile, but maybe not a truck, although they seem to even be making good trucks these days.
I'm happy for you that you can close the book on this chapter, although I wish you didn't have to let the older car go. I'm with you on the buy once cry once. I never EVER thought I'd buy a new vehicle. I looked for years to find my truck. I found a couple that were close. I found one REALLY close, but there was a brand new one next to it for "only" a thousand dollars more. I took that one and took very good care of it mechanically. I always tell my mechanic, "There's nothing wrong with my truck; that's why I'm bringing it in."
My ex was considering a CRV. There were a few things she liked better about the RAV. I'm sure you'll love the new car. Enjoy it. If you ever buy another car, it won't be liquid fueled. I may buy one more liquid fueled vehicle if I have to replace the truck. After that, it will be motors at the wheels and no engine.
I was hoping I could hold onto the RAV long enough that full electric would be a more viable choice for someone with my vehicle needs, as well as when the support infrastructure is more built-out in the US. I really don't want to own two vehicles, one for local without boats and such, another for long trips and hauling inconveniently-shaped things. (I'm not saying I think it's wrong for others to have 2, just that it's not my jam. After my husband died, I had a full-sized (old school full sized ) pickup truck plus a car for a while, and it was more trouble than help for me, so I sold the truck. It was a relief.)
I think I will like the hybrid. I think I've put around 30-something miles on it, maybe 40, mostly non-liquid-fueled. So far, so good.
Today, I figured out the basics of Android Auto. Amusing (to me) moment when I went to Best Buy to quickly pick up what my phone said was needed: A USB-A to USB-C cable that was 3' or less long, and that had been USB-IF certified within the last two years. I was standing in the aisle at BB with my phone in one hand and a cable box in the other, and asked a young man in a blue shirt to help me. I was puzzling over the "last 2 years" part, and couldn't find their cable on the USB-IF online certification list at usb.org.
I won't belabor the whole kind of lengthy conversation in which he politely asked me multiple questions I already knew the answers to, and kindly told me less than I'd already figured out.
Finally, I decided to buy the $6 cable, and see if it worked. (He did tell me I could return it within 5 days if it didn't work, which was helpful. Other than that, he'd genuinely tried. ) Thanking him as I walked away, I said "You probably didn't expect me to ask that question". With a certain amount of sincere emphasis, he said that he did not.
The cable worked.
I do have one small bump: I asked the dealer for a 2" hitch to accommodate my Thule multi-bike rack, and they mixed a hitch into the deal. That seemed easier than going to aftermarked, as I'd done with the RAV. When I got the car home, I realized they'd given me a 1.25" hitch. Oops. I emailed, they were good, but they don't have a 2" hitch assembly, though they have a 2" adaptor for the 1.25" hitch. We'll see if that works. Hope so, otherwise we'll need to talk.
Get the 2" hitch, not an adapter. Even if you don't need a Class 3 hitch, why not get one if that's what it was supposed to be? They are beefier and will tow 5000 pounds with more tongue weight than a Class 2 hitch. My RAV4 is only rated to tow 3500 pounds, but it's got a Class 3 hitch on it. Fits my trailer. Fits my bike rack.
I have some guilt about having two vehicles. If I had to pare down to one, I think I'd keep the 27 year old truck rather than the 12 year old RAV. That said, it was very nice to drive the RAV today to go hiking. And it was good hiking. Lots of wildflowers and lots of waterfalls. Well, ten waterfalls. I can list some of the wildflowers. Sadly, one that was very widespread may be an exotic invasive.0 -
Mission accomplished. Here it is, looking more shiny and pristine than it ever will again in its lifetime:
Honda makes very good automobiles. I know people who won't drive anything else. I've been a Toyota person since 1987 when I bought a ten year old Celica. I would be happy to drive a Honda automobile, but maybe not a truck, although they seem to even be making good trucks these days.
I'm happy for you that you can close the book on this chapter, although I wish you didn't have to let the older car go. I'm with you on the buy once cry once. I never EVER thought I'd buy a new vehicle. I looked for years to find my truck. I found a couple that were close. I found one REALLY close, but there was a brand new one next to it for "only" a thousand dollars more. I took that one and took very good care of it mechanically. I always tell my mechanic, "There's nothing wrong with my truck; that's why I'm bringing it in."
