I’ve become a regular customer at the DMV. As faithful readers know, my teenage daughter recently got her driver’s license (after two attempts). This afternoon, she and I will appear at the DMV for the third time this week in an attempt to register her car, a hand-me-down Jeep that is several years older than she is.
The Jeep was bought new by my sister, who drove it for several years and then mostly parked it for use as a second car. It’s fun for cruising around the beach on a nice day, but it’s not the most comfortable ride. There’s no air conditioning, and if it rains, plan on getting wet.
My sister gave the Jeep to our mom a few years ago for use on the backcountry trails when mom retired and moved out to the boonies. After Mom died earlier this year, my brother, sister and I figured she’d want my daughter to have the Jeep. We searched everywhere for the title but could not find it.
Mom was always pretty disorganized; the title is probably folded up in an Altoids tin tucked inside an old purse or something. (While we were searching, I could imagine her saying, “No, not THERE, stupids! It’s in the saffron envelope behind the spice rack!” Or wherever the hell it actually is…)
So I had to go to the DMV to get a new title. On my first trip, they gave me a stack of forms to fill out, including an affidavit that my sister, brother and I had to sign to waive our rights as the heirs to this fabulous vehicle, which would fetch the princely sum of $1,000 on the open market.
Then I went back yesterday with the forms to get the title, which I had to have to get an insurance binder, which is a necessary precondition for the vehicle registration. I’m going back today for that. Between the insurance, fees and wasted time, I’m spending twice as much as the vehicle is worth to get this clunker street legal.
But it will be nice to have MY car back. My daughter appropriated my car for her own exclusive use when she got her license earlier this month, and she has insisted on driving me everywhere I go and also invents the most flimsy excuses to drive herself places.
To celebrate my car’s restoration to its rightful owner, I’m taking a solo road trip this coming weekend to Ala-gottdamn-bama to see my ailing granny, and then swinging back through the Florida Panhandle to see my other old grandma. I just hope I still remember how to drive.
raven
Is it is a Cherokee?
BillinGlendaleCA
My car is almost as old as my step-daughter, she’ll be 31 in a week.
Poopyman
Frankie and Weird Al together, ca. 1986.
A bit about Frankie’s origins:
Of course, that was 99 years ago. I’m sure WV has changed, right?
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: 66 chevy dawg. Also, Richard Engel is top shelf.
wasabi gasp
A Jeep would not be my pick as first car for a beginning driver. Maneuverability can be a little unforgiving.
Poopyman
I see Newsmax is trying to tell us that
I’m no expert on caliphates, but isn’t a Supreme Leader required for these things? I don’t recall anybody’s name being floated for nomination.
Poopyman
@wasabi gasp: I’m seeing an alternate outcome here anyhow, where Betty winds up stuck with the Jeep.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Richard Englel knows his stuff, Richard Haas on the other hand… My first car was a 1959 Chevy Parkwood.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: I have had the chevy for 29 years.
Comrade Jake
Anyone catch this story about a plane being diverted because one of the passengers was using a “knee defender” ?
washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/08/26/knee-offender-united-flight-diverted-after-passeng…
Got into a fight with a passenger in front of him, who threw water at him. All because he used one of these gadgets to block her seat from reclining.
We are surrounded by assholes.
Mustang Bobby
So, Betty, have you decided which of the 100+ Florida “specialty” license plates you’re gonna get for the Jeep, or are you going to go with just the plain old Florida tag with the dingleberries in the middle? And you have two choices there: get one with the county name on the bottom, or, for no extra charge, you could get “IN GOD WE TRUST.” Tough choice.
Mustang Bobby
@BillinGlendaleCA: Still have my 1988 Pontiac 6000 Safari wagon. Over 260,000 miles on it.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Or one with that varmit gator on in! One day till fooball!!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: In Florida it has to be a “Seminole”.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mustang Bobby: I call that a new car, my Jetta’s an 86.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: We should race sometime. I work with a guy that raced at a dragstrip in Homestead in the 60’s. He said he could remember adjusting the card WHILE he was flying down the track.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Wrangler.
@Mustang Bobby: I was marveling at the vast array of options during every trip to the DMV. How old does a car have to be to get a blue classic plate?
@OzarkHillbilly: No the hell it doesn’t!
raven
Fuckin assholes on Joe reading Dowd again.
