Buying My New Car

I buy a new car a lot sooner than I expect to because — well, why not?

For a single person living alone with no kids, I have a lot of cars. I occasionally refer to them as my fleet.

  • I have my 1999 Jeep Wrangler, which I bought brand new, beat the crap out of, and use as my local around-town vehicle. It’s in decent shape but wouldn’t win any awards at a car show, despite it’s age. A trailer hitch on the front makes it the perfect vehicle for shuffling around trailers in the garage or driveway.
  • Jeep Wrangler
    My Jeep in its younger days, crawling over rocks in Sedona AZ. It’s on its third soft top now.

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On Rest & Relaxation

After a few busy, stressful months, I finally enjoy a few stress free days on my boat and reflect on how pleasant it is to just relax.

I’ve had a pretty busy few months this year.

February

After a nice two week stay at the Holtville Hot Springs in my camper, with visits to the tubs at least once a day, I started the long drive home. It had been a very mild winter in central Washington State and there wasn’t any snow on the ground. In fact, my housesitter reported that things were already starting to green up. In mid February. Continue reading

Tovala

My experiences with a meal kit service.

This winter, I spent some time with my friends Jan and Tiff in their Arizona home. I’ve known them since 2013 when I swapped my old golf cart for a towable helicopter landing platform. Back then, they owned a helicopter flight school in Mesa AZ. I got to be good friends with them and their partner, Woody. In those days, Jan and Woody were airline pilots for America West, which was eventually gobbled up and merged into US Air. Now they’re both retired and still living in Arizona. They sold the flight school a few years ago.

Enter Tovala

Anyway, neither Jan or Tiff cook so they basically eat out or order in all the time. I’ve become used to it when I visit with them and often pick up the tab (when I’m fast enough) when we eat out. But this time was a little different. I noticed that they had a fancy toaster oven on their countertop. Long story short: they’d signed up for a meal kit program and the oven had come with it.

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Social Media Posts I Didn’t Share Today, March 21, 2025 Edition

I decided to take a break from social media and need someplace to put my posts. Here they are.

Yesterday, I realized that because of filtering on my preferred social media account (Mastodon), I was only seeing about 5% of the posts being shared by the people I follow. I’ve been using filters extensively to block out posts that mention most political and controversial topics, and those filters work pretty well. Every once in a while, I need to add a new name or phrase or hashtag, but, for the most part, I’m simply not seeing the “doomscrolling” crap that’s out there. And that’s fine with me.

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