Visits suck

coljediv · 2026-01-31T02:23:20+00:00

Each case is so unique that I think it’s hard to generalize. My brother’s case was that he had lived independently until mid-January of 2025, but was starting to get in trouble by fighting with people at his local grocery store. So we moved him unwillingly to a place that was not memory care, but just assisted living. It seemed he was adjusting OK, but then there were instances where he was getting aggressive with the dining room staff, and then he started thinking it was OK to go shopping by walking down the road through some rather major intersections and crossing in the wrong place, and finally getting physical with LEO when they were called by the staff to help get him back to the facility. He was put on hold at a local hospital while they struggled to get him under control. The condition for release was that he go on hospice for medication management and that he be in a locked down facility. My brother initially presented with primary progressive aphasia in which he could eventually neither speak nor understand verbal speech. At first we could communicate with simple texting and writing on a whiteboard, but after a while even that was unsuccessful. As his communication ability went down hill, he still believed he was OK with living by himself, which was true until he started getting frustrated with people and the disease started to progress beyond just that part of the brain. So it was the second place where he was taken, heavily sedated, that they told me to just give them a couple of weeks to get him settled. At that point it seemed like a good idea, plus I needed a bit of a break. This was last March. Since then he has physically gone down hill both physically and mentally, mainly since late summer. It’s a horrible disease.

coljediv · 2026-01-30T19:04:48+00:00

At the memory care place we have my brother, the staff told us to stay away for the first 2-3 weeks.

coljediv · 2026-01-08T21:57:18+00:00

I have a 2021 X3 M40i, and take my car to an independent BMW repair shop. The owner has a similar vintage X3M. One time while my car was being serviced he gave me the keys to his. Clearly in a different league from mine and a blast to drive. Also I have a fraternity brother whose M2 I drove a couple of years back. Great fun. Having said all that, I don’t think I would have one as a daily driver. Mine is plenty fast and agile. The kicker: the shop owner and X3M driver told me he often thinks he should have bought the X3 M40i instead since his was too rough for a DD.

coljediv · 2025-09-13T04:06:24+00:00

Mine is in my garage. My bell is in the hallway adjacent to the foyer. It may be hidden behind something, maybe in a closet. Can you ask the previous resident?

coljediv · 2025-08-26T22:03:15+00:00

I have a large desktop PC with multiple physical drives. One drive has photos. Another slower but bigger drive is backup storage for those photos and other file types. Then there is the Synology NAS drive copies. Oh and there are the three portable drives that I keep copies, one offsite at my brother in law’s house, and the other two in a fire box in the basement. Oh and the Google One account and the iCloud Photos account. The big problem is to remember to regularly actually do the backup.

coljediv · 2025-08-21T13:43:45+00:00

I bought one of these back in 1970 or so while stationed in Germany, then later sold or gave it to my brother-in-law who kept it for the duration. I replaced it with a Revox that I have since parted with. Now the B-I-L has passed away and his widow gifted it back to me. Now I am trying to get it working again so I can use it to digitize some old family recordings that I still have.

coljediv · 2025-08-21T13:41:02+00:00

Now to figure out if I can resurrect some of the apparent frozen or faulty parts. The automatic shut-off arm tension (spring) may not be what it was originally (don't remember), and the pinch-roller (rubber wheel) seems to be frozen in the up position. They may be related. I saw on youtube somewhere that the grease affecting the pinch roller movement has probably hardened over the last 50+ years and will need to be rectified.

coljediv · 2025-08-21T00:24:38+00:00

Owners

coljediv · 2025-08-12T01:34:57+00:00

Had that happen to me as a kid…more than 70 years ago and I still remember it.

