Why am I still here?
 

Tim Wrote in message:

steal your posessions with a knife or a gun, a bankster will steal your
possesiions with a pen, paper and "legal" (read "unjust") mumbo-jumbo
snakeoil bull****.
....

Is that what happened to you? Harry is that why you're so bitter?


No. Harry is a tax cheat. A
--
x


----Android NewsGroup Reader----
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Why am I still here?
 

Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/7/2017 10:08 PM, Alex wrote:
Mr. Luddite wrote:
Just checked the weather forecast for today.

Blizzard warning starting around 8am this morning and lasting until
early tomorrow. 12-14 inches of snow with 50 mph winds.

Going back to bed.


I thought you moved??


We did. At least temporarily. Long story but the sale of our house was
"iffy" for a long time because the buyer was going through some
unusual financing for a mortgage. He was basically using the revenues
of his sub-S corporation as part of the qualification and had to wait
until an audit was complete before his bank would commit to the loan.
Anyway, we hadn't made any decision as to where we were heading when
all of a sudden, 2 weeks before the scheduled closing, his bank
approved his loan and we had to get out fast. Bought a place
temporarily until the dust settles. Or snow settles. Anyway, we are
still "talking" about what is next.

I thought you had the Carolina's in your sights. Good choice if you can
go wherever you want to go.

Why am I still here?
 

True North wrote:
Alex
True North wrote:
Big storm has started.
Maybe I'll haul out my Toro electric snowblower tomorrow and give it a whirl.
"You went all out on that, big spender"


Actually, I did. I researched the best of the electric at that time and went to a dealer where I paid full retail..about $450.00 for it. Now I can get a small gasoline single stage for about $100.00 more.

There is no best electric if you live in snow country.

Why am I still here?
 

Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, January 8, 2017 at 12:42:52 PM UTC-5, Califbill wrote:
wrote:
On Sun, 08 Jan 2017 01:02:45 -0600, Califbill
wrote:


I pretty much gave up on stick shifts for daily drivers in 1968. I
remember miles long traffic jams from Laguna Seca raceway via Gilroy of
stop and go traffic. My leg would start shaking from the clutch work. And
pulling a race car trailer. Later, drop it in drive, and enjoy power
brakes.
I still like actually driving my sporty cars. A slush box is fine in
vans and trucks. I have worked very hard to avoid stop and go traffic.
I worked midnights for the past 11 years I was in DC. It was great
driving home in empty lanes on the beltway and watching the cars piled
up going the other way. SW Florida was very rural when I moved here
and a few tricks to avoid the trouble spots kept me moving right along
most of the time. They did not have much in the way of computer
customers in the tourist areas

I owned a VW rabbit. Stick shift, fun to drive. The daughters got to
learn driving a stick shift. But I guess lazy these days. Looking a
buying a,Chevy volt for an around town driver, which are not stick shift.
The last stick shift I had was the Boxster, a six-speed. The Corvette was an auto, and the Audi is. Besides, while the auto eats some horsepower, they are usually faster that the manual version. Modern automatic transmissions aren't like your dad's auto.

For example, the Audi's tranny is an 8-speed. The computer keeps it in the sweet spot for how you're driving. Poking along, the shift points are low for economy. Push it harder, and they move up for better performance. Put it in sport mode, and you get higher shift points and it uses engine braking when you let off the gas, like a manual tranny would. And you can shift it manually if you want to.

These day there just isn't much reason in a "normal" car to get a manual tranny except for cost or nostalgia. Hell, even F1 cars use manually shifted automatics.

The manual transmission on a BMW has no cost savings last I checked.
The wife is on her third and finally decided the manual wasn't worth the
trouble in traffic anymore. She can still play with the paddle shifters
but I bet she has never used them. My MB SUV has them and I've tried
them once. The Lambo I drove was a different story.

Why am I still here?
 

Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/9/2017 6:44 AM, Keyser Soze wrote:
On 1/9/17 6:02 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/8/2017 6:15 PM, Keyser Soze wrote:
On 1/8/17 5:47 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/8/2017 1:06 PM, Keyser Soze wrote:
On 1/8/17 2:20 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 08 Jan 2017 01:02:45 -0600, Califbill

wrote:


I pretty much gave up on stick shifts for daily drivers in
1968. I
remember miles long traffic jams from Laguna Seca raceway via
Gilroy of
stop and go traffic. My leg would start shaking from the clutch
work. And
pulling a race car trailer. Later, drop it in drive, and enjoy
power
brakes.

