Hot and humid, hopefully less so than yesterday.
Yesterday, when it was hot and humid. Until the rain came, then it was hot and UNBEARABLY humid. Bah.
I got the grass cut. I did my errands. That was it. Rain killed the rest of the plan.
Today, I was going to do a “ok you just realized you don’t have enough stuff stacked, what do you do?” post but I fell asleep. I’ll do it in comments.
Cuz y’all need to keep stacking.
nick
The fraud out there is immense, “Amazon Sells Customer 16TB External HDD With an 8TB Drive Installed”
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/313193-amazon-sells-customer-16tb-external-hdd-with-an-8tb-drive-installed
Unlike Walmart or Best Buy, thanks to AWS and an extremely pliant Wall Street — who still believe in “The Legend of Jeff, Family Guy, Drives A Honda, Wears the Same Kind of Shirt to Work Every Day: the Ones With Snap-down Collars” (TM) — Amazon doesn’t have to make money on their retail operations and has virtually unlimited capability to satisfy customers. It will be interesting to see what happens when that changes and investors actually expect the company to deliver on that P/E.
The “Legend of Jeff” is already accumulating holes thanks to the divorce. Now we have “The Legend of Mackenzie, Toni Morrison Grad Student, Drove the Bronco Over The Continental Divide While Jeff Worked On The Business Plan For Seattle” (TM), which cost Jeff half his money … but not the voting rights on the stock.
People need to get over story hour and wake the frick up. A lot of American business has been Fantasyland for 25 years, starting with the stock market.
My management likes to hire stories, and mine wasn’t that interesting. I got fed up this week and sent a wake up call.
Hopefully Plano either stops believing their Fantasyland stories from the last 20 years or the new Penny’s owners clean house at the upper levels.
A liquidation at JC Penny would add to the amount of retailing from the last 120 years which will have to be re-learned from zero in the US.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54095975
The biggest problem in the scenario is how “California”-esque North Dallas and Plano have become in the last 10 years.
Currently in SA for the next 5 days. Need to deal with MIL issues and fix some things in her house.
Staying at the Hampton Inn which we have stayed at multiple times in the past. Things are much different now with COVID crap.
No hot breakfast, just a couple of items in a sack. Rooms cleaned every 5 days. Thus for our stay, never. Have to get your own towels and supplies such as the little bottles of shampoo, cups and toilet paper. Social distancing everywhere, masks required, etc. No contact at check-in as my digital key is on my phone.
Woke to chilly 58f and drizzle.
Taking the wife for a mammogram then off to the MIL to replace her bulbs with LEDs. Wife is concerned she will fall while climbing stools to replace her failing incandescents. I expect the LED bulbs to outlast her. I will also have to sweep and mop her floors again. Her original flooring was ruined by her babies (small yappy dogs) using them for a bathroom. We paid to have the floors replaced and put in a doggy door so the “babies” could do their stuff outdoors. Only thing we forgot was that she would refuse to train the muts to use the door as that would be cruel to babies. Now, if I dont keep the floors mopped regularly, the new flooring won’t last. Exciting day off.
Weellll, I was wrong about the weather, but then again, so were the Space City Weather boys… the cold front must have moved in. It’s 77F and overcast. Hot and humid is a pretty fair bet for Houston, but this time I came up craps. I’m pretty ok with that though.
Number one daughter has a video news production elective this semester. I spent the morning setting up her backdrop green screen, and a 3 light studio package…. ‘cuz I’m that guy. I’m using the vlogger/youtuber stuff I bought at auction for my ebay photos. School supplies the bedsheet green screen, an Ipad, and the software. Yes, my kitchen looks like a studio at the moment. No, that is not going to continue. Daughter said they shot once a week, but now I learn that they will be working every day. Guess who is going to have a studio in her newly redone bedroom that completely blows her new decor? Yup. No pain no gain kid.
n
Only thing we forgot was that she would refuse to train the muts to use the door as that would be cruel to babies. Now, if I dont keep the floors mopped regularly, the new flooring won’t last.
Yorkies? A Yorkie can’t be trained beyond a certain age in my experience with my mother’s dogs, and the breed requires a pretty hard-hearted approach when tiny/cute to communicate the message effectively that most people can’t handle — leaving the newly acquired puppy in a crate or closed-off bathroom every night until it learns not to mess its sleeping area.
