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Ok, accidentally offering someone pound cake while naked is friggin' hilarious.
I had a pretty good time buying my car i knew I was buying a car, the bank knew I was, and so did the salesman.
Literally, the only question I needed to ask was "Does it come in black?"
It did! So an hour later I rolled off the lot in my new Batmobile.
Only hiccups was Geico was pissed because I had let our insurance lapse, on account of not having a drivable car for 2 years and wouldn't let me start it up again without being put on hold for an obnoxious amount of time (I gave up after a half hour and switched to a different insurance).
I had a pretty good time buying my car i knew I was buying a car, the bank knew I was, and so did the salesman.
Literally, the only question I needed to ask was "Does it come in black?"
It did! So an hour later I rolled off the lot in my new Batmobile.
Only hiccups was Geico was pissed because I had let our insurance lapse, on account of not having a drivable car for 2 years and wouldn't let me start it up again without being put on hold for an obnoxious amount of time (I gave up after a half hour and switched to a different insurance).
Yeah. Shiro's experience was amazingly pain-free. Simply, "I want this car, and I want to pay sticker price."
"OK.""We're done."
There is something about my aura that salespeople cannot comprehend that's what I want, so I get stuck spending hours at the dealership while the salesman tries to "get me a deal".
It's like, "No. There's a price tag on the fricking car. I will pay that. Stop what you're doing, let me buy the car, and I'll be on my way."
And it has never happened for me.
Oh, and update on the Lowe's idiocy: My time limit finally ran out so a human being had to go to the cubby (or whatever) to put the stuff back on the shelves and found that it was gone.
Presumably then a human went through all the communications and was like, "WTF?"
Because I finally got an email from a human apologizing for the mistake and the whole thing got closed out and I got charged. Only HOW many weeks after I actually picked the stuff up?
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And perhaps that's what baffles/irritates me the most about car sales. In the U.S., the "big three" expected lifetime expenses for a resident are:
(1) A home. When you buy a home, you first get your financing in order. Then you start visiting houses you may be interested in and you put bids in on the ones you want. The sellers review the bids and if you're lucky they select you. Then there's a weekslong process of getting all the paperwork in order before the final sale goes through. The process start-to-finish takes months.
(2) College. Not everyone goes, for those who do it's very similar: Spend weeks or even months touring campuses and applying to the colleges you want to attend. Once you're accepted, you apply for scholarships and financial aid to work out how you're going to pay for it. Honestly, from my experience getting into and paying for college take even longer than buying a house.
(3) Cars. When you decide to buy a car, the moment you step on the lot the attitude is a high-pressure, "What can I possibly do to get you to buy a car today?" sales pitch. They are well-trained in psychological torture techniques; as I told the kids, they will try to get something of yours (your driver's license is the classic), then tell you they "just need to run a credit check" or whatever, and then they will use stalling tactics for HOURS, leaving you alone in undecorated rooms, standing around the shop while they "talk to [their] managers", or what-have-you, just to force you to be stuck at the dealership for hours until you either cave and agree to buy a car, or call the police to force them to give you your driver's license back. As Shiro and Captain Yesterday pointed out, if you're already showing up fully financed and ready to buy it can be a quick and easy trip, but even Shiro had to go to three separate dealerships before he could escape.
The whole idea of, "This is one of the biggest purchases you'll make in your lifetime! Do it quick!" is anathema to me.
Yesterday's sales guy literally rolled his eyes when I told him I expected buying a new car to be a monthslong process and he asked, "What if I can get you the car tomorrow?" and I responded, "I wouldn't take it, so back off."
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Fantasy Monster: Clockwork Plower
I started to wonder how a clockwork farmer would look like, and ended with a mechanical elk that uses its antlers as a plow...
