Extra Jellied Meat Spread, plz!
I signed on to work this morning and saw that the weekend had been spent giving me massive new assignments. “Can you get this done in 4 weeks? Sure, I know these usually take over 8 months or more…” Gah!
So you get hastily assembled, no theme links;
- It was resign or get thrown out a window. Seppuku can still salvage some honor for him.
- Reminder, China is asshoe.
- This story surprised me…in that I learned there is a Haitian airlines?!
This song feels like the pace I am trying to move right now.
Those are some vague labels.
“WITTY REPLY”
“CONTEXTUAL COMMENT”
With Swiss, it’s
“WITTY WORDPLAY”
“RISQUE DOUBLE ENTENDRES STARRING STEVE SMITH”
STEVE SMITH WOULD NEVER GIVE GENERIC PACKAGE TO HIKERS — ALWAYS TAKES TIME TO FIND UNIQUE WAY OF COMING TOGETHER.
….. AND BY COMING TOGETHER — WELL, THAT ONE REALLY NEEDS NO REPHRASING.
Vague? That’s what I had for lunch!
…and every item is the same price…
Saints preserve you! Complaining about labels will get you canned by Swiss
Canned… in the can?
“Sunrise Airways had been forced to cancel domestic flights after three planes were struck by bullets amid the gang fighting, but it will operate flights for three days this week, allowing those with U.S. green cards, Haitian nationals and other people with necessary documents to leave the country.
U.S. airlines have grounded operations in Haiti after gangs stormed the Port-au-Prince airport on March 4, with charter flights serving as the only option for people to flee.”
yikes!
Did they serve ladyfinger sandwiches for the inflight meal?
Pulled pork from the finest long pig available.
“In addition to extra age verifications, th bill specifically protects “the ability of Floridians to remain anonymous online, prevents a minor who is younger than 14 years of age from becoming a social media account holder,” and “empowers parents to decide whether 14 and 15-year-olds can have a social media account,” according to the governor’s office.”
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/03/25/DeSantis-Florida-social-media-ban/5511711382685/
anonymous age verification?
Florida has so many waterways — even their laws feature a pair a ducks.
More seriously — while the article is less than clear, I have to assume the age verification is in the other direction — the old “Prove you’re at least 18 by giving us a credit card number” or some baloney like that. Otherwise… ya got me.
“EXCLUSIVE: WPATH-Certified, Trans-Identified ‘Kink Professional’ Who Promotes Age Play And Genital Torture Influenced Standards of Care”
https://reduxx.info/exclusive-wpath-certified-trans-identified-kink-professional-who-promotes-age-play-and-genital-torture-influenced-standards-of-care/
LEAVE THE KIDS ALONE
Ick.
These are certainly the kind of industry professionals who I want writing medical standards of care policy.
And I say this as someone who loves kink and has no intrinsic problem with children transitioning.
I have many problems with children transitioning.
^^^
I’ve been watching too much ST:TOS recently I guess… I read that at first as a “Kirk Professional” and was wondering if this was some Strange New Worlds shitting on the character to do all this….
I couldn’t make it past the first couple of paragraphs trying to skim the article — it does nothing to dissuade me that most of these folks are just legitimately mentally ill and need actual therapy/treatment instead of validation.
Strange New Worlds I didn’t mind. I decided to give Discovery a chance.
Holy shite is it terrible.
I used to work with an Elvis impersonator.
We just called him The King.
SLAPPed down
“Sometimes it is unclear what is driving a litigation, and only by reading between the lines of a complaint can one attempt to surmise a plaintiff’s true purpose,” wrote Charles Breyer, the US district judge, in the ruling. “Other times, a complaint is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose. This case represents the latter circumstance. This case is about punishing the defendants for their speech.”
——-
“Musk’s & X Corp’s strategy is to keep this case in court for as long as possible to burden us with spiraling legal costs,” CCDH posted on X before the hearing. “This is a clear case of Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (Slapp) aimed to scare us away from doing research on X.”
And by “research” mean “punish Musk for speech we don’t like”.
Apparently, this is not a game two can play.
I read that Musk’s suit wasn’t defamation.
It wasn’t, they accused them of scraping data, which is against the TOS. I think the judge was correct to toss it.
“Sydney Sweeney says she only needs TWO hours of sleep a night and has never tried coffee”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13236725/sydney-sweeney-exercise-diet-sleep-beauty.html
An hour for each pillow?
