Sometimes you just shoot yourself in the foot.

Lisa and I spent several hours at a car dealer this evening, in a huge waste of everyone’s time.   I hadn’t planned for it to be a waste of time.   If they had what I was looking for and we could come to an agreement on price, I was ready to buy.   Unfortunately (or maybe not, for me), the car dealer games cost them a sale.

The first price they came up with — after leaving us cooling our heels for a bit too long — was, of course, ridiculous.   Less than blue book trade value for my current truck against retail for the new one.   Now my ’03 Sport Trac is a pretty desirable model in great shape with low mileage, good tires and a nice aftermarket in-dash nav system and backup camera.   It’s going to sell quickly and without a lot of time or money spent cleaning it up.   We politely declined, and it was time for Round 2.   I told the guy we were several thousand dollars apart, and gave him a number I thought was more fair…   from which Lisa then suggested we trim another couple thousand.   Half an hour or so later, we get the answer; it’s still a couple thousand higher than Lisa’s figure.

By this time I’d had enough time to think about what we were doing about that I had pretty much talked myself out of buying that truck — at any price. It lacked a few options I really wanted, and had a few I specifically did not want.   By the time we finally decided we were done and asked for the keys to my truck (which had disappeared, of course)   the sales manager made a last ditch effort to get us to take it for a thousand under even Lisa’s number, which I thought was pretty low anyway.   Sorry, too late.

If we’d been able to dispense with the idiotic games, if we hadn’t been left waiting on negotiations for so bloody long, we might have considered taking a truck home with us.   The guy could have come up with an offer a thousand or even two higher than their last offer, right off the bat, and we might have done the deal.   Maybe.   I would have regretted it later, but they’d have made a sale, and it still was a very nice truck.   Problem was, they felt the need to play the kind of stupid games that have given car dealers a bad name.   And we’ve seen it all before and recognize all of it for the nonsense it is:

  • “I’m going to lowball you and see if you’re stupid enough to fall for it.”   No, we’re not stupid – and this is not an impulse purchase.
  • “I have to run this past my manager.”   Yeah, right.   If you can’t make a deal, then kindly get out of my way and get me someone who can.
  • “This truck is going out on a dealer trade so we’re not supposed to sell it to you…   but we will, but you have to buy it tonight or it will be gone in the morning.”   Sorry, not buying that story.   You’re either lying to me, or reneging on another deal.   Either one is a very unattractive trait in a dealer.
  • “Oh, Ford financing is expensive, we’ll hook you up with a great loan rate, probably under 6%.”   Um.   ‘Scuse me?   Ford was at that time offering 0% financing for 60 months, PLUS $1000 cash allowance, PLUS a five-year extended powertrain warranty.   What, you didn’t know about that?   You’re supposed to be a Ford salesman and you are unaware of that?   Wait, this is another test to see if we’re stupid, right?

We walked in around 4 PM and didn’t get out of there until well after 7.   By that time I was tired and hungry, Lisa was about ready to fall over, and they had managed to convince me not to buy the very nice truck we’d driven.   And quite frankly, the whole experience pushed them down a couple of notches on my list of places I would buy from.

I’m going to give the next guy a 2-minute rundown of the stuff I am no longer willing to put up with, under any circumstances, and see if he still wants to deal.   No running off to the manager — if I’m in a chair more than 5 minutes without a warm body with a number on the other side of the desk, I’m out the door.   Make a deal or find me someone who can.   I don’t pay sticker price, I don’t take lowball trade offers, and please don’t piss on my foot and tell me it’s raining.

 

What’s the appeal of falafel?

Lisa and I were shopping a week or so ago, and were intrigued by a package of falafel we found.   We’d both heard of falafel, but had never tried it.   It sounded pretty good — so we bought some.

I have to say, this stuff is horrid.   We’ve tried it in various forms — plain, dipped in ranch, with salsa, cut up in a fish taco, and last night I gave it a shot with some feta cheese — then with feta and ranch.   Nothing doing.   The only way to make this stuff palatable seems to be to mask it’s flavor (reminiscent of wet cardboard and pencil shavings) with salsa, and lots of it.   Honestly, I’ll try anything a few times to try to get it right, but the remaining half of these little hockey pucks are probably going to become plant food.

I don’t know how hummus can be so good, and falafel so nasty. If you know of a way to make these things palatable, please let me know!

Resurrection

OK, so I haven’t posted in a while.   Who cares?   It’s not like anyone but me reads it anyway.   In fact, *I* don’t read it either.

Lisa and I went out for a ride on our shiny new bikes from The Bike Way today.   One lap around the eastern half of Zorinsky — the part with the dam.   Not bad, for not having been on a bike for any distance in a couple of decades.   I’m sure I’ll be feeling this tomorrow, and not in a good way…   but it was fun and I’m glad we got the bikes.

Snow, marvelous snow…

Wow.   What beautiful snow we have.   It’s one of those where every tree branch carried a thick, white frosting, makes the entire neighborhood look absolutely beautiful.   Of course now I have to go out, fix the snow blower and clear it all off of the driveway and sidewalks!