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(3) Cars. When you decide to buy a car, the moment you step on the lot the attitude is a high-pressure, "What can I possibly do to get you to buy a car today?" sales pitch. They are well-trained in psychological torture techniques; as I told the kids, they will try to get something of yours (your driver's license is the classic), then tell you they "just need to run a credit check" or whatever, and then they will use stalling tactics for HOURS, leaving you alone in undecorated rooms, standing around the shop while they "talk to [their] managers", or what-have-you, just to force you to be stuck at the dealership for hours until you either cave and agree to buy a car, or call the police to force them to give you your driver's license back. As Shiro and Captain Yesterday pointed out, if you're already showing up fully financed and ready to buy it can be a quick and easy trip, but even Shiro had to go to three separate dealerships before he could escape.
The whole idea of, "This is one of the biggest purchases you'll make in your lifetime! Do it quick!" is anathema to me....
A hidden perk of not having a driving license is not having to deal with that crap.
Well, interesting data point: GothBard spent a year as a saleswoman of luxury items costing thousands of dollars each. She was exactly the kind of honest, conscientious saleswoman I yearn for. "Yeah, it's a big purchase, so you should think about it. Here are the financing options we have available. Take your time and let me know when you're ready to buy."
She sold exactly -0- items and was fired.
In the meantime she watched sleazebag sales guys using every pressure tactic in the book selling multiple items a day; sometimes over a dozen in a day at their expos.
So in spite of everyone claiming that they hate high-pressure sales tactics, the salespeople who don't use them are quickly winnowed out of the industry.
In that light, the guy who worked with us yesterday was pretty d**ned mellow.
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When we picked up the Corolla for Cyz in 2010, I had paid a couple hundred dollars for an advisor online. (One of those 'here is my technique' book kind of thing, probably not worth it but getting the knowledge wasn't bad, if overpriced.) The idea was "Figure out what car and options you want, then call the dealerships around you and ask for the quote up front. You don't go to the lot until you have found someone with the car you want and the price you want." We drove out in like an hour with their financing, I think. It's dropped off my credit report by now.
When we picked up the Rav in 2018, we went to the lot of the closest dealership with a preapproved financing from USAA. They said they could get us a better rate and kept us there four hours while they did whatever they did. I hope to be in a better place the next time we look to purchase a replacement, because that was horrible.
When we picked up the Corolla for Cyz in 2010, I had paid a couple hundred dollars for an advisor online. (One of those 'here is my technique' book kind of thing, probably not worth it but getting the knowledge wasn't bad, if overpriced.) The idea was "Figure out what car and options you want, then call the dealerships around you and ask for the quote up front. You don't go to the lot until you have found someone with the car you want and the price you want." We drove out in like an hour with their financing, I think. It's dropped off my credit report by now.
When we picked up the Rav in 2018, we went to the lot of the closest dealership with a preapproved financing from USAA. They said they could get us a better rate and kept us there four hours while they did whatever they did. I hope to be in a better place the next time we look to purchase a replacement, because that was horrible.
Yeah. Shiro says pretty much the same thing: You don't talk anything with the salesperson until you have a "walk out the door" price. If they won't give that to you in writing within the first 15 minutes, you go to a different dealership.
And yeah, financing is their HUGE money maker so you want to avoid it if at all possible. Because yeah, even if you have financing from someone else they'll try to tell you they can do better and use the "keep the customers prisoners for hours until they break" technique to get you to accept theirs.
Fortunately, I'm in a financial situation where I can walk onto a lot, point at the sticker, and say, "Remove the dealer markup, add the 10.25% local sales tax, that amounts to $x and I'll write you a check for that right now. So can we leave yet?"
And in my entire lifetime we've met *one* saleswoman (Shiro's) who said, "Wow! That's a great commission for me! Sure thing!"
Every other salesperson has tried to wheel and deal something better for themselves. And every single one of them has lost money on it.
That was the annoying part, I literally said yes to their financing immediately. I can only guess the four hours was because it was after 5PM and their underwriters were off the clock or something.
As I've said, back in 1996 when we bought the Celica we told them we were paying cash, we told them we'd pay the price we'd already agreed on, and we were still there for six hours. I've seen at least half a dozen "exposés" that this is standard practice at dealerships to try to upsell useless crap (underbody treatment in California, interior coating, alarm systems in the bad old days). Basically sit you there for hour after hour after you've agreed on a price and saying, "Oh, by the way, have you considered this upgrade?"
