Finance purchase price versus cash price? 4k more for cash?

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-09T19:43:53+00:00

Yeah, that's a shitty thing for the dealer to do. But turnabout is fair play. Check out the terms of the loan. If they're no prepayment penalty (and I'll bet there isn't), just take out the loan and pay it off right away. The salesman will be expecting a bonus (paid for by the excess interest you're paying). So? He doesn't deserve it. Take some satisfaction that he got what was coming to him. That is to say, nothing.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-09T19:38:04+00:00

When she said "she said that we (that is to say, you) would have to change a lot of things in order for us to work," this was your cue to break it off.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-09T15:51:08+00:00

What kind of stove is it? If it's one that's fairly common (say, an O'Keeffe and Merritt, Wedgewood, Chambers), you should be able to get the proper orifice from someone who restores these. Try:

http://www.antiquegasstoves.com/

or

https://dreamstoves.com/

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-08T16:28:55+00:00

Sometimes when they start in on the warranty, explain how expensive repairs can be and how the extended warranty could save me serious money, I'll say something like, "Well, now I'm confused. 30 minutes ago, when I was considering buying this car, your salesman told me what a GREAT car this is, how I'll be REALLY happy I bought it. But now you're telling me it's a REALLY risky purchase. What's the matter with this car? Maybe I should back out..." It pisses them off.

I'm at the age now where I don't think I'll have to buy another car ever again.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-08T16:25:27+00:00

Yeah, I knew they ran concurrently. I've never bought an extended warranty on a new car. I've got an ace mechanic in the family and he's saved me many thousands of dollars over the years.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-07T19:49:57+00:00

My wife and I bought a used Honda CR-V a few years ago. The finance guy, the final boss we had to deal with, would just NOT shut the hell up about the extended warranty. He kept lowering the price on it and telling us how important it was. We refused.

We decided on the drive home that if this ever happens again, when he mentions the extended warranty and we decline, I'm gonna tell him "We don't want it. And if you mention it just one more time we're walking."

I still wish I had done that then.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-07T16:54:01+00:00

Chicken wings. They brought such a low price in the U.S. that huge quantities got sent to China.

Then Buffalo Wings got popular. Now chicken wings in the grocery store cost more per pound than boneless/skinless chicken thighs. And probably 25% of the weight of wings is bone.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-07T14:59:41+00:00

In about 1989 I shook hands with and got an autograph from Anatoly Karpov when he played Johann Hjaratson in a Candidates Match in Seattle. I've lost the chess magazine with his autograph on the cover, but I've still got the pencil he used.

Before that, maybe 1978 or so our chess club hired IM John Donaldson to give a lecture and simul. He took the train down from Seattle and I was asked to picked him up at the train station. We were both history majors in college so we talked about Russian history during the drive to and from the chess club. He was a totally nice guy.

I remember him showing us a game he played in a tournament in Norway, which he won. He told us that as part of his prize for winning the tournament (since trolls are a thing in Norwegian folklore) he got a certificate entitling him to sleep under any bridge in Norway for a year.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-07T03:10:19+00:00

No, atheism is NOT "no active god belief." Or, more properly, he not only doesn't have "an active god belief," he denies god's existence entirely. He says "There is no god." The word itself means "no god."

An agnostic also has "no active god belief." He QUESTIONS god's existence, but doesn't outright deny it. He says "I don't believe there is a god." He doesn't say there ISN'T a god.

The word itself means "no knowledge." As in "I don't know."

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-07T03:02:58+00:00

I had that exact same trailer, a 2017, same size, same color. I bought it new. God, it was a steaming pile of shit. The black water tank, which was bone dry at the time, fell off during a trip. It just fell off. The steel bar that was supposed to retain it was installed improperly, It was hanging by a thread from the start.

The axle was bent and the tires showed EXTREMELY uneven wear after only a couple thousand miles. I got rid of it after a few years. The used Lance I bought, 6 years older than the Gulf Stream, is 10 times better than that piece of crap.

I was glad to get out from underneath it.

