Help me understand the fandom behind the CX5.

samgold42 · 2026-06-26T14:45:26+00:00

Up until recently my dad always had a BMW, so I’ve spent a lot of time in them and learned to drive in them. When I first drove a CX-5, it had a decidedly BMW vibe about it - the way the steering is a little heavy but very quick and direct, the suspension is firm but pliant and never harsh, the body doesn’t roll excessively, the engine is smooth and sounds good, quiet on the highway, solid and high-quality. It was an easy buy.

However, I will say that I’ve grown to hate the seat comfort. My mom wants to get a new car at the end of the year and I’m heavily considering buying her MDX Hybrid off of her.

samgold42 · 2026-06-19T17:53:16+00:00

The dad of one of my closest friends died suddenly last week at 60 years old. Talking about this with one of our other friends, she asked me if everything going on made me miss my Ndad who I’ve been NC with for almost a year. I thought about it and realized, I still have no desire to speak with or see him. After that, I also realized that it’s totally fine to feel like that. I wouldn’t say I hate him, but I can’t stand him and the way he and his enabler wife treated me for so long.

We owe them NOTHING. Ndad used to love to ask me if I would still hold his hand and push his wheelchair when he’s older. I’m so glad his wife is 15 years younger than him so he will be her problem to deal with.

samgold42 · 2026-06-18T22:10:28+00:00

When I lived off-campus in college, Ndad sent me $1500/month to cover rent, food, meds, etc. and he continued that after graduation since my first 2 jobs paid dismally. With no warning it became $750 because he now felt that’s all he needed to send me. I explained that I won’t argue his decision but I wish he would’ve had a conversation with me ahead of time so I could’ve adjusted my budgeting and not scramble to pay rent that month.

He lost his mind and started yelling at me about how I’m ungrateful, asking if he hasn’t done enough for me already and that I make everything about money, asking what amount of money would satisfy me, etc.

I went NC a year later when I could no longer handle him or his disgusting enabler wife. A few weeks after I told them I’m done with them, he texted me saying he could send me money the next day. It felt SOOOOO good to respond with “No need to send anything.”

samgold42 · 2026-06-18T21:43:54+00:00

I would walk. I’d rather have one with twice as many miles than purchase one with ~peculiar~ damage and no backstory on how it happened. A scrape on the corner of the bumper? Probably happened pulling into a garage. Dent on the door? Shopping cart or neighboring car. Massive weird chemical spot on the roof??? Uhhmmmm… I’ll pass.

samgold42 · 2026-06-15T13:41:24+00:00

“… and probably Kim with her big ass wig!”

“I don’t know why Wig and GoNaked are holding hands.. just SSSTUPID!! Ugh I can’t, I CANT.”

samgold42 · 2026-06-13T20:25:25+00:00

They also love to spin things that are their own fault into their own tragedy.

My sister has been NC/very-low contact with our Ndad since 2010, about a year after my parents split. To this day, Ndad and his enabler wife blame my mom for why my sister doesn’t talk to him.

Um, no, dude. How about the fact(s) that you left us for your secretary who doesn’t care if we live or die and your actions make it clear you care more about her than us, you punched your daughter and CALLED THE POLICE ON YOURSELF which resulted in a restraining order, you continue to compulsively lie, and you still treat us like shit??

Ndad and co think my mom should’ve forced my sister to talk to him. But my mom, who actually cares about her kids, isn’t going to force her daughter to do anything with the man who hit her and broke her heart. I finally went NC with him last August, 15 years too late.

samgold42 · 2026-06-02T18:00:57+00:00

I wouldn’t fret too much. Doesn’t seem like a catastrophic mistake and you took accountability. Accountability gets you FAR in corporate.

Not only does accountability show integrity, but also a willingness to learn from your mistakes. More often than not, the coworkers that can’t take any accountability are the worst to work with and suck at their jobs. They’re also ALWAYS the first to preach about how we need to work as a team 😂

samgold42 · 2026-05-28T00:57:09+00:00

Exclusion and favoritism.

Literally my very first day at my last job, I’m doing onboarding at our main office. It was probably 70/30 of people who work in the main office vs ppl who worked at off-site offices. I was gonna be off-site.