I still like actually driving my sporty cars. A slush box is
fine in
vans and trucks. I have worked very hard to avoid stop and go
traffic.
I worked midnights for the past 11 years I was in DC. It was great
driving home in empty lanes on the beltway and watching the cars
piled
up going the other way. SW Florida was very rural when I moved here
and a few tricks to avoid the trouble spots kept me moving right
along
most of the time. They did not have much in the way of computer
customers in the tourist areas



I grew up on stick shift vehicles and in the winter I earned a few
bucks
with my dad's jeep and plow. I always thought the stick shift
gave you
more control over what the wheels were doing and made stopping safer
because you could more easily shift the vehicle out of gear.
After my
experience yesterday and today with the 4WD stick shift truck, I
still
think I am correct. Though we only got about 7" today of snow, I got
through a couple of drifts two and three times that height (where
the
roadway was plowed) without problems.


If you are doing some serious plowing, it's hard to hold the plow
controller in one hand, steer with the other and try to shift if
necessary. Auto transmission makes it a lot easier.


Your plow must be more sophisticated than what we had. We had three
levers in the cab of the jeep that controlled the plow hydraulics...up
and down, side to side,and angle. I don't recall fiddling with them
much
while taking a run down one side of someone's driveway.

No, same controls except I don't have "side to side" whatever that is.
Up, down and angle, left or right. The control box is hand held
however, not levers permanently mounted in the cab.

I like manual transmissions in some cars/trucks. My Ranger had a
manual
as did a full sized '86 Ford pickup I had years ago but I didn't
plow or
tow with either of them. For towing and plowing ... especially towing,
the auto is better, IMO, especially the ones they use in the full sized
heavy duty trucks being the Allison in the GM's and Ford's Torqueshift.
Both are designed for towing heavy loads. I saw an ad for the latest
Ford Superduty F-350. It can be equipped to tow 33,000 lbs.

Let's see ... other manual transmission cars I've had fairly recently
include the '67 GTO (factory 4 speed), the BMW Mini Cooper turbo, and
the Porsche (6 speed manual). The Mini Cooper was a fun car .. fast
...
but whenever you really got on it, it tried to make a left hand turn
due
to torque steer. The BMW M5's were a different animal altogether.
They
had a hybrid, dual clutch manual that was electronically controlled for
"auto" operation or you could manually control shifts with the stick or
the paddles on the steering wheel. No clutch pedal though.

I don't really have a need for the F-250 anymore but sometimes only a
truck will do. My wife bought a little egg shaped, 20 ft camper last
summer but it only weighs about 4,000 lbs loaded. She wants me to
trade
my truck for a smaller, compact like a Nissan or Toyota so she can
learn
to tow her little camper around. One nice thing about the F-250 was
apparent yesterday morning when I made a Duncan Donuts run at 6 in the
morning through 17" of snow.



I had driven an auto Tacoma truck at a local dealer's, and I thought the
tranny seemed to spend a lot of time searching for and shifting gears,
but it seemed only a minor annoyance. Since then, Toyota has
reprogrammed the auto tranny. When I was in the mood to buy, there were
hardly any 4WD Tacomas around, and I ended up buying from a non-local
dealer. I tried the manual tranny model before I bought and I enjoyed
the shifting and the control it gave. The tranny does not shift as
smoothly as a manual in a good car, but it is good enough.

I don't tow or plow with this truck, so those considerations weren't an
issue. In decent weather, I do haul a lot of aggie products for my
wife's gardens and the lawn. If we lived in "da Souf," I probably
wouldn't have gone for the 4WD.

If you are going to tow a small camper in the future and want a Toyota
truck, the larger Toyota model probably would be more suitable than the
Tacoma. I don't know anything about the Nissans, other than the Toyotas
seem to outsell them by a large factor.


I think the "larger" Toyota (above the Tacoma) is the Tundra. It's as
big as the Ford I have now from what I've seen. She wants something
smaller. The Nissan Frontier is rated to tow 6K lbs I am told. Not
sure about the Tacoma. The only issue for her is that she has become
accustom to automatic all wheel drive. She has had it in the
Navigators she had and the Mountaineer she drives now. I am not sure
but I don't think an automatic "AWD" mode is available in the smaller
pickups. They have 2WD and select-able 4WD (high and low) like my
F-250 but you have to know when to use it. For her by the time she
realized she needed 4WD it would probably be too late.