My ex was considering a CRV. There were a few things she liked better about the RAV. I'm sure you'll love the new car. Enjoy it. If you ever buy another car, it won't be liquid fueled. I may buy one more liquid fueled vehicle if I have to replace the truck. After that, it will be motors at the wheels and no engine.
I was hoping I could hold onto the RAV long enough that full electric would be a more viable choice for someone with my vehicle needs, as well as when the support infrastructure is more built-out in the US. I really don't want to own two vehicles, one for local without boats and such, another for long trips and hauling inconveniently-shaped things. (I'm not saying I think it's wrong for others to have 2, just that it's not my jam. After my husband died, I had a full-sized (old school full sized ) pickup truck plus a car for a while, and it was more trouble than help for me, so I sold the truck. It was a relief.)
I think I will like the hybrid. I think I've put around 30-something miles on it, maybe 40, mostly non-liquid-fueled. So far, so good.
Today, I figured out the basics of Android Auto. Amusing (to me) moment when I went to Best Buy to quickly pick up what my phone said was needed: A USB-A to USB-C cable that was 3' or less long, and that had been USB-IF certified within the last two years. I was standing in the aisle at BB with my phone in one hand and a cable box in the other, and asked a young man in a blue shirt to help me. I was puzzling over the "last 2 years" part, and couldn't find their cable on the USB-IF online certification list at usb.org.
I won't belabor the whole kind of lengthy conversation in which he politely asked me multiple questions I already knew the answers to, and kindly told me less than I'd already figured out.
Finally, I decided to buy the $6 cable, and see if it worked. (He did tell me I could return it within 5 days if it didn't work, which was helpful. Other than that, he'd genuinely tried. ) Thanking him as I walked away, I said "You probably didn't expect me to ask that question". With a certain amount of sincere emphasis, he said that he did not.
The cable worked.
I do have one small bump: I asked the dealer for a 2" hitch to accommodate my Thule multi-bike rack, and they mixed a hitch into the deal. That seemed easier than going to aftermarked, as I'd done with the RAV. When I got the car home, I realized they'd given me a 1.25" hitch. Oops. I emailed, they were good, but they don't have a 2" hitch assembly, though they have a 2" adaptor for the 1.25" hitch. We'll see if that works. Hope so, otherwise we'll need to talk.
Get the 2" hitch, not an adapter. Even if you don't need a Class 3 hitch, why not get one if that's what it was supposed to be? They are beefier and will tow 5000 pounds with more tongue weight than a Class 2 hitch. My RAV4 is only rated to tow 3500 pounds, but it's got a Class 3 hitch on it. Fits my trailer. Fits my bike rack.
I have some guilt about having two vehicles. If I had to pare down to one, I think I'd keep the 27 year old truck rather than the 12 year old RAV. That said, it was very nice to drive the RAV today to go hiking. And it was good hiking. Lots of wildflowers and lots of waterfalls. Well, ten waterfalls. I can list some of the wildflowers. Sadly, one that was very widespread may be an exotic invasive.
I don't tow at this time. I just need to mount my bike rack. The vehicle itself will only tow 1000 pounds.
At this point, I just want to get through this very much unplanned phase and back to my regularly-scheduled life. On-water season is imminent. I'll be the open rowing coordinator this season. I have many yard, garden, home and other rowing club chores. I'm still feeling fatigued as a generality, possibly related to the mystery health condition.
This is sub-optimal decision making on my part, and I know it. I don't really care, TBH. 🤷 If I'd known up front they couldn't do 2", I would've skipped it and gone aftermarket. Probably not right away, either. There are other irons in the fire, trying to finalize lawn and some other services from the same company for this season, a forced change in internet provider (probably twice within a couple of months), the health weirdness follow-up, starting to find contractors for $$$$ home repairs/improvements, and more. I feel overwhelmed.
I don't think this is the dealer wearing me down, either . . . because details. I think it was a sincere error on the sales guy's part, fumble in the handoff to the service department, because I was pressing super hard for them to get that car ready to go very fast. All of this was happening on Thursday between between 1PM and 6PM, after my first walk-in visit to that dealer on Wednesday afternoon.
If the bike rack works, I'll be fine. If not, I'll make them take it off and give me back $$.
