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new car todd

// August 31st, 2010 // 1 Comment » // finding fun

I had hoped to make it until next summer but it was not to be.  In 10/2011, my Ford Explorer would have been 10 years old and likely had 155,000 miles.  That was my goal for that vehicle.

Last summer I spent about $3000 in repairs.  That was not totally unexpected.  But then this year the transmission went on me.  That was another $2000 (for a used transmission no less.)  I was seriously thinking of moving up the schedule by this point and even had selected my favorite models.  Then I had a differential fluid leak and decided the time is now.

guess what problem my car had this year? (from carcomplaints.com)

The car I liked the best this time is the Subaru Outback.  OK, the Outback is no Audi TT but then my surfboard is not going to fit in a TT.  The Outback is named after the desert but popular in the mountains which is cognitive dissonance that I can enjoy!  My favorite features of the Outback include comfortable seats, the amount of interior space, the fuel economy and the record of reliability.  My least favorites are dropping from a V8 to a 4 cylinder and the loss of a keypad entry (handy when exercising).  BTW it comes in red which any Buckeye could appreciate.

So yes, I am joining the cult of Subaru.  What, you didn’t know about that?  It’s not as fanatical as the cult of Jeep, but it’s for real.  For instance mysubie.com and subaruoutback.org.

What follows are my stories of car shopping in the internet age.

A red Outback that is not mine

I had an old-school dialog open with one local dealer but I wasn’t loving the deals I was getting there.  So I decided to try the costco auto program.  I know several people who’ve done really well with that.  Basically, you spec out the car you want, Costco hooks you up with a dealer who offers a “costco price” which is likely lower than you could negotiate.  With that in hand you head to the dealership where you are whisked into a back room and the deal closes quickly.  Well it didn’t work that way for me.

I got a call and an email from the dealership in El Cajon stating they had the car I wanted on the lot and please call and come in.  I called and confirmed we were ready to get it done with an in-stock vehicle and drove down.  About the first thing out of her mouth when we arrived was, umm, this car has the Navigation system ($1100 extra that I didn’t ask for).  I said ok, we’ll look.  I liked the Nav system but it’s pretty expensive.

After some curious figures floating around, we came to realize the car had about $5000 in options that we did not want.  I think she was hoping we were clueless and believed the “Costco price” would be the best one.  We assured her she was off base.  She then tried to sell us another car that was closer but still had $600 in purely fluff options that we didn’t want.  Even without that junk, her “costco price” ($500 over invoice) was nothing special.  So we left, two hours down the drain.  We did make the trip fruitful, but that will be a future blog post.

One other place I did research was truecar.com.  It works a lot like Costco’s program but is free to everyone.  If you are a consumer reports member, the pricing engine there is the exact same one.  That site gave me a really great quote from there but I was wondering if there was a catch.  Plus the dealership giving the quote was in Bakersfield, 200 miles away.  After my bad experiences locally I decided to give them a call.

And it was beautiful.  The sales guy was very upfront and explained how the process would work clearly.  The quote was $535 under invoice ($430 over dealer cost).  In other words $1000 better than my best local offer.  And they would deliver the car to my door for free.  I made the order today.   (The car was ordered from the manufacturer today and I must wait about 8 weeks yet.)  I can’t say truecar will work as well for you.  But I have loved it so far.  Knock on wood, right?

Let’s talk about used cars for a minute.  I considered buying used even though the Outback was significantly smaller before 2010.  Too small?  I’m still not sure, I never tried to get my keyboard case in one.  Used Subarus are not that plentiful.  I guess in the cult of Subaru you keep your car for a long time.  The best one I found was at Carmax.  But upon running the numbers I found I would be on the wrong side of the depreciation curve with this model. (Email me if you don’t know what I mean.)  Basically, though it was cheaper than new, it wasn’t nearly cheap enough considering it was not new.  Also, it’s not a foregone conclusion that a used car saves you money.