Aimai
@wasabi gasp: yes. Cant they roll as well with few protections for the driver? Im worried for her, Betty. Sorry to say that.
mai naem
I like Richard Engel. He not only seems like a decent person but he seems to know his stuff. I worry that at some point he’s going to get kidnapped ands killed by some wackjob group.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: I knew that would get a rise out of the ‘Gator fan! ;-)
BillinGlendaleCA
@mai naem: Richard Engel and Rachel Maddow both went to Stanford at the same time.
Suffern ACE
@Comrade Jake: actually, we need this to happen more often. I wouldn’t mind stories like this happening every other day until so many flights are diverted that the airlines decide it’s cost effective to give us back the three inches of legroom they took 10 years ago.
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
In Florida, thirty years.
mai naem
@BillinGlendaleCA: I wasn’t aware of that. That explaints why they seem like friends not just colleagues when he’s on with Rachel.
In other news, I understand the Catholic priest that Bob McDonnell is living with while his corruption trial is going on, was busted for gay sex at a public park. And his name is Father Ball. There’s just so much here I have to believe Jon Stewart will do a bit on this.
OzarkHillbilly
For those on the Michael Sam watch, he made the first cut. Still has an uphill climb to make the team, (Westbrooks has been a real find for a UFA) but with both of the usual back-up D-ends presently injured, I would say his chances are better than 50/50 in the short term (the first 4 months of the season).
evap
Betty, congrats on getting your car back. My youngest drives a 1995 Honda Accord with about 200K miles on it. We bought it from a friend of a friend for $500 around the time she got her license and have put about $2000 into it over the 4 years she has driven it. The best car bargain ever. She loves it and when I suggested that she might want a new car for her graduation present this May, she looked horrified at the thought of giving it up.
Where in Alabama? My father’s side of the family are all from Anniston.
evap
Betty, congrats on getting your car back. My youngest drives a 1995 Honda Accord with about 200K miles on it. We bought it from a friend of a friend for $500 around the time she got her license and have put about $2000 into it over the 4 years she has driven it. The best car bargain ever. She loves it and when I suggested that she might want a new car for her graduation present this May, she looked horrified at the thought of giving it up.
Where in Alabama? My father’s side of the family are all from Anniston.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Poopyman: ISTR something about the ISIS leader publishing a revised genealogy of his family showing that he has the necessary bloodlines. Going looking….
Betty Cracker
@Aimai: Yeah, hubby and I have some angst about it as well, but the kid is aware that you can’t fly around corners in it, and she drives like an old lady anyway, so I don’t think that will be an issue. It’s an older car, so it doesn’t have the modern driver protections, but on the other hand, it’s very sturdy. My sister was hit by other drivers a couple of times when she owned it, and the Jeep was fine while the other cars were mashed up.
Bottom line, driving is dangerous as hell, and we’d be worried even if she were driving an up-armored Volvo. We’ve done our best to teach her to drive safely and to always expect the stupidest, most reckless behavior from other drivers.
Aimai
@Betty Cracker: all my love and best wishes to your new driver. We are taking my oldest to college tomorrow and im maudlin and nervous. Must be projecting! Sorry!
Thor Heyerdahl
@Suffern ACE: According to the article, they both paid extra for 4″ of extra leg room. So I can see why she was pissed when he didn’t let her decline after spending extra for the seats.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Wranglers are good sturdy solid vehicles. Not the perfect choice for a teen driver (that would be an uparmored Humvee) but better than a lot of others.
Betty Cracker
@Aimai: I am already pre-dreading an empty nest, so I can imagine how that feels. Best of luck to the scholar! Will she be reasonably nearby?
Mustang Bobby
@Betty Cracker: To get the blue antique plate, I think the car has to be 30 years old. That plate is as ugly as homemade soap, though, and a lot of folks in the club go with an “authenitcated” plate. They find one in good condition from the year the car was manufactured — up to 1975 — then send it in to Tallahassle to get it approved as a personalized plate. It is issued the annual stickers and you can drive it like any other car.
For my ’88 Pontiac, I found a 1988 Ontario plate since the car was built at the GM of Canada plant in Oshawa, and put it on. I then ordered a Florida plate with the same serial number, got a car dealer plate magnet so I can slap it over the Ontario plate when I drive on the street.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Poopyman: From June 29:
This BBC article says the biography/genealogy was published in July 2013.
OzarkHillbilly
@Thor Heyerdahl: Some jackass tried using one of those on me he’d be (figuratively) wearing the damn thing as a nose piercing. Don’t like the lack of leg room? Don’t fly.
