my boomer car of choice, late '80s personal luxury car
I don't own a car like this, but I'd like to because it speaks to my middle aged sensibilities now.
What is a personal luxury car? A two-door luxury sport coupe that has some size to it. There's the traditional four-door luxury sedan, but the luxury sport coupe is the smaller version of that and usually has more power to it.
Does any carmaker sell a new personal luxury car? BMW and Audi still do, but they obviously don't have the feel of how personal luxury cars used to be. A true personal luxury car is supposed to be more comfort (as in more luxury) than sport, and that's not what the German carmakers are building.
In the late '80s, the best personal luxury cars were from General Motors and Ford. GM had the Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Buick Riviera, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and Cadillac Eldorado, and Ford had the Thunderbird and Lincoln Mark VII.
Cars like this can go fast-ish, but that's not the point of them. This is a type of car that cruises really easy anywhere it goes. It's especially good for long highway drives.
Some question why the personal luxury car even existed. I don't. I totally get it. It's a car that's luxury and comfort first, sport second, a big trunk for some utility, and wrapped in a package that's not some big ungainly sedan. This is a car for just you and not for sharing (hence personal). It can carry two adults comfortably. You and somebody you like. That's it. Yes, it technically has back seats, but those are never used for people, nor would you want anybody back there.
I do hope America builds these again, because I want one. Maybe Cadillac will be first to bring it back. If they do, I hope they also bring back the Eldorado nameplate and call it that.
how i defeat bad directions
Many moons ago back in the late 2000s, a Garmin nuvi was (and I would argue still is) the best thing to use for GPS navigation. However, I identified a problem. For certain locations, the destination was marked wrong. Sometimes what was supposed to be on the right side of the street was on the left. Or, sometimes the destination was marked in the middle of the road and not on either side of the street. Or, sometimes the destination would be way off.
If you're thinking, "Well, that was a long time ago and locations are marked much more accurately now." Wrong. Oh, so wrong. The same problem exists today and it's even worse than before.
I use a Garmin DriveSmart 76, which is pretty darned good. But whether I'm using that, a navigation app on a phone, or infotainment navigation system, I'm still encountering the same problem I did almost 20 years ago where some addresses are just flat out marked wrong.
What I did to defeat this back in the late 2000s is something I still have to do today, albeit just slightly different. I'll describe both methods.
Old way (which still works):
Before heading out, go to my computer, load up Google Maps or Bing Maps in a web browser, find where I want to go, right-click and get the GPS coordinates. Punch that info into my Garmin, go there.
Modern way:
Load up Google Maps on my phone, press and hold the exact spot I want to navigate to until a red pin is dropped. If that doesn't show me GPS coordinates, I just keep hunting around the map until I find a pin drop that shows me that info. Once I have it, I punch that info into the Garmin, and off I go. If I'm not in my car and just have my phone with me, I'll put that info into a navigation app, and then I go.
"Last mile" is usually the only thing that truly matters
If I have to skip a highway exit due to traffic, that's fine because I can just take the next exit.
If I have to take some wacky side street route with U-turns involved or whatever to get to a place, again, fine. I can deal with that.
Where I get tensed up is at the very near end of the trip. It's either when a) the nav system states "you're here!" but I don't see it and have to hunt around, or b) I do see the destination, but the nav system put me in the wrong spot and I have to lap around. Either of those scenarios are really annoying...
...unless I navigate directly by GPS coordinates instead. Coordinates are an absolute and is as ultra-specific as you can get.
One of the first times coordinates really saved me was when going to a specific Dunkin' Donuts store in Tampa Florida.
If I drove to that place "the normal way", that involved traveling on a major road, passing the store, then doing a rather dangerous U-turn, go back, then another dangerous right turn just to get there. Ridiculous.
Before I went the next time, I loaded up Google Maps at home because I figured there must be a better way to get there. I found that if I used coordinates to get me to a very specific entrance point, combine that with getting off that major road slightly early, getting there would be much safer. I was right, and it was.
That was the way I did things nearly 20 years ago, and it's still the way I get to places now. Even if it's a place I've never been to before, oh yes, I will look it up on the map first to get the exact spot I want and/or determine the easiest, safest entrance point.
Do I do this for rural locations, too? You bet I do. If I have to get to an address somewhere in the sticks, yes I will load up the map, find the place, and get coordinates for the driveway. It's that I want to find more so than the building/house itself so I can park my car without issue.