Are you thinking of getting a car soon?  Aside from truecar, here are a couple of other articles you should use to prepare yourself.  And feel free to ask me if you want to know more about the purchase or research phases.

1st 40-miler

// August 29th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // finding fun

Today I rode 40 miles for the first time ever.  Well, I’m not sure what I pulled off as a teenager.  I probably rode 50 miles in a day but not all at once.  It was a really fun route with lots of nice hills…ok the nicest ones were down.  And I have some stories which became this post.

The temperatures were cold…well cold for San Diego.  When we started it was about 60 and it got into the low 70s as we rode inland.  That helped a lot.  I did feel a bit of cramping in the calves (never happened to me before).  That was kinda freaky but it passed.

The bike part of my tri is 25 miles so I am well-prepared for that which is nice to know.  As long as I solve the public nudity problem I am ready to go with that race!

Of the 10 riders today, I was the slowest.  Except going uphill, then I would be in the middle of the pack.  Why?  Maybe I’m just all slow-twitch muscle now.  A couple of those guys are just jocks and I have only been riding a couple of months.  Some of them have better equipment than me (which is why they leave me in the dust going downhill.)  When the group had to make a turn, we would stop and wait for everyone to catch up so nobody is left behind.  Of course it’s a little unfair, especially when the stop is at the top of a hill.  Everyone gets a chance to rest except the slowest person who huffs and puffs up the hill only to have everyone pull out when he finally arrives.

At one point a pair of cyclists rode past our group going the other direction.  All I noticed about them was one guy wore a hat instead of a helmet.  Idiot.  At the next stop, all the chatter was “did you recognize so-and-so?”  I guess hat guy is a famous pro cyclist.  I forgot his name.  He’s still an idiot for wearing a hat.

I met and chatted with a guy named Jim.  My guess is he’s close to my age but he was such a little kid.  Every downhill he pumped his legs as fast as he could, passing others and enjoying the speed.  He claimed he has only been cycling for 6 weeks, yet last weekend he rode 125 miles.  Not so sure about that.  He said he has some extreme diet which is why he never runs out of energy.  I asked him what he ate during his 8-hour ride.  He said a quart of milk, a couple of cokes, some grape juice, and one solid thing that I forgot.  All and all he was delightfully strange to talk with.  Yes, he’s single.

A few quick hits to finish up…

• I did not know there was a Slaughterhouse Canyon Road in San Diego county
• It was funny to see a street called Pebble Beach in La Mesa.  That would be a letdown if you accidentally went there.
• I did not expect to see a 5 1/4″ floppy on the side of the road.
• A lot of these folks were training for 1/2 Ironmans.  How do they have the time?

and where have I been?

// August 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // finding fun

How has everybody been?  I’ve been gone for a bit with visitors in town and music projects and a crashed hard drive.  But now we’re back.  In time for football season even!  This post is not about football though.

My company had another of their quarterly self-development sessions.  We’ve had these before.

On this day, we (among other things) took the FIRO-B personality assessment.  This test measures three dimensions of personality and I know you can’t wait to see my results…

I scored very low on desired and expressed affection/companionship. In other words, I’m a male. Actually, my score was not the typically male score.  There is a nickname for my score which is the “loner.”  What do you think, is that me?  I don’t think the nickname fits but after looking at what is being measured I understand it.

Have you ever been talking with someone who you don’t find interesting who keeps on sharing more and more and more of their issues?  That’s what was on my mind as I was answering questions like “Do you like it when people share their personal selves with you?”  My answer: only if it’s an interesting person doing the sharing!  Thus the low score.

I also scored very low on desired control but very high on expressed control. In other words, I want to tell everyone else how to live their lives and don’t want anyone to tell me the same. Christine says although I don’t do it with her, she has seen me behave that way.  I hope you all can forgive me.

