Simple Pleasures...

Ground control to major Tom! Yes ? ?

41 years ago tonight do you believe in Miracles? Yes ?

North Dakota is welcome for that title. Our coach and players were too busy winning the biggest game in hockey history.

This would be so much fun!

'Hockytown USA' finds new way to entertain itself on skates

https://www.kare11.com/mobile/article/news/local/land-of-10000-stories/inspired-by-covid-closings-skate-path-on-warroad-river-is-25-miles-of-winter-fun/89-3dea6b36-25f7-42b2-a642-0e80cfb31691

2 teams, one from West Fargo and one from Fargo (Peewee A/AA) were up there this weekend for a tournament and both skated the river and posted pictures. It did look neat as hell. Warroad/Roseau do a really good job of co-oping for the tournaments up there, despite being some hated rivals in hockey, Warroad has the hotels and Roseau has the better facilities.

https://twitter.com/TomthunkitsMind/status/1364546699813863426?s=20

41 years ago today team USA wins the Gold medal coming from behind again ???

USA! USA! USA!

So glad I have links to both games on YouTube to watch. The Finland game is on tap for this afternoon.

Slap Shot wrote:

https://twitter.com/TomthunkitsMind/status/1364546699813863426?s=20br >

We are DEFINITLEY not worthy.

Our Veterans Employee Resource Group has someone who’s father-in-law who works with some of the original members of Tuskegee Airmen. He was able to setup a conversation with one of them for a Black History Month event.

It’s been almost 20 years since I got out of the military but I never get tired of listening to any veterans from WWII speak given there’s so few of them alive any longer

The hidden code in Perseverance's parachute:

I think I'll give my dog a hug when I get home.

https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/1365450848885739525?s=20

Tomorrow’s my big day. After 38 years in the adult workforce, I am retiring. I’m very happy to start this next stage, living off the fruits of my labor.

Congratulations, Composer. I'll be joining you in 3 years, 3 months, and 28 days (but who's counting).

Ha! Funny.

I'm 10 years into my professional career in June, hopefully 30 max to go... But who's counting

Congratulations! Love it when people can leave on their terms! Here's to a long and happy retirement!

:beerchug:

Congrats! I'm 31 into mine in June and plan to see 35 but not 40.

I hope to be joining you in about 20 years, but who knows? Dunno if I'll be able to do the physicality of my job when I'm 65. I sure hope so (in my 20th year at current company, same occupation for 27, though).

Judging by your FB feed you never work anyways

davescharf wrote:

Judging by your FB feed you never work anyways

Mother Mining has a nice PTO benefits when you're here long enough.

I have always said I have never had a real job. Worked as a position coach for a year after and some how was "gifted" a B.A. in Econ. from my alma mater. Spent 1 semester @ in law school & hated it.

Had worked construction as a summer job so being broke I went back to it " just to get my feet on solid ground".

35 years later, after occasionally looking at entry level "real jobs", I retired with a Taft Hartley pension. Thank you very very much UBC & J of A.

I was in field management for a good portion of it so I guess my college goal of coaching happened. As a supt

you are 1/2 HC & 1/2 baby sitter.

Been retired full time for 4 years & had 6 years of part time work as a "scaffoldologist" in nuc power. That was fun for a gear head like me.

Retirement is good, as long as it is on your own terms.

Melt snow melt. Time to ride!

You have your own golf cart?

When I came home today, Mrs. Composer made a nice Lenten dinner of salmon, wild rice and Cole slaw. Oh, and champagne...
[attachment=0]Dinner.JPG[/attachment]

Kinda. It is a golf cart on steroids. AKA A CanAm Defender HD10 so winch if you get too close to water hazards. :biggrin2:

Thanks everyone!

You're retired? Seems to me you have been pretty busy the last few years in the "trades".

I saw a low rider on Hwy 100 on Wednesday. Gonna be difficult to keep it under wraps this weekend.

Saw a couple hogs tonight. Brother saw a hog a week and change last Tue or so.

I had seen scattered bikes and 1 trike around Anoka Co.

Then I talked to a guy in Grand Rapids Wed on a Wing b/4 my vaccine.

[mention]Sioux/Bucky Hater[/mention] I will wait until we get some good cleansing rain before I fire up my Dyna. Tues / Wed has rain as the forecast. Wash that ice melt solution away. We are jonesing about getting out though.

The salt has been crazy the last couple weeks. I usually can get by with washing my car every other week or so during winter (depending on the aftermath of a snowfall), and it's been once a week for the past month. Within a couple days, the buildup has been noticeable.

My truck ('15 F 150) has an aluminum body. After having to euthanize a 7.3 Superduty due to cancer I went with a "Gentlemans Truck". I washed it 2 times so far.

I lost my old Wrangler ('99, bought in '01, had it 16 years) to cancer. Not just body, but frame. I admit, I didn't wash it enough.

[mention]The Rube[/mention] Rube

Did it have a true body on frame or was it a unibody of formed sheet metal?

Uhhhhhhhhhhh...........................speaking Greek. The body had a little rust, but the frame was about 2 months from completely snapping on the driver's side.

