What are you doing today?

[GaryE]

Looking at the front of that car, it looks like you may have hit a giant wad of flying bubblegum.

Welcome to the conversations here. I'm generally not a car guy - they get me from here to there and all I want is reliability. But that is a rare very nice car.

 

[gwand]

A banana on four wheels.

 

[GaryE]

No car will ever beat my 1989 Toyota tercel wagon. It looked like a tissues box on wheels, fought to get to 130 kmph and ran for 750,000 km with barely any repairs. It was all wheel drive, and battled though huge snowstorms for many winters, while passing tons of jeep cherokees (why them I'll never know) in the ditches. It looked as sporty as a rock. In its last year, it started to be a problem, but it was old by then.

That car could hurt your eyes, but it was very kind to the wallet, and got me to work and back through some wild weather. It also had room for a 75 gallon, and was great for transporting wood to make aquarium stands.

It wasn't as cool as that yellow car, but I'm probably not as cool as that car's owner.

 

[gwand]

My first car was a used 1967 Opal Cadet that I purchased for $600 in 1971. Every time I stopped for gas the engine also needed oil.

 

[jaylach]

My first car was a used 1967 Opal Cadet that I purchased for $600 in 1971. Every time I stopped for gas the engine also needed oil.

We were close at least as to when if not what. My first was a 1969 Impala bought for $600.00 USD in 1973

 

[Innesfan]

'63 Impala, here, white convertible, red interior/seats, black rag top. Probably the last car I was truly in love with. Or maybe it was because I was 19.

 

[MaloK]

'81 Pontiac LeMans, 2 door coupe with 5.0 V8, four speed standard. Exactly the one used in wikipedia.
Same color same mags.

 

[jaylach]

'63 Impala, here, white convertible, red interior/seats, black rag top. Probably the last car I was truly in love with. Or maybe it was because I was 19.

Nice car without a doubt but I think I'd prefer a 1964. Sigh, my sister had one and was selling. I was a year and a half too young to drive but had the money saved that she wanted but she refused to sell it to me as we were in a bit of a sibling battle which, to be honest, was probably my fault.

 

[fishorama]

Our first car was a used '72 NoVa my parents gifted us. It was a POS, partly our fault. We are not car people but many family members were. I remember many a holiday visit with all the men outside to offer suggestions & possible help. I luckily was the wrong gender back in the day, lol. I had the mistaken idea that car & home repairs were on the Y chromosome.

Now we just pay someone else to do whatever, even things we'd done before. It's not all bad getting old

 

[MaloK]

Times changes, every generation of cars I bought lost, cylinders and had a more and more decrepit look... The kind of look that you can leave the keys on the ignition and nobodies ever going to touch it.

I currently have a 2011 VW Golf 2.5T. That's reaching the point that I get pulled over for "inspection" and the cop really think he's going to put a clunker off the road.

But how deceived they are when I show them written and physical proof that it's in fact in better shape than their own cars. And how crazy are these 5 cylinders Engines. I'm going to turnover 500K soon. Stills sounds like V10 trumpets roaring on the highway. And I love the solid handling of that suspension.

So I'm keeping and fixing everything. Last summer I bought a new driver side front door and moved everything inside into my old one and wow, that's going to last another 500K.

I bought a good number of vehicles, but some of them really stuck on me... And I left them when there was no other alternative. loll...

 

[WhistlingBadger]

My first car was a 1983 Mercury Marquis that my parents gave me for a college car. I drove it like a jeep, and it looked like it, which did not please my dad one bit. I was happy when I finally got a real job and could trade it in for a pickup.

 

[GaryE]

I'm done with having to put toxins on my head, so today I can go out to the fishroom and put in a solid day's work. My last water change was April 12, and I would normally have done 2 since then. So I'll be draining, adding water and cleaning glass today. I also have to clean a canister, one of my least favourite jobs in the tanks.
It's warming up here, the daphnia has hatched out, the plants are in my unheated plasticed greenhouse and the buds on the trees are starting to fatten up. I designed the fishroom to work well in a Canadian winter, and it does. But it works best when the windows can be opened.

 

[jaylach]

I'm done with having to put toxins on my head, so today I can go out to the fishroom and put in a solid day's work. My last water change was April 12, and I would normally have done 2 since then. So I'll be draining, adding water and cleaning glass today. I also have to clean a canister, one of my least favourite jobs in the tanks.
It's warming up here, the daphnia has hatched out, the plants are in my unheated plasticed greenhouse and the buds on the trees are starting to fatten up. I designed the fishroom to work well in a Canadian winter, and it does. But it works best when the windows can be opened.

If you have any fish that are sensitive you may want to think about doing smaller water changes over a few days to prevent shock from a sudden change even though a few weeks isn't that long

 

[GaryE]

Day 2 of the restoration. I followed @jaylach 's idea, and did 20% changes. I usually plan to do 30% and end up with 40%. I stock lightly and plant a lot, so they'll be good now til next week. I usually do sections for 45 minutes a morning maybe 4 days a week, and that's just routine. Yesterday, I spent 6 hours in there, and would have spent more but the water heater was drained - it's still Spring. In summer, that's no worry, but the incoming water from the city is still pretty cold. I can do a lot more than in January.

When I first moved here, I lost a lot of killie species. An 800 km move can be a problem. I had already been a caregiver for a family member with cancer through the pandemic (she's well now) and had to stash the fish and close the fishroom to sell the house we were in. I did well to have any fish survive that 3 years.
I had trimmed my collection down to the favourites I wanted to keep longterm, and I've been feeling I'm not done with them. You can't just buy killies in a pet store. So I also worked away to find eggs yesterday. I located a guy in France to sell me one favourite, and I may get another from Poland. A fellow in central Ontario is sending me eggs of my old striatum strain, and out of the blue, a man in Quebec contacted me yesterday and offered me 2 pairs of one of my old favourites if I'll pay the shipping.

I rarely sell killies. I'm happy to give pairs away to interested keepers, for shipping costs or for free if they drop by. I've gotten e-mails like that 7 or more years after I'd given fish to someone, saying they had a species doing well and wondering if I wanted some. When I started in killies, I felt awkward visiting other keepers because I found if I admired a fish, they'd give it to me. The generosity was overwhelming. Aquabid has commercialized killie breeding and made it expensive, but there are still a lot of old school people out there, who don't let the market ruin their ethics.

I could put 20 bucks in my pocket and buy whatever, but I prefer the feeling you get when someone reciprocates out of the blue like this. I like seeing people be generous. It always makes my day.

With an expected influx of eggs and young fish in 2 to 3 weeks, I'll adding prepping set ups to my fishroom chores today. By suppertime, all will be back to normal, and I can stare down the garden.

 

[Essjay]

I spent the afternoon catching shrimps in the small tank and moving them to my main tank.

I miss the shrimp tank so I have spent the last few days cleaning the tank. Wiping the inside down with bleach, then a few hours later scraping with a decorating razor removed the algae. The sand has been thoroughly washed and put back in the tank, and the tank filled with water. The old Java moss was thrown away so I bought some more, that's now tied onto wood and in the tank. I found a piece of wood in storage so once it sinks I'll take some of the overgrown anubias bonsai from the main tank for this wood, and some red root floater from there as well.
The only downside is that I broke the cover glass. But there were pieces of double walled plastic greenhouse panels lying around so this morning I used some of that to make a new cover.

Eventually I'll get some yellow Neocaridina. There's a shop not too far away which sells shrimp which is better than risking them in the mail.