Good Morning!!!! 50F @ 5:30AM. Mostly cloudy. High 66F. Winds light and variable.
No rain in the 10-day. Won't miss it, but I also hope that's not the end of it for the season.
When I drove the truck home yesterday, Drew, I though at first something was wrong with it. The steering felt incredibly heavy, it didn't want to accelerate, all my inputs seemed exaggerated from what felt right. In just one trip I'd accommodated to the Toyota and all MY calibrations were off!
To do it right, I should have backed off every lug nut and then retorqued it. Most mechanics use an impact gun to way over tighten lug nuts, and when you go to use the lug wrench they give you with the car, they won't come off. Maybe I'll get to that today.
I agree on the dash displays, gs. There are two on the Toyota. One little one in between the analog tach and speedo, then another 7" one where most cars have a radio. I think the print on the little one is too small, so I end up squinting to see it. And the icons are likewise small, and that makes it even harder to understand what they mean. There's a page or two of 'em in the Quickstart Guide, and I keep that along with the Owner's Manual in the glove box. I think Toyota did a pretty good job on the infotainment system, though. There are buttons to go directly to most of the main functions, and then you get big buttons with large labels on the LCD screen. And it'll all work via voice if you know the right commands to say. That'll take some learnin'. There's a whole 'nuther manual for just the infotainment system. It's in the glove box, too. And yes, I'm runnin' out of room in that globebox. I'd put .pdf copies of the manuals in my phone, but the screen would be too small to read 'em. More modern problems.
The guy that pulled the tree off the road was back yesterday with a chainsaw, Ken. I watched the video from the camera up there while he and his kid cut a 5' gap in the logs I'd piled up. So I called him and asked what he thought he was doing. He didn't know he was on private property, and he didn't know about the problems with vagrants or campfires. He obviously felt entitled to be using the abandoned road even though he had been trespassing every time he did so, so I straightened him out on that. Somewhere in there I expected at least an apology, but I didn't get it. My contractor neighbor has had contracts with the Forest Service fabricating and installing gates that will let people by, but not vehicles. My next step is to get in touch with the manager of the state park that manages the reservoir and see if they'll pay for the gate. Once a vehicle crosses through my property onto state land, they can be cited, so the state is not happy with the situation, either. But there's no place to turn around at that point, so it makes the most sense to put the gate at the cul-de-sac.
Glad you weren't standing under that Ash branch when it fell.
Frits, I just watched a video where a pro Toyota mechanic swaps a short block into a '16 Camry with 180k miles on it because it was using 3 quarts of oil every 1k miles. The oil control rings on two of the pistons were gummed up and seized. The owner had been having the dealer do oil changes according to Toyota specs, at every 10k miles or 1 year. Back when I first started driving, the intervals were every 3k miles. They only went to every 10k when manufacturers started offering free maintenance plans. Those plans are good enough to get the engines out past the factory warranty, but not past a couple hundred k. When the salesman tried to sell me an extended care package, I asked if it included 5k oil changes. Nope. So no sale, and thank you very much, but I'll do my own oil changes, using good oil, not the crap that they use at the dealership. I tear the lid off the box the oil filters come in, write the date and mileage on the back, and keep it along with the receipt for the oil and filter in a folder for that vehicle. There are right to maintain laws on the books now, and should there be any problems down the line, I hope that's sufficient to prove proper care.
I'll pass on resolving the debate, Don, but you can let them know the OTD price on the '23 Camry LE with $750 worth of options and no dealer add ons was a few bucks over $30k. Basically $500 under MSRP, plus tax, title, and registration. And plus Toyota's nobody-gets-away-without-it, dealer setup fee. They must have to do a LOT of setup to earn that $1095.00.
You're wife was only half right, Thomas. You are getting older, but you're not stubborn at all with her. You're too smart for that.
Of all the tools in high school woodshop, Phil, I had the most fun on the lathe. But gosh did all that sawdust make me sneeze!
Got another insurance payment for the roof yesterday, enough to cover the contractor's estimate for the repair. Based on that I signed the contract, and work should start Monday. Finally!
Found a house yesterday that just might work. It has a 2 car "pass through" garage, with the usual double wide door in front and a single wide door on one side in the back. And in the back yard, there's a 1.5 car garage. The house appears to be very well maintained, so it would be very close to move in ready. The lot isn't quite a quarter acre, so the only tractor there's room for is the lawn variety. But the gardens are so big, nothing bigger than a push mower is needed. Only fly in the ointment is an HOA fee, but it's not too punishing at $360/year. Probably helps to keep the riff raff out, as I didn't see a single car parked in any of the front yards. Tried to reach the realtor to set up a visit, but he was nowhere to be found and wasn't responding to calls or texts. A friend had recommended someone else a while back, so I gave him a call and he set up a visit for this morning. Apparently this new guy was the number one realtor in the county last year, so he appears to know how to get things done. This new realtor will have a copy of the HOA agreement, quite a change from the old one that told us they were impossible to get before the closing. Looking forward to this zoom call, not looking forward at all to moving though.
Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!
, got all of the plowing damage back dragged, filled, raked etc.
