Off-Topic

[Blzer]

re: Off-Topic

Let me preface this post by saying I wasn't attempting to be lazy with my car-washing, just a careful planner when it came to timing my washes.

Anyway, in high school my car once got so dirty that there was a large smiling duck mascot on a street corner holding a large promotional sign for a car wash, and I stopped right beside it at a red light. I looked straight ahead, but then got a soft knock on my passenger side window. I turned to my right, and saw that large smiling duck peering in centimeters from my window and waving at me, pointing to its sign. I kind of freaked out and didn't know how to respond, just kind of head-nodded with a wry smile and faced forward again till the light turned green.

I never went to their car wash, but I was planning on going the next day anyway and I did.

Another time before I got a wash, I approached my parked car and one of the rear side windows had finger-writing on it that said: "I wish my girlfriend were this dirty."

[Caulfield]

re: Off-Topic

Let me preface this post by saying I wasn't attempting to be lazy with my -fill in the blank-, just a careful planner when it came to timing my -fill in the blank-.

This is now my new reasoning for all my procrastinations.




And the thing with the duck is enough to cause nightmares severe enough to avoid all car washes.

[Blzer]

re: Off-Topic

This is now my new reasoning for all my procrastinations.

Haha well because what was happening was where I coached softball the parking lot was undergoing construction and we had to park in a dirt lot every day. Combined with exiting a rainy season and such, I just wanted to make sure that I was washing it in a time that would be of benefit to my car.

Little did I know at the time that leaving dirt on cars can heavily affect the paint on it, etc. I am more concerned about it now, but I'd like to start personally washing my own car instead of going to car washes, especially if some of their stuff apparently isn't great for your paint either.

And the thing with the duck is enough to cause nightmares severe enough to avoid all car washes.

It was scary weird. It's one of those things that is only exacerbating my fear because of the silence of the mascot itself. You know what I mean. It was like the Oregon Ducks mascot just face right into my window.

[WaitTilNextYear]

re: Off-Topic

I agree that the inside of a car should be kept reasonably neat and clean. I do that by basically not doing much eating/drinking in there if at all possible. That right there is like 90% of the battle.

Well you really shouldn't be drinking and driving anyway. That should be pretty possible.

Only 1-2 times every 2 weeks? Lazy. I wash my car 4-5 times a day, until my arms cramp and I pass out in my driveway. Like a man.

Damn straight!

[Speedy]

re: Off-Topic

Speaking of cars, I bought a new 2013 Honda Civic back in Sept/2013...I fmake my last payment in December of this year and it just crossed 42K miles the other day. First car I've ever paid off and it's in great shape too.

[bravesfan1984]

re: Off-Topic

Speaking of cars, I bought a new 2013 Honda Civic back in Sept/2013...I fmake my last payment in December of this year and it just crossed 42K miles the other day. First car I've ever paid off and it's in great shape too.

Nothing quite matches that feeling of sending in that last payment! Congrats!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Operation Sports mobile app

[Caulfield]

re: Off-Topic

Speaking of cars, I bought a new 2013 Honda Civic back in Sept/2013...I fmake my last payment in December of this year and it just crossed 42K miles the other day. First car I've ever paid off and it's in great shape too.

time to buy a new one!

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

re: Off-Topic

Speaking of cars, I bought a new 2013 Honda Civic back in Sept/2013...I fmake my last payment in December of this year and it just crossed 42K miles the other day. First car I've ever paid off and it's in great shape too.

You did something wrong somewhere. You were supposed to trade it in a few years ago when you were upside-down. But, live and learn!

[dubcity]

re: Off-Topic

You did something wrong somewhere. You were supposed to trade it in a few years ago when you were upside-down. But, live and learn!

Or refinance like 4 times and stretch that loan out to 20 years.

[Blzer]

re: Off-Topic

I plan on paying for my new car in full when I do. I don't know if that's a great decision or not (I understand it depends on interest owed versus earned and how much you can afford to have on the side after payment), but I'd just like to get it out of the way when I do.

So I've been taking my paychecks and stuffing them into my checking account, telling myself all that money is more the daily grind plus a car (and an extra $5500 for next year's Roth IRA contribution). I don't want to take a cent out of my savings to make that.

I plan on buying a 2019 model this fall, even though I fear that Honda is waiting on refreshing their Civic in 2020. If the right small tweaks aren't done for 2019, I will hold off another year I suppose, where I have even more financial control, stability, and awareness.