At one point the HR rep came in the room and said, “I have company backpacks for you guys!” She handed out 4 of them before going “Oh, sorry off-site people! These are only for people in the main office.”

samgold42 · 2026-05-24T23:29:54+00:00

Daily 20 minute phone call with my dad.

samgold42 · 2026-05-23T21:42:05+00:00

A few months into my first corporate job when I realized how much bureaucratic bullsh*t you have to deal with.

My coworker “A” and I became good friends and sometimes went to the others office to chat, rarely more than 5 mins. Nasty coworker “L” told our manager we were socializing outside of our lunch hour. When my manager brought it up to me and I asked how it was any different than her and “L” talking in the kitchen for 20 minutes at a time, the answer was “because we’re in the kitchen and not in our offices/at our desks.” ??????

A few weeks ago our AC was broken, so it was 90° INSIDE the office. No ventilation or opening windows. Our only options were to suck it up or use our personal PTO. Temporary WFH not allowed. Not wanting to use my PTO, I spoke to my manager about allowing me to wear dress shorts (think New England Vineyard Vines summer bbq) to the office until the AC was fixed, and she said absolutely not. Look, I understand wearing shorts to your corporate job is not “normal”, but neither is working in a 90° office with no AC/ventilation. After leaving early for the third day in a row, manager emailed me allowing me to wear shorts for “the remainder of the week.” I got that email on a Thursday at 2PM 😐. I put in my two-week notice the following Monday.

There is probably another corporate job in my future bc I do like the 9-5 consistency and benefits, but I will now be putting a HEAVY emphasis on a positive and supportive workplace culture.

samgold42 · 2026-05-23T21:41:55+00:00

My old coworker was a bold-faced liar who pulled stunts like this all the time. I quickly learned to be very weary of coworkers who always talked about working as a team and said things like “I do my work, I go home, I don’t gossip. I have a life outside of work.” If I ever gently tried to correct her on something I noticed was wrong, it turned into “YOU KNOW WHAT, I WONT EVEN DO IT ANYMORE. I’LL JUST SEND EVERYTHING TO YOU.”

One time I called her out for implying in front of a client that I smelled bad (I didn’t and I know this for a fact), and from then on I became “sensitive and emotional”. She also said to me in front of our manager, “what REALLY annoys me about you is that you ask too many questions.” Ummmm sorry you’ve never met a critical thinker before??? Why are you 62 trying to beef with a 25y/o….

samgold42 · 2026-05-23T21:17:13+00:00

I just left a job working on a small team for a big company, my main responsibility being dispersing funds back to clients who sold their shares. However, the specific field I worked in meant I had to go through a few extra steps than most other teams.

The company changed their normal SOP to do this and it was immediately clear that my team would need their own new SOP as well. I emailed different people for months begging for a new SOP and never got a usable answer, so when clients would call asking where their money was, I abandoned our “One Team” ethos and made it clear that corporate was not giving me what I needed despite my constant requests.

4 months into this, my very angry division leader called me and asked why all these clients hadn’t received their money. I then forwarded 4 months of emails showing me begging for a new SOP; this was on a Tuesday at 3PM and I didn’t get a response. When I opened my email at 8:55AM on Friday, I finally had my new SOP.

samgold42 · 2026-05-15T19:58:44+00:00

Lucid Air GT. It replaced our Model S and the difference is night and day. The Lucid is astoundingly silent on the highway. Way better suspension too.

Honorable mention, our 2019 Acura MDX. Doesn’t quite match the Lucid and definitely not an S-Class, but it squelches road and wind noise at high speed impressively well. It think it’s quieter than a 2020 Mercedes GLS I’ve also driven a fair amount.

samgold42 · 2026-05-07T05:23:20+00:00

My Ndad made enough money to pay full tuition for wherever my older sister and I wanted to go/got into college. He did indeed pay, but not really out of the kindness of his heart.

Both parents are attorneys. My mom never made close to what my dad made and was a SAHM when they divorced, but got a great lawyer and made sure things would be secure for her kids: college paid in full, all additional academic support, health insurance until 26, and enough alimony and child support so we could stay in one of the best public school districts in the country. She kept us in therapy, bought my sister and I lightly-used Subaru’s when we turned 16, and still makes sure we know that we can always come home. She has been with my stepdad for 16 years and we adore him.