The final dimension is inclusion.  These scores are not as interesting so I’ll be brief.  I scored high in desired inclusion and medium in expressed inclusion.  So I usually want to be included in social activities and I usually reciprocate in turn.

As I stated after the previous sessions, I really appreciate that my company invests in its employees this way.  I don’t always get a lot out of them because I am a self-reflective person and thus the insights I get out of them are few.  But they are still fun and I always wish for others to reflect as much as I do (or more).  Remember, I like to tell you all how to live their lives? Ha!  So I love that such an effort is made to encourage this kind of activity in others.

With that, I’ll sign off for tonight.  I’ve also started a post with a ton of self-reflection of my own so look for that in the next couple of days.

a weeknight with work folks

// July 31st, 2010 // No Comments » // finding fun

A couple of weeks ago one of my Toastmaster club members invited us over for a pot luck.  Christine and I attended.  We took photos.  The hostess’ house was beautiful though I didn’t try to capture that specifically.  Any stories I could tell would only be interesting within the club.  So join the club if you want in on this fun!  And enjoy the photos!

Naturally, everyone congregated around the food

Marco always makes us all laugh

I caught a smile from Elliott

Just try and get a word in with this group, I dare you

Smiling nice for the camera

Thanks for a lovely evening everyone!

hitting up the truck

// July 26th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // finding fun

A couple of months ago, Christine let me know about the MIHO Gastrotruck.

In some cities (but not Chicago), a trend has developed in which gourmet chefs bring their creations to the people in trucks.  Usually, they rent a commercial space where dishes are conceived and partially prepared.  Then they hit the road, often letting their fans know of their location or specials via Twitter.  MIHO is the first such truck in San Diego and I was excited to try it.

It comes close by my work location on Thursdays.  A couple of Thursdays back, I went with my buddies Dejah and Roby.  Having been a couple of times, I can say it’s very fine food and not expensive at all…unless you do it like Roby does.

I have tried a different dish each time. (My favorite is the MIHO dog, believe it or not.)  But Roby couldn’t decide and practically ordered one of everything.  I even lent him $10 so he could try it all.

Roby, preparing to buy the place out

This day I had the pulled pork sandwich.  It was fantastic.

The fried green tomato sandwich, a salad, and someone’s limb

As we arrived, we bumped into another friend, Ashley, which was a nice surprise…sort of.  I knew Ashley had become a regular at the MIHO.  So calling it a surprise might be a little inaccurate.

My lunch compatriots

I will be riding my bike to work for the next few Thursdays.  So I will have to take a break from the MIHO.  But the time will come when I will return.  San Diegans, you should check this one out.

continually concerned

// July 22nd, 2010 // No Comments » // finding fun

Tell me if you notice anything odd here…

Anything?

I rode my bike to work today and forgot to bring shoes.  So I wore my bike shoes all day.  The best part of the day was when a coworker said, “Todd, nice shoes!”  Should I be concerned that bike shoes count as good fashion for me?

A couple of days ago I was on my own for dinner.  So what do you think I did?  Headed off to the oft-mentioned-on-this-blog, Brett’s BBQ.  Duh!  That place is so good.  But I was a little concerned when I got the receipt…

Should I take this personally?  Is this the amount of food I will be receiving?

Next I headed over to Bed, Bath & Beyond.  This product caught my eye but not it a good way…

Sorry for the blurry iphone photo

As Jay Leno would say, “have we gotten so fat in this country…?”

one of my favorite wrecks

// July 20th, 2010 // No Comments » // finding fun

One of my favorite internet hangouts is the Cakewrecks blog.

A recent post continued the threadcakes series there.  A threadcake is a cake based on a t-shirt at threadless.com.  I am not so familiar with that store but I need to check it out based on the cakes I am seeing.

Check out the cakes I am talking about here:
The original post
Post #2
And this year’s post

I have pilfered my favorite of all three pages for your enjoyment below.

the inspiration

the resultant cake

Is that not spectacular and unbelievably cute?  Some of the other cakes are more technically special so go check them out.

who is the lucky one?

