As you may imagine, decorum has never been one of her strengths.

I think the not dieing alone statement is her way of asking to live with you.

artie_fufkin wrote:

APIAD wrote:

I think the not dieing alone statement is her way of asking to live with you.

 
And I thought a knee replacement would be painful.
As bad as she and I are together, she and my wife are a worse pair. She knows exactly which of my wife's buttons to push at the worst possible moments.
To prevent such a scenario from happening, we're selling our house and moving to a 1-bedroom condo when my son goes to college.

Are you being serious?  I could never live in such a confined space.  The power was off and my whole family was trapped in the cool basement for 2 days.  I couldnt get away.  It was to much.

artie_fufkin wrote:

One last thing. My MIL's car broke down about two weeks ago and she was using mine, because it was just sitting in the driveway until I went back to work yesterday. While she was using it, she had to call AAA because she locked the keys in the car. I've been driving for nearly 40 years and I've never locked my keys in a car.

Do you have a fairly old car?  The only reason I ask is that you have to practically go out of your way to manually lock these newer cars.  Assuming the remote is attached to the keys, you generally have to have the keys to lock a car nowadays.

This does remind me of one of my favorite stories from back in my police days.  Somewhere around 1992-93, we were getting new cars (Chevy Luminas--not that powerful of an engine, but U. City was mostly residential and they handled like a champ on those smaller streets).  Anyway, one of the features of the car was after putting it in drive and exceeding about 10-15 mph, the car doors automatically locked.

One day we're beginning our shift and one of our "less than scholarly" officers gets in his car and drives around to the back parking lot to get some stuff out of his personal car.  The next thing you know, he's on the radio calling for a supervisor to bring a slim jim because he's "locked inside his car."  This guy was so dumb, he didn't realize that all he had to do was: a) turn off the car, b) push the unlock button on the door or c) slide the lock forward to let himself out.  He freaked out that the car had locked itself and called a supervisor (over the radio) to come unlock the car from the outside.  I literally had to pull over and park I was laughing so hard.

Lets see, stupid police stories...i wont tell any of my own.  We had a officer go down a hill to do a security check.  Security checks are dumb but basicly you check parks, businesses and other areas making sure they are secure.  Anyway, it had snowed and the officer couldnt get back up the hill in his rear wheeled drive squad car.  He contacted the senior officer who came up with the idea of pulling it out himself with the eletric departments truck.  So he gets a truck he probably shouldnt have even got and hooked it up to the push bumper on the front of the stuck car.  This push bumper was just for looks and not attached to the frame.  When he pulled the bumper came completely off.  I can't imagen having to explain that to the chief the next day.  The good news was, once the bumper was removed it was easy for them to find a secure place to hook onto.

Same here.  Ive had my truck for 14 years.  It is just something to get me from point A to point B.

I'm a big fan of driving a car until it completely collapses.  I've only had my current car (2011 Accord) for a couple of years, but the car I had before that I had for 14 years and about 260,000 miles.  Funny story, I had actually taken it to the dealer for what I expected to be routine maintenance.  The line was long, so while I was there, I had a salesperson show me some of the current vehicles.  While we were chatting, I asked him for a trade in value on my car and he gave me a number (about $3,000).  A few minutes later, I get called to the service area, and it turns out my car has serious problems and needs about $1,800 in repairs.  I told them to just change the oil, walked back to the front of the dealership and bought my current vehicle using my old car as a trade-in.  They tried to go back on the price, but since the sales guy had already quoted it, they were stuck.

Currently, the nicest car in the house is being driven by Bob.  He just turned 16 last month.  We went back and forth between whether we should buy him something we didn't care if he crashed or something he might be less likely to crash and we settled on the latter.  He has a 2012 Mazda 6.  The car is awesome, it has about every feature known to mankind, including several really nice safety features.  For example, he has blind spot indicators in his side mirrors.  If there's a car in the lane next to him, a light appears in the mirror on that side of the car until the vehicle is gone, and if he turns on his blinker while the vehicle is there, the car beeps at him to let him know not to change lanes.