My mother is the Allison Janey character in “I, Tonya” except, instead of birds, she had Yorkies. The dogs never learned to to their business outside.
Everybody my age +/- a couple of years seems to have the Allison Janey character in “I, Tonya” for a mother. It is real reason the actress received the Academy Award. The last Oscar that obviously deserved was Christoph Waltz in “Inglorious Bastards”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE4hEMBYbTI
Which reminds me — I’m probably getting chewed out by my superioros this afternoon. As the man says, I’ve been chewed out before.
With 7 weather disturbances in the atlantic, I’m more focused on the possibility of local hurricanes, but let’s not forget the other ongoing seasonal disaster- the fires out west.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stunning-photos-san-francisco-sky-turns-orange-due-wildfire-smoke-and-ash
From FEMA
n
Component theft in electronics has plagued the retail world forever: buy an item, swap out the parts, and then return the item. The problem occurs in office settings too. Lots of desktop support guys can tell you stories about disappearing memory sticks (e.g. every workstation in the company was purchased with 8GB of memory, but when they turn on the one in the empty cubicle that hasn’t been used in forever it only has 4GB).
Certain catagories of ebay items are subject to parts theft too. Lot of theft in the ham radio world based on the disclaimers and notices about ‘hidden’ or ‘invisible’ markings on parts. Xboxes seem to be one of those items too.
n
John Wilder has a way with words. Even if you don’t like puns.
n
Ok, my ‘not a post but comments in place of a post’ will have to wait. I have to head out.
n
“As I get older, I’ve discovered a simple truth – I have no idea if my kids will enjoy getting shares of Tesla® when I die. But I do know that if they each got a suitcase of untrackable gold and silver, half a dozen rifles and a few thousand rounds of ammo at my funeral, they’d smile.”
John Wilder has a way with words. Even if you don’t like puns.
Unless the Feds ban private ownership of negotiable forms of gold again. All it would take at this point is an Executive Order and a Congress as spineless as the one Roosevelt had in 1933. That last forfeiture order lasted until … 1975 (?). At least two generations.
Very hard to enforce and the internet is stiff with overseas vaulting services if anyone had enough to bother. The death of fiat approaches every day. Gold will be the only way to kick start a new confidence paradigm.
“Unless the Feds ban private ownership of negotiable forms of gold again. ”
— so you just hold it until the tides change again, or vacation outside the US, or sell it under the table. Unless they take a page from Matt Bracken’s novels and go door to door, it doesn’t really matter what they say. And if they start that up, there’s plenty of time to make other choices.
n
I’m going to be cleaning and reorganizing my basement next week (during my 1 week COVID style stay-cation). There will be one interesting prepping data point. I filled up 4 x 55 gallon barrels with emergency potable water in 2015 (I think, it’s written on the barrels somewhere). I will have to empty those to move them around. Big blue food safe drums with the recommended amount of chlorine added to be safe for storage and drinking. I wonder how it will be after 5 years of storage? I’ll let you guys know.
“Unless the Feds ban private ownership of negotiable forms of gold again. ”
— so you just hold it until the tides change again, or vacation outside the US, or sell it under the table. Unless they take a page from Matt Bracken’s novels and go door to door, it doesn’t really matter what they say. And if they start that up, there’s plenty of time to make other choices.
Unless you are the first that they hit. And they will drill all safes that you do not open.
A friend of mine found a floor safe embedded in the floor of his father’s office when he passed away. There was several pistols and ammo. There was also about a million dollars worth of gold coins. He turned it all over to his mother and he thinks his sister promptly stole all of the gold for her dying real estate business.
Ed,
The front/rear dashcam in my wife’s car is a Peztio Dash Cam (two words). There’s no model number on the box or manual, but its resolution is FHD 1080P/720P/480P. There’s a good chance she obtained this as a pre-release product for review and therefore didn’t have a model number when she got it; she gets a lot of those. It has wires running from one of the car’s USB ports to the camera/screen unit and then from the main unit to the rear camera.