*FLUFFS PILLOWS
Because the sleep habits of endowed actresses is just the sort of thing I care about?
I love those “beauty secrets” articles. Like actresses look so good because they eat oatmeal and berries, and it has nothing to do with the team of personal trainers and such that keep them looking good for the camera.
She’s “Hollywood’s newest bombshell”?
I’ve seen prettier girls working the Publix register.
She’s cute enough along with the marketing plus of theoretical attainability for tens of millions of horny young guys. I for one wouldn’t kick her out of bed for eating crackers.
Music: I tripped over this amusing thing earlier
Obligatory
… and now we know why no one took the Austro-Hungarians seriously leading up to WW1…. what a bunch of clowns!
Meanwhile, the State Department put Haiti on its “Do Not Travel” list back in July 2023. Why are taxpayers on the hook for folks who are slow on the uptake?
As for me, I’m putting a “Hait Has No Home Here” sign in my front yard.
*narrows gaze*
When You Are Haitian to Get Home, Fly Haitian Air!
“The Israeli military discovered a slew of weapons hidden inside Gaza’s largest hospital, including in bathrooms and the maternity ward, after a gun battle with Hamas terrorists, military officials said.”
https://nypost.com/2024/03/25/world-news/idf-uncover-weapons-cache-at-al-shifa-hospitals-mri-center/
Aren’t their hands a bit tiny?
“You go with the army you have”
Now that’s what I call a weapons cache.
Did they fire up the MRI and just stand back and let them all come flying?
I hope Boeing has the good sense to hire a black woman with good ESG credentials to save the company and restore investor confidence. Maybe Joe has a suggestion.
Perfect job for Kamala Harris. Gets her out of the WH and retains her dignity by allowing her to (pretend to) resurrect a vital national interest. And imagine the lulzy speechifying!
“These are airplanes, and they fly through the air. They should not fall out of the air. That is bad. So I am making these airplanes to not fall out of the sky by implementing affirmative DEI policies.”
Plus she can cackle, “Fly, my pretties! Fly!”*
*Which was apparently never actually said in the Wizard of Oz movie. Mandela Effect.
What about that gal from Yale?
No one in the aerospace industry will get all snotty about a little plagiarism, will they?
I’m trying to figure out something to make for my sister-in-law. In other circumstances, I don’t think she and I would ever be friends. I mean, we’re not now. But there is a regard there on my part because she’s the woman my brother chose to marry and she’s a good person. Anyway, she’s in kind of a shit situation with my brother and also, she did something very generous for me. Making things for people is my love language, so I’m torn between an afghan (already in progress, but kind of sloppy because it’s just an experiment), a scarf (black and white) (she’s a musician), or a raised embroidery piece (variegated floss on cotton/linen blend). I feel very strongly I need to make something for her.
The raised embroidery piece would be quite unique.
That gets my vote too.
This. Love the design, and in a variegated floss it should be gorgeous!
I’ve got to consider type of stitches and length of the stitch, so I’m thinking variegated might not be the best choice. Also, I don’t know her favorite color. I’m thinking gold. https://pin.it/4QO3IcXa2 (not my work)
Likeaso:
https://ibb.co/zNjx7sh (my work)
https://ibb.co/zr8hmM3 (my work)
Nice snow on the toe! 😃👍❄
Thank you!!!!
I’ll cast my vote for the raised embroidery.
Particularly in that motif, since you’re a natural-born treblemaker.
SWISS!!!!!
He’s too sharp to be caught flat footed on this thread.
Well, we don’t want her to fall off a cleff.
Extra jellied meat spread??
Does it pair well with government cheese?
And powdered bread.
You need that to make powdered toast.
Love Dick Dale.
Well, blow me down
The US job market is showing signs of acute weakness with an alarming disconnect between the official government numbers and other metrics. According to Chris Puplava, Chief Investment Officer at Financial Sense Wealth Management, the widely-watched non-farm payroll report, for example, has shown consistent job growth of over 200,000 jobs per month for the past three months, while the household survey has shown significant job losses for three straight months.
This discrepancy is concerning, as the non-farm payroll report is often seen as a key indicator of the health of the job market. Puplava notes that the non-farm payroll report is skewed towards models and includes a “birth-death model” that estimates the number of new businesses and jobs created, while the household survey involves the government actually calling people to ask about their employment status.
[insert exclamation of surprised disbelief]
Well damn. If you can’t trust Honest Joe Biden and his crack staff of government officials, who can you trust?
Uh-oh, what’s Bluto think?