Here's a great example. In Rhode Island, if I want to go to Newport and take a stroll on the cliff walk, there is only one place I could find to park my car, and it doesn't have an address. I have coordinates marked that literally leads to a tree on a tiny side street. Typical to Rhode Island roadways, it's not easy to get to, but once there, I can park, walk a short distance, then I'm on the cliff walk.
Will the problem of badly marked locations ever be solved?
That's an easy answer. No.
Why? That's also an easy answer. There are way too many locations to get them all correct, and moreover keep them correct.
For every address you've ever seen marked in the wrong spot, there are probably many more also marked incorrectly within a 5 mile radius of where you are. And even if you submit a map correction, yeah, good luck with that going through. Not only is it typical for some addresses to be 7 years or more out-of-date, but also typical for some businesses to be listed that closed shop 7+ years ago too. And for new locations (such as new apartment buildings), it can sometimes take years before they show up on the map, if at all.
If you want correct directions, mark the places you need to go yourself using GPS coordinates, and you'll get there. This was true 20 years ago, and it's still true now.
recovering from eating like crap during december
During December 2024, I did not do well concerning what I ate. In fact, I ate a whole ton of garbage until very-early January 2025.
I made a New Year's Resolution to stop eating the garbage, and so far it has been going mostly well.
What garbage did I eat, specifically? Chocolate. Way, way too much chocolate. All the holiday candy was out there, and I just went to town on that stuff. Why? "It's Christmas!", that's why.
Then, of course, the after-holiday sales happened where that same chocolate was selling for 50% off or more.
I didn't eat chocolate every day of December, but it sure felt like it.
In January, a special traditional Polish doughnut goes on sale at local markets called a Pączki (pronounced poonch-kee or pohnch-kee), so of course I had to get some.
After the doughnuts, I said okay, time to get back on the wagon. That was about two weeks ago. Since that point, the only chocolate I've had has been one Peppermint Pattie and nothing else. As for sugar, I only add it to my coffee and that's it, and only in a small amount.
I've gone back to real food for my diet. Eggs, rice, beans, mixed vegetables, chicken, tuna, and so on. My jeans are already starting to fit normally again.
The only "enemy" I have for the near future comes in March. What happens then? Cadbury Creme Eggs, that's what. The ultimate Easter candy. Love those things and always have. I hate Peeps (gross), but give me a Cadbury egg and I'm all sorts of happy.
Yes, I will have some Cadbury eggs in March. That's a given. Only the original kind. Cadbury has other flavors of the Creme Egg and they all suck. Only the original is the good one.
But until then, chocolate as well as all other candy is no-go territory. The only reason I had the Pattie is because it was gifted to me, and I had one of those "I shouldn't have done that" guilty feelings right after eating it. That's how anti-candy I am right now because of all I had in December.
Does that mean I plan to fall off the wagon again come March? Absolutely not. I worked very hard to lose weight, successfully kept it off, and intend to stay that way. Candy is fine to have once in a while, but I'm absolutely not doing a repeat of what I ate in December because that was ridiculous.
i don't like the taste of straight water
I do drink water, but in order for me to get past the taste, I have to "put my mind aside" for a moment, then chug it. The only time I don't have to do that is on really hot days where getting water in my system is more important than the taste of it.
The rest of the time, I've had to come up with inventive ways to add flavor. This is what I've tried:
Water flavoring
There are many flavors of this, and they come in the form of powder or liquid. I suppose you could also count iced tea mix in with this since it does the same job.
I was using this for a while but then stopped because I tired of the taste, regardless of flavor I tried.
Apple Cider Vinegar
The supposed be-all/end-all of "best" apple cider vinegar is Bragg Organic, which is unfiltered. I've tried both filtered and unfiltered. Yes, I can taste slightly more out of Bragg unfiltered compared to the filtered stuff.
The way this works is to fill a tall sports water bottle, then add in 1 teaspoon (about half a capful) of ACV, close the bottle and shake to mix.
What ACV does is add a slightly bitter taste to the water. You'd think this would taste terrible, but it actually doesn't.
The bad part about ACV is that even in tiny amounts, it can make gums and teeth hurt. My teeth complained a little, but just a little. It was enough to make me stop using it, because I take no chances where my teeth are concerned.
Lemon Juice
The funny thing about lemon juice is you'd think this could be easily found in any grocery store. Not really. Yes, the grocery store will have this, but don't be surprised if you have to ask somebody who works there where it is. And when you do finally find it, there will be just one choice and that's it. You may have to order organic lemon juice.
I don't use this because I'm not a fan of lemon water; the taste does nothing for me.
