What You've Done Today - Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.

[LadyCrimson]

I keep wondering, idly, how certain companies (not just recently but for decades, ofc) are avoiding monopoly and anti-trust concerns. I'd assume a whole lot of loopholes, and the "but there is still/can be free competition" mantras even when any minor competition is almost just lip service at some point. Not that I'm a lawyer ... fine line between (US) capitalism and monopolies I guess. Whatever.

...I should probably stop watching Netflix "hey this company sucks" business documentaries. 

 

[Gorth]

Did my first, tentative rides on my new bicycle last night. Good thing it was late at night and I had the road for myself. I needed the entire width of the road for the first few hundred meters

Mind you, the only bicycle I've been riding since 2003 is an exercise bike (and a several years of motorcycle riding, which is very different)

[BruceVC]

5 hours ago, Gorth said:

Did my first, tentative rides on my new bicycle last night. Good thing it was late at night and I had the road for myself. I needed the entire width of the road for the first few hundred meters

Mind you, the only bicycle I've been riding since 2003 is an exercise bike (and a several years of motorcycle riding, which is very different)

Keep it up, exercise is important. You dont need to overdo it  and just build your fitness and stamina slowly and steadily  

Edited August 31, 2022 by BruceVC

[ShadySands]

Went to the dentist because my tooth started hurting about 2 weeks ago but got really bad a few days ago. I cracked my tooth in half somehow so they pulled it and prepped it for an implant they're going to put in next week.

Edited September 2, 2022 by ShadySands

[Gromnir]

14 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Wet to the dentist because my tooth started hurting about 2 weeks ago but got really bad a few days ago. I cracked my tooth in half somehow so they pulled it and prepped it for an implant they're going to put in next week.

on some level we believe all dentists is channeling orin scrivello, dds

had a less than pleasant experience in our early twenties and have never quite managed to shake the memory.

HA! Good Fun!

[LadyCrimson]

Hubby: "You have a new pet* hanging out by the family room door."

Hubby: "You have a new pet hanging out in the pool."

Was (probably unnecessarily) a teensy bit concerned maybe it found the lip of the pool a challenge to getting out again so I fished him out. An "alligator lizard." Its tail went all the way up the side and stuck out the top of the grill-holes of my blue tupperware sized critter container - it was missing one toe on one back foot and kept moving its head sorta side to side, sticking its tongue out at me like a snake.
======
* "Pet" is a hubby joke. He just knows I like looking at stuff. Sometimes I put them in my container for 30 minutes to observe. Then I put them back somewhere in the yard.

[Gromnir]

was planning on selling our rental properties in may, but things got complicated (understatement) and am now kinda committed to keep the extra houses at least another year and possibly up to three. with the depreciation break we get every year, am effective not paying any taxes, and as the real estate sales market has cooled substantial already, it don't make sense to unload properties today. worse, am knowing if we do have any kinda even moderate recession, am gonna be itching to buy more property when values inevitable drop a bit. gonna need suppress such greed-based urges.

literally never even had to advertise before we had multiple requests/applications for our remaining rental property. am honest sympathizing with prospective renters as rents are insane and getting worse. 'cause we weren't asking for crazy money, we had people offering us near-rumpelstiltskin kinda deals. 

on the bright side, one o' our new tenants is a plumber/hvac guy who comes highly recommended by a few o' the local real estate agents who use his services. plumber and hvac? serious? our tenant (technical not taking possession 'til next week) did a job for us today and we saved more than ~$3000 compared to next best bid for a not particular big job. not a particular huge job. $1100 v. $4250? 'course we figure we got a sooper special price on the work 'cause the tenant were trying to convince us to rent to him, so is not as if every future job we send his way will be so inexpensive, but am nevertheless pleased... maybe even feeling a bit smug... which 'course means the universe will now need punish us in some gothic/poetic manner. 

HA! Good Fun!

[majestic]

Got an offer from my energy supplier that, quite frankly, was too good to refuse. Sign up for another year for half of the current market rates of all other suppliers, plus 130 days of free energy. Looking at the current price hikes, having a year of basically 'only' a 50% increase in energy prices, well, not going to say no to that. I'm guessing they're banking on the EU getting their sh*t together in the timeframe and being able to sell for more than market rates down the line.

I'd call that a very optimistic bet. No thanks, give me the fixed energy prices for a year.

[ShadySands]

About to put in my order to purchase a new car. My lease for my current car is up in November and I won't be expecting delivery of the new one until early next year so we'll be sharing my wife's car, which I absolutely hate. 

Going through some rental woes as well, tenants keep backing out at the last minute. We're already priced below market value because I'd feel gross trying to make a lot of money on people in this market because I'm about as bleeding heart as it gets without being completely self destructive. I lose money on it every year with maintenance and management included and my only goal is to try to get as close to breaking even as possible. Could turn a profit if I managed it myself but I don't have the time or inclination. It's most just a retirement plan, not that I'll probably live that long.

Edited September 4, 2022 by ShadySands

[Sarex]

51 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

About to put in my order to purchase a new car. My lease for my current car is up in November and I won't be expecting delivery of the new one until early next year so we'll be sharing my wife's car, which I absolutely hate. 

Going through some rental woes as well, tenants keep backing out at the last minute. We're already priced below market value because I'd feel gross trying to make a lot of money on people in this market because I'm about as bleeding heart as it gets without being completely self destructive. I lose money on it every year with maintenance and management included and my only goal is to try to get as close to breaking even as possible. Could turn a profit if I managed it myself but I don't have the time or inclination. It's most just a retirement plan, not that I'll probably live that long.

What are you getting?

