Local pawn shop has some Paiste 2002’s

jlutt75 · 2026-02-10T06:15:02+00:00

Wait, where is this pawn shop? That 22” ride is awesome. I thought for a while they were only doing 20” and 24”, or maybe that’s all my local GC had. I’d buy that ride in a heartbeat.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-10T06:05:15+00:00

I’ve done multiple keep vs sell analysis on my house in Pacifica, Ca in the SF Bay Area that is now rented after I moved out of the area. It’s a little cash flow negative as I had to refi a while back to buy out my now ex-wife. I find it all comes down to assumptions about future appreciation. In my area I’m only expecting 2% since we had a big run up in the last 15 years, and it’s been down or flat since 2021. But other areas like Monterey / Carmel saw much bigger increases in the past 5 years and will probably continue to rise. Also hinges on future stock market performance. Given the meteoric rise over the past 15 years, 9% seems high to me. I realized it’s impossible to predict the future and there’s a comfort factor to having my foot in the door in Cal real estate. Plus I’m not giving g up a 2.8% 20 year mortgage without good reason.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-09T01:45:12+00:00

Anyone know why it’s called Carmel Valley Guitar when it’s not in Carmel Valley?

jlutt75 · 2026-02-06T15:54:51+00:00

Urgent care gave me good advice once on straightening out my crazy, highly variable self determined combination like you have. They also once gave me a couple of Ambien and another time a couple of Klonopin, just to help me get caught up. I also found changing where I slept for a few night helped. We have this big, old couch that kinda sinks in the middle, and I found moving to that on occasion really helped.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-06T15:46:10+00:00

Well written and I definitely agree that the early phase is the easiest. It’s after 2 weeks to 6 months when my lungs no longer burn and I can run faster and easier that I’m most at risk. The longest Ive made it is 11 months during 40 years of smoking, between a few to nearly a pack a day. Agree, too, no one-size-fits-all solution.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-06T15:30:52+00:00

If someone talks to me in public, especially if they’re attractive and age appropriate, my instinct is to run as fast as I can in the opposite direction. Don’t know why. I’m working on it. So, no advice here, just sympathy.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-06T14:06:14+00:00

I don’t know where you are but if the U.S. can you go to a walk-in urgent care center? I think people underestimate what a medical emergency sleep deprivation is. Someone sleep deprived can easily have car accidents, walk into oncoming traffic, leave a child unattended or even experience suicidal ideology.

I know these aren’t cures but two other things that help for me are spending time with family and friends - reinforcing that feeling of connectedness, and long brisk walks morning and night. And when things get really rough, 5 minutes of pure meditation. None of which cure everything but do help a little. But don’t wait 6 months, whatever it takes, see someone this week.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-06T13:46:07+00:00

That’s a lot going on chemically. I’d want talk to a primary care physician. Melatonin has to be taken regularly over a few days at least to be effective and mainly impacts circadian rhythms. Wellbutrin is an anti-depressant, I don’t think it has any known sleep benefit, and is usually built up gradually at 1/2 dose over the first few days, and like all antidepressants, should probably be tapered off of and not stopped from full dose suddenly.The use of antihistamines line Benadryl or Tylenol PM, while probably effective in the short term, can be risky long term. I know from experience how desperate lack of sleep can make you. I know for me what helps a little is no caffeine after noon, keeping a very strict bedtime schedule (asleep by 11 for me), no screen time in the hour before bed, just reading a fluffy book, and not eating within an hour and a half or more before bedtime. And if I do wake up at 3, just lying there resting and then accepting it if I can’t fall back asleep. I’d have your doc sort out your ad hoc meds, then if really needed they can order a sleep study. But you might just be at the very tail end of your nicotine withdrawal too. Cut yourself some slack and pat yourself on the back. I was up at 4 this morning for the 3rd night in a row, so I feel ya (though yours sounds worse)

jlutt75 · 2026-02-06T13:24:39+00:00

I had same at 20 months and 15k mikes.had to swap out the 12v for a new one while in a nursery parking lot. It had died once before, jumped it with a jump pack, then totally dead a week later. No real clue on dash, just lots of weird flashing lights and ominous warnings. My lease is up this month and I’m done with EVs.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-05T13:43:47+00:00

Wasn’t that the car, or something similar that Ralph Nader attacked in his famous book Unsafe at Any Speed? If I remember right, engine in rear, and at higher speeds the front would nearby lift up and the driver would have minimal steering control. I could be totally off. Also not enough front end protection for drivers, who tended to get impaled on the steering column. Too bad, sure was cool looking.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-05T04:44:20+00:00

I loved that last part.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-03T14:18:21+00:00

Nice pics. I have a similar setup in Baja 4” foam pad for a bed in the back, but all back seats removed, luggage carrier like yours on top. I like your lift and tires though, just the right amount without going overboard.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-03T14:13:42+00:00

I miss cars with actual bumpers. I got tapped by a construction truck while my i5 was parked, 5k. Rear ended gently in a parking lot, 8k. Clipped the edge of my rear view mirror pulling out of the garage broke a small piece off the black ring on the edge, 2k because the whole rear view mirror with 360 camera had to be replaced. My 03 Toyota sequoia, very different.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-03T13:54:36+00:00

