Welp, after many many interviews I received my offer, and it was very generous. The only sticking point was PTO, they offer three weeks. I pushed back and will have five weeks/year.

Now I gotta wait, because November 1st I get a nice amount of stock given to me by my current employer, so my start date with the new gig will be November 15th.

In the meantime we're going to Montreal for two weeks (PTO), so that'll be welcome too.

I got me a grandson! Lucas James made his arrival into this world at 5:12pm EDT and all is well. This is a pic of your newest grandfather

Welp, I'm done with unnecessary car shopping simply because the price of used Mercedes and Lexus sedans are crazy. It's been well documented that used vehicle prices have soared and will likely remain elevated for years to come, mostly due to a lack of new inventory. Traditionally the market had a steady flow of off-lease inventory that savvy consumers could snag, but since there's very few cars available new, the supply has been minimized. The cars I see tend to have a ton of miles on the clock, and yet are still priced like gold (or Bitcoin). I'm tapping out.

The money I had saved for an unnecessary car will be applied to my mortgage. This is completely out of character for an Oppo, adulting isn't my strength.

Can't make this up folks. Friday Mrs. ME gets up at 4am to catch a flight to San Diego to attend a memorial service for her uncle who passed a few months ago. I stayed behind to work Friday, spend the weekend minding the dog, and work on the cottage construction project. 20 minutes before Mrs ME and her family were due to board Delta canceled the flight, no staff to operate the plane. So the flight that was supposed to land at 10:30 am in San Diego became a re-route through LAX and she got there at midnight. That was nothing compared to what was going on here.

I was chillin with the dog and crashed around 11pm, and was woken up at 1am with people pounding on my door. Dog lost her shit, I stumbled to the door to find out who the fuck was trying to take my door off the hinges. Search and rescue team, asking if they could search my property. Doggo was not happy with all these random people wandering around with flashlights, took a long time before I could go back to sleep.

Saturday morning I'm sitting on my front porch with doggo drinking coffee and a search & rescue dude shows up. He asks if they can park their vehicles and whatnot on my property, it would make their job immeasurably easier. I said sure, whatever I can do to help, there's room to park dozens of vehicles. He sez, well, there's gonna be a lot of us. Shrug, do what ya gotta do. BTW, don't pound the shit outta my door next time, I have a doorbell.

Next thing you know I have seven SUV's here, and off they go searching. Apparently a woman was hiking the state park and had gone missing Friday night, now that it was daylight they hoped to find her quickly. 45 minutes later the search team is back hanging out under the eaves of my shop, cuz it was pissing rain. I wandered over to open up the shop, thought perhaps the missing person may be taking shelter. I lock the shop at night, but figured I'd check all the same and also give these folks somewhere dry to hang out. I asked if they had found her, and they did. Deceased. Sheriff told me where she had fell, I'm familiar with the several hundred foot ravine that ends @ the Wallace river.

Much discussion amongst the 30 people about how to fetch the lady, and finally off they go. Another 45 minutes go by and they're back with a stretcher. Hard to miss the yellow body bag. They put the poor lady behind one of the lead SUV's and then begin the long process of putting all their gear back into the various vehicles. It took three hours for the medical examiner to show up and claim the lady, they finally left at 3pm. Surreal.

2006 Volvo XC70 Cross country, for the most part Oppo material (automatic transmission notwithstanding). 150k miles, one owner, 34 service records from the local dealership.

Seems like forever since I could point out shit going on that's good, uplifting as it were.

• House building is almost done, close date September 2nd. I gotta finish the floors this weekend

• I interviewed with an interesting company, and they will be sending me a written job offer end of next week. They know what I'm earning now, and they will beat it

• Start date 11/15. Why so long? I get a whack of stock from my current company 11/1, then provide two weeks notice

• 10/1 to 10/15 I'm going home to Montreal! Get to meet my grandson Lucas

All's finally looking up

This showed up unannounced (she's a very good girl)

For Whistler/Blackcomb tomorrow morning, eight days all told. Skiing, snow shoeing, and skating. Also, beer. That is all

I'll install the garage doors this weekend

The sides are fine

see the gaps around the base, where there's light shining through? Gotta fill with extra material (from the foundation dig) and level the shop before the concrete floor can be poured

The roof is insulated, I hafta do the walls at some point. Also run electrical (it has it's own 200amp service), gutters, windows along the back wall, and install a wood burning fireplace. Finally, needs a lift asap.

Cross posting from the 1 million thread:

If you're anything like me, you love hanging out here and you kick in some cash, then time marches on and you're due to get caught up. Donate whatever you can afford, $5 helps. Donate more if it works for you, we sure as fuck don't want ads or Herbs running this place. TIA, your immoral conscience

@Milky When Mrs. ME got her Miata we took a road trip up the coast to Cali, it was miserable. At 6' 190 lbs I just don't fit in that car and it was very uncomfortable, Mrs ME is 5'2" and 125lbs, she loves it.

If you're anything like me, you love hanging out here and you kick in some cash, then time marches on and you're due to get caught up. Donate whatever you can afford, $5 helps. Donate more if it works for you, we sure as fuck don't want ads or Herbs running this place. TIA, your immoral conscience

Turns out being excellent, is excellent. $100 donated to top up the tank, thanks for the reminder

How many farts in the seats when you bought it? How many since? Does the cabin air filter work as expected?

Hello, my name is Doug Demuro. Gimme

@NKato just as well, I already rescued a pupper and I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to share us with another.

Technical glitch.. nothing but cheesy music and no puppers

@davesaddiction I can honestly say I don't think Ford has ever built a quality product, which is hard to believe as Toyota and others enjoy a great reputation and happy customers. The Big Three build crap but people keep buying em anyway. Bizarre.

Ford CEO has said recently they HAVE to improve their quality, their warranty costs are by far the highest in the industry. It's killing profitability and as such, limiting R&D investment and stock valuation.

Most here know I absolutely hate Ford, but the narrative isn't coming from me, it's coming from Ford itself.