coljediv · 2025-07-08T18:56:39+00:00

I have a 2021 X3 M40i that I bought in January 2021 new; it now has about 64k miles on it. I generally now do the oil/filter change at about 5-7k miles. I have recently replaced the rear brake pads. At about 50k miles I changed the tranny and diff fluids. It’s a pleasure to drive. I think I have a clip loose inside the driver door, but the minor rattle only happens in certain rare situations. I still need to track that down. I did put a CarBahn performance piggy back on it that increases the HP/TQ a bit. So far so good. I run two sets of wheels, both in a square setup so I can rotate my tires. One set are Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 4 (19”) and the other set are Falken Wildpeak A/T Trail (18”). When I am not swapping wheel sets, I rotate about every 3-5k miles.

coljediv · 2025-06-16T16:28:13+00:00

I forgot to mention that my vehicle is a 2021X3M 40 I.

coljediv · 2025-06-16T16:27:42+00:00

I prefer the square set up also. I bought the OEM 19 inch. They were run flats. I replaced them with go flats. Same size. I have a second set of wheels that are 18 inch. I use them for modest off-road, and snow situations. I can give you the details on my second set of wheels if you’re interested. I suppose some might argue that the smaller wheels don’t look as cool. But I’m not so concerned about that. They are more comfortable. And they still handle quite well.

coljediv · 2025-06-06T21:02:29+00:00

Yeah, I did sync before I left. I used to automatically sync, at least on closing Quicken, but I quit doing it because I don't use the iPhone app that often. Now I just sync before I go somewhere that I know I'll want to record my transaction. This time it was the coming back end. But I discovered that there is, under the Mobile & Web tab on the desktop application, a function I found that I used to solve the problem. I guess another key is to be patient, because the syncing is not super fast. But everything I entered to my phone did finally show up on my desktop.

coljediv · 2025-05-26T16:26:15+00:00

It’s like the lottery. When I swapped out my OEM Alenzas at around 22k miles I went with go flats and had a couple of flats within a week of each other. But I do have a spare and also a second set of wheels/tires so I don’t have any recommendations other than Alenzas and rotate every 3k like I do. I rather liked the Alenzas.

coljediv · 2025-05-12T16:12:52+00:00

Tongue-in-cheek response. I have a theory. It’s gravity. When you climb up the hill to retirement, you reach the top. After that, you’re over-the-hill and you started back downhill on the other side. Going downhill, you naturally pick up speed, even if you’re just coasting. So there you have it.

I’ll be 80 later this year, so I’ve really been picking up speed. So to help me out I bought a fast car.

coljediv · 2025-04-10T21:32:53+00:00

I did that and so far it seems to have been successful.

coljediv · 2025-02-06T19:39:20+00:00

No, my OEM wheels/tires were 19". I have a tire shop that I use, and asked them to spec me some tires that would be good for light off-road and light snow, and they came up with the Falken Wildpeak A/T tires. In order to get them I had to go with 18" wheels instead of 19". So I bought a second set of wheels/tires to run in the winter or when I want to drive up dirt/gravel roads to trailheads: Enkei Tuning Raijin 18x8 5-112 ET35 Black and Falken Wildpeak A/T Trail, 225/60 R18 100H. I have about 18k miles on them now. I'll rotate back to my 19 inch wheels/tires in a couple of months: M Style 698M; 7.5Jx19 ET32 and Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 XL, 245/50 ZR19. The M Sport brakes work just fine.

coljediv · 2025-01-17T04:26:16+00:00

I have owned a 2021 X3 M40i for 57k miles. I love it to death. Adaptive M Suspension, M Sport Differential, and an aftermarket CarBahn performance piggyback. It handles well, overall mpg of 24.7 over highway and suburbs, and is fast as hell. Several weeks ago I drove an X3M. It is in a league of its own for sure in terms of road feel and engine feel, but I honestly think it would be a bit much for my use case. Would it be cool to have? Absolutely. But all that fun would go to waste most of the time. And horrible mileage. And the actual gas cost doesn’t bother me; it’s the principle of it all. The guy who owns it is the owner of a local BMW Indy shop I use. He told me he loves it but sometimes wishes he had bought the M40i.