FTR, I have chronic knee problems as well as blood clotting issues. If I can deal with it, so can he.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Thor Heyerdahl: er…”recline”
Punchy
@Suffern ACE: I read somewheres on the tubes that it’s actually gunna get worse. Apparently if one moves every seat closer by a half-inch, they can fit 1 extra row of seats in the back, or so it said. Thank Bob Im not 6’5″ or some shit like that.
Nicole
@Betty Cracker: I was just about to ask if she was an old lady driver (I was one of those, too, when I first got my license. Took me three tries to get it, too, so she’s ahead of me). She’ll be fine. Congrats on getting your own car back.
Baud
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
I read that the selection process was almost as vicious as the average Democratic primary.
JGabriel
Betty Cracker @ Top:
Enjoy it while you can. I suspect your daughter may reappropriate your car once she finds out how much it costs to gas up a 20 year old Jeep.
JGabriel
@Poopyman:
Supreme Leaders aren’t nominated or elected, they are CHOSEN!
Most frequently by themselves.
gelfling545
Very proud that my younger daughter (the one who made Phi Beta Kappa last year) has accepted a job with a NPO that does refugee settlement work. She will be mentoring & advocating for young mothers who are working on meeting “an educational goal” e.g. learning English, GED, high school, vocational training or college. Perfect as she was a young mother in college herself & certainly knows how to speak up for herself & others. This is the greatest blessing: that you like the people your children grow up to be. I’ve been lucky that way.
satby
@gelfling545: Good for her! I agree, it’s now a really enjoyable time talking with my adult sons; when they were teens I occasionally facetiously said that if I strangled them no jury of my peers (fellow parents of teens) would actually convict me.
raven
So it’s the end of the goddamn world if Obama is emotional about a beheading and plays golf but Mika can almost break down about how “painful” the girl shooting the idiot was and the next second be all fucking bubbly. spit
Comrade Scrutinizer
@raven: Well, the shooting was an accident, after all. Whocouldaknowd that a nine year old girl would not be able to control a fully automatic weapon? Act of God, that’s what it was.
Amir Khalid
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
As far as I know, Prophet Muhammad never claimed any special privileges in Islam for his descendants. So I’m dubious, to say the least, about a “caliph” claiming descent from the Prophet as a source of legitimacy. Given how few people there were in the seventh century (a hundred million, if that) and how many there are now (over seven billion), it’s quite possible that many of us alive today are his descendants even if we’re not Muslim ourselves.
In fact, I see no treason why a caliphate should be a hereditary office, like a monarchy. Especially since a dispute over precisely such a claim was what led to the Sunni-Shia split all those centuries ago. Nowadays, we know better ways to pick a leader.
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
Make sure also to remind her that the keys are hers, not to be handed over to importuning friends, not even for “just a quick ride.”
LAllen
Betty Cracker as an Allerbammer expatriate I LOLed at the expression Ala-gottdamn- bama. Neal Boortz once said “Alabamastan”, which was one of the few things on his show I found funny. We spent our honeymoon in Gulf Breeze , FL 41 years ago. Coming back home the car overheated in the woods on 29 north of Cantonament, we limped into Atmore, AL where a guy fixed it by busting the spring on the thermostat with a hammer and screwdriver. Good times. Yesterday we drove from Hotlanner to Operliker where a friend gave us a new puppy dog. The wife said the skies were bluer in Sweet Home, and then later said the clouds looked like the Simpsons opening credits. There are rumors of a radical group called AL-Abama. LOL
LAllen
We had 3 kids in 4 years ( actual Biology major) so we did the Driver’s License thing pretty much all at once.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Who shot and posted the fucking video, is what I want to know. And why?
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid: Yes, ISIS may want to put on finer clothes to impress their subjects, but they are not interested in a seminar on the history of early Islam. They are not interested in our “better ways to pick a leader.” They’ve seen enough of the “leaders” and power-brokers (internal and external) that we’ve picked for their nations over the decades. As far as they are concerned, legitimacy comes out the end of a gun — and while it may be difficult to see why (or accept that) they take this approach, take it they do.
Cervantes
@Aimai: You aren’t going to not be a parent. You see them less, it’s true — but they get to see more of the world and other people in it — and if you’ve done your job right, and I cannot imagine otherwise, they will still call upon you when they find they need you.
(Not sure this helps, but it is intended to.)