[ShadySands]

Ford Mustang Mach-E 

[Sarex]

2 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Ford Mustang Mach-E 

Heard very good things about it. Did you take a look at Hyundai Ioniq or Kia EV5?

[Keyrock]

6 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Ford Mustang Mach-E 

Are you going to Tokyo Drift it?

[ShadySands]

I'm the most boring driver in the world so probably not. My wife hates riding with me because I just cruise and chill and she's a reckless speed demon who complains if she's forced to drive within 10 miles of the speed limit.

The Kia and Hyundai were on my list but I liked the look of the Ford more even though this model year's price hike really made the Ioniq more attractive. They were my second and third choices. I also liked the Lyriq but I didn't want to pay Cadillac prices.

[Sarex]

1 hour ago, ShadySands said:

I'm the most boring driver in the world so probably not. My wife hates riding with me because I just cruise and chill and she's a reckless speed demon who complains if she's forced to drive within 10 miles of the speed limit.

The Kia and Hyundai were on my list but I liked the look of the Ford more even though this model year's price hike really made the Ioniq more attractive. They were my second and third choices. I also liked the Lyriq but I didn't want to pay Cadillac prices.

I'm thinking of buying a garage and getting an EV, but A) I don't drive much and B) the charging support is very poor over here. But if I did I would probably go for the Kia or Hyundai, I do not think the Mach-E is available here.

Edited September 4, 2022 by Sarex

[Gfted1]

Rear wheel drive! Whoa. Never owned one since I moved to a ice/snow area. Im going to try to remember to circle back to this in the winter to ask you about battery performance.

[Sarex]

12 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

Rear wheel drive! Whoa. Never owned one since I moved to a ice/snow area. Im going to try to remember to circle back to this in the winter to ask you about battery performance.

The range gets worse on every EV when it's cold, no EV has currently solved that.

[ShadySands]

I'm getting AWD, can't imagine going back to a RWD even though we barely get snow anymore.

[Gorth]

My first car was a rear wheel drive and the second was a front wheel drive. That sums up my history with cars. Always wondered what driving AWD feels like

[Gfted1]

2 hours ago, Sarex said:

The range gets worse on every EV when it's cold, no EV has currently solved that.

Yeah Ive seen 20-25% range loss written in articles but Im curious to read a "real use" opinion too. 

[Chilloutman]

if you loose 20% range just for cold I don't even want to know how will 10 year old battery behave

[Sarex]

4 minutes ago, Chilloutman said:

if you loose 20% range just for cold I don't even want to know how will 10 year old battery behave

Depends very much on how you use it, baring any factory defects. Same as with ICE.

[LadyCrimson]

18 hours ago, Gorth said:

My first car was a rear wheel drive and the second was a front wheel drive. That sums up my history with cars. Always wondered what driving AWD feels like

Most passenger car AWD is not constant 4 wheel drive. I suppose some cars now may have some kind of selectable options to switch to whatever mode you want when you want but (it used to be) more often it was more AWD would activate if it sensed the car was losing traction somewhere, and rest of the time you're either on front or rear wheel drive. Like my old car is FWD but "turns on"  AWD if you lose traction or whatever. I have no settings to fiddle with, it does it itself.

Only thing I really notice is that yes, when it's rainy and slippery the car traction will feel a lot more stable, like driving through heavy, street-sheeting rain at higher speeds. I don't get that skittery/skimmy "one end of the car feels like it wants to slide out at any moment" feeling as much/as strongly. Which is nice, but AWD isn't a miracle either.

In general tho I'd notice more difference between power steering and not power steering than AWD vs. no AWD, but AWD is nice to have.  If I didn't have AWD, I would prefer FWD for average street/freeway/rain driving over RWD. I have no experience at pushing limits sports or off road or heavy show type driving. Although I know in the far past Subaru's were popular in Canada because of the AWD at a time when most non-truck vehicles didn't have it.

Edited September 5, 2022 by LadyCrimson

[Sarex]

It's not as simple as that, there is a broad range of systems depending on the use and of course the price.

Most cars/SUV with awd have open differentials, which means the power will take the path of least resistance, ie. to the wheel that is slipping. They usually handle this by applying the breaks to the wheel(s) that is losing or has lost traction. While this is better than 2 wheel drive it will not help you much in rough terrain or in extreme situations. More expensive variants of awd have either a limited slip differential, or a locking differential. A limited slip differential will, in basic terms, limit the difference in speed between the wheels and thus not allow the wheel without traction to be the only one spinning and will spread the power to the other wheel (s). A locking differential offers the ability to the driver to, as the name says, lock the diff and keep the speed constant between the wheels. This eliminates any power loss in case of loss of traction to a wheel. The negative side of locking the differential is that when you lock the wheels to the same speed you get wheel hop when cornering (when cornering the left and right wheels have a different distance to cross thus the speed cannot be the same on all the wheels), basically the car will keep making little jumps until you go straight. This is usually why most passenger cars either have an open diff, or a limited slip diff, as people do not know how to use the locking diff functions. There are also 4wd systems that have transfer cases with low range speeds, but I won't get in to that.

This is a gross oversimplification of the whole matter because awd cars have 3 differentials and each of the 3 can be different.

I guess my point is that something much better is coming with the advent of EVs. They have a much superior power delivery as they usually have one motor on each axle and in some cases one motor per each wheel. That makes power delivery infinitely adjustable and is something that will probably come to all passenger vehicles as the technology gets cheaper.

edit: rear wheel steer is also something pretty nifty that will hopefully trickle down from the more expensive vehicles.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Sarex

[LadyCrimson]

^ Know what else would help, at least in some weather conditions? Significantly slowing down etc.

...technology vs. "Darwin jokes" - I wonder what will win out in the end.