That’s OK.   Sunday afternoon when we land in San Juan it will all be forgotten.   🙂

Pics of the new office/shack


Finally got the new office / ham shack pretty much finished, cleaned up and took a few pics..

Ham station at right, work setup center/left with dual monitors.
Ham station on the right, work computer setup on the left with dual monitors.

There’s always one troublemaker.

We had a drywall guy come by about a week or so ago and do some patching and cosmetic work.   We had a couple spots of old water damage, some corners needed attention, the new skylight needed finishing off and the patch job I did when we remodeled the downstairs bathroom was less than perfect.   I managed to get most of the spots painted OK, though I don’t think there was a spot other than my office where I picked the right paint color on the first try.   The damn bathroom, though, has been a real pain in the ass.   For whatever reason we don’t have any left over paint, and so far I think we’ve tried four different shades of tan/khaki.   All of them are close, but none are right on the money.   I’m hoping the latest is good to go, but quite frankly I’m not expecting it to be.   I won’t be the least bit surprised if I end up re-painting the entire room by the time I’m finished.

Nice what someone with actual skill can do.

We’ve got a drywall guy here doing some repair work on a few spots that need it.   One of them was a patch I did, and it was pretty obvious where it was.   This guy’s been doing drywall for 27 years, he says…   and it shows.   He’s done a better job in a few hours than I am able to do in a few days.

I don’t mind, though.   There’s stuff I have been doing for 27 years that would mystify the average drywall guy, too.   It all evens out.   I’m just glad we found a place that could send out a guy to do good quality work at a rate we can afford.

It’s been a busy week

Well, it was a busy weekend and week here, and it’s not done yet.   We’ve now got a spare fridge in the kitchen that needs to be moved this weekend, and the new TV is in the family room.   I still need to re-connect all the stereo gear downstairs, not to mention finishing the cleanup there.   It’s a lot better looking than it has been in the past, but I’m hoping to give Lisa back her sewing area by the beginning of next week.

Somewhere in there I need to do a little Christmas shopping, too…

My Christmas list

Just in case anyone needs to know…. here’s my Christmas wish list. The Harley is about as blinged-out as I think we’re likely to get it, but of course H-D has all kinds of stuff that would be nice as well. A lot of it’s shamefully overpriced, though. I suppose the fairing mount mirrors (91945-98B) would still be good to have.

  • Book Proposals That Sell: 21 SECRETS TO SPEED YOUR SUCCESS (W. Terry Whalin )
  • Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents 2010
  • Air brush — single action, bottom feed.   (like a Badger 250 or Paasche H series)
  • Vespa cover – ScootRS.com, SKU 100188
  • Headset with microphone for use with Skype… wireless or Bluetooth wouldn’t be bad.
  • Hornady 22 Cal .224 55gr SP or SP SX bullets (SKU 2260, 2265 or 2266). These are just the bullets, not loaded ammunition. They are available in boxes of 100 or 250.
  • As always… flight time with instructor or a gift certificate from Hangar One would be nice.
  • Pair of black leather XXL gloves, Thinsulate and/or fur lined would be nice. Or, Cabela’s has some nice non-leather ones, the Whitetail Extreme look OK.
  • Long johns. My 1970s vintage Army issue woolies are getting a little stretched out. Under Armour or some similar synthetic, light weight but warm ones.
  • King or Sporty’s Recreation or Private pilot course – DVD would be best
  • Range time at the Bullet Hole won’t go to waste…

If anyone happens to hit the lottery, a JVC Everio GZ-MG670 camcorder or a Barnes & Noble Nook would be great. 🙂

Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents 2010

Damn cameras, anyway…

I’ve been looking at camcorders. We haven’t used one in years, not since the days of the VHS-C vs. 8mm tape battle. With the coming grandbaby, the occasional step-granddaughter and/or grand-niece running around, it might come in handy for that. We’re planning trips for the coming year, probably including one or two on the motorcycle. After seeing some of the video Kim & Stu shot on their trip, I’d like to be able to do the same.

Of more immediate concern, though, is getting some videos of my kits and the new keyer shot, edited and up on the HamGadgets web site, Youtube or both (or more). So, I’ve been looking at a lot of different camcorders to see which one will be the best for our needs. What a tar baby. Of course the job is made tougher by the fact that, even if you do find a particular model at a local store, or several different models you want to compare, you have no way to view the actual video shot with each on a TV or computer. All you can do is to compare specs, reviews and how the LCD screens look.

Right now the front runner is a Canon, but I’ve decided to do a lot more reading of reviews on line. The lower end JVC Everios are not getting very good reviews, but the somewhat-nicer GZ-MG670 is supposed to be better than the Canon I’ve been looking at.

So far the only ones to really impress me are the $800 and up HD camcorders. Of course. But I’m not spending that much on technology that’s getting significant bumps every year or so.