In other unsurprising news of things I hate: Political bureaucrats.
I'm dropping GothBard off for another business trip. This one's to L.A. so she's flying out of Oakland. Oakland International Airport.
Whoops. Doesn't show up on Google Maps any more. What?
Oh, it's now, "Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport", which isn't confusing as h*** or anything. Yes, I'd heard about all the fooferal around the renaming because, "People don't know that Oakland is in the Bay Area right along with San Francisco and San Jose." I'd heard that San Francisco International Airport had sued because they argued the name would confuse travelers.
They lost the suit, but gosh darn it they were right. I hate the new name.
Random thought after misreading a word in an unsolicited ad on Snouttome...
The thing I’ve run into at vehicle dealerships is the hard sell of extended warranties.
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I think part of the reason for the push for same day is that there are a lot of people that actually do need to do car purchases ASAP or they risk losing their jobs and their ability to buy a car to get to the job.
I'm also going through the pains of car shopping right now. Luckily I don't need it right away. Unfortunately I have minimal idea of what i want so I've been going to various dealerships to test drive things.
I think part of the reason for the push for same day is that there are a lot of people that actually do need to do car purchases ASAP or they risk losing their jobs and their ability to buy a car to get to the job.
If it were the buyers pushing for same-day I'd say that's a solid argument. But it's the sellers. And, as GothBard learned, if you let people stop and think about major purchases they're far less likely to pull the trigger until they've done more research. So, people come onto the lot just to do a test drive and find out what they want. It's much more likely to force a sale on them if you can trap them and make them make a decision that day.
I'm also going through the pains of car shopping right now. Luckily I don't need it right away. Unfortunately I have minimal idea of what i want so I've been going to various dealerships to test drive things.
I'm sorry. That will be... painful.
In other unsurprising news of things I hate: Political bureaucrats.
I'm dropping GothBard off for another business trip. This one's to L.A. so she's flying out of Oakland. Oakland International Airport.
Whoops. Doesn't show up on Google Maps any more. What?
Oh, it's now, "Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport", which isn't confusing as h*** or anything. Yes, I'd heard about all the fooferal around the renaming because, "People don't know that Oakland is in the Bay Area right along with San Francisco and San Jose." I'd heard that San Francisco International Airport had sued because they argued the name would confuse travelers.
They lost the suit, but gosh darn it they were right. I hate the new name.
I find all this morbidly fascinating, I suppose, especially as someone who knows next to nothing about California. How many airports does Oakland have, that Google wouldn't be able to guess which one folks probably want? Between people who don't fly often, and those, on the other hand, who do, and so would probably just get to know their local airport(s) well, how confusing would it really get?
Maybe I have too diffuse a sense of place. I grew up in the suburbs of a metropolis where the secondary regional airport was felt to be enough of a slog away that it's long since only been used for freight (obligatory hippie crone interjection: "Build a train, you lunatics!"), but just in general, am I weird for thinking in terms of, "Oh, if I'm travelling to X, I guess I'm looking at ... [City Name] - [Y Airport]?"
I mean, if I were to go to San Francisco, I would be sure to wear flowers in my hair search for SF first, and then choose between the city proper and Oakland Airport, whatever they're actually called, based on what is least obnoxious to my travel plans.
...I find all this morbidly fascinating, I suppose, especially as someone who knows next to nothing about California. How many airports does Oakland have, that Google wouldn't be able to guess which one folks probably want? Between people who don't fly often, and those, on the other hand, who do, and so would probably just get to know their local airport(s) well, how confusing would it really get?
We have three international airports within an hour of each other (San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose), and a fourth about 90 minutes away (Sacramento).
Maybe I have too diffuse a sense of place. I grew up in the suburbs of a metropolis where the secondary regional airport was felt to be enough of a slog away that it's long since only been used for freight (obligatory hippie crone interjection: "Build a train, you lunatics!"), but just in general, am I weird for thinking in terms of, "Oh, if I'm travelling to X, I guess I'm looking at ... [City Name] - [Y Airport]?"