The boxes for my and my son’s dashcams have mysteriously disappeared, where “mysteriously” should be pronounced “most likely due to my mother-in-law rearranging my tool-and-stuff shelves in the garage because she was bored and throwing away anything she didn’t see a use for”. The manufacturer of mine is ChiCom. (Really! It was manufactured in the PRC but I have no idea if the Chinese Communist Party owns the company. I’m not worried about it because there’s no communication between the unit and the world except via the memory card.)
Surprisingly cool at 63f this morning in SA. Got Spectrum internet installed for MIL. Will use for three months until her surgery when the spousal unit will return to stay with the MIL for several weeks during recovery. I would not be surprised if the surgery, and/or recovery, were fatal.
Self install for Spectrum. Agent failed to tell me I had to call to activate the modem. Spectrum’s WiFi is a separate unit and not built into the modem. You cannot access the router except through the Spectrum app. No way to get to the settings otherwise. I left the settings at default values so if the router needs to be reset nothing will change.
Wife is trying to teach MIL to use an iPad and iPhone to get to Facebook, receive email, and two apps that MIL will use. Limited stuff. MIL said the iPhone was dead and I could have it back. Battery was down to 2% and thus would not turn on. Started charging and all was fine.
MIL also complained about a whistle in her 2 year old Camry (purchased new). Noise got louder the faster she went and she was going to take it to the dealer. I drove the car and discovered she had opened one of the windows ever so slightly. Easy fix. But MIL is really getting clueless and unable to solve, or think through, her own problems. MIL told my wife the noise started when she touched a button on the armrest (where the window buttons are located).
Radio has never been used as when I turned on the radio I was greeted with some sort of jigaboo music that made no sense. Never been used or MIL goes places I don’t want to know about.
I’m about 100 miles north of the San Antonio airport. The thermometer in the bathroom said 57F at 6AM. Which is pretty cool for September. Mid-October, sure.
It was sprinkling this morning. Penny went as far as the edge of the patio to pee on the grass and right back in and back to her bed, too.
The replacement ice maker is working. I may have spent more time walking to the gate and back, and cussing FedEx than it took to remove the old and install the new.
Pretty easy. Put the ice cube tray in the fridge. Remove two screws. Pop off the cap on the front end, use a screw driver to help remove the clips that hold the wiring harness on and depress the tab to release the harness. Reverse on the new unit. Cut out the pre-scored place where the water fill tube enters. Move the bottom brace from old to new. Maybe 15 minutes total. But I did this eight years ago, too.
The new k-cup holder fits. It’s a little different than the original. Different factory? First cup this morning…. dropped in a k-cup and closed the lid. Lid closed very easy. Pulled the cup out and it had the hole in the bottom. Extra sharp or the original was never quite right.
We had a weird week with weather. We were at an outdoor pool on Saturday and it was 91° and sunny. Then by Tuesday it was 46° and raining.
When did the MSM stop reporting comorbidities for COVID-19 deaths? Back in April when someone (they deemed worthy enough to report on) passed away somewhere in the article it would mention if they also had asthma, COPD, hypertension, diabeters, and so forth. Now they make it a point of not mentioning it at all (unless they had none in which case they make it a point to say so). I noticed those key details slowly went from the first paragraph, to being buried late in the article, to not being noted at all. It’s like they were annoyed people were being dismissive when a comorbidity was mentioned, so they stopped mentioning them (despite them being essential facts that should be included in the story). CNN.com is plastered with this school teacher who died. She’s clearly obese but no mention of comorbidities in the article. I’m guessing if she didn’t have any they would have gone out of their way to say so. So, the omission pretty much confirms she had one or more (probably at least two of these three: diabetes, hypertension, and asthma).
Note added via edit: Less than five minutes to get the thumbs down and the eye roll emoji. New record? Who is the closeted COVID-19 alarmist?
MIL also complained about a whistle in her 2 year old Camry (purchased new). Noise got louder the faster she went and she was going to take it to the dealer. I drove the car and discovered she had opened one of the windows ever so slightly. Easy fix. But MIL is really getting clueless and unable to solve, or think through, her own problems. MIL told my wife the noise started when she touched a button on the armrest (where the window buttons are located).
