Toad got dusty when we did the CO Oppo meet. I took it to the gym and then Costco and it was raining when I left the store.
That got the car too dirty, so I did some quick svending, and just had to take a few photos.
I love this car. We return to regularly scheduled programming.
Few blocks from my house.
And I mean it literally and figuratively. He passed away peacefully in our house, and the vet took him to the cremation place.
He was the bestest dog ever, and will be missed. Thank you all for you kind words in the past few days.
A little while ago, I got the idea for a piece of art for our entryway. Wife just got a horse, I love taking photos of horses, but I wanted to try something different.
Enter Lowe’s and the most expensive 4x8’ piece of really nice birch plywood. This was an excuse to buy a palm sander too. 5-6 boxes of nails (close to 400 per box), and I was ready to hammer.
I sanded and stained (dark walnut) the plywood weeks ago, and had the piece sitting in my garage forever. Last Friday, I started the nail project. Everything was eyeballed - distance between nails and how far I hammered them in. I was going for close but not perfect so it didn’t look too… machine made I guess.
This is how we started.
I went around and hammered nails deeper as needed, and I used needle nose pliers to change angles as needed.
We finished the nail part tonight. Just under 2000 nails I think.
My plan is to find some boxed metal in this similar galvanized look, and to weld a frame around this, to hide the plywood edges. I’d also create a mounting system in the back as this will be fairly heavy to hang. I might make it float an inch from the wall.
I like how the lights shimmer on the nail heads, so depending on where we hang it, I might get a light on the opposite wall to shine on it.
I am still not convinced that we should stop here - original idea was to fill the outlines with nails.
For my next project, I might do an automotive design.
Any “art” critics on Oppo? 
As some of you might know, I had a friend that died recently, and both my wife and I decided to get what we want out of life now, instead of waiting for the house to be paid off.
So, I've been hunting for M2/M3/M4/Cayman/Boxter/911, with a manual. Very hard to find in Colorado.
My M2 search is for 2018+ models, under $50000. One popped up somewhat locally for me, down in Denver metro area, some 90 minutes away from me. Gray, 22k miles, $45k, slightly higher than nationwide pricing but in line with KBB and NADA and decent for Colorado as we don't get many here.
I contacted them, verified the car arrived, and that it was a manual. Amazing service off the bat - they contacted me right away, told me they changed all 4 tires, sent me a personal video walkthrough of the car, told me they were waiting for one part, and when I asked what part, they said "license plate bracket". I figure it was one of those front bumper brackets which attaches to the bumper and the plate lives in it, just like I have on my Abarth. Those are model specific, so I presumed they were just waiting on that part.
So, I arrange a time to come and drive it - wife was heading downtown to pickup some work stuff, and I figured I'd tag along. Usually, we'd take the RDX for highway driving, but I brought the Abarth so I could trade it in case I couldn't leave without the BMW. I arranged an approximate time, told him I'd call when I leave Fort Collins and when I leave downtown for more precise ETA.
I texted when I left FoCo, and 43 minutes later, as we arrived to downtown Denver, got an answer that they were still waiting on the part. The license plate bracket. So before I left downtown for another 30 minute drive down to Highland Ranch, I texted if I could still drive the car as he was sounding like I couldn't, although a license plate bracket doesn't matter - dealers in Colorado just slap a magnetic DLR PLT on the back or even on the dash and you are good to go.
Well, not this one apparently, this one could only show me the car - after we've been chatting for 2 days about driving it - but I couldn't drive it. Standard dealer bullshit of "get them in the showroom regardless of everything".
I text again, telling him I need to know within 5 minutes if I can drive the car or not, in awe that I can't drive it after we talked about it for two days, after I drove 70 miles, all because of the missing bracket.
No text comes back, wife comes back to the car in 5 minutes, and we turn around and head home.
26 minutes after I texted him that I needed to know in 5 minutes if I should head down or not, I get another message saying he's still looking into it. I was already half way out of Denver by then.
I politely texted him that I was half way home, and thank you for your help.
Another 15 minutes later, and suddenly "he obtained exclusive permission to drive it before they get the license plate bracket". I'm like are you fucking kidding me here?
Suddenly, I am getting calls from the sales manager, texts are arriving and they are so sorry, and they will make it right, just come in.
Well, go fuck yourselves. I bought two previous vehicles from Schomp. Guess where the third one won't be coming from??
I am still in shock a bit, that they used a missing license plate bracket as an excuse to try to get me into the showroom, but not to allow me a test drive.
I hate how dealers ruin a huge part of my hobby and the shopping experience because of... I don't even know why. At least they didn't do false imprisonment like they tend to do with missing keys for the trade in and not letting you leave.
Meet Magic! I call him Fleck (German for spot), but wife insists on Magic.
He’s a 4 year Appaloosa Hanoverian mix. They just trailered him from South Dakota and he’s getting to know his new home.
I always turn around to look at it one more time. I love this thing.
After 14 hours of laying down, being mostly paralyzed-like, Bruno is better. For 14 hours, his hind legs felt like they weren’t attached to him. I knew he wasn’t paralyzed as he moved a few times, and when tickled he’d respond, but something was off. I jammed a Rimadyl down his throat, and another one some 12 hours later, and they might have helped.
We slept with him on the couch, and at 5am, we took him out to try to pee - he’s been drinking but not going to pee for half a day. I carried him out (a chore at 100lbs of limp weight), and held his back and he actually pooped, than walked away on his own and peed. He also decided he does want food - as long as it wasn’t any type of dog food - pan fried chicken was the answer. I’m thawing a huge packet of breast for him.
As for why we didn’t go to the vet - only emergency vet I know around here won’t let you in because of COVID. I managed to track down a vet my FIL uses in another county, out in the boonies, and he’ll let me be with him, so I’m scheduling a time to check him out. Vet thinks that based on the symptoms, there is a good chance we had a bad slipped disk and partial paralysis. He also wants him on more Rimadyl, but we’ll do a blood test to check his liver and kidneys to see if we can do another drug which is great.
It seems we avoided the worst for now. I imagine rainbow bridge ain’t too far away, and doggy heaven will be better for having him, but I selfishly get to keep him for a while longer. 
It had googlie eyes and the raccoon was over the privates. (
I’ve been wanting to go for 20 years and finally made it here.
We haven’t even made it to Arches National Park as the “roads were snowy” so they closed the damn park. Here are 3 arches and one bridge we saw today - Corona, Bow tie, Pinto and Grandstaff
@gettingoldercarguy Jalapeño peppers measure 2,500–8,000 on the Scoville scale. The certified hottest pepper in the world is the Carolina Reaper, at 2,200,000 Scoville units
Get some milk. And painkillers
@rctothefuture Nope, $500 deductible. Better than cashing out $1250.
As for mandatory diagnostics, sure, but $160 is a charge for full hour of labor. They shouldn’t just charge whatever they want regardless of how long it takes to diagnose.
@cash-rewards Insurance should be covering this job, so anything over $500 shouldn’t matter. But it still sucks.
@2-jeeps-and-a-mustang-wants-a-fiata I never had a single issue with a sunroof before. I don’t use them much and don’t really care about having one or not having one, so yeah, might try to avoid them in future.
@grindintosecond I checked a bit and found one similar event back in 2013. It doesn’t seem to be a known common issue.
@misterbuttercup Yeah, it’s ridiculous, no wonder dealerships have the reputation that they do.
@houstonrunner I doubt it. And yes, it sucks a lot.