I mean, if I were to go to San Francisco, I would
be sure to wear flowers in my hairsearch for SF first, and then choose between the city proper and Oakland Airport, whatever they're actually called, based on what is least obnoxious to my travel plans.
So, there's the problem in a nutshell: People who wanted to travel *TO* San Francisco would Google "San Francisco Airport", get "San Francisco International Airport", and fly there. Yes, Oakland and San Jose would show up as "nearby" airports, but they aren't San Francisco. The Oakland airport just added San Francisco to its name, so NOW if you Google "San Francisco Airport" you get two results. Both are major international airports. Which do you choose? You now have to bring up Google Maps to find out that Oakland is across the bay from San Francisco, so if you're really planning on going to San Francisco then flying in to Oakland is an immense PITA.
And for the locals, telling Google, "Hey, get me to the Oakland airport," and having it respond, "There isn't one. Do you want to go to the Oakland/San Francisco airport instead?" is confusing, because there's already a San Francisco airport that's a bridge away from me that I've been driving to for 42 years. "Oh, now there's another one except it's really Oakland," is confusing.
EDIT: For the record, I tried using a couple of booking sites (Orbitz and United Airlines) and they're still referring to the Oakland airport as "Oakland International Airport". Once THOSE changes trickle in and people booking flights start getting asked, "Which airport should I use?" things'll get confusing.
Try flying in to L.A. some time. There are a bunch of airports, but unless you're on a one-hop from somewhere else in California you ALWAYS want to use LAX.
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Hmm. I'm one of those lunatics who keeps putting off learning how to drive (mostly because I'm so anxious and with such poor proprioception that it would, at best, end in tears) and obsessively plans out her itineraries, so for the most part I'm used to a bit more friction while travelling. I would be miserable anywhere car-dependent, and I shudder to think about what transit options there are to get from Oakland to San Francisco.
But I think I see what you mean: back home, they've just expanded another one of the local airports for regional use, and once more flights start routing through there, I can imagine that it will get confusing while folks get used to it, and it's also awkwardly across the water from our downtown. Not really a problem for me, but I knew someone once who's missed multiple flights across various expeditions (after the first, I would be all the more obsessive about getting to where I need to be on time, but different strokes, and all that), so a bit of nightmare fuel for folks like him, probably.
Yeah, I think the TL;DR complaint is, "An airport that's at least an hour away from San Francisco should not rename itself to add 'San Francisco' to its name if there's already an existing San Francisco airport."
For example, the London Heathrow airport is at least an hour outside of London, but there isn't a closer airport that people would want to fly to instead if they knew they were going to London. So it's not that Oakland isn't "close" to San Francisco, is that there's already an existing airport that's closer and that has 'San Francisco' in its name.
Yeah, I think the TL;DR complaint is, "An airport that's at least an hour away from San Francisco should not rename itself to add 'San Francisco' to its name if there's already an existing San Francisco airport."
For example, the London Heathrow airport is at least an hour outside of London, but there isn't a closer airport that people would want to fly to instead if they knew they were going to London. So it's not that Oakland isn't "close" to San Francisco, is that there's already an existing airport that's closer and that has 'San Francisco' in its name.
On the other hand, Stansted, which is... ... further from London than Heathrow is also called London (Stansted) Airport, so you do need to know which is which.
On the other hand, Stansted, which is... ... further from London than Heathrow is also called London (Stansted) Airport, so you do need to know which is which.Yeah, I think the TL;DR complaint is, "An airport that's at least an hour away from San Francisco should not rename itself to add 'San Francisco' to its name if there's already an existing San Francisco airport."
For example, the London Heathrow airport is at least an hour outside of London, but there isn't a closer airport that people would want to fly to instead if they knew they were going to London. So it's not that Oakland isn't "close" to San Francisco, is that there's already an existing airport that's closer and that has 'San Francisco' in its name.