This discrepancy is concerning, as the non-farm payroll report is often seen as a key indicator of the health of the job market. Puplava notes that the non-farm payroll report is skewed towards models and includes a “birth-death model” that estimates the number of new businesses and jobs created
I’m not sure I can think of something snarky to say here. This is what passes for “expertise” these days. You make some model based on your assumptions, you make choices based on the model, and you get patted on the back for “managing” a generally stable system that is entirely too complex for your puny brain to comprehend.
Don’t forget the seals, clapping and barking for all they’re worth.
When flying Sunrise Airways, be sure to order the vegetarian meal.
Too soon Jaime. Too soon.
Is long pig kosher ?
Holy shit Dick Dale!
I knew someone would like that.
This story surprised me…in that I learned there is a Haitian airlines?!
First thing I thought of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVTD-LtpW0M
See, I was thinking of this.
Job opportunity #2 awaits in 5 min. For now, just a 15 min video to see what’s up and then get together later for an interview. Discovery.
Opportunity #2 is a 2mo, full-time gig grading written tests. W/o anything, and assuming I do the full eight weeks, Mon-Fri, 830am-4pm, is around $5300. Schedule. Immediate employment. No actual students. Perhaps a quick stepping stone into cash before another look off the side, aiming for a better hold up.
Intrigue, She Wrote.
“These two reports could not be more polar opposite from each other,” Puplava said, emphasizing the need to scrutinize the reliability of the government’s data models.
Scrutinize official government economic numbers?
One of those things is clearly disinformation. I’ll give you one guess which it is.
Is there a libertarian writing over at wcrz.com?
“Besides, we all know the real debate is….does pineapple belong on pizza?”
https://wcrz.com/michigan-based-pizza-chains-ranked-the-worst-in-america/
Way to go Michigan!
*libertarian should be glibertarian dammit
Does anyone know what the crime rate looks like in Northern California? Particular the Eureka area?
It would be surprising to find out.
Eureka is a stop on my september road trip, and I want to know if I should treat it as though I were approaching the more central or southerly Commifornia Shitholes, or if I’m less likely to be robbed and beaten.
The internet is saying “Change your plans and pick a different town.”
Yikes!
We stayed there for a couple nights on our road trip during Covid times. It’s a good spot for seeing Redwood National Park and the Lost Coast. There’s a bit of a homeless population, but it’s much colder than LA it doesn’t attract nearly as many. You won’t get robbed or beaten, but if you stray into someone’s pot farm in the hinterlands you might have an issue.
Yeah, I did that once on a backpacking trip on the coast between Big Sur and Cambria.
Total spooky vibes, got the F out of there right quick.
Did STEVE SMITH, HORTACULTURALIST have eyes on you?
I was there a year ago. Biggest issue I had was the Safeway didn’t allow beer purchase in the self check line.
There’s enough people and tourists that the usual smart things should be enough. Don’t leave valuables in plain sight and pay attention to surroundings. Same as in pretty much any USA town.
All of that area has a meth and fen-fen problem, but other than that, no issues.
Most of it is people stealing from GD. But Jo and Carter got your back.
Not our fault
Food prices and overall inflation will rise as temperatures climb with climate change, a new study by an environmental scientist and the European Central Bank found.
——-
“The physical impacts of climate change are going to have a persistent effect on inflation,” Kotz said. “This is really from my perspective another example of one of the ways in which climate change can undermine human welfare, economic welfare.”
And by 2060, the climate-triggered part of inflation should grow, with global food prices predicted to increase 2.2 to 4.3 percentage points annually, the study said. That translates to a 1.1 to 2.2 percentage point increase in overall inflation.
Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia University’s business school who wasn’t part of the research, said what he calls “climateflation” is “all too real and the numbers are rather striking.”
Kotz and European Bank economists looked at 20,000 data points to find a real world causal link between extreme weather, especially heat, and rising prices. They then looked at what’s projected in the future for climate change and saw sticker shock.
Central bankers say, “Hey, look over there!”
OMG I can’t even right now.
It must be the increase in arable land that will drive up food prices.
Makes sense. A warmer climate means all the money trees will have more dollars to drop on the ground.
Longer growing seasons and more CO2 is less food.
Just bad luck, I guess.
California restaurants are reportedly laying off staff and reducing hours for other team members in an effort to cut costs ahead of a California state law taking effect on April 1 that will raise fast-food workers’ hourly wage to $20.