Wind noise is another common issue with the 2018s, mine included. Even if you think the issue is resolved, get the car out on the freeway and run at 65-70 to make sure.
To be fair, every Toyota we’ve owned can sometimes catch the weather stripping just right so the window doesn’t completely close. Dealers can call in a guru/”whisperer” to deal with outright leaky sunroofs and windows, but that’s still deep voodoo and not guaranteed to resolve the problem on the first visit.
“Deep decarbonization of the world’s energy system still 15 years away”
https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2020/09/deep-decarbonization-of-the-world-s-energy-system-still-15-years-away?id=2382671
“Deep decarbonization of the world’s energy system is still 15 years away, with carbon emissions set to remain stubbornly high until the mid-2030s, according to a new forecast of the energy transition by DNV GL.”
“Carbon dioxide emissions from energy use will fall just 15% to 2035, before then dropping 40% to 2050. The oil and gas industry will account for more than 80% of world energy-related carbon emissions in 2050. ”
Note that these people expect to the Oil and Gas industry to decarbonize themselves. And at zero cost to their customers. When it fails to happen, the industry will be blamed for all of societies problems.
Note added via edit: Less than five minutes to get the thumbs down and the eye roll emoji. New record? Who is the closeted COVID-19 alarmist?
There is more than one.
@jlp, if the water is clear without odor, it will probably taste just fine. If it tastes ‘flat’, pour it back and forth a few times to aerate it. I usually just run mine thru a Brita filter for taste. During Ike I opened some aquatainers I’d put away 5 years earlier. The water was a bit flat but otherwise fine. Stored the same way you did.
It’s raining all over town, but there are downpours a block from sunny skies. I mostly drove in rain for an hour getting around. I did manage to drop off a load at the auction so I’m happy about that.
I also filled my gas tank, $1.68 for regular unleaded at Costco.
Did someone mention dead teachers?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8718359/At-four-teachers-died-COVID-19-start-school-year.html
Saying that they had comorbidities isn’t really helpful. For one, LOTS of them do so you have to take that into account when developing policy, and for two, they were living with their comorbidity just fine until they got infected. On the other hand, dying or even testing positive 3 days into the semester means YOU had it before school started, not that you got it from a kid or staff member, unless there are other staff you were exposed to during their prep week.
n
Re: the up/down vote – I’m looking into the possibility of a bot doing a single vote. Note that voting is restricted to one/person (via a cookie). Just changed it to one/IP address.
There is no tracking of exactly who voted – not even IP address. I’ve asked the developer if that can be done, and if it is possible for a ‘bot’ to vote. A quick look at the code doesn’t appear to be, since the vote is registered on a click ‘event’.
But, I personally ignore the apparent ‘one-off’ of a down vote. I don’t take it personally. One down-vote (or up-vote) is not a trend, and nothing to worry about, IMHO.
I doubt anybody here does either, except the down-voter. Since he/she/it down-votes a lot, I guess it is a troll. If you down-vote so much, why even come here? As Dr. Bob once said, “this is a place of un-social media.”
I doubt anybody here does either, except the down-voter. Since he/she/it down-votes a lot, I guess it is a troll. If you down-vote so much, why even come here? As Dr. Bob once said, “this is a place of un-social media.”
I figure the down-voter is someone who came here looking for further home science, homebrew PC, or astronomy information and was a little shocked by the discussion. I’ve seen the Thompsons’ books at second hand shops — the science books don’t really go out of date so it was probably inevitable.
Didn’t someone buy out the home science provisioning operation?
yup, it’s a link in the title bar at the top of the page.
n
“Weekend Situation Report”
https://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2020/09/weekend-situation-report.html
“It’s just over a week since I did my last look at the deteriorating situation in the civil war we’re not engaged in. Certainly nothing has gotten better or offered more optimism. The violence level nationally has cranked up and not gone down in any way. Phil at BustedNuckles linked to a scary article at American Partisan about the situation on the ground in Portland. These are combat veterans with experience from “multiple tours in the late 2000s” and they describe a well-trained unconventional army that ran them off. It’s worth your time to read, but here’s the opening paragraph.”
