60+ year old thread.

The Garage Sale went well. It was bittersweet, but I was happy to pass on long tools to the next generation. It was mainly guys in their 50s working on projects. I just need to downsize and keep enough tools for oil changes and working on the bikes.

Pocket money for a California Road Trip with my son and time to visit family in California. In my younger years, I drove from Austin to PHX (1000 miles) and then to Sacramento (780 miles). Heading west, you have the advantage of a longer day, so more daylight hours with time zones. Leave when dark, and drive! I am unsure if my body and bladder can handle those long days, as I used to do that solo, but I am glad to have my son with me to trade off driving.

I do the jogs around PHX (Gillanbend to Buckeye), LA (395 to 58), and San Francisco (up I-5, cut over after Stock). It adds about 40 miles, but no fighting congestion.
Once I leave Texas ($3.20 a gallon), prices keep going up ($5.50 in California). I was a bit shocked to see that AZ prices are up into the mid $4.00. My trick was always to fill up before the CA border, but towing a small trailer, gas mileage drops as it tucks behind the Tacoma nicely, but any hills and mileage drops. A round trip of four thousand miles/17 mpg average X $4.50 per gallon, which is a little over $1000 in gas.

I travel cheaply, so I have a trailer (for sleeping), a fridge/freezer (filled with low-cost Texas food), and family floors to sleep on when not camping. The cost is $40 a day for 14 days. My wife's idea of roughing it was a three-star hotel, so it was often $400 a day for hotel/food. Sigh, I miss those days, but she isn't into traveling, and our daughter will be here with her, so it's cheap to travel for my son and me.

 

After three months of passive searching for a home in the Kentlands community of Gaithersburg, MD, and then additional three months of active looking with a real estate agent beating the bushes, as of last Thursday not a single unit has come on the market which met our criteria. Friday morning one came on the market which met most of our criteria and was, ummm, nice, but had recently been gutted and renovated with materials and appliances not at all to our taste, and for that they wanted a rather dear price. All in all, we were about to make an offer when a second unit came on the market with an almost identical floor plan, an extra garage bay, no recent renovation but some new and decent appliance (except the refrigerator, which we'd replace, and the washer and dryer, which will get sold as we have much nicer units); the best part, the asking price is $65,000 less than the first unit.

We're bidding on the second unit and an offer will be accepted at 19:00 EDT today; with any luck, we'll go under contract tomorrow.

 

Nice trailer rig, wife and I are starting to look.

 

It's no frills. The AC is loud at night, but it was well worth it when it was still 85/85. There was a temperature inversion and high humidity, so we bailed and parked in an electric hookup campground.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/palo-duro-canyon

I have a double shower tent that pops up alongside. Porta-potty, or hook up a shower in there. I use a Mr. Heater water heater and a one-gallon water jug, which is fine for a navy shower.

https://www.joolca.com/products/ensuite-tent-double

When we were hiking in Big Bend, I returned to the Tacoma, while my son went ahead and scrambled up a rocky hill. We were in the middle of nowhere. With the warm sun, you would hear a car for miles; it was so quiet. No one was around, so I stripped off and did my two bicycle water bottle showers. Half the bottle is to rinse, and the lather (Dr. Bronner's soap) is to rinse off. I imagined I heard a giggle. Mind plays tricks on you in the middle of nowhere. I dried off and dressed, and two hikers strolled past. They were stealthy! Oops.

 

Wildlife going wild again around our place. A blue jay has taken to sparring with his reflection every morning. I caught him at it yesterday. If you listen closely you'll hear his beak bashing the glass.

https://youtu.be/akjDMlvtJXo

 

Good luck. I know you have family here but if you need anything just reach out.
Jim

 

Thanks @Jim=2015 TRD PRO!

 

Evening all:

Sand fleas ?, usually on the feet and lower legs though.

Mowed today, just looked out the window and a grey fox was out in the back yard, too far to get a pic. of it though. That's only the second time I have seen a grey fox in the yard during the day, the adult outside cats are safe from it, don't know about the neighbor's chickens though!

 

Uugghh. That happens to me if I go out without bug spray on.

evening gang.

 

Evening update...

I went with a bid which automatically escalated up to $75,000 over asking price, we came in second place to someone with an escalation of $140,000 over the asking price. I told my realtor, "They can have it.".

 

Evening all:

Darn Dale, welcome to the reality of surging home prices, sorry you didn't get the home, just need to keep looking.

 

And the roller coaster ride continues...

My real estate agent called back a few minutes ago, the buyer with the monster high offer cannot close until July, I'm willing to close in three weeks; the seller wants it sold and asked if we'd be willing to come up another $10,000 and provide earnest money of $40,000 the place is ours. I agreed and am waiting for the updated contract to sign.

 

Crazy how prices are with the low inventory. Look at the bright side you saved $55,000.
I don’t think I’ll ever move. Looked at FL briefly, then the price changed my mind. FYI real estate taxes in Montgomery County are increasing. Mine went up 10% last year.

 

Yeah I'm not going anywhere. Would I like a bigger place? Sure. But prices are just ridiculous and I only owe about 70k on my house and my interest rate is only 2.75% on the mortgage. I won't pay what they are asking for homes or what they are asking for new vehicle prices. Plan is to retire in 3 years, I'm happy with what I have.

 

Mower quit. Wife says good time to get someone younger to do it. She's right. A guy coming this evening to look at the job, price it. I can't see to mow into the sun anymore, plus my mower needs a battery. It was bought with a free govt. handout a few years back, so I don't really have anything in it... or do I? Guess I can spring for a battery. Expensive, for a decent one that I hope never to use.

Guy shows up with a stand-up mower and a trimmer. He mowed both one acre lots, trimmed, cleaned up, and was done in less than an hour. $25 per acre. He left more than a few narrow strips here and there. He'll do better after he "learns" the yards a bit. I'll give him another shot at it in a couple weeks but IDK long term yet. For now, wife happy.

 

Best of luck, after reading your next two posts. Prices are just crazy in the DC area.

Good morning. Overslept and need to get into the gym quickly. I have a chair yoga class at 10:30 and then making up some pasta sauce for tonight's dinner.

 

Good morning all. I'm playing catch up a bit after having Friday off work and a great weekend. Returning to work yesterday sucked. Our parts manager was off so I had double duty and since I'd been out Friday already had enough of my own work to catch up on. Finally getting to where I had time to catch up here.

Our FJR tech day was a huge success. Had 2 of our really knowledgeable guys teaching me how to not only check but also adjust the valve clearances. This engine is a "shim under bucket" design so in order to adjust clearances the cams have to be removed. Little intimidating if you don't know how to do it but these guys have done quite a few over the years and know lots of little tricks to make it accurate and easy. We reset all 16 valves to 70% of max clearance and I'm told I'll likely never have to touch them again. If I'd taken the bike to a dealership this service would run somewhere from $600-$900 plus parts and fluids.

 

Morning

 

spent yesterday on the Eastern shore chasing a parade of punks, did manage to catch and release 12 of em...



boss's birthday today, gone take her to dinner

 

Beautiful sunrise!

Suppose to start out sunny, then cloud up with a high of 64*. Good morning to work on my rusty steel arch sanding and repainting it. Started it yesterday and hope to finish it before the rains come back in Friday.
Haircut day! Driving me crazy!
Wishing everyone a healthy active day and keeping all you with health issues in my heart and thoughts.