washer and dryer acquired
I purchased a used washer/dryer set. On a recommendation I went to Chester's Discount Appliances. This is a local place in Tampa Florida and is as old-school as you can get as far as a shop is concerned. There is no showroom and no people in company uniforms. None o' that. Just a big purple (yes purple) warehouse with rows and rows of used appliances.
I purchased a Whirlpool W/D set for $239. The price included tax, delivery and setup; it was delivered less than an hour after purchase.
After performing a test wash, the only thing wrong with the washer is that the final spin won't come on unless I click the button off then on again. Is this a big deal? Not really. I know how to get around it and am still able to get the laundry done. I'll call Chester's up on Tuesday to see if there's anything they can do about it. They guarantee all products sold for 30 days so hopefully this is something relatively easy to fix. And if not I'll just deal with it.
Having my own W/D set is a big deal for the following reasons:
- I don't have to leave my apartment to do laundry.
- I can do laundry whenever it's convenient for me.
- I don't have to iron (when you hang clothes straight out the dryer, that's a beautiful thing.)
- My clothes will last longer because I'm able to wash them the right way.
- I don't have to rely on friends or family just to have clean clothes.
Rock on. :-)
68 fucking dollars
Yesterday I stopped in a local fuel station near my father's house.
The price was $3.95 a gallon.
Had I fueled up in Tampa (75 miles south,) the price is $3.83.
But being that I was up there and I needed gas I had to fill up where I was.
I ended up spending $68.72 - and that hurt.
I normally visit Pop once a week, but after having a long conversation with him about it I'm going to have to only visit once a month. With the prices as they are - and rising - I simply can't visit weekly anymore.
That's very sad, but what ya gonna do.
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A news story on the telly said that "experts" say the price of fuel will go to six dollars a gallon within a year from now.
To put this in perspective, here's how the cards lay down for me.
I have an '05 GMC Canyon SLE 4x4 extended cab truck. It has the 4-cylinder motor in it. With the bed empty and a really light foot it easily gets 25 to 27mpg on the highway. If I'm heavy with the foot it goes down to 21 to 24mpg.
Full-size trucks on their best day get 20mpg tops and the average is well below that mark (usually around 15 to 17.) Almost all full-size SUVs are well below the 20mpg mark as well.
My tank holds 19 gallons and I never run the tank dry. In the most extreme situation I will fill up when there's about 2 gallons left, so that's a 17-gallon fill-up.
If the price of gas was $6.00 per gallon, it would cost me $102 to fill the tank.
That is NUTS to think about. A hundred bucks just to fill the tank? WITH REGULAR?
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Here's a small indicator of how I know most people are screwed when it comes to driving and gas prices.
The 6-dollar-a-gallon news story got my attention, so when I was driving home on I-75 from Pop's back to Tampa I practiced something I used to do years ago; set the cruise control to 60mph.
The speed limit on I-75 Florida is 70mph.
I didn't pass a single car. Everyone - and I mean everyone - was whizzing past me. Cars, trucks, semis, you name it, it passed me.
All I could think about was the wasted cash these people were spending. Every single driver was whizzing money away by driving fast.
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I started the 60mph "trick" years ago when fuel was at $1.75 a gallon in Connecticut (oh how time flies, eh?) I didn't do it to save money but rather as a means of convenience. The car I was driving at the time had a particularly small fuel tank (about 12 gallons.) If I gunned it to and from work it was a guarantee that I'd have to fill up before the work week was over, then top the tank off again on Sunday just to get my routine back in order.
What I noticed by driving 60mph (the speed limit was 65mph) is that not only did I have to fill up once a week instead of twice, but I was saving a lot of cash.
The second thing I noticed is how many people stupidly blaze along the highway because they wanted to get an extra 5 minutes of sleep and now have to speed because they're late for work.
Here in Florida I do an additional "trick" that ticks off dumb drivers something fierce. The most fuel you expend is when you start from a stop. If you feather-pedal it on takeoff you use much less fuel. The drawback is that you start moving re-e-e-eally slowly.
Dumb drivers instantly get a bug up their ass about this and tailgate me so closely that I cannot see their headlights in my rear view mirror or my side mirrors.
Smart drivers know exactly what I'm doing. They see I'm not some old codger behind the wheel and know I'm taking off slow to save a buck. Soon enough they follow suit, most likely thinking Hey, that's not a bad idea. When each traffic light turns from red to green, do they pass me? Nope. They'll stay behind and enjoy the savings. I don't get the blare of a car horn behind me, nor do I see waving fists of fury from impatience. Instead I see a calm patient driver that understands that GAS IS EXPENSIVE SO SLOW DOWN.
yet another redesign
After examining my previous design I came to one inescapable conclusion:
It was a mess.
This is to say it was very disorganized. Things just weren't in their proper place. So I made it a point to design the site - again - and make it as stupidly easy as possible to get around the place.
This is what you see now. It's not done just yet (it will take a few days to iron out all the kinks and whatnot, mostly with CSS crapola) but it's online and working with all it's "roundy" corners and everything.
Wee-ha. :-)
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One more thing:
For the nerdy-types out there interested in how I did my HTML for this, yes, I used HTML and yes I used tables with CSS. I absolutely positively CANNOT get a CSS table-less layout to "play nice" between Firefox and MSIE 7. No way, no how. Not for what I want to do anyway. It takes three times the effort for the same result, so.. why bother? So I don't. I use tables. Whatever.
quick rip on the alesis fusion 6hd
I made this lil' video using the Alesis Fusion to show that yes, I'm still playing.. still doing it.. not to worry. :-)
Video: Alesis Fusion 6HD Quick Rip
jumble
Upon recent inspection of my blog I'm not all too happy with how the information is presented. Things seem to be sorta/kinda slapped together in a jumble.
What I'm going to do (soon) is re-org this thing in a way where stuff is much easier to get to. Easy is good.
Short post, but yeah it's time for another redesign. :-)