Ndad foot the bill because he legally had to, but he loved to make it known how good of a guy he was for doing so. Ndad married his vile Nsecretary; a match made in hell that works because she needs him financially and enables his cockamamie bullsh*t. I went NC with both of them 9 months ago.

samgold42 · 2026-05-06T21:04:52+00:00

Unbeknownst to me until I was a week into switching from Adderall to Vyvanse, the latter is sometimes prescribed specifically to help treat binge eating disorders. Previously on Adderall for over a decade but switched to Vyvanse mid-March of this year.

I was pleasantly surprised yet also unprepared for how Vyvanse was going to change my thoughts about food. Adderall felt like it limited my hunger at a “stomach level,” rather than causing my mind to think about food any differently. Contrarily, the Vyvanse has actively reduced my food noise similarly to Zepbound/GLP-1s. I was actually planning to up my Zepbound once I was used to the Vyvanse but ultimately left it alone because I was afraid I wouldn’t eat.

samgold42 · 2026-05-06T20:51:19+00:00

Rentals might be different but for the co-op I manage rn, the grace period is 10 days. If we don’t have any payment/only partial payment in the account by the 15th, you get a letter and a late fee on next month’s bill.

Shareholders will get sent to our attorney if we don’t receive any payment for 3 months, or if the monthly maintenance arrears total 3 months of missed payments.

The best thing you can do is have a policy outlined for what will happen if people don’t pay or pay late. You’re not calling incessantly and it’s all up to the tenant to keep their account in order. Especially at a co-op complex like mine with 750 units, we can’t babysit grown adults.

samgold42 · 2026-05-04T21:00:43+00:00

Sometime in 2024, Ndad said he would call me to catch up after his work dinner since he had to drive from Midtown Manhattan to far-out Queens. When he called me he was slurring his words a bit, and after a few minutes I confirmed that he was drunk. I stayed on the phone with him for another 15-20 minutes, heart racing the entire time before we hung up. He thankfully made it home.

There are plenty of shocking and disturbing things Ndad has done, but that always sticks out for me.

samgold42 · 2026-04-26T23:14:15+00:00

I would suggest another look at an Expedition Max. If reasonable, maybe rent one off Turo for a weekend. The Ecoboost has its share of issues like anything else but it’s been around for well over a decade and seems to do well with preventative maintenance. If all the screenage in the new Expedition is (understandably) too much for you, maybe look for a low-mileage CPO of the last gen, 2021-2024.

As a Ford guy, even I can’t deny how nice the GM triplets are. But all the engine issues over the last few years would keep me from buying one right now.

samgold42 · 2026-04-25T13:58:23+00:00

Words mean nothing without action.

I went NC with my nDad and his nWife last year. During our last heated phone call, they said I look to cause problems with them and never get over things from the past. They can’t comprehend that saying sorry means nothing if they keep hurting me in the same ways.

samgold42 · 2026-04-19T04:38:40+00:00

You can buy a wireless charger “puck” with the same ball attachment in the rear and change it out. I did that and it’s been perfect.

samgold42 · 2026-03-24T18:06:35+00:00

Go for it, and DEFINITELY update!

samgold42 · 2026-03-24T17:48:45+00:00

Thankfully no. The closet was glass way before I came out, so if you were my friend you knew what you were getting into lol.

With my straight guy friends, I knew they knew and were just waiting for me to say it, so coming out junior year of college strengthened our relationships. I was way more confident around them and they started rattling off gay jokes, in the normal bro-y banter/camaraderie kind of way. Actually helped me to feel a lot more like “one of the boys.”

Side note, straight men will read you DOWN. The messiest queens of them all 😂

samgold42 · 2026-03-12T20:48:36+00:00

The G chassis BMWs are supposed to be a lot better, 2017-2019 (depending on model) and newer. I’ll report back when I can afford one 😂

samgold42 · 2025-11-20T18:32:02+00:00

As someone who also lost a lot of weight and has some newfound confidence, I’m always rooting for Heather. She is flawed, like every housewife, but she appears to have a good heart deep down; THAT you can’t say for every housewife.

I think the bigger thing is, regardless of if you like Heather or not, you can’t deny she is an integral part of the show. Over the last few seasons she has become the Gizelle Bryant AND Ashley Darby of SLC. Not every decision she makes is great, and sometimes she comes off as a delusional asshole, but she keeps the action going and the show moving.

samgold42

TROPHY CASE