In the months leading up to the wage mandate, California eateries, particularly pizza joints, have established a plan to cut jobs, according to state records obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
Damn shame. Who could’ve seen this coming? I blame greedy pizza franchise owners.
This was probably part of that meeting when all the greedy business owners secretly got together and decided to do shrinkflation.
No doubt all those job losses are the fault of Big Pizza.
This is the result of an unregulated assault style pizza market.
Needz moar regulations.
Perfect job for Kamala Harris. Gets her out of the WH and retains her dignity by allowing her to (pretend to) resurrect a vital national interest.
That is exactly what I was thinking. And just imagine the mad scramble it would set off among the Oval Office wannabes.
The Full-Self Driving will continue until morale improves.
I’m not a fan of The Verge, but will give the credit for the way they highlight Musk’s latest desperate attempt to juice Tesla sales. For the three potential self driving customers among the Glibs, do not buy it!
The good news: I have another math teacher job interview tomorrow, and the package fellow glib RJ sent arrived today. The button-up shirts are nice. I haven’t tried anything else on yet. Many thanks to RJ.
The bad news: a pipe under my bathroom sink started leaking, but it stopped when on turned off the shower faucet.
in other news:
https://www.npr.org/2024/03/23/1240037244/purim-a-festive-jewish-holiday-with-an-ending-often-ignored
***
With the Israeli Government reporting 12 hundred people killed on October 7th, and the Gaza Ministry of Health reporting nearly 32 thousand Palestinians killed since, many people are feeling the horrors of all the chapters.
***
Not sure why NPR wrote the numbers that way, except maybe to make them appear of the same magnitude.
Oh, and the end to the story of Esther that often gets left out is that the Jews ended up killing 75,000 Persians, supposedly.
Um. NPR actually wrote “…12 hundred people.” That. Uh. That’s wrong on multiple levels. Huh. Not sure if terrible AP-style writers or shaky AI.
I hope a shitty writer took the challenge to ‘Learn to code,’ spreading their failures on another field. That way, as many people as possible can lose. It’s like when George wanted to see more of Kramer’s Pig-Men around: Suddenly, I’m lookin’ a whole lot better.
Oh, and the end to the story of Esther that often gets left out is that the Jews ended up killing 75,000 Persians, supposedly.
The history channel had a show, BC Battles, that proposed a similar alternative ending to Passover. Instead of fleeing Egypt, the Jewish slaves rebelled with Moses as their general and carved a path of death and destruction from Egypt to Israel. I prefer that inner strength to the modern retelling of scared helpless slaves dependent on a god for their rescue.
But who knows. BC Battles certainly isn’t a creditable source. Neither is a haggadah.
“a pipe under my bathroom sink started leaking, but it stopped when on turned off the shower faucet”
*confused dog stare*
Alright, I need Glib advice.
I just got confirmation from a second mechanic that my wife’s car blew a head gasket. Despite it being almost 10 years old, we only bought it 3 years ago when used car prices were peaked and we still owe about 10k. The bill to replace the whole engine with a used, similar mileage one is about 12k. The KBB on this one is about 11-13k if it were mechanically sound.
We’re not exactly sitting flush with cash having just completed a move to AZ a few months ago. Are we better off trying to salvage this car and putting a whole bunch of money into it or taking a bath and being stuck with the payment and needing to find another car.
1. What kind of vehicle?
2. How bad was the head gasket blown? Slightly leaky or coolant everywhere oil dilution and the bottom end of the motor is trash.
Used motors vary widely in cost and availability,
It’s a Dodge Durango. They haven’t actually opened up the engine to see the gasket, but the coolant and oil reservoirs were both low today even after I filled the coolant back up last week. I would say its bad.
This second mechanic, who I trust, is a mom and pop shop that I’ve already used a couple of times and he tells me that the engines for these are generally expensive since they have a number of problems and are commonly used with Ram 1500’s (my other vehicle), so demand outstrips supply.
Advice that’s as bad as it is free: scour the salvage websites for an SRT Hellcat that’s been totaled due to body damage but has an intact engine, and get that pulled to replace the motor with your blown head gasket. Then you’d have a 710 HP beast to schlep the kids to soccer practice.
I actually considered getting one, just because using a ludicrous machine like that to tow my car to the track would be a sure conversation starter in the paddock during Track Day.
If you’d ever seen my wife drive, you’d know with that suggestion you were basically setting me up for a future manslaughter charge by knowingly handing a deadly weapon to an unhinged maniac.