“Me and three of my buddies were in Portland this weekend, got attacked by Antifa. There’s a Twitter video with millions of views on it. They ended up on Hannity and Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro etc., of us getting beaten with bats and rocks the size of cantaloupes thrown at us, getting spit on etc. We were all carrying pistols as well. Opportunity, ability and jeopardy, we were in a deadly force situation and we could easily articulate the use of deadly force, but they had pepper sprayed us. They were using industrial strobe lights on us, etc. We couldn’t PID our target and what lied beyond it, They did a great job of taking our situational awareness away, it was fucking incredible. Bro my perspective on this changed so much.”
Follow on articles at:
https://gunfreezone.net/we-are-trained-for-the-wrong-fight/
and
https://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2020/09/we-are-trained-for-wrong-fight.html
Some scary stuff going on out there.
Yes, and I bought the chemistry kit from him a year ago.
As for the down-voter with the crushing self-worth issues and persistent body odor, it (not he or she or even zir, but it) may have stumbled across this site and been offended, but the fact of sticking around and continuing to down-vote non-libtard comments week after week suggests that it is trying to leave a mark on the world. It is too stupid and pathetic to create, so it vandalizes. On the plus side, its looming alcoholism and dabbling with mail-order experimental drugs from China mean its expected lifespan is about that of a hamster. Fitting, given its intellectual prowess.
They were using industrial strobe lights on us, etc.
Industrial strobe light? “Bedazzler” maybe?
https://hackaday.com/2009/09/28/open-source-weapon-makes-you-puke/
Honestly, folks, stay out of that particular area of Portland. It isn’t hard. The affected zone is so small that Trump is right — he could squish it in a couple of hours … if the Mayor invited him to do so.
(That position is pure genius on Trump’s part.)
When we left, 25% of the metro was on food stamps, and the effective unemployment was above 30%. Left on its own, without outside stimulus, Portland will implode. Even the cops already live north of the Columbia River.
I did. Drove it to the hotel on the 410 speedway. No noise after closing the window all the way. Car still smells new inside after two years. Car probably needed to be run at 70+ for a dozen miles.
Yep, as mentioned. https://www.thehomescientist.com . Ben has been getting a ton of orders the last couple months. Lots of homeschoolers, and some schools also.
He and I (well, mostly me doing the back-end work) are going to change the site to a WordPress/WooCommerce type site, but Ben is saturated with orders, so might be a month or two before that happens.
I think that the problem is that it is annoying and judging by the comments I am not the only one annoyed.
I am OK with downvotes. What I am not OK with is that there should be at least one comment every now and then to substantiate a downvote. It has been a while since you introduced the vote and emoji feature and apart from the downvote quirk I think it is now an appreciated feature by all. In all of that time I do not recall seeing One comment that could substantiate the downvote(s).
We are all making assumptions as to whom or why with never getting closer to the answers.
At best it could be ignored as you say. Unfortunately it seems many can’t or won’t and it detracts from the enjoyment of sharing knowledge and views.
Thanks for looking into this.
At this point I take a down vote as a source of pride. But that’s just me.
As the saying goes if you’re not pissing some of the people off you’re not doing it right.
I had to oblige… One is from me. At least you have been informed. 🙂
@RickH: We got along here fine for the longest time without up/down votes. If someone here felt sufficiently pleased or displeased by a comment they could express their opinion in another comment.
ISTM that the up/down votes don’t really add anything to this blog. I for one would not miss them.
I downvoted someone, I think Lynn, for some reason or other. I think he said something foul and disgusting and put a horrid image in my head. Whatever it was, it was inexcusable. I made sure to put in a comment so he’d know he was being disapproved.
I downvoted someone, I think Lynn, for some reason or other. I think he said something foul and disgusting and put a horrid image in my head. Whatever it was, it was inexcusable. I made sure to put in a comment so he’d know he was being disapproved.
Probably this Hilary fan:
https://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2020/09/snappy-dresser.html
Dammit!
You earned that downcheck, Lynn!
SteveF, thanks for the info, I’ll take a look.
I did. Drove it to the hotel on the 410 speedway. No noise after closing the window all the way. Car still smells new inside after two years. Car probably needed to be run at 70+ for a dozen miles.
