Car Maintenance

I was reminded last week by receiving a registration renewal form from Motor Vehicles that it had been 13 months since I bought the new Subaru Forester and so it was time to have routine maintance done.  Never mind the car has only 700 miles on it, oils gets old etc  and I am planning to drive at highway speed 200 miles roundtrip in 4 weeks (pick up new kitten).  

I mentioned that previously, but I actually scheduled it for Friday.  I am a Class A procrastinator, so actually scheduling it was a Big Deal.  And why I scheduled it for 8:30 am is beyond me, but I suppose at the time I wasn't sure how long it would take.

All my life before I retired, I was a morning person.  Up early for school and job and even on days off, I got up early.  Then I became a real "night owl".  So 8:30 am was an unaccustomed time of day.  I managed it though.  Dropped off the car, reviewed what they would do, gave some warnings (I have a battery-charger device wire sticking out of the grill and I didn't want them to mess with it).

They have shuttle service, so they drove me home (I love shuttle service as I go nuts sitting around and doing nothing).  The van driver almost made me scream.  You might expect that it was because he drove too fast, but it was the opposite.  He was maddeningly slow and didn't understand directions very well.  

I haven't been the passenger in a car very often since my carpool days 15 years ago.  I kept thinking "go" when regular traffic allowed for it safely, but he just sat.  Let's just say it took me 5 minutes to drive to the dealership and 10 minutes to get returned, LOL!

And he seemed confused about directions.  I would say "next right turn", and he would hesitate at every house we passed.  And "next left turn" and he would ask if I meant each house we passed.  One street ends at a wetland.  I told him about that and to turn left, but I was 1/2 certain he was going to drive straight into it!

We got near my house and I said 3rd house on the left - the green one (only green house on the street.  He almost drove past.  I said "stop, this one".  *sigh*

So back in the house, I went straight back to bed, assuming I would hear a telephone call to let me know the car was ready and they could pick me up.  I must have been REALLY tired!  Apparently, I slept through 3 calls.  I got up at 2 pm and sure enough, there were those call on voice mail.  The car had been ready at 10 am!

Well, no great loss.   I called back and they said the shuttle guy would be there in 10 minutes.  30 minutes later, I called them again.  They said he had left 20 minutes before but not to worry "he doesn't get lost".  Sure enough, he showed up soon after.  He had gotten lost.  Said his GPS was charging.  He had my phone number...

But he arrived and got me to the dealership.   The good news was that they found nothing wrong, but did the usual tire rotation, oil and filter change, checked fluids etc and even washed the car (nice touch). And at no charge!  

Well, when I bought the car, the details of the costs were very specific.  I had negotiated for a month after all.  But they had charged $200 to fill the tires with nitrogen.  Hey "air" is 78% nitrogen already!  Tired of fussing about the final cost, I got a "free" oil and filter change at the first annual maintenance in exchange.

Salespeople are amazing.  Turned out that the first annual maintenance was free anyway!  No matter what you do, they always find "some" little trick to get a last dollar.  But, in the long-term, the $200 trick and the meaningless "free" oil and filter change doesn't really matter.  

Unless I suddenly decide to by an all-electric car in a few years due to some battery-tech breakthough, I the Subaru Forester may be my last car.  Each car of my life has been built better and lasted longer.  The Toyota Highlander lasted 15 years and I drive the Subaru less than the Toyota anyway.  It should last 20 and I probably won'tbe safe to frive at 90+.

Cooking Time, Part 2

I posted a recipe yesterday, but there is some background to my enjoyment of cooking...  In fact the previous post was mostly this one, so I decided to divide it.

I actually enjoy cooking.  Even as a child and teen, I was often around the kitchen, doing small chores like peeling potatoes, mashing cooked potatoes, cutting the ends off green beans, husking and desilking corn, etc. 

In college, I was in the first coed dorm at Univ Of MD my sophomore to senior years.  It was previously a women's dorm, and was THAT a surprise!  And not what you may think.  THEY had an oven and stovetop in THEIR rec room.  And just that same year, the Univ allowed dorm residents to go to a partial dining hall plan.  So I bought a mini fridge and kept basic food there.  I also worked 1 week for a cookware company who gave you your sample kit after your first sale.  I had to spend a day in instruction, 3 days before my first sale, and then I quit.  It was seriously high quality cookware. 

Ever heard of Wonderware?  The stuff was amazing!  Stainless steel outside, full copper to the top in the middle, and stainless steel inside.  It was so sturdy, you could jump on it.  The heat conduction was so even, you could simmer at the lowest temperature.  The tops were flat.  In the training session, the Instructor cooked a full meal and dessert by stacking 3 pots on top of 1 burner!  As I recall, it was beef stew in the large bottom pot, corn on the cob in the pot above, and pineapple upside down cake in the top one.

The pieces I still have will be 50 years old in 2 years and still look nearly new.  I had one piece stolen in the dorm (a strange but useless item like a half-height saucepan, and an egg poacher piece disappeared (I assume some apartment-mate stole it years later).

Funny story:  The one sale I made was to a former high school co-student.  I was showing how strong the stuff was when the drunken Dad (6' tall and 250 pounds) came home, glared at me, and said "I bet I can bend it".  So he jumped on the saucepan (on its side), skidded off, and pretty much knocked himself out when he fell (it might have just been the alcohol, too, LOL).  The saucepan was undamaged.