LAllen
Evap, I’m from Prattville, have an aunt in the metropolis of Mulga, west of Bham. My daughter has friends from law school in the Anniston area. Love the sign on I-20 for “Eastaboga”.
BettyCracker, don’t worry about the empty nest. My 3 have been re-nesting and leaving continuously for the last 12 years. Don’t convert your empty rooms.
Ruckus
@Comrade Jake:
Given my gutter mind, there are other, I’m sure unintended, possibilities that entirely change the meaning.
Steeplejack
Got my brother off to Lima, Peru, on his motorcycle expedition and have been settling into my house- and dog-sitting gig and getting the lay of the land.
Cars are an unexpected sore point. He has two: a colossal Ford F-250 Super Duty pickup and a late-model Mustang (year or two old). Both are horrible to drive. The pickup is a huge, ungainly beast, and after I drove my brother to the airport I beached it in the driveway and plan not to touch it again until I go back to the airport in three weeks.
The Mustang is not much better. It is uncomfortable to get in and out of, it’s cramped on the inside, the visibility isn’t great, and it screams midlife crisis. Made even worse by the MICH ST vanity plates. Ugh. I hate driving around looking like that guy. Half expect to be pelted with derisive catcalls and boner pills. Although maybe I need to adjust myself to a wingnut mind-set and realize that people are thinking, “Hey, he’s living the good life!” Right.
The dogs are okay. The middle-aged whippet vaguely knows me from before and is very friendly. The two-year-old greyhound is only a couple of months off the track and is still pretty unsocialized. Very tentative around me—except at feeding time, oddly enough—but generally able to relax, although with one eye always on me. And I noticed he slept on the floor right by the bed when I moved into the master bedroom last night. (On a cushy dog bed, of course.)
Original Lee
@Thor Heyerdahl: The 4″ is in the full upright position. As a tall person, I am unsympathetic to people who want to prevent me from being able to have a snack, use my laptop, read a book, or anything else that one normally does on an airplane. Since they BOTH paid for the extra room, why does she have priority?
And I think the MBAs who decided airplanes needed to look like slave ships on the inside need to be punched in the neck (until I can devise a sufficently horrible punishment).
Ruckus
@Punchy:
I used to complain about leg room. On a flight once knees imbedded in the back of the seat in front and in walks a guy about 6’8″. I figured he had to be sitting next to me, how else does the world work. As he sat down, his legs were about 4 inches longer than mine. Told him, “I’ll never complain about leg room again.” I have no idea how he managed to fit in, well just about anywhere. Most cars I have to drive with the seat all the way back.
Mustang Bobby
@Steeplejack: Thanks for making me laugh.
It’s a matter of degree. My ’07 convertible is comfortable for me (6′, 225 lbs), and it’s very plain; no racing stripes or gee-gaws; not even a rear spoiler, and painted a light blue. At age 61, I’m way over my mid-life anything, and with the V-6 it gets 25-28 mpg on the highway. But thanks for putting it in perspective.
Ruckus
@Original Lee:
This.
I like blaming the right people. Not the person in front who paid for the reclining seat and like me sleeps the entire flight, but the assholes who took it away in the first place. When I flew often, about 30 weeks a year, frequent flyers club got you in the premium economy seats and occasionally in first class. Which it is only in comparison to steerage btw.
big ole hound
The airline seating situation is so bad that I will drive up to 12 hours rather than fly. The trade off is pretty good. I have to leave the house 3 hours before the flight then add 2 hours in the air plus another hour for delay and baggage claim. So I add 6 hours to the trip but avoid all the airport hassles, car rental expense and can eat what I want and have leg room. At my age comfort easily wins over time. Any drive less than 12 hours is a piece of cake compared to flying.
PaulW
Betty, as a fellow Floridian can I rage here about the failure of our fellow registered voters who did not f-cking show up to vote yesterday?
Poor voter turnout is gonna doom us all.
Cervantes
@Ruckus:
Well, if it’s a matter of blaming the right people, look at the Airline Deregulation Act (1978). A response to the economic context of the time, particularly in transportation economics, it started out as anti-trust hearings led by Ted Kennedy in 1975; was pushed by both Ford and Carter; and then signed into law by the latter. For the most part, the major airlines opposed it.
dugsdale
get that damn thing looked over by a GOOD mechanic before you do any distance driving in it. PLEASE. Belts, fluids, tires, brakes. PLEASE.