Check out the Honda Ridgeliner. Barely a truck but well received.

Why am I still here?
 

On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 13:51:10 -0500, Keyser Soze wrote:

In more recent popular usage, often refers in a vague way to the forces
of "Wall Street", or to those persons in the financial services industry
who grow rich despite the continued impoverishment of those who depend
on their services, and despite their apparent inability to succeed in
business without constant government assistance.

"The Fed is an organized cartel of banksters, who are creating
inflation, ripping off the public, destroying the savings of the average
American."

"The banksters crashed the economy, but thanks to generous federal
bailouts, they won't have to sacrifice their fat bonuses."

===

Funny stuff Harry. I suggest that you immediately suspend all of your
banking relationships before they further destroy your savings (if
any). No one, I repeat, no one is forced to do business with a bank.
They provide a service for which they expect to get paid, just like
your lawyer or barber. Have a problem with that? Do without the
service. It's entirely optional.

Why am I still here?
 

Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/9/2017 11:25 AM, True North wrote:
On Monday, 9 January 2017 11:38:38 UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/9/2017 10:25 AM, True North wrote:
Keyser Sozo says..

"The latest Honda Ridgeline is available with AWD, but I don't
believe it
has the towing capacity you might want, and it is not a separate
frame/body pickup. But it is very comfy and carlike on the interior
and
in the ride."



A 5k tow rating should be just enough to tow a 4000 lb
trailer.....especially if it's only occasionally tows like we'd do
up here.
As far as the Tacoma....it would be my choice of truck if only the
cab was higher. From what Consumer Reports used to say...it has the
same low seat design as the old Ford Ranger. Maybe a good design
to help with gas mileage but I'd want to sit up in a seat not
inches off the floor and I don't have long legs.



Timely discussion. I just saw on the news that Ford is going to start
producing a Ranger again, along with a Bronco. Both will be built in
the good ol' USA. :-)

I may wait and see what the new design Ranger and it's specs are. It
was dropped because it's design and engines had become outdated
(basically it was a Mazda B-2000). I'll bet with the more powerful and
advanced 4 and 6 cylinder engines available today it could be a serious
contender again.

I've owned three of them in the past, one in Florida and two up here.
The last one I had was the "Level 3" version (or something like that).
It was a 4x4, had larger tires and sat higher than a standard Ranger.
All of them were great little trucks and the only reason I traded in
the
Level 3 was that I needed more towing capacity at the time. Otherwise,
I would have kept it.


When they were getting rid of the Ranger there was talk of a new
smaller pickup...mayte a F100 or something that Ford was developing.
Always wondered what happened to it. Assumed it couldn't compete with
the Tacoma.
I like the looks of the Nissan Frontier with it's boxier cab. Almost
bought one from a military family who were renting next door from
another military family. The Frontier owners had been assigned to
NATO in Brussels so wanted to get rid of the black Frontier with it's
matching cap. Only trouble is...it had the four cylinder engine,
manual transmission (not good for wife) and a low tow rating.
I had leased the auto 6 cyl 2006 Ranger to tow my sailboat. Man,
those hard foam low seats were hard to get used to. I remember
calling my salesman and asking if I could upgrade to the F150. He
said to hang on and the foam would soon conform to me. He was
partially right and I actually used the Ranger to tow my mini cruiser
sailboat on a 3000 mile round trip to a Rendezvous north of Toronto.
Have to admit, I wasn't sad when the three year lease was up and I'm
sure the wife was overjoyed. Especially when the last couple of model
years dropped almost $10K in MSL price.



According to the Ford news release the new Ranger will be a "mid
sized" pickup.
The Chevrolet Colorado is in that category and better rated since they
ditched the 5 cyl engine.

Why am I still here?
 

Keyser Soze wrote:
On 1/9/17 4:34 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 10:54:49 -0800 (PST), Tim
wrote:


steal your posessions with a knife or a gun, a bankster will steal your
possesiions with a pen, paper and "legal" (read "unjust") mumbo-jumbo
snakeoil bull****.
....

Is that what happened to you? Harry is that why you're so bitter?

I am not sure what happened to Harry, I am not that interested in
pursuing public records but I will say I have been in the data centers
of banks and the people there are no different than the data people at
NIH or National Geographic.


How many people are victimized by the tech nerds at NIH or National Geo?

I don't have any personal issues with banks. I don't like any of the
ones with which I deal, but it's nothing personal.

If you paid them what you owed them they might give you that toaster!

Why am I still here?
 

