It seems official - my “good” laptop is dead. It is a doorstop. It does nothing but sit there. The lights that say it’s charged on on, but that’s it. Nada. Fuck. So I’m back on my old laptop which is falling apart at the seams, physically. The case is all separated on one side and for some reason, if I lean my wrist too hard on it, it blinks off and back on. On top of all that, it also seems that my external drive - which was basically my back up, and where I kept all my game files and bunch of old photos - has also died. Windows cannot access. Can’t even scan it. All that shit is out the window too as well. Perfect. I wouldn’t mind so much getting a new laptop except that there’s no way I can afford a new laptop right now.
I use Chrome browser. When I want to click on a link, I usually right click and select “Open link in new window,” which is #2 in the list. Well the latest update includes a new option that I hate: “Open link in split view.” The problem is that it is in the #2 position, and I am always accidently selecting it.
I went to a club on Friday night, and saw a guy there. He had on a crappy wig and a seven-foot long red necktie. he was also wearing a super long T-shirt depicting a fried corn tortilla stuffed with tomatoes and shredded cheese and lettuce. He was asking evreyone what they thought his costume represented. Very frustrated, because he’d been dressed like that all day, and NO ONE had clocked that he was doing T(he America-hating fuckstick) Always Chickens Out. I knew immediately (of course; I’m a Doper), and he was SO relieved he handed me a twenty and told me to buy myself a drink (of course I had a White Russian).
I’m hypoglycemic, so it’s not just the cats whose meal times have to get sorted out here. I was out running errands and had to buy a cookie to eat in my car so I didn’t pass out from low blood sugar before I got home. It’ll be a good week or two before I fully adjust. I also was woken up this morning by 30 pounds of cats sitting on me wanting their breakfast…
For some inexplicable reason I remain slow-moving in the Department of Cars. This afternoon I have to go and empty out the Sebring (still in the driveway) so it’s ready for the tow truck from the charitable foundation I donated it to, which might come as early as tomorrow. This is not fun as there’s probably more junk in various nooks and crannies than I care to think about. The Sebring is perfectly driveable but is now unlicensed and uninsured, so it has to be towed (unless I want to declare myself a Sovereign Citizen and claim I don’t need any of that stuff!). There’s no charge for the towing and I get a minimum $700 tax credit.
I really want to get the Sebring the hell out of there so I can properly garage the Camry.
You have no idea how much the tension of this indecision over the car affected me! I think it was some combination of how much I loved the Sebring and maybe more than a touch of old-age senility affecting my mental health. It feels like getting rid of a faithful beloved pet!
But it is indeed time to move on. I’m still in a high state of emotion and get pissed off at the Camry whenever there’s something new I can’t immediately figure out. On Friday when it was raining I swore at it because it appeared the windshield wipers didn’t work. On the Sebring, you rotated a little knob at the end of the stalk to select the wiper speed you want. There was a little ring thingie on the stalk that I rotated all over and nothing happened. Turns out, you pull the stalk down in steps to select the different wiper speeds, and I think the ring thingie determines the timing of the intermittent speed. So, everything essentially better, but I still curse the differences! Old dog, new tricks, etc.
We all do that. I had the same experience earlier this year driving a work vehicle for the first time and it started raining. I couldn’t figure it out at first and honestly thought it was broken. But it was just me, it just operated different from my car.
I know, I know! This stress has cost me about a year out of my life, and the incredible volume of rum and vodka consumption may have equalled that of the entire USA for the same period. Give me credit for my contribution to the liquor business, and have mercy on an Old Fart.
Does it need to be licensed and insured if it’s off road ?
Here in the UK we can make a “statutory off road notification” (SORN)
to avoid that incase we want to use it again in future.
No, I guess not, but there’s no practical off-roading possible around here. An uninsured + unlicensed car is pretty much useless. Plus, in order to be licensed by someone else, a car has to pass a pretty rigid safety inspection for an ownership transfer. Quite honestly, my guess is that it would cost more to bring the Sebring up to safety standards than the car is worth, so a normal resale wasn’t feasible. I could have sent it to auction but would have only received a pittance for it. I’m actually better off with the tax credit from the Kidney Foundation. There are other charitable foundations that do the same thing but these guys are a bit more generous with the tax credit.
We have three cars that I regularly drive. Windshield wiper controls are on both side of the steering column & don’t work the same in any of them, like yours, a turn vs. a pull down. I never know how to do certain things, especially after driving one of them for a while & switching to a different one.
I came home last week & the house was cold. I looked at the (programable) thermostat & it’s accurately set for daytime temps; turns out the clock was about 45 mins off. It was not intuitive how to change the time (changing date & program were easy) but after looking it up I fixed it in a matter of seconds. Of course it’s an hour off again because I didn’t think about it when I got home last night.
It absolutely is, and I benefited from it in my last two house purchases. I was the paragon of negotiating excellence. The offer I submitted for the current house was returned with a counter-offer, and I firmly held my ground and said no, that was my final offer. I was willing to let it go, but they reluctantly accepted. But somehow I get emotionally attached to cars and have a hard time letting them go. It’s a mystery.
I’ve said before that I value a car only for its utility as transportation, which is true. But when it feels safe and comfortable as well as practical, it’s a bonus that I value greatly.
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