Although if we traded vehicles……..
She’s a maniac, maniac, you know,
And she’s driving like she never drove before?
maniac
Her name isn’t Annie by chance?
Maiden name Wilkes? Yeah! Do you know her?
Is it the 3.7? Or one of the V8s.
You’ve got some good advice from others while I’m on my break from Japanese class.
First hit on Google is $2,700 – $3,200 for a long block.
https://fraserengineco.com/3-7-liter-jeep-engines/
I can’t remember if that also used the 3.6. That’s $5k
https://fraserengineco.com/chrysler-3-6l-vvt-mopar-crate-engine/
That’s about what they’re telling me for just the engine. $3-3.5k. The problem is all the other parts you need to buy plus the simply insane amount of labor to swap out everything. The first shop gave me an itemized estimate that was three pages long.
What’s the condition of the rest of the car? Leaks? Suspension issues?
How much money do they want to rebuild rather than replace?
How long would it take y’all to pay off the $22k of car plus engine versus $17k to pay off this car and a $7k beater?
Whats the condition of your other car?
No other leaks right now. We’ve only put about 30k miles on it in three years. It really hasn’t been in the shop much, so everything is the same as we inherited it (brakes, suspension ect…) except a new set of tires. Which is to say, I don’t really know the condition of everything else mechanically. I’m kind of an idiot when it comes to cars.
Aesthetically, it’s probably only “fair” condition. My wife tends to be a lot harder on things than I am. It’s the family car, so our young kids are about as rough on it as young kids tend to be. There’s a tear in the leather of the driver seat and the driver door inexplicably no longer opens correctly. There’s a number of things that would be obvious to any buyer in the private party market.
The vehicle also got rear ended on the highway two weeks ago, and my wife hasn’t been following up with the insurance company of the guy that did that, so I’m just getting a claim on that going. Hopefully we can get a few thousand in cash once we get estimates on the damage.
My Ram 1500 is also a 2014 with about 150k miles, but I have it serviced and it is generally in much better condition besides the higher miles.
Must be the day for it. I dont have the same issues as you (and you have all my empathy, believe me) but I have $280 worth of brake parts in the back of the POS Envoy™ waiting for my attention.
Last week it was a $60 coil pack.
/201K miles, 18 years old
That reminds me, I need to contact the shop and figure out when the $3200 of repairs will be done on my $6k truck so I can get plates for it.
You must really like that truck. That or you’ve seen the prices on used trucks.
The latter. My budget was 9, my buddy sold it for 6 and it checked all the boxes, but it wouldn’t pass inspection for some relatively minor things (less than $2k of work), so I used the rest of the budget on “nice to have” repairs like the water pump and the power steering lines.
Most of the other trucks I saw out there for $9k were high mileage, broken, and 2WD.
My Ram 1500 is also a 2014 with about 150k miles, but I have it serviced and it is generally in much better condition besides the higher miles.
I’ll elaborate on the beater suggestion. Given this and some of the other info you’ve provided, here’s what I’d do. Take it for what it is, advice from a debt averse guy on the internet.
Take any cash from the insurance claim, add it to any cash from selling the vehicle and use that money as a down payment on a beater in the $6-9k range. This isn’t “your” car, so don’t shop for what you want in the future. Shop for a car that is plain, dull, relatively low-mileage, and mechanically sound. Something that can get you and your family from A to B for a year and a half or so.
Use the first 6 months to build some financial breathing room after the move. Use the 12-18 months after that to pay down your ~$15k in car loans as much as possible (is paying off $12k of that doable in 18 months? $8k? $6k? Be aggressive but realistic).
Then after that 18-24 month period, you should be close to being able to sell the car (likely worth $5k or so after 2 years) for what you have left on the loan. At that point, you choose whether to upgrade cars (either immediately by pure financing or after a few months by saving up cash for a down payment) or whether to hang on to the beater and pay it the rest of the way off.
Thanks for the advice everyone.
Trashy, I think this was basically the direction I was headed. Pay this one off and let it go and just get something serviceable for a couple of years until we have more buying power. Unfortunately, I have to sell my wife on this plan. Despite the Durango being turning out to be a money pit, it’s a Citadel which has a really nice, decked out interior, so now she’s a bit spoiled.
If, as you said, she and the kids are hard on things, “a really nice, decked out interior” is NOT called for, so suck it up, Buttercup!
I completely agree, but like all married people, I don’t get to make decisions in a bubble. At this point it’s mostly going to be about getting her to accept that she’s getting a downgrade.
