I perused the January summary before starting this post, to recall if I made any commitments to be completed by the end of February. Turns out – I did and I failed. Whoops. The great room tv/audio/book shelves project not only wasn’t completed; the only thing accomplished was purchasing a large flat screen from Best Buy when they were having a President’s Day sale. Hey – 30% off normal retail price ! The current flat screen tv will go into Carole’s studio. I really want to have this project done by the end of March. The clock is ticking… stay tuned to this blog for future developments
As predicted in January, I spent considerable time in the garage, actually getting wrenches out and working on cars, along with a lot of goofing off in the shop piddling around with cars. To have a fully heated, well lit shop in the winter is simply the best. Speaking of cars, I didn’t mention the 2004 330i BMW sedan I purchased from Alex several years ago, was involved in an accident in early January. A car backed into me while waiting for a traffic light to change. She wanted to back up a little, creating space for a motorist to make a left turn into a parking lot. Blew the horn when I saw her reverse lights, but she didn’t react. The bottom of her solid steel Jeep bumper just cleared the top of my front bumper. So while her speed was super slow, my hood and front grills took all of it. Long story short; her insurance totaled the car. Estimates to replace the bucked hood, grills, and repair the bumper (pre-existing issue – shhhhhh…) came to $4800. Because the car has high miles, peeling clearcoat, too many small hail dents to count, and other minor cosmetic stuff, it deserves a “good” condition. An industry standard that includes a list of attributes determining a vehicle’s condition (and retail value) ranging from: poor, fair, good, very good and excellent. A good condition 2004 330i has a retail value of $4400. I had already completed my own analysis and had come up with a similar value, so did not argue. I advised them that I wanted to keep the car and fix it myself. They were happy to allow that, and promptly gave me a check for $3300, deducting $1100 for scrap value, since I was “buying” it back from them. I paid Alex $2500 for the car, 6 years ago. He bought it from a customer that couldn’t afford to repair the A/C. When he was detailing it, while waiting for aircon parts, noticed the binder that contained warranty book and owners manual showed the car was purchased new in 2004 from Joe Self BMW in Wichita. A quick search of BMW’s maintenance system using the car’s VIN, revealed he performed some warranty work on the car during his first week as a BMW technician. After learning that, I asked to buy the car when the A/C was fixed and would keep it until I could no longer drive. Will then give it back to Alex as a gift.
The picture for this month’s post is our beloved Akita, Layla. The term is “blowout” and is a normal annual fur shedding event that takes several weeks to complete. The amount of hair she expels is just crazy. You easily see the difference between the winter coat being shed and her eventual summer coat. If she is out when it’s snowing, the white flakes pile up on her back until she shakes them off.
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