What are you doing today?

Just got back from Manhattan. I took my wife to a Broadway musical, Hell’s Kitchen, for her 70th birthday. She loved the show. I generally dislike musicals and this was no exception. What we won’t do for love. But it is always fun hanging out in Manhattan.
 
Was working at the Church today replacing facia on the gym. It was a long day and when it was finally time to leave, the truck wouldn't start. Jumping it was not enough. I knew the battery was going, but didnt think it would go that fast. Had to leave the truck and get a ride home and now I have to pick up a battery and go back tonight.
 
Was working at the Church today replacing facia on the gym. It was a long day and when it was finally time to leave, the truck wouldn't start. Jumping it was not enough. I knew the battery was going, but didnt think it would go that fast. Had to leave the truck and get a ride home and now I have to pick up a battery and go back tonight.
My Dad had a mazda rx8 - i test drove it when looking for a new car after 20 years without a car and my dad fell in love with it (i hated the the thing); anyway he took it to the dealer-ship to get a new battery - but they put one in that was too small - so it failed on the way home when we stopped to get gas. He took it in stride but i was furious (the local dealership for mazda and a few other brand suck royally - the disadvantage of living in a city of nearly 1 million people. the honda dealership is better but if you want a good dealership drive 300 miles down to a real city.
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Growing up we had a fury 3 and the dealership could never keep the thing running but eventually a shop opened up with a competent mechanic (independent mechanic not dealership) and the guy identified every problem with that piece of trash and fixed them for a dime and my Dad used him for the next 40 years till he retired for all service. The guy was good and my dad would try to give him extra and he would refuse. People like that (not the refusing the extra but the skill level) are the ones that should be paid billions not some of the idiots that run companies and rip off the public (sorry but my dis-taste now that i've met a few ceo is super high). Anyway i grew up and left town and he passed on and his son took over but don't know if he was skilled.

Sometime the good old days really were the good old days.
 
My Dad had a mazda rx8 - i test drove it when looking for a new car after 20 years without a car and my dad fell in love with it (i hated the the thing); anyway he took it to the dealer-ship to get a new battery - but they put one in that was too small - so it failed on the way home when we stopped to get gas. He took it in stride but i was furious (the local dealership for mazda and a few other brand suck royally - the disadvantage of living in a city of nearly 1 million people. the honda dealership is better but if you want a good dealership drive 300 miles down to a real city.
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Growing up we had a fury 3 and the dealership could never keep the thing running but eventually a shop opened up with a competent mechanic (independent mechanic not dealership) and the guy identified every problem with that piece of trash and fixed them for a dime and my Dad used him for the next 40 years till he retired for all service. The guy was good and my dad would try to give him extra and he would refuse. People like that (not the refusing the extra but the skill level) are the ones that should be paid billions not some of the idiots that run companies and rip off the public (sorry but my dis-taste now that i've met a few ceo is super high). Anyway i grew up and left town and he passed on and his son took over but don't know if he was skilled.

Sometime the good old days really were the good old days.
Stay away from the stealerships. If you need a mechanic, only use a good independent one. If you can, just learn to do the work yourself. In the age of the internet, nothing is impossible.
 
Stay away from the stealerships. If you need a mechanic, only use a good independent one. If you can, just learn to do the work yourself. In the age of the internet, nothing is impossible.
Well these days a lot of cars need expensive thingy to plug in to get data or make changes. Obviously simple stuff like batteries and oil changes can be done yourself and my dad changed his own oil for 55 years but alas father time caught up. The problem with the mazada rx8 was parts. We did find a suitable battery at a non-local walmart and replaced the battery with that but most of the common places didn't have the right battery - i don't know the details but something like high voltage in a small form factor. I tried to not pay attention to anything related to that car - it wasn't exactly crap but it had the behavior of a new born child without a diapper.
 
I take my 2005 to a muffler shop. Used to take my 75 there but they disrespected it and bent my hood and none of them can use a timing light so I took the 75 to the local "old guys shop" to get it straightened out with timing adjustment and adjustment to my Edelbrock carburetor and it hasn't needed a thing since except gas and a little oil for a leak I caused trying to work on it. Muffler shop has testing equipment for the newer trucks and they're actually pretty good.
 
@Back in the fold @WhistlingBadger Yup. Thats the endurance. It says its 350 build hours. Should keep me busy for a while.
The story of the Endurance Expedition is one of the greatest survival tales of all time. If I ever make it back to England I want to visit Dulwich College and see the James Caird. Have you read the book, "Endurance" by Lansing? It is definitely a book worth owning, especially the edition with Hurley's photos. I read it every few years when I need to be reminded what courage looks like.
 
We had a really enjoyable local aquarium club meeting last night. I ended up in a post meeting very wide ranging conversation with a bunch of people that veered into why we thought we liked fishkeeping. You could see people had thought about this, since aquarists tend to be thought of as a bunch of nerds, and this is a blue collar, working class city.

I'm only in my sixties, but I see a huge difference in how younger people talk. There is so much more honesty. When I was new to aquarium clubs, in the 90s, there could never have been such a conversation between 5 men. Guys were tangled up in toughness codes and masks. The idea that there would be open conversation with almost strangers about ADHD and aquarium keeping as an offshoot of how minds work would have been impossible, for men. The willingness to explore why people do what they do, and why it can be good was enlightening for me. When people really talk, it makes me really think.

Just got back from Manhattan. I took my wife to a Broadway musical, Hell’s Kitchen, for her 70th birthday. She loved the show. I generally dislike musicals and this was no exception. What we won’t do for love. But it is always fun hanging out in Manhattan.
That is true love. I would rather go to a Mazda dealership, have the mechanic install wisdom teeth in my jaw, and then have him grab a wrench and pull them out than go to a broadway musical.
 
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We had a really enjoyable local aquarium club meeting last night. I ended up in a post meeting very wide ranging conversation with a bunch of people that veered into why we thought we liked fishkeeping. You could see people had thought about this, since aquarists tend to be thought of as a bunch of nerds, and this is a blue collar, working class city.

I'm only in my sixties, but I see a huge difference in how younger people talk. There is so much more honesty. When I was new to aquarium clubs, in the 90s, there could never have been such a conversation between 5 men. Guys were tangled up in toughness codes and masks. The idea that there would be open conversation with almost strangers about ADHD and aquarium keeping as an offshoot of how minds work would have been impossible, for men. The willingness to explore why people do what they do, and why it can be good was enlightening for me. When people really talk, it makes me really think.


That is true love. I would rather go to a Mazda dealership, have the mechanoc install wisdom teeth in my jaw, and then have him grab a wrench and pull them out than go to a broadway musical.
I think the reasons i like fish keeping is in part it is a learning experience - not so long ago i thought blackwater was a mystic never achieved and these days I can breed most blackwater species - though a challenge i'm not up to is trying to simulate migratory environment for fishes like panda gara and clown loaches. But there is more to it - each species i keep has its own behavior pattern - and while some can be lumped into a general characteristics many have unique tweaks. I mostly focus on sa dwarf cichild but even among those their is wide lattitude.
 

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