To be blunt, in addition to the “hard on things,” you’ve said she drives like a maniac and hasn’t been following up on the insurance claim after the accident. Not really painting a picture for me of someone whose desires ought to carry a whole lot of weight in this particular decision making process.
But I’m sure she has many fine qualities. 😉
we still owe about 10k. The bill to replace the whole engine with a used, similar mileage one is about 12k. The KBB on this one is about 11-13k if it were mechanically sound.
I don’t know much about engine repair, but the $10k sounds like a sunk cost that may be better to detach from the decision. What you’ve put into the car 3 years ago is gone. If you had $12k to purchase a new vehicle today, would you purchase this same vehicle with the used engine?
I don’t think so… you’d probably either put that $12k towards a similar model that didn’t need massive repairs or towards a different car altogether (Trshy’s point about maybe buying a beater for $7k and putting the difference towards paying the original balance off).
I’m leaning towards just letting it go and seeing how much I can get for it in the shape it’s in. The mechanics seem to think I’d be lucky to get 2k.
I would not buy the same car again. I probably wouldn’t even consider anything American, but speaking with both mechanics at length, they all seem to think that everything being built in the last ten years or so is much less reliable. Everyone including Toyota is switching to more plastic parts. They made the entire market sound really grim. Even without the financial disaster side of the whole situation, I’m not looking forward to shopping for something new.
If you’re able to swing it, buy a new Hyundai or Kia (10 year power train warranty). Get the base model, sedan if your family will conceivably fit.
At any rate, agree with others that you probably shouldn’t fix the current vehicle.
I’m averse to buying new cars since you take a bloodbath on the price in the first two years.
Did I say bloodbath????
You are taking a bloodbath right now with that engine repair. 6 of a dozen…
Are you planning to keep the car (that is, whatever car you wind up having) until it’s no longer fit for driving?
Every car I buy, I tell myself that I’ll drive until it’s no longer fit and inevitably something happens that kills those best laid plans.
You also get the full warranty and you know how well it was maintained and what’s going on with it. Imo, those less tangibles are part of the value.
Awww…that’s an easy one.
Oh, wait. That’s a shit choice.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it?
My father just had a new engine put in his car. The guys that put it in had a zillion tricks for skimping that I had not seen before. One thing after another had to be redone, tuned, replaced, etc.
How much is the payment?
It’s about $350 a month. I think it’s better to just let this one go and putting the money into something newer with lower miles that might retain some resale value. From what I can tell, the value of these things basically just goes off a cliff every year they get older. It’s blue book is already half what it was when we bought it (although that was at the peak of the used car boom three years ago.)
Either way, the move killed my liquidity and I’m going to have have to pull 10k plus from a source where I’m probably going to pay a big tax penalty.
I’d be tempted to go the bank and drop the keys and title on someone’s desk.
How much would the interest be compared to the tax penalty?
Also, $X/month is going to be less at the end of the loan term thanks to Bidenflation.
I haven’t even looked into it yet. We have a good amount of money in a couple of IRAs. We’ve never dipped in, but I’ve heard the taxes are steep.
My sister (being a realtor) suggested looking into a HELOC, so I may do that.
Any 401k accounts that allow personal loans?
I have to look into this as well. My wife’s entire 401k is in check form right now. We are just starting to work with a financial advisor, so our ability to use that is one of my questions when I reach out to them this week.
^^ least bad option, IMO. We used a 401k loan to avoid PMI on our mortgage.
My Ram is a 2000, has 365,000 miles on it, dash is bashed in, and we just dropped $1200 on a radiator and chasing down some leaks and fixing them and some other stuff. It’s been rode hard and put away wet. We basically only go to Home Depot and pick up things off Facebook Marketplace and fetch mulch for my mom with that truck, but we will be damned if we let go of that fucker. Ever.
I really admire your dedication. I wish I was in a situation where I could learn to work on cars to do everything myself and make cars last forever. I have the knowledge to basically build a house from scratch, build a computer from parts and I rebuild and rewire guitars all the time. When it comes to cars, I can’t even change my own oil to my great shame.
HUSBAND’s question: MUST you replace the engine versus fixing the head gasket? We (husband and I) have never really heard of replacing an engine for a head gasket.
Depends on what part of the gasket blew, which leads to where is the coolant leaking to. As reported below, if the oil is checked and is looking like mayo, then the coolant leaked down into the block and is killing bearings. Thus, motor is toast.