Cervantes
@PaulW: A good rant. Thanks for writing it.
Steeplejack
@Mustang Bobby:
Yes, perspective is important. In this case, mine is based on my wingnut teabagger brother. Incidentally, his comment on seeing a V-6 Mustang (on the way home from picking me up at the airport in his pickup): “Yes, because girls like Mustangs too.” I’m not even a car nut, and I wanted to punch him in the neck. Now for the next three weeks I get to be him. Good times.
And of course his Mustang has a spoiler.
Betty Cracker
@Cervantes: Done and done. I think the fact that it’s a manual transmission will enforce this rule better than my admonitions and her good sense could; seems like 99% of kids today don’t know how to drive a stick.
@LAllen: Good god, I can’t imagine how nerve-wracking that had to be.
@PaulW: I’m hoping like hell the shitty turnout will be reversed in November because everyone hates Gov. Voldy, but he and Crist are neck-and-neck in the polls. If Voldy is reelected, we might as well move to Ala-gottdamn-bama.
@Steeplejack: I predict you and that greyhound will be besties by the time your brother returns. Also, my hubby drives an F-2-Fiddy, and lord, what a beast it is to park that damn thing. The haulage is awesome though, which is why we have it.
Cervantes
@LAllen: “We”?
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack:
Pet-sitting for two beguiling little Italian greyhounds this week, with a third arriving Sunday.
They are some darling dogs.
Hoping your pups make up for the transport situation.
And it’s a Simpsons marathon, through September 1. That is good for all ills.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
Yes, I am doing my Steep-whispering thing on the greyhound, and he is coming around. I think a lot of his skittishness is not me but just the lack of socialization that a lot of greyhounds have when they come off the track. The last one my other brother got a couple of years ago didn’t understand the concept of stairs and camped out on a landing for a week rather than deal with it. Now she is a diva who wallows all over the furniture and loves everybody who comes in the house.
As for the truck, in my brother’s defense I will say that he does a lot of off-road, desert-y stuff, and it’s great for that. He even got some “off road” options package when he bought it. But, jeez, for driving around town it’s only slightly better than the Hindenburg.
ETA: I made the mistake of going through the McDonald’s drive-through to get a quick breakfast, and it was like nursing a supertanker through the Panama Canal.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
I thought I was getting an Italian greyhound when I came out here. The brother had the whippet and an Italian greyhound for years. I couldn’t keep their names straight, so when one of them died (at a ripe old age) earlier this year I thought it was the whippet. But I was wrong. Now, with a girl (the whippet) and a boy, I should be able to keep them straight.
Mustang Bobby
@Steeplejack:
Hmm. Someone has issues…
I’ve had a Mustang GT with the 5.0 liter V-8 and all the butch trimmings. Bought it off my mom when she was 74 and she went to a Mini. It was fun but finicky and when it was totaled by an old man making an illegal turn in front of me, I was glad to see it go. My manhood is intact.
Steeplejack
@Mustang Bobby:
I know, I know. He says all this stuff in a joking way, but he still says it. Did I mention that he’s a wingnut and a teabagger?
Don’t even get me started on the guns.
Elizabelle
RE the knee defense jerk: he was asked to remove the device — by the passenger and by a flight attendant — and did not. Not cool that the female threw water on him, but I don’t see this as “both sides do it.” He sounds like a dudebro glibertarian.
It cost a lot more than $22 for United to divert that plane to Chicago, and take off again en route to Denver.
5’5″ me thinks airlines should ban the Knee Defense device from planes; report those passengers who won’t comply to the FAA.
But the airlines should not be cramming so many seats into the planes. Americans aren’t getting thinner, or more courteous.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack:
So far his only humanizing features have been the rescue dogs.
That goes a long way. But I feel your pain.
We don’t have wingnuts in the immediate family. A branch of glibertarians, but affluence explains that.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Amir Khalid: But we’re not the people he needs to convince, are we?
Nicole
@Elizabelle:
My favorite uncle is a borderline wingnut (though he has voted for the occasional Democrat in a local election), but he is magic with animals. I cannot wrap my brain around it sometimes.
Actually, I can. There’s a total right-winger on the horse racing forum I frequent, but he is the first to post passionate responses to articles about animal cruelty. I can almost picture him weeping tears of grief and rage at an unjust world as he does it. I think it’s what keeps me from hating him, because it’s kind of cute.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
In many ways my brother is a (mildly) tragic figure. He’s very intelligent, has a tremendous sense of humor, even in wingnut mode, is kind to animals, etc., but over the last 20 years he has calcified into almost the cliché of a wingnut and teabagger. The only thing he’s missing is the racism, although maybe it’s there and he knows to keep it under wraps around me.