// July 18th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // finding fun

Today my long bike ride was on the schedule and I hoped to cover 30 miles.  After yesterday’s long run in the sun I was concerned.  Throughout the day yesterday I was stiff and sore and I wondered how I would fare today.  But the weekend was coming to an end so what could I do?  If I had to turn around early I would.

So I got up and drove over to Clairemont Mesa Blvd to meet my group. It was a small group today, just five of us.  It was about this time that I discovered my two water bottles were back in the refrigerator at home…and on a hot day.  Well, hot for San Diego.  It would reach high 80s in the afternoon and be about 80 during my ride.  This only increased my nervousness.

I did have a full sports bottle in my car that fit in my holster pretty well.  That’s about half of what I could easily drink and it was plain water.  So I stuck it in and figured it was the best I could do.

Surprisingly, I was pedaling pretty strongly.  The bottle popped out once but I retrieved it and it stayed put after that.  Eventually I made it to my turnaround point (15 miles) and left the rest of the group.  At this point I was about out of water and in (hotter) East county.  Time to see what I was made of!  Were heat-induced headaches in my future?

I rode towards the base of the most brutal hill on the route, turned a corner and….surprise!

There she was, cuteness herself.  (Note: there’s no good way to take photos during cycling)

Christine had not only noticed my lonely water bottle at home…she figured out where I was riding, calculated where I’d be and when, put on a tie dyed shirt, and came out to meet me.  What a fantastic surprise!

I gratefully accepted the cold electrolyte water from her and powered through the final 12 miles.  I finished the 30 in right around 2 hours.

Such a sweet one, she is!  As a reward I took her out for dim sum, spending about $30 on her.  Then we went out for a bit of car shopping (for me), where I will later spend about $30,000 (on me).  Once again, it looks like I got the best of this deal.  I think today my case is rock solid.

fun for everyone #4

// July 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // finding fun

Not Videos

Very few of you working stiffs out there can claim this achievement.

Do you swing? Not many white folks can but I’m not bad. On this site you can make any song swing. I bow my head in defeat.

Videos

It’s a dad life. Hilarious!

Japan, I would laugh so much without you. Recently, Japan found a silver lining to health problems.

Sophomoric and I love it.

If I were ever to learn to play guitar, it must be a Mario guitar!

the ultimate sucker punch

// July 15th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // finding fun

One week ago I went out for a bike ride.  While I was out, Lebron James announced that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers.  And with that, Cleveland’s best chance for a sports championship vanished.  But I am not going to talk about Lebron today.  Instead, I want to talk about a much more significant blow to poor ol’ Cleveland.  One that had a much bigger impact on me than a free agent signing with another team.

Cleveland’s sports woes are unparalleled.  The Browns last championship was in 1964.  It wasn’t even called the Super Bowl back then.  They have not yet reached a Super Bowl.  The Indians last won it all in the 40s.  They have since played in a couple of World Series in the 90s.  The Cavs have zero championships and made the finals once, getting swept in 2007.  Cleveland does not have a pro hockey team.  No city in America can come close to this sad collection of teams.  And if the losing were not bad enough…

In 1992, owner Art Modell said, “I’ve been treated royally in this town, and this town deserves a winner. And I’m not going to go more than three years without having something this town can be proud of.”  In November of 1995, Modell announced that he was moving the Browns to Baltimore following the season.  Some of you don’t recognize the magnitude of the shock this was.

• Football was invented in nearby Canton where the Pro Football Hall of Fame resides
• The Browns have the largest fan club in all of pro sports
• Over the last seven seasons (pre-move) Browns fans filled 99.8% of seats despite a combined 36-76 record

In short, the Cleveland Browns can compete with any team when it comes to tradition and fan loyalty.

