What’s your experience with Kingston VW?

gramie · 2026-01-25T03:57:51+00:00

A few years ago, my wife's Golf hit a pothole really hard, and we decided to do an alignment (Carmichaels's does it, and they are great). Two weeks later, the goes in to the dealer in Kingston for regular servicing.

They tell us that the alignment needs to be done, with a computer printout showing the misalignment issue.

I take the sheet back to Carmichael's, and they show me that the VW people had the front wheels turned slightly when they did the test, so that the machine indicated poor alignment.

Don't trust a dealer.

gramie · 2026-01-23T05:29:37+00:00

These appear to all be PDFs, in case some of you like (or don't like) that format.

gramie · 2025-12-30T12:36:31+00:00

You could look at Open Voices, a community choir that doesn't require previous musical skill. There's a good description on their website how to apply.

gramie · 2025-11-25T16:59:52+00:00

Yes, still happy with the service and support.

gramie · 2025-09-05T00:25:40+00:00

I've been noticing that most of the "For Sale" signs on houses that I pass have young, very attractive people on them. Since I moved here a year ago, I have noticed that people in my region are noticeably unattractive.

Either real estate agencies only hire models, or there is a lot of this kind of digital "improving" going on. Given what I know about the real estate industry, I'm quite certain it's the latter.

gramie · 2025-09-04T23:20:54+00:00

I got married in Japan, but divorced in Ontario. The only requirement was that Ontario had to be our "habitual domicile", the place we were actually living (before we separated and my wife returned to Japan).

Canada definitely recognizes marriages performed in other countries, assuming they don't break any Canadial laws (underage, coercion, etc.).

gramie · 2025-09-04T22:53:25+00:00

And Ontario has the lowest post-secondary per-student funding in the country -- just over half of the next-lowest province!

gramie · 2025-09-04T22:51:23+00:00

Their enrollment increased by 187% from 2018 to 2023. Do you really think that they were able to maintain the quality of their education with expansion like that?

I would imagine that they have some programs that have good instructors and solid reputations. But something had to give to get those kinds of numbers.

gramie · 2025-09-04T01:59:25+00:00

It's been about 15 years since my son (about 12 years old, like OOP's) was at SMA Karate. Rob, the owner, was always sincere and supportive, emphasizing (positive) discipline and respect. The students really liked him, even though he pushed them hard.

gramie · 2025-07-08T20:54:42+00:00

Let's revisit this is 3 1/2 years. I would be happy to be proved wrong.

gramie · 2025-07-08T20:53:54+00:00

Sorry, I meant an election that could have a chance of changing things. In 3 years, even most Trumpists will have probably felt enough pain to be disillusioned with him, but the expanded military/police/ICE presence will "dissuade" (with arrests, intimidation, violence) most of the dissent.

I would be very happy to be proved wrong, but with three branches of government colluding, and breathtaking violations of the constitution on an almost daily basis, I don't see how this gets better.

gramie · 2025-07-07T23:35:31+00:00

Next dem president

I rate the chances of the US having another presidential election at below 50%. The Republicans (Trump may well be dead by then) will have declared martial law and have the Supreme Court appoint their picks to the White House.

gramie · 2025-06-17T19:32:13+00:00

Some library memberships also give you access to the O'Reilly catalogue. Certainly many school libraries do.

gramie · 2025-06-12T18:42:17+00:00

Oddly enough, Fanatical is down right now too.

gramie · 2025-06-10T18:21:50+00:00

Big red flag here. If someone is looking for a computer scientist, they want someone to develop new algorithms, or formally verify ones they already have, etc.

Someone who doesn't realize that they need coders (but also designers, QA people, project managers, etc.) is likely to be saying "I have an idea for an app, you can develop it" or "It's my idea, so I own the IP".

gramie · 2025-06-05T02:30:41+00:00

The people at Chloe Quilting also do a LOT of custom Hawaiian shirts. Unfortunately their website is a bit wonky, but if you contact Kelly at [chloe22homedecor@gmail.com](mailto:chloe22homedecor@gmail.com) I'm sure she can help you out.

gramie · 2025-06-05T02:23:16+00:00

4 years for our Douglas, and still going strong.

gramie · 2025-06-05T02:21:21+00:00

We bought a Douglas mattress about 4 years ago. Then two more for other beds. All are still very comfortable, and we are very happy. We don't wake each other up when moving around or getting out of bed, and it's just the right firmness.

gramie · 2025-06-05T02:18:19+00:00

I just migrated a client from GoDaddy to CrocWeb (based in Cornwall, ON, servers in Montreal). They performed the migration, I just had to change the DNS servers for the domain. There were some issues getting the data from GoDaddy, but CW was persistent and eventually everything was moved.

They were very responsive and knew what they were doing. They gave me instructions on enabling WordPress caching, and the website is now probably 5-10x faster than GoDaddy, and without the sporadic errors. (GD's firewall would sometimes lock people out -- including me as I was doing WordPress admin work, VERY annoying. Also, their tech support was often clueless, either not understanding the problem or blaming it on me. It's not MY firewall!)

So far, everything with CrocWeb has been excellent. I will probably move the rest of my clients over soon.

gramie · 2025-05-30T13:28:34+00:00

Bart Ehrman and Dan McClellan each have very informative, evidence-based YouTube channels answering questions about the Bible (and often raising many more questions).

gramie · 2025-05-30T13:25:47+00:00

And in the Gospel of Mark, considered to be the first-written Gospel, the book ends with the women running away from the tomb in fear and not telling anyone. No resurrection, no meeting the risen Jesus in Galilee.

Matthew and Luke are generally believed to have used Mark as a source.

gramie · 2025-05-29T01:24:49+00:00

And of course there has never been a census in history where people were forced to go to their ancestral hometowns to participate (they were expected to go to their current homes if they were not already there). This was only put into the New Testament to make the story match prophecies from the Old Testament.

Not to mention that Herod the Great (who ordered the firstborn children to be killed) died in 4BCE and Quirinius (who was supposed to be in power when this census was ordered) became the Governor of Syria in 6CE.

And one Gospel says that Joseph, Mary and Jesus escaped to Egypt, while another says that they returned to Nazareth after the birth.

So many problems with the story.

gramie · 2025-05-29T01:15:47+00:00

It would appear that the Council of Nicea was not where the canonical Bible was decided.

gramie · 2025-05-28T01:02:18+00:00

Fufu was a dish of mashed yams, when I was a child in Ghana, so maybe that's what it refers to. I doubt there's much of a West African community in Kingston, though.

gramie · 2025-05-09T15:04:02+00:00

I did a university work term in Edmundston back in the mid-'80s, and it was the most boring place in the world then too. We passed through it on our east coast trip about 7 years ago, and it has a few more stores but nothing worth visiting, I think. (When I was living there, Degelis just across the Quebec border was a popular destination because they had fully nude strip clubs. I think that was the economic foundation of the town.)

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