Take it out for a long run. The 2018 transmission is weird and dialed in hard to make that 38 MPG CAFE number. It won’t be … for lack of a better term … happy put-putting up to the grocery store and back once a week without an occasional trip at highway speeds.
You can cut the pork chop at Kreuz Market in Luling with a plastic knife, but go early — that always sells out. 🙂
On the way back, find a WalMart or Buc-ee’s with ethanol-free gas to fill up if she isn’t running the car much.
Just be careful out there. My wife had a rolled up box spring up her windshield and wedge under her car on Friday driving down 183 to work at the VA. $1200 damage.
We assume the box spring came of a junk picker truck, and she wasn’t the only victim. When my wife dialed 911, the operator asked, “Are you the person who called earler and needed an ambulance?”
Yikes!
My understanding is that the computer “learns” the driving habits and adjusts shifting points accordingly. I really don’t want to disturb those settings as she is happy with the vehicle. The vehicle is a 2019, bought at the beginning of the model year about this time in 2018.
It’s a grandma vehicle, driven to church twice a week, grocery store on one of those trips. Tank of gas lasts over a month.
I don’t expect her to survive the next heart surgery in the next three months. An artificial valve needs to have some part replaced. Even if she survives I don’t expect her to be driving much beyond another year, maybe 18 months.
Smokey! So bad the expected high of 95F today only made it to 85F. Almost no wind so what there was pushed the smoke to our end of the valley and here it sits.
Sun looked like a dark orange ball all day.
5:30 you can barely see it in the middle of this pic from my backyard.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dTe6uogDtWPBwXhLoFTTjy3xp-5XNtB4/view?usp=sharing
“A.F. Branco Cartoon – Hostage Crisis”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-hostage-crisis/
“Democrats are saying either we vote in Biden or the country is doomed to riots, violence, and Lawlessness. Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2020.”
My understanding is that the computer “learns” the driving habits and adjusts shifting points accordingly. I really don’t want to disturb those settings as she is happy with the vehicle. The vehicle is a 2019, bought at the beginning of the model year about this time in 2018.
I bought about this time in 2018, but I didn’t want start-stop so I passed on the ’19.
I don’t expect her to survive the next heart surgery in the next three months. An artificial valve needs to have some part replaced. Even if she survives I don’t expect her to be driving much beyond another year, maybe 18 months.
My dad has had a St. Judes heart valve for 22 or 23 years now. It is still working but allows about 20% of his blood to recirculate due to leakage. It was recalled over 10 years ago. At 82 this month, he ain’t doing nothing with it. Putting it in was bad enough with a three week hospital stay and pneumonia.
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1726250
I bought about this time in 2018, but I didn’t want start-stop so I passed on the ’19.
My son’s 2020 Camry four cylinder does not have start-stop. My wife’s 2019 Highlander V6 does not have start-stop. But we bought the bottom trim level for each.
Consumer Reports just tested a 2020 Highlander Hybrid four cylinder AWD and got 35 mpg. The cost was $43K according to CR. We paid $32K + TTL for our Highlander which gets around 22 to 25 mpg. That difference will buy a lot of gasoline. And her V6 is peppier.
The wife and our daughter are headed to Lewisville in the morning, 300 miles each way. The wife’s father is reputedly on his last legs according to the nursing home. They are now letting one family member into the nursing home at a time to visit him. But they are not letting the hospice nurse come in. I am confused since they recommended the hospice company.
The wife’s older sister went to see him Monday and today since she only lives ten miles away. The nursing home keeps on changing their mind about who can and cannot visit him.
Smokey! So bad the expected high of 95F today only made it to 85F. Almost no wind so what there was pushed the smoke to our end of the valley and here it sits.
Sun looked like a dark orange ball all day.
5:30 you can barely see it in the middle of this pic from my backyard.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dTe6uogDtWPBwXhLoFTTjy3xp-5XNtB4/view?usp=sharing
Here is the photo from the Astros playing the As in Oakland last night. The view on the tv looked like a preview of Hell:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29848351/smoke-nearby-wildfires-creates-eerie-baseball-scene-bay-area
It must have been cold, the players on the bench were wearing parkas.
We got the 2019 Highlander, XLE trim, V6 gas-only this June. Used,/one owner had 23K miles. Cost was about$32K.
