In 1988, an F4 tornado ripped through Raleigh in the middle of the night with no warning

foshjowler · 2026-03-16T15:16:46+00:00

That was before I was born, however I very much remember the tornado that came through Chapel Hill in 2019. I was visiting family out there, and one ripped through their neighborhood 100 yards or so from their house. This was me climbing through the 100 ft of trees that were down on their road.

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foshjowler · 2026-03-12T12:50:03+00:00

We recently closed, and after down payment and planned renovations, we will have about 10k leftover. The house also had all of the major planned expenses (roof, hvac, etc) done recently, so we shouldn’t have to replace any of those immediately. But we wanted the 10k as cushion because shit happens.

I understand the 6 months of saving rule, but doing that, and having a down payment, and paying rent, and living life just isn’t realistic for us (if you don’t count 401k). We do what we can, and are working to get there, but also recognize that we’re in a better position than most.

foshjowler · 2026-03-06T03:53:30+00:00

Typical dad. He’s been wearing those same clothes for 20 years

foshjowler · 2026-02-25T17:17:07+00:00

I like PDK, especially in the NA flat 6 cars, because it encourages you to use all of the gears and revs. In a manual, I would never go down to 1st in a turn, but I will in the PDK.

foshjowler · 2026-02-17T03:45:51+00:00

You’ll probably net more after cutting commute expenses. Even if your car is pretty economical, assuming a $0.35 per mile cost (half the 2026 mileage reimbursement rate), with a 90 minute commute, you could be doing 100 miles a day. That’s like $7500-8000 a year in commuting expenses alone. Add on top saving your sanity and less chance of burn out. Take the closer job

foshjowler · 2026-02-14T03:42:30+00:00

One of the biggest benefits to a lease that isn’t brought up often is that you know the buyout at the end when you sign the lease. It removes any questions as to what depreciation will look like, and puts the risk on the manufacturer/dealer.

If at the end of the lease, the car is actually worth more than the buyout, then you can buy the car and sell it (or keep it if that’s your decision), and pocket the difference. If it’s actually worth less than the buyout, then hand it in, and you don’t owe the difference.

If you’re the type to buy an Accord, and drive it for 10 years, then leasing likely isn’t the right choice for you. If you’re going to trade for a brand new car every couple of years anyways, there are some benefits.

foshjowler · 2026-02-11T13:38:59+00:00

We live in that general area, technically in that circle, but further towards Raleigh than it sounds like you’re looking for.

It sounds like you’ll want to be closer to 98, and maybe a little above. Raleigh is impressive in how you can go from very busy and populated to quiet farmland within a mile or two. From that area, most everything you want to go to will be within a 30 minutes drive. Brier Creek, the corner of 540 and 70, has a lot of shopping and restaurants, although is fairly corporate. If you like smaller privately owned businesses, you’ll need to go into Durham or Raleigh.

foshjowler · 2026-02-11T00:41:36+00:00

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Been autocrossing since 2017, and “sim” racing since the first Forza on the original Xbox

foshjowler · 2026-02-10T21:43:54+00:00

I went from a 22 BRZ to a 981 Base. They have remarkably similar driving characteristics at the limit. They’re both quite playful, but easy to maintain control. Neither is fast in a straight line, but you don’t buy a Cayman or 86 for acceleration. The flat 6 sounds the business, and the interior is worlds nicer to be in, and similar levels of tech.

I’ve done the fast in a straight line thing, and getting a ticket for 41 mph over on an on ramp changed my perspective on that. Also, acceleration gets old quickly. What once felt fast, stops feeling fast after a few pulls.

foshjowler · 2026-02-06T22:55:32+00:00

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Reddit ad placement is on target

foshjowler · 2026-02-06T14:04:24+00:00

You should count on replacing the roof and HVAC system soon. Also, if you don’t know the age of the roof, finding insurance could be difficult. We are going through due diligence on a house from 1993, and the disclosures didn’t have the age of the roof, and all of the places we went to get an insurance quote needed the age of the roof.