The daughter immediately bought a full set.  I bet she made sure Dad saw her using that set for a long time!  That was my only sale.  I'm not a good salesman, even with a good product.  I can't ask for the money...

But also, I was bothered by the sales pitch.  The company had a great product, but the stuff was expensive.  A few years ago, I considered replacing some of the lost pieces, and as far as I could tell, the price for the basic set was about $1500-2,000 in today's dollars. 

The companies sales technique was to hire college guys to go home for the Summer and sell it to former female co-students as "dowry items".  Sounds sick now.  But it gets worse.  It was sold as monthly payments for a year.  I learned their practce was to resell the contract to a 3rd party who repossessed the set after a single missed payment (which often happened to the young women who were the sales targets). 

How do you think that made the young women think about the guy they knew from high school?

It only occurred to me later that the sample kit I earned was probably a repossession.  And they were depending on using us college guys to sell to our female high school friends (well, what OTHER young women did we know back home?) 

Some of the guys I started with were real successes from Day 1.  One guy sold 10 sets his first week.  Sold a full set each to a former co-student, her  Mother, and an Aunt.  He spent some money to replicate the Instructor demonstration, and they all fell in love with him...  He is probably retired to a private Caribbean Island now.

I bet the company's sales technique didn't bother him in the least bit.

The New Samsung HDTV

Well, the Samsung Plasma HDTV repairman arrived Wednesday.  The Samsung Service Center was sure it was a power supply problem easily fixed in spite of the fact that I told them the red indicator light on the set was on.  Well, OK, maybe the power goes there first and then to the TV components.

And I had bought a 24" Samsung HDTV for $138 to use for the week it took for the repair visit (and to show the rest of the system was working).  Half of my TV use is really just listening to political talk shows and science shows, so the small picture was "OK" for a week.

The repairman instantly recognized the problem wasn't the power supply.  He said, if that little red button is on, you have power.  He waved some gadget across the screen and found a tiny crack in the front panel that caused the screen to fail.  "The gas escaped slowly until it failed".    He arranged to have a new front panel shipped, total cost $1,000.

But the next day, I got a call saying that front panel was no longer made or available from secondary sources.  And that Samsung would call me.

Which they did.  They prorate depreciation over 5 years, mine was 3.7 years old, therefore, I will get 30% back.  Aside from that, I was out of luck and was free to purchase any new TV (or not).

So I read up on the newest 60-65" HDTVs at Consumer Reports website.  The bad news is that there are no more plasma HDTVs.  I liked them; the colors are better and the refresh rate higher than on LED HDTVs.  But the LED HDTVs are better than they were a few years ago.  I set my sights of a particular one (another Samsung - the slightly higher rated TVs were a brand I don't know anything about, and I have all these Samsung remotes, LOL) and went looking.

The nearest place turned out to sell ONLY Samsung!  Well, they have a price-matching guarantee and I had already looked up the prices of the model I thought I wanted and the prices were all with a couple of dollars.

So I was expecting to buy the model from Consumer Reports.  The salesman asked to show me one before I told him what I was looking for.  It was a newer more advanced model.  2160 instead of 1080, many times more pixels, double the screen refresh rate, etc.

I am suspicious of tech advances; some don't mean anything.  But he showed me a special picture on it.  Granted, it was designed to show off color and black background (which creates "depth").  I sure don't know everything about TVs, but it was noticeably better than the same display on the standard Samsung LED  HDTV.

As I said I don't know every about TVs.  But I can follow wiring, and both TVs were receiving the same signal through optical fiber.  Well, if they faked that, they are too good for me to tell.  While the salesman was away briefly selecting the surround sound modes, I looked at the 2 TVs .  The lesser picture quality was the exact model I had come in to purchase!  I had not mentioned that to him.

So I was looking at what I expected to purchase vs one with a noticeably better picture. And I understood why the picture was better.  More smaller pictures equal better picture resolution.  The better TV cost $1,000 more, but came with a 5 year repair guarantee, free delivery, and free removal of the old unit.  That adds up.

I chose the better one.

I was delivered today and the picture is WONDERFUL!  Well, showrooms are designed to make the TV pictures look best.  I know about those tricks.  I watch TV ads seeing the tricks and smiling to myself about them.  But the picture of this 4000k HDTV is really good.  It's worth it.

They tried to sell me a surround sound system.  I didn't go for that.  The Bose soundbar in front of the TV was $700 and the wireless speaker to go behind me and the subwoofer was another $700.  Actually, the subwoofer was so strong, it vibrated the chair and that would have made me nauseous.

I have my TV "audio out" going to my stereo system controller.  My floor model DCM speakers give fine sound after a decade )I don't play music load very often).

But there is an odd effect right now.   I was seeing people speak, but silently.  If I had the TV-only speaker on, they spoke.  Something about the system is separating the audio channels.  For now, I have the TV speaker and stereo speakers both on, But I will have to look at the plugs in the TV control box  soon to see if I can connect them better.

Because right now, If I want to change the volume and keep it balanced, I have to change both the TV and stereo volume, and that's a pain.  There will be a way, I just have to find it.  And I've explored the TV controls and seen many options.  For now, a great picture and good sound is enough.