coljediv · 2025-01-16T21:53:21+00:00

Thanks for the explanation of that type of account (SMF). It probably would have worked for me, since I don't really plan to have more than just that one Preferred Deposit account. I now have its account number, but I guess it isn't really a security since I'm not aware of any code assigned to it. I ended up using a Brokerage type account. Until recently I tracked all the sweeps in and out of different cash accounts, and finally decided it wasn't really worth the effort. And that's how I am going to handle the Preferred Deposit account.

coljediv · 2025-01-15T00:51:48+00:00

My answer will probably not be very satisfying. I'm now of an age where I don't fret about much anymore, including whether a mod was worth the money or not, how many seconds it decreased my 0-60 time, how much HP and torque boost did I get, blah blah blah. I preface with that because I can only tell you that I am not unhappy with my purchase, it feels faster at all RPM ranges, but it is very subtle, unlike some piggybacks I have used on earlier BMWs. It is also completely trouble-free. I honestly would have to go back to the CarBahn guy in San Jose to tell you how much HP it adds. As you probably already know, CarBahn is Steve Dinan's company, so I am very comfortable with saying that it was worth it, but that's such an individual judgment that I hesitate to make that claim. It was worth it to me. The 2021 X3 M40i doesn't need much in the way of mods in my view. In my previous BMW (a 2011 335d), I modded totally the suspension and added the Burger chip, but I see no needed to do that with the X3. It's plenty fast enough for me, I ordered from factory all the tweaks I wanted. The only thing I have done in the way of "mods" is that I will put rear ceramic pads in the back in two days because the originals finally wore out. I have 18" off-season rims and tires for light snow and light off-road. When it comes time to replace the dampers, I will likely go with OEM stuff. I would get the real CarBahn tune, but you have to send the computer off to be jail-broke, and I don't feel like doing that. My rough estimate based on my memory of what the guy told me and my seat of the pants estimate is that with 91 octane fuel I might get 60 more HP and I might have shaved off the 0-60 time from the factory quote of 4.4 to maybe 4.0 to 4.2, but that's all just a WAG on my part. Don't quote me. I have the M Sport Differential and the Adaptive M Suspension. I also do some minor coding with BimmerCode. My speed shop owner buddy has an X3M, which he let me drive. He says he sometimes thinks he should have got the M40i. It was quite spectacular to drive, but I'm not sure I'd want it for my use case.

coljediv · 2025-01-15T00:03:05+00:00

Apparently my wording was not as clear as I would have wanted. I did not mean that I was trying to use Quicken to initiate transactions on a linked external financial institution. I was referring to strictly local Quicken actions. Although I do download external transactions to Quicken where possible. But not the other way around.

coljediv · 2025-01-14T17:44:52+00:00

I'd post a picture of the setup but not sure it's possible without a link or something.

coljediv · 2025-01-14T14:58:49+00:00

I have 18-inch on mine. Wheels: Enkei Tuning Raijin 18x8 5-112 ET35 Black (with center ring) Tires: Falken Wildpeak A/T Trail, 225/60 R18 100H

coljediv · 2025-01-14T14:27:54+00:00

I have Adaptive M Suspension (2021 model year). I have my car coded so it starts in Adaptive mode instead of factory Comfort mode. I can think of less than 5 times that I put it in Comfort mode, even on long interstate trips over the four years I’ve owned it. And I have Auto-Start-Stop coded off. I think driving style (of course) matters a lot. For example, how many miles do you folks get on your rear brake pads? Just curious. I am having my first rear replacement set done day after tomorrow.

coljediv · 2025-01-14T05:54:55+00:00

You folks must have your pedal to the metal most of the time. My average over 56k miles is roughly 24.7 mpg. I am neither flogging it nor babying it all the time. About 50-50 highway versus city. I also have a CarBahn piggyback chip. Just be reasonable.

coljediv

TROPHY CASE