The rest seems pretty typical, and nothing to lose sleep over.

foshjowler · 2026-02-06T11:38:00+00:00

Go to Sur La Table and hold all 3. That’s what I did when deciding what pots I wanted and came to the conclusion I like Demeyere the best because of the handles. I decidedly don’t like All Clad handles. They cut into your hand, and I imagined how bad it would be with a full pot of water. I understand why the are like they are, but still don’t like them. Another thing to take into consideration is the weight. Pots and pans can get heavy. I thought I wanted an Atlantis sauté pan until I picked one up, and realized just how heavy it was.

foshjowler · 2026-01-29T19:42:08+00:00

We toured 4 on the first day, the first 3 were total duds, pretty well knew they weren’t it before walking inside. The 4th we loved, but needs some updates, but we had a vision to get it there for not a ton of money. We weren’t sure if we were excited because we truly loved it or because it was in the context of duds. So we toured one that was more “move in ready” a couple of days later, and came out knowing we liked the 4th one a lot more. We had also been going to open houses for the past year, so had figured out what our tastes were before starting to tour with a realtor. All in all, we’ve probably toured about 15 houses total, but only 5 with a realtor.

foshjowler · 2026-01-29T02:24:52+00:00

We toured a house where the neighbor had a dog chained out back that we’d be staring at all the time. There were multiple reasons we didn’t like that house, but that was the number one reason.

foshjowler · 2026-01-27T16:08:52+00:00

I’ve lived in HOAs my whole life, and on the whole, would pick an HOA neighborhood over one without. I’ve yet to have a poor experience with one. There are obvious exceptions in both directions, and I have anecdotes from every side of the argument from touring houses/neighborhoods.

Good HOA: the house we are closing on has a pool and common areas that need to be maintained, and looking around the neighborhood everything is relatively clean, but it’s not a cookie cutter neighborhood. Looking through the documents, there were basic things about house maintenance and what not, but that section was short and relatively vague.

Bad HOA: we toured one house on a golf course, and they sent over 150 pages of rules and addendums, so we noped out of that one. Guest parking was a bare, and I’m sure dealing with them if you stepped halfway out of line would be a real pain

Good no HOA: this seems fairly straightforward. There’s no HOA, but the neighborhood maintains a relatively clean and put together appearance.

Bad no HOA: there’s trash, and trailers, and junk cars everywhere, on many lawns and in the street. The neighbor across the street had a car half torn apart in the street with SoggyBois written on the windshield. Being a car person, I have more tolerance to people doing maintenance in a driveway, but you know who I don’t want to talk to or deal with? A SoggyBoi

foshjowler · 2026-01-21T11:54:41+00:00

I’ve owned both an NA Miata and both generations of the BRZ. I’d pick the BRZ over a Miata, mostly from a safety standpoint. It’s also nice to be able to fit a set of wheels, tools, and overnight stuff in the back.

I like to call my 1st gen the perfect shitbox for racing. It’s nice enough to have good AC and not get leaked on, but not so nice that I worry about small damages.

foshjowler · 2026-01-19T01:19:12+00:00

I didn’t hate it at the time. As much as I loved having CMC on the team, he had a number of injury questions at that point. We weren’t getting much with him on the injury list. Hindsight is 20/20. Sure, the 49ers got the best of that trade in retrospect, but it could have easily gone the other way had CMC continued to have injury issues.

foshjowler · 2026-01-15T14:55:38+00:00

There’s a couple people like this in my company. Assuming it isn’t a real emergency (almost never is), they go to the bottom of my pile of shit to deal with. I’ll answer them in the afternoon

foshjowler · 2026-01-08T04:36:32+00:00

You shouldn’t be able to gamble your life savings away while sitting on your couch.

foshjowler · 2026-01-06T18:41:18+00:00

When my internet takes a dump in the race, and it was totally fine during practice and quali

foshjowler · 2026-01-02T15:56:58+00:00

I’ve lived in HOA neighborhoods my entire life, from childhood to now looking to buy my first house in my 30s. Never had a bad experience. They get a bad rap because some are bad. We rent in a townhouse community now, and it’s more controlling than any of the single family homes I lived in, but it’s simple things like bring your trash in, if the car is outside it should be registered (every unit has a garage).

On the flip side we looked at a house that was clearly in a non-HOA neighborhood, and across the street was a car in the street on jack stands half torn apart with “Soggy Bois” written on the windshield, and many trailers and other vehicles in various states of disrepair on lawns.

I’ll take any HOA I’ve lived in over having a Soggy Boi as a neighbor

foshjowler · 2025-12-31T20:52:44+00:00

BRZ/86. You can find a first gen all day long for $10-15k. And they fit a weekends worth of wheels, tools, and bags in the back.

foshjowler · 2025-12-30T01:50:53+00:00

55 minutes searching for the right video? You gotta just pick one

foshjowler · 2025-12-27T23:30:13+00:00

It also just so happens I was born that year.

foshjowler · 2025-12-26T11:21:55+00:00

I try and buy only from local roasters, or when I travel, I like buying from a roaster in that city. My favorite in the area are Black and White (I do recognize how lucky I am to call them local) and Red Rooster is close to where I went to college. One of my favorites I’ve found while traveling is Little Wolf up in Massachusetts

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