[mention]The Rube[/mention]

Cars starting back in the early days of FWD went to Unibodys. No gap from "frame" to body. Body on frame there are mounts for motor / driveline that connect to frame rails that the cab / box or body bolt to.

Mopar was building unibody cars in the 60s. Even Muscle Cars, Road Runners and Superbees IE.

I'd bet you were dealing with a unibody.

Anyone else old enough to remember that it was common practice to take your vehicle to get "rustproofed" shortly after taking delivery? It was also a common add-on (profit maker) for dealers.

I thought that was standard for snow-worthy states....I could be very wrong, though.

Yup, that was a profit center for new car dealers. Rustproof and undercoating.

Jerry: Well, he never done this before. But seeing as it's special circumstances and all, he says I can knock a hundred dollars off that Trucoat.

Customer: One hundred--You lied to me, Mr Lundegaard. You're a bald-faced liar. A ****ing liar.

Customer's Wife: Bucky, please.

Customer: Where's my god damn check book? Let's get this over with.

We do a ziebart undercoating on most of our vehicles. It has served us well thus far.

I'm surprised they're still in business.

I bought a Ford pickup made of aluminum. The same salesman that used to try sell me rustproofing now tried to sell me a $750 paint protection treatment.

Why?

Assuming regular washings it's no longer necessary.

It's those and the fancier extended warranties that cover all the computers in the car that aren't covered under the regular warranty. When we bought our Murano in 2015 I had to spend over an hour with that guy before I finally wore down and took the offer at 80% less than where he started. I suspect he was ready to get rid of me when he asked why I didn't want an extended warranty up to 120k miles and I responded 'well if I ever have to use it I'm never buying another Nissan'

We're probably buying a new car sometime in 2021 (depending on the pandemic). I'm telling whatever guy that sells it that I'll just walk away from the deal if they drag me in to try and sell me on some other add on. I don't have the time or patience for that crap.

I tried to buy a vehicle today and they wanted $3K more than website sticker price. “You don’t qualify for the discounts that get you to that price.” We tried to talk them down $500 and they wouldn’t even take that. I think it took them by surprise when we got up and walked out, but they lost the sale.

This was in WI and they claim they can legally advertise falsely like that online (I don’t know it that’s true or a line). As soon as he started the “I need to go talk to my manager” I was done. Why do car dealers all have to be so damn shady?! We were completely prepared to offer them the website price. Their loss.

More of a pet peeve I guess. ?

THIS! I did all kinds of research when I bought my new car. I knew exactly what I wanted and exactly how much to pay for it. My husband drove me to the dealership and hung around just in case things didn’t work out. I had the classic, don’t look at me, look at my husband. Don’t answer my questions, direct the answers to my husband. He won’t seriously talk final price with me. Did this whole nonsense about payments when I was paying cash. Finally I got up, walked out and found a female salesperson. Came back to dealer #1 and said, you just lost a sale I’ll work with her.

He turned to my husband with this bug eyed look and my husband said, you blew it. Her car. Her money. I’m just the ride. Bought the car from the woman. She just laughed. I paid cash and walked out with the keys. I waved to the guy as I got in the car :biggrin2:

Good for you! I did let my hubby do most of the talking but knew they’d try to play on the fact it was for me. But we agreed on a price we wouldn’t go over and stuck to it. I was disappointed but it was quite satisfying to see them squirm and the disappoint on their faces when we left. Good luck to them, the vehicle has been on their lot for probably close to a year so I’m shocked they wouldn’t work with us.

Of course the first thing out of the salesman’s mouth was “a doctor wanted to test drive it this morning but I told him no because you had an appointment and asked about the miles.” Mmmkay.

A doctor....WTF would be the reason to mention that?

This is why I buy from CarTime. Their price is listed on the website. No haggling or negotiation. They are super easy to work with. When I got my new ride I told them I'd need X amount on my trade in to make it work. They gave me X amount on my trade in and I drove home in my new car.

In Dec of 2019, we bought my wife a used Ford Edge, and the guy in the finance office would not take no for an answer on the extended warranty.

You need to "protect your investment." My investment? You mean this thing that is only going to depreciate rapidly as I drive it off the lot and further as I use it? This is a terrible investment. Then, if this breaks it will cost this much, it this breaks it will cost this much... Wait a minute, are you telling me all these things are going to break, maybe I don't want it. And one of the things you just listed is specifically excluded in the tiny printed list down here...

I told him, those guys are in the business of making money AND are giving you a cut to sell this. So they are banking on the fact that during their coverage period, they are very unlikely to payout more than the cost of the coverage plus the cut they are giving you. I am going to play the same odds. His final retort was that 98% of his car buyers are buying one, and he couldn't believe a young family wouldn't want peace of mind. I told him that I thought 98% of his car buyers were dumb with their money then. My wife got uncomfortable and left the room saying, lets just go somewhere else as she walked out which appeared the be the ticket as he finally back off after about 30-40 minutes of this.

I guess when we got in the room and he found out we weren't financing he decided to do the full-court press with the extended warranty.