I was wondering about that. I'll go ahead and object to that one, too.
EDIT: Looking at the Stansted history, they added "London" to the name when they added an additional terminal to increase capacity so that they could actually serve London. There's been no change to the Oakland airport; they're just trying to steal business from the San Francisco airport by grabbing the name.
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Interesting... After adding a word in Russian during the translation again, ChatGPT instead of continuing immediately ended the paragraphs with words "wait, no."
Was that a moment of reflection and noticing its error?
I would say that the entire west half of the U.S. is best toured by car. Completely worth doing too, in my opinion.
I would say that the entire west half of the U.S. is best toured by car. Completely worth doing too, in my opinion.
The whole country is worth it, honestly. Even the s+~*ty parts have some genuinely interesting or breathtakingly beautiful areas.
The whole country is worth it, honestly. Even the s~+&ty parts have some genuinely interesting or breathtakingly beautiful areas.I would say that the entire west half of the U.S. is best toured by car. Completely worth doing too, in my opinion.
Based on what I’ve seen I would have to agree, but we used the train to get from Baltimore to D.C. and also used the train from where we were in Virginia, back to D.C. for a second day of touring.
When I took the train from Flagstaff to Los Angeles it was dark, both going and coming, so no scenic viewing got done.At any rate, my life would be extremely difficult without driving. Even the Dollar General is a two mile hike.
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I would say that the entire west half of the U.S. is best toured by car. Completely worth doing too, in my opinion.
Yes. Did that 2 Junes ago. 7020 miles in a Miata over 11 days.
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Doing my taxes today! Not looking forward to it as this will be my first year doing taxes as a rideshare driver.
Well, it looks like it's the end of an era. When the shop said that "all" that was wrong with the Prius was a broken water pump, a worn drive belt, and a filthy intake filter I had some hope that they'd be able to fix it, though the symptoms seemed a lot worse than some worn-out parts.
Sure enough, yesterday the new water pump came in, the mechanic replaced it and the drive belt, turned on the engine and immediately thought, "Oooh... that's not good."
The engine is making not one but TWO weird noises that had been drowned out by the water pump. Ever-cynical Shiro thinks they intentionally missed the noises in order to drag me into repairing whatever was wrong. I've been with this shop for nearly 20 years and they haven't pulled that kind of stunt ever, so I prefer to believe the cover story for the moment.
But sounds from inside the engine typically mean a rebuild, and around here that's a $4,000-$5,000 job. Considering the hybrid battery is 10 years old already, it just doesn't seem worth it to try to keep the Prius running any more.
We'll know more later today, but looks like we'll need to buy that new Honda sooner than expected, and Talky won't be getting a car after all...
Doing my taxes today! Not looking forward to it as this will be my first year doing taxes as a rideshare driver.
AFAIK self-employment income is "just" three extra forms. When I was trying to do Impus Major's taxes last year I looked it over and was like, "OK. I can figure this out."
Then I got to his managed funds for his college account where they literally broke his income into 15 separate categories (a.-o.) and each category had to be treated differently and had different forms and I was like, "Nope," and paid for the d**ned TurboTax software.
Most of the time I refuse to give money to leeches. I missed the Nekrogoblikon/Hanabe show with GothBard and Impus Major because the only tickets available were through scalpers. After talking to Shiro about car buying (he has bought a LOT of cars in his time), I'm just going to go through the Costco program to get, as Shiro put it, "A hassle-free price that's a perfectly good price but not a great price." I'll take it.
But with TurboTax at $150 and even the cheapest private accountants around here being at least 4x that, I cannot in good conscience force Impus Major to spend all that extra money just to avoid the tax preparation lobby.
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Im waiting for "WOW! What an amazing experience buying a car!" myself...
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Well, it looks like it's the end of an era. When the shop said that "all" that was wrong with the Prius was a broken water pump, a worn drive belt, and a filthy intake filter I had some hope that they'd be able to fix it, though the symptoms seemed a lot worse than some worn-out parts.