“I will never move the Browns as long as I own the team” – Art Modell

Fan reaction to the news was swift.  I had previously connected with some Browns fans online and even met a couple of them.  These were the nascent days of the Internet.  Internet Explorer was on version 1.0.  Netscape was on version 1.22.  (Computer geek types: this was before cookies and javascript).  But we used such primitive tools to organize a series of protests.  I suspect what we did was the largest Internet-organized protests ever at the time.  We certainly got the NFL’s attention.

Here’s how it worked: Some folks organized lists of phone, fax, email and snail mail…of NFL teams, league offices, government representatives, networks, and advertisers.  Then others set a schedule of who to bombard when.  And the rest of us let ‘em have it.  The various organizations weren’t prepared for such an onslaught as they might be today and many were overwhelmed, unable to conduct their business.  It was reported that on our “Internet” protest day, email traffic was up 25%. This was before email was dominated by spam as it is today. A few folks even traveled to the off-season league meetings to protest directly.

“Art figured there would be protests because of the move, but he didn’t expect the firestorm that resulted,” said one NFL executive.  Sponsors that stopped advertising during Browns broadcasts included McDonalds, Papa Johns, Shell, Chevrolet, and Ameritech.  Congressional action was drawn up (though not passed).  And many NFL teams begged for mercy.

The media reaction was mixed.  Some organizations, most notably the NFL broadcast partners such as ABC and NBC toted the company line.  But smaller outlets spoke up for the little guy.  ESPN may be ridiculous now. But in those days, they were a voice of the fan. In particular, Chris Mortenson, Chris Berman, Keith Olberman, and Mike Lupica spoke up early and often on our behalf.

I’m not sure what result would have come from the media coverage and fan protests alone.  Luckily, we also had the law on our side.

“Something has gone awry. Our system is out of balance. We can’t hopscotch franchises around the country. We have built this business on the trust of the fans. If we treat that as if it doesn’t count, it isn’t going to wash“- Art Modell

Because of contentious stadium negotiations a few years earlier which I won’t detail here, the lease tying the Browns to Cleveland Municipal Stadium was iron clad and extended three more years (through the 1998 season).  The local politicos saw a golden opportunity and sued the Browns for violation of specific performance.  They won in a slam dunk and suddenly had leverage over the NFL.  If the league would not play ball with Cleveland, the city could force the Browns to stay for three more years, playing to empty seats while hemmoraging cash.

Just before that order was issued, the NFL and Cleveland came to an agreement.  The league guaranteed an existing or expansion team would come to Cleveland within three years.  The new team would retain the Browns name, colors, logo (?), history, and records.  The NFL contributed about $40M towards a new stadium and reimbursed the city’s legal expenses.  Art Modell paid $12M in damages to the city.  It’s not really what we fans wanted (we wanted the team to stay with a new owner).  But it was a pretty good showing against a league with an antitrust exemption.

“What makes the NFL great is the stability of the franchises staying in the same location.”- Art Modell

The Browns did eventually come back as an expansion team.  But for me, it was never the same.  I try to spend as little money as possible on the NFL anymore.  Instead, my football loyalties now center on The Ohio State Buckeyes.  Ohio State is an institution inextricably tied to some of my best memories.  And they will never leave.

Big Dawg

But as for the end of that era, Bill Plaschke said it well.

Yeah, that’s Thompson, the huge guy with the droopy dog mask who has sat in the Cleveland Browns’ end zone for ages, typifying the loyalty and looniness of what were once the league’s best fans.  Remember them? There was an average of 65,000 a game at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium. Not for one year, not for 10 years, but for 50 years.  I remember. I was there the last year, the last day. It was Dec. 17, 1995, the Browns’ last home game before Modell moved the team to Baltimore.

That day, Big Dawg took off his mask and wept. Many in his section wept. Many Cleveland players ran to the end zone and joined them.

As I watched the end on TV, me and my tears were right there with Big Dawg and the team.