Salt
This is what actually works for me when I want to add flavor to water.
Sure, you could use fancy pink salt if you wanted to (and you might, because it's easily available in bigger chunks for easier flavoring of water), but I just use white.
What I like about flavoring water this way is that I can have it hot or cold. I can put water in a bottle, add salt, shake to mix, and drink it that way. Or, I can put hot water in a coffee mug, put in a few pinches of salt and mix with a spoon.
The nice part is that I have no negative reactions to slightly salted water. The flavor is acceptable and it's easy to drink.
Other drinks are typically salted
Powerade Zero? Has salt. Dasani water? Read the label. Dasani contains a very tiny amount of salt, but it's in there. If you prefer Dasani over other water brands and think it tastes different, that's not your imagination, because it does, and salt is part of that. A can of Coke? Yep, salted (labeled as sodium).
It could very well be, and probably is, that the reason I take to salt so well is because so many other drinks I've had over the years have been salted too.
it's no wonder why people hate new cars
If you want to know why so many people hate new cars so much, just look at the steering wheel.
Yeah, I am middle aged. Yeah, that means I have a bias towards older things because that's what I know best. But when it comes to cars, there's absolutely no question that the older stuff was much easier to deal with.
The example I will describe is a 2005 Toyota Tacoma vs. a 2025 Toyota Tacoma.
What you see when you sit in an '05 Tacoma is no buttons on the steering wheel except for one, the horn itself. The only screen is a small orange LED strip in the gauge cluster, which is either for odometer or trip odometer, depending on your preference. The only slightly complicated part of this design is the cruise control, which is a stubby little stalk behind the steering wheel at lower right - but it does have a very plainly labeled "ON/OFF" physical button. As for the other two stalks, the left is for turn signals and lights, and the right for windshield wiper control. All gauges are easy to read. Tachometer on the left, speedometer in the middle, fuel and temperature on the right.
This is a vehicle where you get in, turn the key (a real key, thank you), start the engine, and drive. Other than that stubby stalk you could figure out in 5 seconds, there's nothing else to figure out because it's all simple and easy.
What do you see when you sit in a '25 Tacoma? A complicated mess. You're presented with a gaggle of buttons on the steering wheel. Forget the giant screen to the right for a moment.
I'll first start with the only improvement in that the cruise control that used to be a little stubby stalk is now on the right side of the wheel. That's almost okay. Why almost? There's nothing there that states how to turn the cruise control on. Which button does this? You're not told. You're just magically supposed to know.
And things just get worse from there.
Look at the left side of the wheel. You could guess the bottom left two are for volume control, but volume of what? Stereo? Phone? Both? Again, you're not told. At bottom right of the left side cluster, an image of someone speaking. What's that for? You're not told.
Of every button on the left, the only one that explains what it is somewhat is the one with a phone image on it. Why somewhat? Well, does that button prompt for a Bluetooth connection to your smartphone? Or does that mean the vehicle itself has phone connectivity all on its own? You're not told. It's just "some phone thing". For all you know, pressing it might place a call you didn't want to happen.
On both the left and right side are arrow buttons. What do they do? Once again, you're not told.
The '25 Tacoma is a vehicle where STUDY is required in order to know everything that it does. You will have to take time out of your life to read the owner's manual just to figure out the STEERING WHEEL CONTROLS. And I honestly wonder if a regular steering wheel cover would even fit properly on it. Would it? Or are you doomed to a steering wheel you know will get grubby in under a year no matter how much you wash your hands?
And as for the infotainment screen, plan on taking more time out of your life just to figure out how THAT crap all works, because you'll need to.
Is the '25 Tacoma a vehicle you can just get in and drive? Technically, yes - as long as you don't do anything else but that. You'll look at that steering wheel see two "MODE" buttons literally on top of each other (there's a "big mode" and a "little mode" button labeled directly above it on the right side of the wheel), and be confused. You'll just have to deal with being confused until you study that manual.
Is this just a Toyota thing? Heh, no, of course not. All the automakers are doing this crap with their new cars.
And don't even get me started with EVs. The modern gas cars are bad enough. EVs are even worse because you're basically driving a phone. And yes, it is as bad as it sounds.
I'm absolutely positive that anybody under 30 would be simply amazed at how easy it is to drive regular (meaning not luxury) cars made 20 years ago, provided the car is in good working order. No dopey screens! Easy controls! Amazing!
For the overinflated prices new cars sell for, they should be simple and easy to drive. They're not.