Sure enough, yesterday the new water pump came in, the mechanic replaced it and the drive belt, turned on the engine and immediately thought, "Oooh... that's not good."
The engine is making not one but TWO weird noises that had been drowned out by the water pump. Ever-cynical Shiro thinks they intentionally missed the noises in order to drag me into repairing whatever was wrong. I've been with this shop for nearly 20 years and they haven't pulled that kind of stunt ever, so I prefer to believe the cover story for the moment.
But sounds from inside the engine typically mean a rebuild, and around here that's a $4,000-$5,000 job. Considering the hybrid battery is 10 years old already, it just doesn't seem worth it to try to keep the Prius running any more.
We'll know more later today, but looks like we'll need to buy that new Honda sooner than expected, and Talky won't be getting a car after all...
Because *I'm* getting it, right, Dearest Father?
....Right?
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Im waiting for "WOW! What an amazing experience buying a car!" myself...
Shiro shared his "secret" with me. Go to the dealership. Pick one or two cars. Tell the salesperson that your time is valuable so they have 15 minutes to give you "out the door" prices for those two cars and their business card or you're leaving. Set an obvious timer. Follow through.
He typically has to go to half a dozen dealerships to get three quotes and then he picks the lowest, but at 20 minutes per dealership and then under 90 minutes for the final sale, he saves a significant amount of time in the long run. And I love his whole, "We're not going to discuss financing until after you've given me a price." A great way to avoid mentioning that you're going to pay cash.
The funniest part is, it's exactly what I've always wanted to do ("Just give me your price and I'll say 'yes' or 'no'"), but I didn't believe it could actually work. According to Shiro, it works just fine.
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that matches with the rabbit hole of things i looked at in preparing to do my car search. also to not confirm whether you will be trading something in before getting the out the door price as that should be treated as a separate transaction.
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Well, it looks like it's the end of an era. When the shop said that "all" that was wrong with the Prius was a broken water pump, a worn drive belt, and a filthy intake filter I had some hope that they'd be able to fix it, though the symptoms seemed a lot worse than some worn-out parts.
Sure enough, yesterday the new water pump came in, the mechanic replaced it and the drive belt, turned on the engine and immediately thought, "Oooh... that's not good."
The engine is making not one but TWO weird noises that had been drowned out by the water pump. Ever-cynical Shiro thinks they intentionally missed the noises in order to drag me into repairing whatever was wrong. I've been with this shop for nearly 20 years and they haven't pulled that kind of stunt ever, so I prefer to believe the cover story for the moment.
But sounds from inside the engine typically mean a rebuild, and around here that's a $4,000-$5,000 job. Considering the hybrid battery is 10 years old already, it just doesn't seem worth it to try to keep the Prius running any more.
We'll know more later today, but looks like we'll need to buy that new Honda sooner than expected, and Talky won't be getting a car after all...
Because *I'm* getting it, right, Dearest Father?
....Right?
If you want to fly 3,000 miles to pick up a 20-year-old Prius with a bad engine and a broken sway bar, you are absolutely welcome to it.
I have finished campaign in Return To Moria...
Eh, it was okayish. It has better graphics than Valheim, true, but less interactive components - you can only dig through specific walls and desposits, with majority of walls that constitute the map being impenetrable, so you can't cut convenient shortcuts at will.
There was a constant problem with the game not recognizing the walls and thus preventing me from attaching platforms or ladders to them, very unreliable snapping to already placed objects, and selecting the exact position. Valheim was doing it better (if still imperfectly). I think that V Rising was the best but IIRC it relied on very restrictive grid that limited positioning of placed objects
Combat is meh. After struggling early on I tried to switch difficulty to "Solo" mode, didn't help much with waves after waves of orcs attacking my camps, and then switched to "Story" mode. As far as I could tell aiming bow and crossbow was marginally better than Valheim.
Near the end, one weapon dominated over all others. Killing the <spoiler> unlocked post-end-game weapons but I haven't made any of them.
At least there is a fast travel system in the form of "Mapstones" but it takes a while to acquire materials necessary to repair and expand it, forcing you to go on scavenging runs and back, and move between camps a lot in early game.
