The thrill is gone

You may be all flowers and mother earth with the planned fuel efficiency standards (35.5 mpg), but I am freaking out. I love cars and hate to see them die off. This whole plan stinks, and here's why...

1) Every fun and spacious vehicle will disappear from the road, and will be replaced in the interim with cars made from subpar materials and 0-60 times in the double digits. Remember the 70's? I wasn't even alive but still cringe when I see cars from that decade. Check out Jeremy Clarkson's review of the new Honda Insight, you'll see what I mean.

2) If people wanted more fuel efficient vehicles, and to be more prepared for oil price spiking, they would buy those cars. Fact is, we hate those cars (check sales in relation to gas prices). Stop telling us what we should want. Same goes for how we should be charitable - I should decide where my financial support goes, not the Gov, but that's another topic for another time.

3) "After 3 yrs the initial investment pays off". Big caveat here - what about depreciation? Do the math, new cars are always a big loss. Also consider that many people dump their cars after 3 yrs (typical warranty period). I did the math on my truck. Gas would have to be $6.55 before it makes sense to take on a new car payment.

4) I'll leave you with this prediction - as all these mandated vehicles come out, those who choose to remain in their old vehicles instead of buying new ones will be targeted with taxes to push us to new cars. Call it an emissions fee, a gas guzzler tax, a vehicle weight limit fine, a killing polar bears levy, whatever. The Gov owns a stake in global car companies, and now has the power to force us into their cars.

All Aboard

Thanks to some muscle from Ty, the boat is now ready for the water. Check out the pic...

Time drain

I have been down right weak in posting on the blog the past couple weeks. That's partly due to having fun with William, but now also do to my new boat, or as I shall now refer to it as the USS Time Drain.

Boats are no joke. This is one is even really simple. No electronics, simple clamp on motors, small trailer, etc. But the list of things to do before I can get her on the water is staggering. I've now spent an additional 30% of the purchase price on repairs, accessories, spare tires, and it goes on. Even longer than the purchase list is the to-do list which is now at 16 items long in my handy Google widget. Today I looked through a Cabela's catalogue and thought of 4 more things.

The next big items:
Sand/Pressure Wash/Re-Paint Boat
Replace rusty trailer brackets and change wheels/tires
Install seats, install motors, install my money at the local Academy

I'll post an "after" pic in a few weeks. My goal is to have her water-ready by June.

Free has a price

You probably thought this was a political commentary on the 2009 stimulus plan. Sorry to disappoint...

After cleaning out after our garage sale last month, I had a few items that I could not donate but also could not throw in the trash, the biggest of which were several glass table tops each weighing over 50lbs. So, I decided to post them in the "free stuff" section of Craigslist. I put a description, and was clear I would delete the post once the stuff was gone. In just under 5hrs all of it was gone and I felt I had contributed something great to society. Unfortunately, there is a darker side to the "free stuff" as illustrated by FoxNews...