Rhonda and I had to take the title for the old WRX back to the dealership, so we stopped at Bellview for a glass of wine. I took both cameras, the E-M10 Mark IV with and the EPL-5, the former with the 20mm 1.7 Panasonic lens, and the latter with the TT Artisans 18mm f/6.3 UFO.
I was pretty sure I’d managed to outclass the Lumix 1.7 with this pic from the e-pl5/TT artisans combo:
But an accidental ev setting and the E-M10 proved too good to beat:
Rhonda and I visited Bellview yesterday after our big car purchase. One of our former schoolmates (and the father of one of Aaron’s friends) was there for a sip and had driven his MG replica. I grabbed this pic on our way out.
Rhonda and I were off work yesterday, and decided to look at a couple of cars to replace our aging 2016 Subaru WRX. It had almost 100k miles on it and was starting to look pretty beat up. We did the dealership visit and decided to purchase a new white 2025 WRX.
I’m pretty used to haggling and dealing with dealerships, having bought a few cars of my own and also the boys’ cars. I mentioned to the salesman that once we’d decided to buy, when the time came to meet with the finance manager, that I wouldn’t be purchasing any of the additional items she would be waving in front of me.
I got through the initial barrage of offers as I normally do, bristling at the “why? Is it an affordability issue?” That they use to shame you into buying packages. What I didn’t expect, however, was that once we’d agreed to a loan term and expected an approximate monthly payment, she mentioned that she got us a really low APR on the loan (0.9%) and was “able” to keep the monthly payment the same as we’d agreed on even with an eight-year extended warranty.
I asked if that was an additional warranty beyond the factory, and if so, what it cost. She dodged the question and said that the monthly payment would be the same. So I asked what it would cost without the warranty, because I didn’t want the warranty. She tried pretty hard to push the warranty, but I pulled out the original workup that the salesman had given me and I asked where on the sheet the warranty was. It was not, of course, on the sheet.
So we got out of there with a much lower monthly payment. Over the term of the loan, we would have paid an additional 5k for the extra five years of coverage.
That’s a nasty business. Vipers lurking in every corner.
All religions, all political movements and national identities, all business ventures, all charitable activity and all artistic pursuits are nothing but “immortality projects ,” desperate efforts to break free of death’s gravitational pull.
Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote
And yes, I did put the comma inside the quote, because that’s where it belongs.
Do we hope to capture these moments… these ephemera… to avoid forgetting them? In the hopes that we’ll see them again one day and remember them fondly? To think that we are, somehow, casting the shadow of our mortality just a bit longer than its natural demarcation?
I mentioned last weekend that I was trying to replace the flushing components in the toilet upstairs. The problem I ran into was that I couldn’t spin the nuts off of the bolts in water tank; the metal used in the bolts was softened by all those years of submersion in water, I guess, and not even some strategic spritzes with Liquid Wrench helped.
I mentioned it to our superintendent at work (who was in the process of installing his own bathtub, which made my problem seem tiny), and he suggested using a hacksaw. I ended up using just a hacksaw blade, over a couple of sessions, to cut the bolts between the base of the commode and the tank.
It wasn’t fun but it’s done! We have a freshly refurbished can upstairs. I did the same for the downstairs bathroom years ago. So I can log another home repair to my spreadsheet. Regarding said spreadsheet, I just started it today to keep track of when I service or repair something so I can remember how long it’s been since I tangled with a wary structure, appliance, or some other thing that awaits my attention.
I do a lot of these things in part to save a buck, and to avoid the hassle of trying to find someone to come out and do them for me. I feel like most of my home repairs have a very imperfect version of doneness, as I’m not the handiest of fellas, and always have something in mind I’d rather be doing. But you can’t argue with feeling a sense of accomplishment having fixed something yourself.
Next Friday is another visit to New Brunswick to visit Aaron. I found a host of places to try for dinner, including some intriguing Portuguese joints. I’m second guessing not trying one of those spots (not that it’s too late) because I met a couple at a party last night, and she was from Sayreville. I not a teleologist but I do find such moments of serendipity intriguing. I think we’ll enjoy the Metuchen Inn, though. Looking forward to the visit and the inevitable stop (stops?) at Stokelan Winery.
Do I have to tell you that we’re enjoying some spritzes in this fine fall weather? Rhonda is toasting up some nachos to accompany them using some leftovers from the week.
I hope you’re doing something that resonates with you from toes to dome. We only have this moment: the past is gone, and the future lies, uncertainly, in the moments, days, and years ahead.
I’ve been curious about Kagi search since reading about it on Daring Fireball and listening to an interview with one of the developers. I’ve been using Duck Duck Go for a while, and Google, too, and the AI results I get with the latter really have started to bother me. I decided to try Kagi’s trial tier, and while not exciting by any stretch, I found myself very happy with the results I was getting, and when the generous demo bank of searches wore out, I couldn’t see myself going back. It seems a little wild to pay for a search engine, but as with RSS readers, the value proposition is hard to resist.
I’ve been trialing the Finder replacement Path Finder by Cocoatech for years now, but I never found a reason to purchase a license. It popped up on Bundlehunt so I bought a few for my Macs. It’s an interesting twist on the Finder. One of the features I really like is how it displays labels in a window; it’s much less subtle than the Finder, which I like, especially in looking at a folder organized using the Johnny.Decimal system, which I’m currently half-assing. I also really like the Path Navigator feature. Tahoe’s Finder enhancements have been welcome, though. I has a great Yoink-like feature, called the Drop Stack, that lets you move files without opening multiple windows.
Andre Agassi was a rock star American tennis player who was divisive in terms of his fan base, but was always fun to watch. He evolved, from tennis rebel to statesman, during his career. This video is great, from the tennis angle and from the how-do-I-get-better angle.
I took a couple of pics of my preprandial Manhattan yesterday with the TT Artisans 18mm f/6.3 UFO Lens. There’s nothing milky or cloudy about the drink (see the second pic), but again, the weirdness of this lens enchants me.
Took this pic at work of the Air with Michael Caputo’s six-color sticker affixed. Looks great.