I blame a lot of it on his struggle with extremely bad depression and the consequent social isolation and erosion of his social skills.
Mnemosyne
My brother drove a Jeep when he was younger — then he turned 30, got tired of how uncomfortable it was, and started leasing Honda Civics.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
Out of curiosity, how long has he lived in Nevada? My dad was always a Republican, but he didn’t become a crazy Fox-watching right winger until he moved to Arizona and started socializing with right-wing libertarians. I think it’s something in the water.
Nicole
@Elizabelle:
I think they are already banned from most airlines. Which, I’m sure, doesn’t stop people from bringing them on anyway. But I really like the idea of reporting violators to the FAA. Consequences, consequences.
I don’t like to recline my seat because it bothers my back, so I get annoyed when the person in front of me does, because then I have their seat a bare few inches from my face, but, whaddya gonna do, it’s their seat. Somehow, I manage to get over it and have usually forgotten about it by the time I’ve disembarked.
Mustang Bobby
@Steeplejack: I grok that, and I know whereof you speak. Fortunately my siblings and parents are all like-minded, and any wingnut relatives are not in my immediate family. The closest is my uncle who seems to do it just to provoke, the way he did when he was twelve. The fact that he’s nearly 80 hasn’t changed him.
Bob In Portland
No mention in the NY Times of a second front along the Black Sea. The BBC is reporting the second front here but notice the map at the bottom of the article. It bears no resemblance to the article described above. Note how far Novoazovsk is from the territory alleged to be controlled by the rebels.
This suggests that the BBC’s maps aren’t terribly accurate. The story itself seems to confirm the Russian story I shared yesterday.
So it appears that the BBC is a day slow in reporting the news and the NY Times hasn’t figured out yet how to spin what appears to be a new front and the crumbling of Ukrainian forces along the Black Sea.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack:
Somebody needs to do a formal study on those inputs, outcomes, and wingnuttery. Somebody probably has.
I’d guess there is a link, and that you’re more likely to show empathy if you are plugged into a human(e) community. Or can observe real people with real struggles, in person.
And that watching Fox News can make you more fearful and less appealing to others you might encounter (outside the wingnut bubble).
ETA: I wonder if one might reduce the Fox News universe by exposing some of its inhabitants to high quality cognitive behavior therapy. I am serious.
JustRuss
If it’s a Jeep Wrangler, it’s worth way more than $1000. I just did a quick Craiglist search, the cheapest in my area is asking $3000, and it’s trashed with 215K miles. Most are asking twice that. People love those because they’re fun, relatively cheap toys.
Your daughter needs transportation. Sell it and get something safer, newer, and more comfortable.
LAllen
@Cervantes- Yeah, it was mostly the wife, although I was there at the beginning. In the span of four years it was amazing how tolerant the hospital got toward fathers in the labor room. I was banned for the first two children. However with the 3rd, I was shocked when told ” Mr. Allen , you can come back now” What? Come back there? I was with my wife through out about 8 hours of induced labor. Induced is rough. My wife is awesome. Our kids got bigger each time. 8lbs, 11oz : 10lbs, 14oz; 11lbs, 9oz. I overheard a nurse talking about my son,(the middle one) “We just put this one down and say run to your mother” The last one has been willow slim all her life.
LAllen
Hey, how do you get the @bluelettername thing? If it’s something HTML I won’t understand.
Quaker in a Basement
Betty, on your way through the panhandle, tell all my old friends on Pensacola Beach I said, “Hey.”
Elizabelle
@LAllen:
I think it’s a live link to commenter’s blog.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Well, he has been in Las Vegas at least 20 years, because he bought this house about 18-19 years ago, and he was here for a few years before that. And before coming to Las Vegas he lived in Tucson, so he has been “out West” for 25-30 years. Before that he was in the Navy.
I don’t think he watches Fox News. The couple of days we overlapped he watched a lot of streaming stuff—Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc.—almost no network TV and no news. In the “media/pop culture” space he is pretty hip and savvy. I think his wingnuttiness is related to the stuff he likes to do. He has loved motorcycles ever since he was a kid, he likes cars, and he likes working on both. He likes all kinds of mechanical tinkering. He likes guns, more from the “another class of tools to tinker with” angle than the open-carry, penis-extender thing. But I think he does buy into that canard of “the government is coming to take our guns!”
