Life, books, cars, big ideas

[chanaleh]

Lunchtime nattering while I eat bridgetminerva's yummy spicy chili. :-)

Lots going on, of course. Let me explain. -- No, there is too much. Let me sum up. -- No, still too much. Let me skip the recap of recent goings-on (work, shul, social, musical) and make notes about things I'm actually thinking about, instead.

Both bethr and derspatchel now have the Best of The Electric Company 4-DVD set. This should mean I get to see it soon (not the least likely outcome being that ablock will also buy it). Awesome!

Fans of my former employer, The MIT Press, will be interested to know that they have started a blog. They also have RSS feeds (available broken down by category) of their new releases. These have been syndicated to LJ as mitpresslog and mitpress_new (the complete feed), respectively. Go ye forth and enjoy. (Can blog.akpeters.com be far behind? ;-)

After rewatching A Room With A View (one of my favorite movies ever) with Tiger Boy last weekend, I am now rereading it. I'd really forgotten how wonderful it is. Not just in that vicarious-trip-to-Italy way, not just in that lovable-engaging-characters way, but in that mind-and-heart-expanding chock-full-of-Romanticist-ideas way. It actually makes me feel like my old college-era self again, the one who fell in love with Wordsworth and Shelley and Goethe and Emerson. Guess I could add that to lifecollage's call for inspirational reading.

The abovementioned entry has also introduced me to Your Money or Your Life, which I think I now have to read and integrate.

On the other hand (speaking of financial matters), I still want to buy a car, but am finding the activation energy* prohibitively high. (Yes, it'd be lovely to buy a Vespa or a bicycle instead, but I won't be able to take those on the Mass Pike every day, now, will I?) Would ideally have liked to make this happen in time to drive myself to the shul retreat March 3-5, but that looks unlikely. Grumble.

*Here's something I particularly want to know: When I do find someone selling a car I might want to buy, HOW exactly am I supposed to go about "getting it checked out by a reliable mechanic"? Say "Thanks for the test drive, now can I please borrow it for two days before I make a decision"? I am serious, I do not get this at all. Yet another sticking point.


[Poll #678753]

And now, back to the Cryptoclub.

Comments

Re: learned by experience

[awfief.livejournal.com]

I second this. My mother bought a new Toyota Corolla in 1995 and it still runs today -- 210,000 miles on it, 11 years old, knock on wood. I've had it 4 years or so at this point and haven't had to put a lot of $$ into it fixing it. Toyota parts are awesome, too -- the ORIGINAL battery recently needed replacing......

A good mechanic is like a good doctor. You have to trust them, they have to be knowledgeable, but most of all, they have to understand that you are smart, and explain stuff to you so you get it. I go to the Toyota dealership in Watertown -- 1 mile from my house, and while they catch things "early" (ie, want me to do a repair even when it's not necessary) they don't pressure, and let me make a decision. For instance, my axle's been leaking a tiny bit of grease for over a year now. They say things like "your axle might break" but they let me drive out of there without fixing it, and I don't see any grease on the ground, so it's not leaking that much. They give me the info and I deal with it, no pressure.

Re: learned by experience

[awfief.livejournal.com]

BTW, I reliably get 29 mpg highway, something like 28 mpg city (goes down in the winter when I blast the heat). A Corolla is just a Camry that's a few years older (ie, my 1995 Corolla is probably the 1990 Camry model) so Corolla's are often a good bet. For reference, c1 has a Toyota Tercel.

(the dealer can be a good mechanic, or not. Depends on the technicians. My mother had a good experience at her dealership in NJ because they wanted to build customer loyalty and indeed when she bought a new car in 2001 she bought from them. So there's no universal "dealers are bad/good mechanics." Just like some Meineke's are good to go for for your brakes, and some Jiffy Lubes do good oil changes. Depends on the franchise owner, depends on the dealer owner, depends on the technicians.)

Re: learned by experience

[awfief.livejournal.com]

oh, and last thing, I promise -- Tony's parents own 2 Toyotas, my dad and his wife have 2 Toyotas, my mother has a Toyota, and my brother and his wife have 2 Toyotas.

We're a Toyota family. The bris will look like a dealership.

Re: learned by experience

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

For reference, c1 has a Toyota Tercel.

Oh, I know, believe me. >:-)

oh, and last thing, I promise --

Not at all, this is really helpful.

We're a Toyota family. The bris will look like a dealership.

Hee hee hee hee. I got a kick out of that.

Re: learned by experience

[c1.livejournal.com]

I have to go with Toyotas myself. (My current ride is 11 years old which I've had since mile 20 was on the odo, and my next car will be a Toyota: in fact, I was just out car shopping this evening.)
Talkng to the dealer, they had some "pre-owned" cars, but their stated difference in price was roughly $1k/year. For me, the extra money for new is not much, and over the life of a car loan is hardly noticeable.
I think part of my success was in being really attentive to maintenance.
One thing: Where will your ride live?