Unlocking a decent backpack for carrying things takes a while, too long in my opinion, the second backpack should be unlocked earlier, and one additional backpack should be added between the second and the final one.
Some other constructions you can make feel out of touch with the campaign progression - you get some things unlocked early on but can't really use them until later when you find adequate materials, and you get some materials early (mainly food ingredients) but you can't really utilize until much later you get workstations that allow you to make something of that materials.
Story is okayish if very generic and not pushed hard – nothing special, but not terrible, either. You are one of Gimli's companions, arriving to reclaim Moria long after the events of the LOTR, the entrance is strangely sealed, you all try to blow the new entrance, you get separated from others by the resulting cave-in, and try to get out, learning what is happening on your way through Moria.
Fight with the final boss was meh. End scene when you talk with Gimli afterward was a nice touch, though.
Now I am thinking about logging in to Valheim just to compare.
Ok, after logging in to Valheim for a moment, I have to say there are things that Return To Moria does definitely better.
While Valheim has better control over placement of objects, RoM has somewhat better building and crafting interfaces. Construction menu is an actual menu that you invoke with a push of a button at any time, instead of having to equip a hammer and then press a button.
It also has a simple but enormous Quality Of Life feature of allowing you to use materials stashed in chests and on material pallets to craft and build things within the confines of the camp (which is defined by the hearth, with a greater radius for more advanced hearths).
Because of the limited ability to dig, most of the area in RoM is flat (except for piles of ancient trash, stones, and rubble), so you don't have to worry about rising and lowering the terrain to make level surface suitable for reasonable constructions (most of the time), unless you set a camp in some weird nook or cranny. It also seemed to allow you to have objects overlap to a much greater degree than Valheim* making certain constructions easier.
*I almost wanted to shorten it to V but that it occurred to me that could cause confusion with V Rising if I started making reference to it during further comparisons.
Well, things are already getting grim. I decided to try the Costco car purchasing program since I knew that the local dealership I'd gone to didn't have the car in stock.
(1) Costco referred me to that dealership anyway.
(2) In spite of letting you select year, make, model, and color when ordering the car, the order they send to the dealership doesn't include the color.
I wonder about what world the app developers live in that people don't care about the color of car they drive.
EDIT: As for the Prius, just got a text from the repair shop that, "I'm going to have my master tech take a closer look to confirm the noise on your Prius." As Impus Minor put it, "They don't call in the master technician to confirm that everything is hunky-dory."
Taxes are complete, not as bad as I thought, but also not fun.
Now I await the thunderstorms, the tornado sirens were going off earlier around Crookshanks (who lives 10 minutes directly north of me) but it missed me, the next storm will not miss.
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My next job has a plan and video rendered in Unreal.
What it doesn't have are any measurements whatsoever. Just a starting point, a shape with weird angles and curves, and then an ending point.
Also the pavers chosen are pretty difficult to work with.
In other words, the prefect project for me.
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I love the whole, "When it rains, it pours" aphorism.
I should have suspected something when our decently-aged (for us) Brother laser printer stopped being able to do 2-sided printing after "only" 10 years. I can probably disassemble it and fix it, but it's beyond the simple areas and involves removing screws, so I got a backup, just in case.
Then the Prius' engine decided to stop working, as I've detailed here.
Today the dryer caught fire. It's too long of a story to write up at the moment, but basically Morrigan started freaking out in the back yard, Impus Minor went to check on her and smelled acrid smoke, and after many shenanigans including her escaping terrified into the world and calling the fire department, we tracked the smoke down to the dryer. It was pretty hilarious. "I think it's the dryer, Dad."
"Well then we should turn it off."
Had to kill at at the circuit breaker. The fire department was very nice and scanned the walls for any heat signatures, but the damage seemed limited to the dryer.
Then I opened it up and found this.
So yeah, out a new printer, a new car, and a new washer/dryer (our washer needs replacing anyway. A $40,000 hit. Palpable.