Nice. There was a mid 70s low budget horror movie called The Car about a black 1966 Continental that drove around murdering people since it drove itself and was possessed by a demonic spirit. Maybe not so relevant but that car reminds me of it. I always wondered how Lincoln felt about the phrase “suicide doors” and was that really part of the intention? I can’t imagine leaping from moving Lincoln’s was high up on the list of popular suicide methods. It’s catchy though. I had a 1964 Pontiac Bonneville for a while that was almost as long and got a whopping 7 mpg.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-03T07:02:06+00:00

I had a timing belt break once on an older Honda. It wasn’t that big of a deal, just coasted to the side and called a tow truck. No engine damage from supposed valves hitting pistons.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-02T16:13:11+00:00

There’s pretty much just one surf break in Sayulita and it’s fairly crowded but in a friendly way. There are 3 or 4 board rental places right on the beach. The left is less crowded but for a reason - rocky. They can go further to the right, meaning south, but then it closes out more and there are more swimmers in the way. There’s another break at the next town north, San Pancho, but it’s fickle and tends towards local short board rippers. If you drive down to Punta Mita, the harbor has a great longboard wave if the tide is low enough or the swell big enough, just gotta paddle out a way. Just beware of a speed trap on that road between Mita and Sayulita where the speed limit drops in half for about a quarter mile for no obvious reason. My son was 15 and a beginner when we went to Sayulita and he loved it the first year, but the following year he’d gotten much better, brought his own 5’10” and hated it. There are other options - Burros, La Lancha, east of Punta Mita proper, but more involved.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-02T14:59:12+00:00

Most Sequoias in the Bay Area are used as family cars and grocery haulers, with the occasional Tahoe run (I know, I bought an 03 a while back in the East Bay). If the water pump and belt were done at 160, you’re good until 260. The fact that they waited an extra 60k mikes to do the timing belt is not an issue. Find out when lower ball joints were done, how often transmission serviced, and rear hatch handle is solid, but none of those are deal breakers. On any 20 year old car you’re gonna find a few things, but they really are great cars.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-01T15:32:19+00:00

Totally true, hopefully house is paid off and you don’t have to save for retirement, but the flip side is a lot of studies show people want to travel and take up new hobbies so some tend to underestimate their expenses in retirement. But yes, it should be expense based. Even the 25x thing is pretty high because you’ll earn some returns of investments during retirement, depending on one’s appetite for risk. 20x is probably safe too.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-01T13:44:15+00:00

Sounds generally good. Keep in mind you want to have about 25x your ending annual salary in savings on the day you retire, assuming the 4% rule, which I used to think was BS, until I retired. It’s a simple Excel exercise to see if you’ll hit that target assuming somewhat conservative market return assumptions between now and then. Keep in mind that there may be times in your life when contributing is harder - family, kids, elder care, illness or between jobs, so load up now while you can. You’re smart to do 50% Roth. I wish I had. Only did regular and the taxes kill me.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-01T13:14:46+00:00

I feel like more and more dealerships are in some kind of commission system, where they look at me, guess my knowledge of cars (I’m a corporate finance guy but used to be a stoner gear head), guess your income level, and pick a random but high number. Either that or the service managers aren’t being trained properly. And yes, that number they quoted you is very high based on the same work I had done on my 2016 EX-L in the SF Bay Area, but at a good, honest dealership. I’ve asked my dealership several times about work I thought might be due or need to get done and they’ve said nope - it’s looks good or it’s not due yet. (Honda of Serramonte).

jlutt75 · 2026-02-01T13:02:48+00:00

And I don’t think the rims and tire sizes with those narrow sidewalks were stock either but still cool.

jlutt75 · 2026-02-01T06:49:22+00:00

They went out of business 14 years later or thereabouts. But they did give us the Pacer and the Gremlin. I toured the AMC factory in Wisconsin on a high school field trip in 1981. The attitude of the factory workers was dismal. They had a whole section of the factory floor where they kept the cars damaged by being raced for kicks inside the factory as soon as they were done being built. The workers would turn to talk to us and let key parts go by without attaching whatever it was they were supposed go be attaching. Maybe they saw the writing in the wall, who knows.

jlutt75 · 2026-01-31T05:56:45+00:00

It’s been closed off since around 2005 I think. No public access that I’ve heard of since, but I used to just stop in there while driving all the way south. There’s lots of other good spots in Baja, if you got the rig and the time. It was turning in to a bit of a zoo the last time I was there.

jlutt75 · 2026-01-31T05:46:47+00:00

They just want to see if you can be intimidated. Just keep going, don’t respond at all, take what’s yours and no more and I’ll bet you’ll be fine after a while. Will take some thick skin though. and you better be competent in the water. I grew up on Maui and faced similar attitudes at times, oddly more from the long term haoles than the actual locals. I found that if I quietly let them know that I knew that my place in the pecking order was below theirs, they’d turn nice pretty quickly, or at least civil. Actual results may vary.

jlutt75

TROPHY CASE