On the other hand, if it blew between cylinders, pull the head, replace, move on.
My second mechanic is still looking into things right now, but I’ll ask him about this. Thanks for pointing it out.
It was explained to me by the mechanic that SOP nowadays is to go straight to full replacement. The rebuild is usually less, but whatever caused the blowout likely caused some other issues, such as warping parts, that wouldn’t get noticed until after a rebuild is complete and the need to reopen the engine and rediagnose if there is a problem completely negates any savings.
Not worth repairing if the head is warped.
If you can do all of that, you can totally do your own oil*. This is the age of YouTube videos where more than likely someone else has already made a video for your model.
*many cars, some are royal pains in the ass and most will need jacks/stands/other hand tools/etc.
**small engine work (lawnmowers, chainsaws, leaf blowers, etc) is easier and more obvious as to what’s going on. The principles are much the same with larger engined vehicles.
And there ain’t no shame in kicking ass in your own specialty to be able to hire someone else to do work for you.
I replaced the door handle in my Granny car myself.
I also changed the clutch cable on my 1979 Kawasaki 650KZ.
Amazing what you can do when you’re desperate and broke.
HOLD UP!
Your bike was a Kawasaki KZ? In the snow? In a dress?
Oh, Im gonna need a LOT of bunk time now.
/Tres V2.0 asked “how did you learn to work on cars, Dad? My answer- usually on a Sunday I would scramble to get whatever POS I had running just so I could get to work on Monday. And praying w/e I did would last all week. I couldn’t afford to pay someone that actually knew what they were doing.”
No, that was not the one I wore a dress in the snow.
That one was the 1986 Yamaha Virago 920.
Bit more of a low-slung cruiser type for dress wearers. Geometry checks out.
The KZ is still bunk material tho.
They actually made a motorcycle called the Virago? LOL.
https://ibb.co/pRh6qHd
That’s me and POS Envoy™. Its my put muddy dogs in, go to home depot for drywall, don’t care if someone dings it up in Kroger, vehicle. 300 HP or so and 4WD. Its about all I need.
And despite having noticeable cancer on the sheet metal (it came from Cleveland), its Denali trim and the inside is quite nice.
I’ve already done a fair amount of mechanical work to it and I’m aware of the sunk-cost-fallacy but I love that heap and Ill keep blowing money to keep her on the road.
Jugsy has the Challenger SRT-8 cause she thinks she’s cool.
Buy an ev. You get a tax credit and they don’t have head gaskets.
*ducks*
“Almost no one actually realizes how well it works”
Almost perfect, almost every time.
Good enough!
2. How bad was the head gasket blown? Slightly leaky or coolant everywhere oil dilution and the bottom end of the motor is trash.
Yes. What does the
oilsubstance on the dipstick look like? If it looks like what I have seen described as mayo, or a milkshake, or just hideous goo, that means coolant has been thoroughly mixed with the oil and run through the engine, meaning the engine is more than likely toast.Is it a car you will miss? Did you actively like it, or was it merely an alternative to taking the bus?
There’s an orange tint on the dipstick, which is weird since the coolant I was using was was green. I didn’t think it was noticeably thicker than normal oil though.
My wife is still looking for a job, so at the moment, we can survive with one car, but we need the dual income, thus we’ll need a second car. There’s no sentimental attachment though. I’m not a car guy at all. We just need reliable vehicles.
If you see frothy, creamy, white stuff like Peter North made a visit to your crankcase, you got water in the bottom end. Proceed very carefully.
Same if you take the filler cap out and Peter North filled it like he was icing a cake….water in the top end.
Running a compression test isn’t difficult.
WatchJRgo did an interesting, and I thought good, little dissertation about why he buys junkyard motors and swaps them in, rather than getting sucked into the rabbit hole of rebuilding motors (tl;dw- he flips his cars right away, and a junkyard motor with a warranty makes a lot more sense in that context).
Some cars are worth more dead than alive. Sometimes it’s less trouble and pain to bite the bullet and sell what you have than to get involved in a lot of expense and aggravation only to come out even, or possibly worse, by trying to fix and then flip.
If it’s a car you love and want to hang on to forever (doesn’t sound like it), everything is different.
A head gasket failure doesn’t ALWAYS result in coolant mixing with oil, for what that’s worth.
Truth. Thats when one of these is handy
That’s what they used….
Then the gooder news is that maybe you didn’t flood the bottom end with coolant and saving some bearings.