It's only been a month, but I can't tell you how much of a difference it is with him having his own car.  Between not having to drive him to/from practice, to having him drive his sister to her practices, it's been fantastic.

Last edited by forsberg_us (8/03/2016 9:43 am)

artie_fufkin wrote:

I grew up in a bedroom community that was squeezed between an urban city to the east, and the home of the country's first shopping mall to the west, connected by a divided 4-lane highway. A tough day for a police officer in my hometown was not being able to take a nap in the cruiser.
There was an incident that happened about 20 years ago which made the national news cycle because it was so absurd. Police in the community to the west sent out a BOLO for a carload of kids who apparently shoplifted some clothing from a store in the mall and are headed east on the highway.
Dispatch in my hometown orders a road block - for a bunch of teenage shoplifters - and two cruisers respond. Problem is, there's also a breakdown lane, so the two cars can't block the entire highway. For some reason, the kids - who are probably carrying only a couple hundred dollars worth of stolen merchandise - decide to go around the road block. One of the officers draws his service weapon and fires two rounds. The first shot hits the other cop in the leg, and the second round shatters the rear window of the suspects' vehicle, which then speeds away from the scene. 
At this point, the on-duty shift commander picks up the pursuit - in his wife's Volvo station wagon. The hardened criminals in the getaway car are scared shitless because Barney Fife has just fired at them for stealing underwear from J.C. Penney and make it as far to the eastern border of my town, where they have to stop because the city to the east has police with actual experience at setting up a proper road block.
During the inquest, one of the prominent questions, obviously, is why the shift commander is patrolling in his wife's car instead of an actual police vehicle. The sergeant explains that department had recently obtained a new fleet of cruisers and the chief only wanted two on the road at a time to reduce wear and tear on the vehicles.
Happily, the officer who was shot in the leg ended up sustaining only a minor wound. And I'm guessing none of the kids in the car has shoplifted since.
 

Thats some fucked up shit.

For me personally, I've found the best cars to buy are the lease buy-backs.  The cars are generally 3-4 years old, they've had all of their required maintenance (it's a condition of the lease) and still have low miles.  You get the benefit of the massive depreciation that occurs in the first 3 years and still get a nice car.  Also, if you buy at the end of the month, you tend to get better deals because all of the sales staff are focused on their end of the month commissions.

Don't fret about the minivan AP, Michele is driving an '08 minivan.  Those things actually hold value.  When we were car shopping for Bob, I priced some comparable vans, and it looked like they were selling for $10-12,000.  I'm hoping to have my car paid off by the end of the year.  If so, we'll probably start looking for a newer car for Michele.  We're past the minivan stages and there's that old "happy wife, happy life" thing.

forsberg_us wrote:

For me personally, I've found the best cars to buy are the lease buy-backs.  The cars are generally 3-4 years old, they've had all of their required maintenance (it's a condition of the lease) and still have low miles.  You get the benefit of the massive depreciation that occurs in the first 3 years and still get a nice car.  Also, if you buy at the end of the month, you tend to get better deals because all of the sales staff are focused on their end of the month commissions.

Don't fret about the minivan AP, Michele is driving an '08 minivan.  Those things actually hold value.  When we were car shopping for Bob, I priced some comparable vans, and it looked like they were selling for $10-12,000.  I'm hoping to have my car paid off by the end of the year.  If so, we'll probably start looking for a newer car for Michele.  We're past the minivan stages and there's that old "happy wife, happy life" thing.

We are to i guess.  My wife loved the mini van idea for 5 years and now she wants a suv.  Problem is that nothing i suites her.  It is either to big or to small.  Doesnt get good enough gas milage or whatever.  I got so pissed off dealing with sales man i gave up and said we are just driving the can forever.  When the exact same van as mine is on the lot with a listed price of 12,000 and you want to give me 6,000 for mine then fuck off.

I'm glad he wasn't hurt.