Ash happenings, the unofficial biennial update

[ash78]

Hey peeps! Work and life have been busy AF for the past several months, and I don't have copy/paste privileges on this site, so I apologize for the lack of non-textual content. Our work restrictions are pretty random, with site blockages and copy/paste limitations (I had the same issue on Kinja, too).

Car search: Still driving my 2001 Passat wagon. Now I'm just going to keep it thanks to the used car market insanity...hopefully it will die down later this year because I'm itching to get into something I can drive without fear of it falling apart any more than it already has (the Germans' secret ingredient for ensuring the integrity of interior components is: dust!)

We strongly considered a travel trailer, so I know more about towing capacities of SUVs and trucks than I ever wanted to...but hey. Now we're reassessing our needs and not likely to take the RV route, but along the way I fell in love with the Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Edition -- with Hemi, leather dashboard, air suspension, etc -- which is basically like a Range Rover for half the price and twice the reliability (note: twice the reliability of a Range Rover is still half as good as the rest of the market).

Got the Covid vax as soon as I could, then lived a semi-normal life with a summer beach vacation and not wearing a mask indoors. That's over now, apparently, thanks heavily to my rural neighbors who are still convinced that vaccines might have long-term effects.

However, we are still planning to hit Colorado in late September with the kids AND my parents. Flying to Denver and immediately driving to a nice rental house up in Estes Park. Planning to hit Rocky Mountain NP for 3-4 of those days, plus daytrips to Ft. Collins and renting a modded Jeep Gladiator for a day so we can do some light/moderate offroading in the area. Extremely excited -- that's Elk and Moose rutting season, so they're supposedly all over the place. We won't have any real time in Denver thanks to our flight schedules, but TBH I could take or leave almost any large city. I'm there for the mountains, anyway

How's everyone doing?

Ash

[Dr. Zoidberg]

@ash78 good to hear from you, and glad things are well.

[CarsOfFortLangley]

@ash78 good to hear frome you! Re the used car market, you'd probably sell your passat for more as well, so it's kinda a wash right?

The Jeep sounds like an awesome idea

[kiltedpadre]

@ash78 I visited Rocky Mountain NP the first week of October many years ago and it was amazing. Some of the park roads over the mountains were unfortunately already closed for the season. The elk more than made up for it; they were EVERYWHERE. They were even walking around right outside of downtown Estes Park.
We only saw one moose, but the locals I was visiting said they saw them more often on the other side of the passes that were closed.

Have fun!

[Chariotoflove]

@ash78

Just trucking along. My daughter is a member on this forum now and practicing her driving in my car. I hear you on the used car market right now. I've been bitching on here for the last couple of months about it.

Keep coming around. Everything is growing.

[chan]

Nice to hear from you Ash! We’re doing what we can to not go crazy in this pandemic world.

Hope you have a fun and safe trip.

[ash78]

@carsoffortlangley Unfortunately, the math is something like "Passat was worth $1,000, now it's worth $1,500" and "Used Grand Cherokee was $38k last year, now it's $45k for the same thing"

I'm just kicking myself for not buying 1-2 years ago when I first started looking. Usually patience is a virtue!

[ash78]

@kiltedpadre Yep, we're going to try to hit the west side of the park as soon as we arrive, since snowfall starts up really sporadically in October. September is usually safe, statistically, but with the crazy weather/climate all over the world lately, who knows?

The snowpack up there has been pretty thin for years (Have you seen Lake Powell and Lake Mead at the other end of the river?! Insane.) so I think the snowfall statistics are on our side...

I just want to hike up on a glacier before they really start disappearing.

[MM54]

Good to hear from you!

[davesaddiction]

@ash78

Your upcoming trip sounds amazing! Hope it all goes according to plan.

[Manwich]

@ash78 said in Ash happenings, the unofficial biennial update:

How's everyone doing?

I'm doing fine. Went camping last month and renting a cottage for a week later this month.

Got new front pads, rotors, calipers and bleed valves on my Fit recently... CAD$1200... but now they're like new and smooth as silk when I step on the brakes.

"apparently, thanks heavily to my rural neighbors who are still convinced that vaccines might have long-term effects."

Tell them "You know what can also have long-term effects? Getting a bad case of COVID!"

And add a side note that vaccines don't prevent getting it. Vaccines are like pre-prepping your immune system so that if you do get it, your immune system is already prepared and doesn't hit as bad.

I've had to give at least a few people this explanation about how vaccines work.

I'm surprised that even in Canada, there are so many people uneducated about such a basic and common thing.

[AMGtech]

@ash78 That summit is knocking on the door of the Defender price-wise!

[Shop-Teacher]

@ash78 Good to see you!

I'm doing pretty ok. I had a fun summer, which ends in six days, but thems the breaks.