As we have discussed before, depression in men can come out as anger, and I think my brother has projected a lot of his anger toward the libtards and big-government socialists who hate all the stuff that he likes. And of course it’s all made worse by his being socially isolated and listening to the wingnut echo chamber on the Internet.
Gin & Tonic
@Bob In Portland: Also no mention in the NY Times, nor in the BBC, of how the Ukrainian woman pilot held by Russia as a POW, Nadezhda Savchenko, is being transferred to a psychiatric hospital in Moscow, following the glorious Soviet tradition. I’m sure you’ll find that story in RT as well, right, Bob?
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Oops, bad word for FYWP. Apologies for possible double post.
Original message:
Well, he has been in Las Vegas at least 20 years, because he bought this house about 18-19 years ago, and he was here for a few years before that. And before coming to Las Vegas he lived in Tucson, so he has been “out West” for 25-30 years. Before that he was in the Navy.
I don’t think he watches Fox News. The couple of days we overlapped he watched a lot of streaming stuff—Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc.—almost no network TV and no news. In the “media/pop culture” space he is pretty hip and savvy. I think his wingnuttiness is related to the stuff he likes to do. He has loved motorcycles ever since he was a kid, he likes cars, and he likes working on both. He likes all kinds of mechanical tinkering. He likes guns, more from the “another class of tools to tinker with” angle than the open-carry, penis-extender thing. But I think he does buy into that canard of “the government is coming to take our guns!”
As we have discussed before, depression in men can come out as anger, and I think my brother has projected a lot of his anger toward the libtards and big-government socialists who hate all the stuff that he likes. And of course it’s all made worse by his being socially isolated and listening to the wingnut echo chamber on the Internet.
WaterGirl
@LAllen: @Elizabelle: I took the question to mean how do you get the @username to show up in blue – in case I’m right, you get that by clicking the reply button, which is in the lower right hand corner of each comment.
So one way or another, hopefully you have your answer. :-)
Cervantes
@LAllen: It’s a link to the comment you’re responding to; and the HTML code should appear automatically in your comment-editing box as soon as you click “Reply” to begin your writing (see lower-right corner of each comment).
Steeplejack
@LAllen:
When you hover your mouse over a comment, you can press the “Reply” button that appears. That will put you into the comment-writing box with the [at]blue-letter-thingie of the person you are replying to.
Cervantes
@LAllen: Re attendance at delivery, we were paying the bills so we told them we’d help set the terms — making sure to be clean, careful, and not in the way, of course. It helped that the obstetrician was decades ahead of the times, in various ways.
And yes, I can easily imagine that your wife is awesome.
Origuy
@LAllen: If you mean the thing at the start of this comment, just click the “Reply” in the lower right corner of the post you’re replying to. If you mean the names of commenters are blue, that’s when you have an entry in the URI.
Betty Cracker
@LAllen: My husband said it was like watching a St. Bernard squeeze through a cat door, LOL!
Bob In Portland
@Gin & Tonic: The New York Times is apparently a day and a half behind the world with its breaking news.
True, not much coverage of the aviator aside that she’s charged with being an accessory to murder. Then again, I don’t see western sites worrying about Andrey Stenin.
But to the bigger point. You look at your sources and see who is giving you information and who isn’t.
Gin & Tonic
@Bob In Portland: I can’t remember when I last read the NY Times on pretty much anything, other than food. I’ve more than once given you partial lists of my sources, so posting something along the lines of: “Imagine, the NYT is behind on X” elicits no more than a yawn from me.
Villago Delenda Est
Not to worry, it’s like riding a bike.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I think I might love your husband for that.
Chris T.
I can’t find the quote (it’s buried in Republican glee at the failure of a start-up company) but Henrik Fisker said something about cars representing independence and freedom, which is why the Fisker Karma uses the same overall approach as the Chevy Volt: a medium-size battery for getting most driving done, with a petrol-powered range extender for longer trips.
That independence is why kids must drive as much as possible as soon as it’s allowed.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: If you can find a man who can make you laugh when you’re in labor, he’s a keeper. That’s my advice to all you dewy young things.
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker: On the other hand, if you’re already in labor with his baby, it may be a tad late to be asking if he’s a keeper!