On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 15:33:27 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 1/9/2017 12:48 PM, Califbill wrote:
Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/9/2017 11:25 AM, True North wrote:
On Monday, 9 January 2017 11:38:38 UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/9/2017 10:25 AM, True North wrote:
Keyser Sozo says..

"The latest Honda Ridgeline is available with AWD, but I don't believe it
has the towing capacity you might want, and it is not a separate
frame/body pickup. But it is very comfy and carlike on the interior and
in the ride."



A 5k tow rating should be just enough to tow a 4000 lb
trailer.....especially if it's only occasionally tows like we'd do up here.
As far as the Tacoma....it would be my choice of truck if only the cab
was higher. From what Consumer Reports used to say...it has the same
low seat design as the old Ford Ranger. Maybe a good design to help
with gas mileage but I'd want to sit up in a seat not inches off the
floor and I don't have long legs.



Timely discussion. I just saw on the news that Ford is going to start
producing a Ranger again, along with a Bronco. Both will be built in
the good ol' USA. :-)

I may wait and see what the new design Ranger and it's specs are. It
was dropped because it's design and engines had become outdated
(basically it was a Mazda B-2000). I'll bet with the more powerful and
advanced 4 and 6 cylinder engines available today it could be a serious
contender again.

I've owned three of them in the past, one in Florida and two up here.
The last one I had was the "Level 3" version (or something like that).
It was a 4x4, had larger tires and sat higher than a standard Ranger.
All of them were great little trucks and the only reason I traded in the
Level 3 was that I needed more towing capacity at the time. Otherwise,
I would have kept it.


When they were getting rid of the Ranger there was talk of a new smaller
pickup...mayte a F100 or something that Ford was developing. Always
wondered what happened to it. Assumed it couldn't compete with the Tacoma.
I like the looks of the Nissan Frontier with it's boxier cab. Almost
bought one from a military family who were renting next door from
another military family. The Frontier owners had been assigned to NATO
in Brussels so wanted to get rid of the black Frontier with it's
matching cap. Only trouble is...it had the four cylinder engine, manual
transmission (not good for wife) and a low tow rating.
I had leased the auto 6 cyl 2006 Ranger to tow my sailboat. Man, those
hard foam low seats were hard to get used to. I remember calling my
salesman and asking if I could upgrade to the F150. He said to hang on
and the foam would soon conform to me. He was partially right and I
actually used the Ranger to tow my mini cruiser sailboat on a 3000 mile
round trip to a Rendezvous north of Toronto. Have to admit, I wasn't sad
when the three year lease was up and I'm sure the wife was overjoyed.
Especially when the last couple of model years dropped almost $10K in MSL price.



According to the Ford news release the new Ranger will be a "mid sized"
pickup.


What is mid sized and full sized these days. Rented a full size car at
Alamo in San Jose Cabo. Camry.



I know. I get a kick out of it. My Altima is considered to be a "full
sized" car. It's size used to be considered a "compact".

===

Several times I have been offered a "free" upgrade in size after
complaining. There really aren't too many cars these days that are
truly full sized now that the Ford Crown Vic has gone away. Best bet
if you really need size is to get a mini van like the Dodge Caravan or
Toyota Sienna.

Why am I still here?
 

On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 16:33:20 -0500, Keyser Soze wrote:

On 1/9/17 4:25 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 09 Jan 2017 11:48:38 -0600, Califbill
wrote:

According to the Ford news release the new Ranger will be a "mid sized"
pickup.


What is mid sized and full sized these days. Rented a full size car at
Alamo in San Jose Cabo. Camry.

I suppose the mid size will be the Sport Trak rebadged with a larger
bed and 2 seats. Mine is still a "truck" if that means body on frame.
It seems to do OK. They rate it 1/2 ton and I did bring a pallet of
tile home from the tile store OK. (probably more like 1500 pounds)
I haven't tried a pallet of sod yet but that is coming up when it
starts raining again here. I know the F150 was OK with that.


I brought 30 bags of mulch home from Home Despot in my Tacoma's bed, and
each bag, if dry, was 40 pounds, according to the loader at the store.
No problems for the truck. One of my neighbors has one of those
landscaper trailers, and it is available for "borrow." Might try that
this year.

I had 14 80 pound bags of concrete and 14 2x4s in my old 85 LeBaron
once. I cranked up "Low Rider" on the MP3 player and chugged on out of
the BORG. The Mexican guys who helped me load were rolling in the
parking lot laughing.