BTW, you posted a nice pink wildflower on the workout thread elsewhere. What is that? It looks vaguely pea family, but I'm a bad botanist. ETA: NVM, on your other post in this group, I see that it's a less obvious view of a nice bleeding heart, poppy family.
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BTW, you posted a nice pink wildflower on the workout thread elsewhere. What is that? It looks vaguely pea family, but I'm a bad botanist. ETA: NVM, on your other post in this group, I see that it's a less obvious view of a nice bleeding heart, poppy family.
It had leaves that reminded me of a cross between Bleeding Heart and Columbine. I didn't recognize it. A friend thought it might be an impatiens that has become invasive. It didn't look like an invasive to me.
I did a search for "Wildflowers of Silver Falls" and found out that it's Corydalis scouleri. Turns out it IS related to Bleeding Heart. It's in the poppy family.
I took some pictures of the first few I saw. Little did I know they would be ubiquitous throughout the day. It makes me want to go back over time to see how different flowers pop out - kind of like I did on Marys Peak last year. I did that hike once a week. I don't think I'll do this one weekly. I'll pick rainy weekdays to avoid the crowds.
I posted the all the pictures from my hike on the "Outdoor Exercise" discussion here on our Over 50 group. Since you asked, I grabbed the URLs for the two pictures of that Corydalis and copied them below:
There were also scads of bleeding hearts blooming. Some skunk cabbage were starting to bloom. Other things in bloom were salmonberry, Oregon grape, chocolate lily, fawn lily (a.k.a. trout lily, a.k.a. dogtooth violet), candyflower, star false-Solomon's seal, false Solomon's seal, fairy bells, wood sorrel, miner's lettuce, false lily of the valley, elderberry, wood violet, pearly everlasting, trillium, and snow queen. I had to look up the snow queen. They are very cute, but I didn't know what the heck they were.
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I'm glad I asked then, since I'd identified incorrectly. (Not surprising .)
You're still ahead of where we are here Spring-wise, though we only have partial overlap in common wildflowers. No fawn lily (which I'd usually call trout lily by common name) here yet, though it's been a few days since I've been anywhere they're plentiful.
One of the joys in my current semi-chaos is the view from my living room. I live in a weird house, all main living areas on the 2nd floor. (Previous owner brought in a house mover, raised the house off a crawl space to make a full-height basement. Not an ideal plan!) The photos below are taken outside on my front 2nd-floor deck, outside the living room. (I tried a photo from inside, but the houseplants - especially a multi-feet ranging Hoya - obscure the camera's view/exposure. )
There's a dogwood (obviously), and behind it some kind of pink fluffy ornamental Prunus sp. (can't recall whether they called it a cherry or plum, same genus either way, was here when we bought). Looking straight down from the deck, there's an amazing fragrant Viburnum. Realizing when I went out that it's quite warm, I've opened a living room window so the scent can waft in. The scent reaches many tens of feet outdoors, and will come indoors freely as well.
These are among the things that make my Spring happy.
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P.S. I'm irrationally fond of skunk cabbage blooms. So strange looking, but I often have trouble finding the right place at the right time, here.
For your amusement (I hope) and possible puzzlement, and in the spirit of making "general chat" verrrry general, I'll share a page from my visual journal where Richard Burton somehow inhabited a stylized skunk cabbage bloom.
This nonsense was from a workshop where the plan was to work in the style of a mixed media journaling artist who does mostly sepia-toned "gardens" of ancestor photos (or faux ancestors). I'm not good about following other people's rules, so mine turned out colorful, and (on this page) cinema-centric. There's another page, similarly colorful, where I did Federal Reserve Board members.
And yes, I probably had too much free time then. 1 -
Worked on the new boat, had a steel horse ride to work for an hour, hanging out on the patio with the little lions in their new catio, and today I serviced and tuned up the one geezer powered steel horse. I’m five pounds away from my 20 YO weight, and fittest I’ve been in 40 years. So far, 68 ain’t bad.
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Good show, @Farback!
Recreational bike rides also increased for me during retirement, especially much so during the pandemic, because spin classes ended for a long time; double especially when my rowing club was closed temporarily (indoor facility in a public park, city rules); and biking has stayed in the picture since, because . . . fun. 1 -
Some skinny old dude I saw at the firehall gym.
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