Still got a leak tho.
Never went down this road, but if you’re resigned to sending it off to the junkyard maybe try the mechanic-in-a-jar as a last resort.
*not recommended if you’re going to keep the vehicle
Now that’s interesting. I’d want to unload it almost immediately if I did that. I just don’t know if I could ethically bring myself to dump that on someone else knowing it was a ticking time bomb. I’m not the kind of guy that can sell a dead bird to a blind kid and still sleep at night.
PS: Years ago, upon recommendation of the NAPA guy I did use Moroso Ceramic Seal for a V8 Olds block that had cracked on a freeze plug and was spewing coolant.
It ended up in the junkyard for another reason, but that shit worked for a good 6 months.
YMMV
Use Tres Cool’s suggestion and donate?
I’m averse to buying new cars since you take a bloodbath on the price in the first two years.
New car depreciation sucks. My dad taught me that a long long time ago. Buying cars new off the showroom floor is for chumps. Even when he could afford anything he wanted, he still bought cars which were a couple years old.
I was always told that 7 years is the magic number where depreciation stops on most models.
Higher end shit like a Rolls or Bentley and I think its even more drastic.
Those cars, your Jaguars and Benz’s and better, get traded in on the new model every year.
If you can’t afford to do that, what is basically a forever payment, then those cars ain’t for you.
This is why God made Enterprise and Hertz.
That’s a good reminder to. I hear they’re unloading a bunch of EVs right now.
***Immediately smacks self in face for the suggestion***
NO! NO EVs EVER!!!
I’ve never looked into buying from a car rental place. Do they have physical locations or is it all online?
Both.
My last Enterprise purchase was done all online, dealer drove the car to us, we did the loan paperwork in my kitchen (Capital One), and it was a good car for years till some lady backed into it.
My 2006 Hyundai Sonata (6 cylinders, 3.2 liters), my mother bought it from Enterprise and she said it was the best car she’s ever had, then she sold it to me (after the above-mentioned wreck) to buy herself a new Sonata. I love that little car, but it’s at 175,000 miles and starting to nickel and dime me.
Consider that taken under advisement. Thanks.
We had a Hyundai Tiburon with I think the same 6 cylinder. Jugsy (same with stray dogs) brought it home and I did a bunch of work on it.
Buddha H. Koresh that thing was fun. Then she traded it for 2 iPhones*
*cute story
Ev from Evsville has a sad.
Evan from Eville… every event, mention of EVs is evil. Even here! Seven levers never even sever their levy taxes on the (harder searchability of my Evan. And, Ev. You did it to yourself this time: But ON PORPOISE!
I have bought two cars from Enterprise and would do so again…but ‘cept now it HAS to be a Subie!
It is my intention never to do business with Hertz.
You don’t need to worry about the head gasket. It’s the subordinate gaskets that do all the real work.
Are you advocating that the subordinate gaskets overthrow the bourgeoise, elitist gaskets and create a corker’s paradise?
They create all the value anyway. They should own the means of gasketing.
This is why God made Enterprise and Hertz.
I had a friend who worked for Penske Racing. He got burnt out and his wife had a kid or two (he was in on the deal); anyway, Roger moved him to one of the Hertz Penske car rental locations in Indianapolis. He told me one time buying a car from Hertz was a great deal, because the maintenance is fastidious, and the cars mostly are rented by people who drive them back and forth from a hotel to an office while they are on a work assignment. Anything they don’t don’t have complete confidence in gets shipped off to the auction.
Burnt out? Clearly, he wasn’t Penske material.
(I almost hope I’m not the first to say it.)
Random question down here- I have heard bad things about Dodge/Chrysler (V8s?) with cylinder-on-demand technology. Like massive cam and lifter failures. I have no idea if this is applicable. You might not want to fix one problem with another major one lurking in the wings.
So you’ve heard of GMC and “active fuel management” which is the same- under low load, half the cylinders are taken out for “efficiency” which I think is 2-3% on the high estimate.
However, the system likes to collapse lifters when you have dirty oil, or the screen on the oil pressure sensor can clog and cause the same.
Thats why POS Envoy gets a new WIX filter and Penzoil syn high mileage every 3K at a minimum. If I had more faith in it, I’d go with Royal Purple but no with so many miles.
As a reply to upthread:
I don’t know, but I’m pretty certain that Jugsy learned to drive by playing Mario Karts.
Turning her loose on the streets everyday with a 470HP hemi was NOT my idea.