It has start/stop, which doesn’t bother me much. There is a switch to turn it off (lower left side of steering wheel, but I’ve learned not to press hard on the brake pedal when stopped. (Firm press on brake pedal engages it.) A restart is fast enough — by the time you get your right foot from the brake pedal to the gas pedal, it’s ready to go.
Drives nice, although I haven’t taken any long trips in it. But we had a 2008 Highlander XLE, so it’s very similar to that.
Nice features overall. Big screen, easy to reach. Doesn’t have Android Auto – that was added in 2020 model. But it does have a lift-up rear window in the tailgate…which the 2020 doesn’t have. Since we often have the wheelchair lift on the back hitch, having the back window to open to stuff things in the back is handy.
Would have liked to get the 2020 because of the new-generation features (like the overhead-view camera, which has me puzzled on how they do that …), but the non-flip back window was an issue. (As was trying to get the extra cost past SWMBO – she really doesn’t like car payments.)
Overall gas mileage – mostly highway speeds, since the local WalMart and other stores we go to are 20 minutes away on 2/4 lane highways – is right at 25MPG. The 2008 averaged about 21MPG. Overall: well-pleased with the 2019.
@dkreck, wow, those orange pictures look like the end is nigh… keep an eye open and your bug out bag ready.
WRT mileage, I get around 18 in my 6 cyl 2003 ranger. Never get much better than that except on the highway. I’ve got a lead foot and a heavy brake…
In my Expedition, with the v8 5.4L, I get between 12 and 13. It’s a heavy truck that I drive like a sports car, and I’m carrying hundreds of extra pounds. Carrying extra weight will always knock down your mileage. And I don’t care. I don’t drive enough for the difference in mileage to add up to real money. When I was working, my mileage was reimbursable and I drove about 5000 miles a year. Since I quit, I drive more, around 12000 across two trucks, but I still deduct most of that as business miles. My mileage stays the same, my fuel efficiency stays the same, but the cost of the gas fluctuates quite a bit. All said and done, I think it would be more interesting to hear what peoples’ yearly miles per dollar of gas ends up being. I think the range would be very narrow as high prices make better mpg more important, and encourage reduced overall miles, vs me, who has low cost gas and low miles. Maybe I’ll look at it in Quicken if I remember…
n
The wife and our daughter are headed to Lewisville in the morning, 300 miles each way. The wife’s father is reputedly on his last legs according to the nursing home. They are now letting one family member into the nursing home at a time to visit him. But they are not letting the hospice nurse come in. I am confused since they recommended the hospice company.
The wife’s older sister went to see him Monday and today since she only lives ten miles away. The nursing home keeps on changing their mind about who can and cannot visit him.
Well, that did not happen. The wife’s father passed away tonight at 87 years of age. We will be burying him next week in Merkel, Texas next to his wife whom we buried in 1992 ? and his son whom we buried in 1982. It is going to hurt to see my brother-in-law’s grave, we buried him three months after the wife and I got married. He was my best friend for a couple of years in college and then he introduced me to his cute sister one day. Seven months later, he was one of my groomsmen.
Lynn, I’m sorry for your loss. I seem to be saying that a lot lately…
n
@Lynn: Sorry to hear about your father-in-law.
Thanks, it was a blessing as he was in a lot of pain and no longer drinking or eating since last weekend.
It has been a disaster with all of the COVID nonsense. The nursing home director and head nurse were arguing with each other about letting us in to say goodbye. They let the wife’s sister and youngest son in on Monday and today so they got to tell him goodbye. But, we did not make it as he suddenly passed away tonight. The wife was with him just two weeks ago but our kids wanted to say goodbye. Now the nursing home will not let the hospice nurse in which is just crazy.
Mr.Lynn and family..
My condolences..
My sincere condolences, Mr. Lynn.
I’m getting about 21mpg in the 2019 Ram Classic with the Hemi. Given that a lot of this is city driving, not bad.
I think, last time I checked, idling was something like 20% of the running time. I can see where fleet owners might want that auto on/off technology.
@Lynn, sorry to hear about your father in law.
It’s tough. I missed saying goodbye to my mother by one day, back in 1998.