On another note entirely, if anyone remembers at the beginning of the year I mentioned how my Roth IRA made a huge spike and January and plummeted right after, then someone mentioned they only checked theirs quarterly. Well, I tried that, and it has done many peaks and valleys to still be pretty much where I was at the beginning of the year. I asked my brother-in-law about it, and he just recommended to keep things as they are because it's probably just a weird year overall for this stuff. I'll take his word for it, but it sucks that it's not really growing this year and that money is just sitting there, essentially stagnant.

[Blzer]

re: Off-Topic

So my power went out last night, but not long enough for food to spoil in the fridge which is good. However, as it was out I did decide to look on my phone for when to expect certain foods to spoil. Nearly every site reads the same thing which says this:

It should be safe as long as power is out no more than 4 hours. Discard any perishable food (such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and leftovers) that have been above 40 °F for over 2 hours.

What they all seem to neglect to mention is when refrigerators will go over 40 degrees. I mean I understand why since all fridges are set at different temperatures, but are they making any sort of implication that 40 degrees is hit two hours after the power goes out, or two hours after the first four hours, or...? I'm just uncertain when the heck that actual time hits.

Furthermore, my fridge just has a dial with levels. It doesn't say what the temperature is. Even if I wanted to somehow measure that, I'd have to open the fridge to check it which is obviously one of the things you would want to avoid doing during an outage.

Again, my food is safe but this is just confusing.

[SmashMan]

re: Off-Topic

Nearly every site reads the same thing which says this:

It should be safe as long as power is out no more than 4 hours. Discard any perishable food (such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and leftovers) that have been above 40 °F for over 2 hours.

What they all seem to neglect to mention is when refrigerators will go over 40 degrees. I mean I understand why since all fridges are set at different temperatures, but are they making any sort of implication that 40 degrees is hit two hours after the power goes out, or two hours after the first four hours, or...? I'm just uncertain when the heck that actual time hits.

They're not making any implication on how long it'll take a fridge to hit 40 degrees. I see it as two independent statements.

Furthermore, my fridge just has a dial with levels. It doesn't say what the temperature is. Even if I wanted to somehow measure that, I'd have to open the fridge to check it which is obviously one of the things you would want to avoid doing during an outage.

This won't help you now, but just get one of these guys for the future:



You, as you know, want to avoid opening the fridge but this'll give you an easy way to check the temperature at a glance.

[Majingir]

re: Off-Topic

Like mentioned, avoid opening fridge, but if you have ice packs in your freezer, put it in your fridge.

I've had power go out for awhile on numerous occasions and I don't remember anything spoiling. Though longest was winter so it'd take longer to get warm.

[ProfessaPackMan]

re: Off-Topic

Twice a week inside and out, sometimes more in the winter months due to the amount of salt on the roads. I used to detail cars at a dealer as a teenager, so I’m way more anal about keeping a car clean than most are. Everything including the door jambs and what not get cleaned.

I will judge if you keep a dirty car. Absolutely hate getting inside someone’s car and having to sit in their filth. My mind immediately goes to they must have a dirty *** house too. I’m not saying go crazy like me with it. But at least have a little respect for the things that you own.

What do we define as “dirty”?

Asking for a friend.[emoji102]

[pietasterp]

re: Off-Topic

You did something wrong somewhere. You were supposed to trade it in a few years ago when you were upside-down. But, live and learn!

Or refinance like 4 times and stretch that loan out to 20 years.

Sadly, the average level of financial literacy in this country is so low, the majority of people end up doing exactly the above. Although I hesitate to blame people too much, since the "buy-here-pay-here" lots full of thieving sharks do a really good job of convincing/intimidating people into making bad decisions, most frequently utilizing that age-old sales tactic known as "lying directly to people's faces". I honestly don't know how those guys sleep at night. (cue Rainier Wolfcastle gif here....)

On another note entirely, if anyone remembers at the beginning of the year I mentioned how my Roth IRA made a huge spike and January and plummeted right after, then someone mentioned they only checked theirs quarterly. Well, I tried that, and it has done many peaks and valleys to still be pretty much where I was at the beginning of the year. I asked my brother-in-law about it, and he just recommended to keep things as they are because it's probably just a weird year overall for this stuff. I'll take his word for it, but it sucks that it's not really growing this year and that money is just sitting there, essentially stagnant.

I wouldn't worry about it. Unless you were planning on taking a distribution any time soon, the only 2 relevant price points are the day you bought the asset(s) and the day you sell them. Whatever happens between those 2 points is irrelevant.

Best recent example? Index funds bought around 2006. If you looked at their value in 2009, you'd want to jump off a building. But if you didn't take a distribution until 2015, that gigantic valley in the middle years is irrelevant. You'd never even know that it happened (or care).