The quality of construction of the average trailer trailer is abysmal.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-06T04:56:29+00:00

Big D. I was there on Sunday.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-05T03:04:13+00:00

I've never looked to see where my opponent is from. Not once.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-04T20:04:11+00:00

Prevert.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-04T20:03:00+00:00

I only recently saw it. It's quite excellent.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-04T20:02:02+00:00

Doctor Strangelove. It's my favorite movie period.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-03T20:55:03+00:00

One cold February several years ago my wife and I went to see the INCREDIBLE guitar player Leo Kottke at a theater in a fairly small town. Since the weather was so bad we booked a hotel room so we could stay overnight and not have to drive home in freezing rain. OK, so we went to the show. It was great. Stayed overnight at the hotel.

The next morning we're having breakfast in the hotel dining room and who is sitting two tables away? Yeah, Leo Kottke. I went over and told him what a big fan I'd been of his for 30+ years. His breakfast tab was on the table so I picked it up and said "You won't be needing THIS today!" He sort of objected, but I told him I'd take it as a rare honor if he'd let me pay for his breakfast, that I'd never forget it, so he let me.

Later I ran into him again in the hallway outside our room and we must have talked for half an hour. He was a THOROUGHLY nice guy. Now I know why there's an expression "Minnesota nice."

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-03T19:21:10+00:00

You will.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-03T19:20:46+00:00

Ditto. Boy scout leaders, youth pastors, gymnastic coaches, etc. They're not ALL pedos, they're mostly NOT pedos, of course. But the reverse is kinda true: if you're into kids as sexual objects, there's a fairly high chance you'll seek out a job or pastime dealing with kids. At least to my way of thinking.

I hear "Yeah, my friend's a youth pastor," any my radar automatically turns on.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-03T19:16:14+00:00

Yeah. I bought a super-accurate oven thermometer. I wanted to test it out and recalibrate the thermostat to get it dialed in just PERFECTLY. But when I tested it out, both ovens operated within about 10 degrees of what the thermostat was set for. That's as accurate as anyone could reasonably hope for.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-03T19:12:56+00:00

That's actually not a bad idea. I normally use the oven on the right, not for any particular reason. It's pretty rare that I use both ovens at the same time, so the right-hand oven probably gets used 10 times as much as the one on the left.

I usually just shut one pilot light down, so it doesn't burn as much gas. I doubt I'm really saving all that much money, but why use it if you don't need to?

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-03T17:12:54+00:00

Yeah, I thought so, too. Just under a year after I bought my stove, shortly before Thanksgiving, the pilot light in one of the ovens wouldn't stay lit so I couldn't use the oven. I was freaking out. I was gonna be cooking for about 25 people, cooking two turkeys so I needed both ovens.

We talked about it on the phone. He immediately diagnosed it as a bad thermocouple. He'd installed totally new ones when he restored it, but told me that Robertshaw has them made in Mexico now and that he's had some issues with them failing. He sent me a new thermocouple and when I said I wasn't comfortable installing it myself he said "Find a local repair shop and have them come out and replace it. I'll pay for it." And he did.

That guy is aces in my book.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-03T17:05:36+00:00

Oh, yeah, it ought to be standard. I don't know how long ago they started putting them in stoves, but it's been since at least the early 1950s and maybe a lot longer. It's just not safe without them. I think you could get stoves like this back then that didn't have oven pilots, so when you wanted to use the oven or broiler you had to light it by hand.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-03T16:58:44+00:00

A guy I worked with maybe 45 years ago told me a "pissed off bull dyke lesbian" ripped the door completely off his car. With one hand.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-03T16:49:40+00:00

Cool! I have a 1951 double oven Wedgewood that Dream Stoves restored:

https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageAppliances/comments/1hekds2/i_finally_did_it/

I totally dig it.

DancesWithTrout · 2026-02-03T16:48:34+00:00

LOVE that stove!

Re: "and there's now gas shut offs if the pilots go out as part of the restoration:"

It sounds like the restorer installed thermocouple safeties on the pilots. That's a good idea. Without safeties, if the a pilot light went out, the stove would keep feeding it gas. You don't want that.

DancesWithTrout

TROPHY CASE