The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
If there is an upside to my age, the words "accrue" and "for my kids" is pretty much the same thing. I can lease much cheaper and I have no interest in any long, long range plans to keep something from now on. If I go before it does. I'm fine. If I last to the end of the lease then I get a new car every three years. At my age that is about the most excitement I can handle or hope for.

Actually I had your thoughts talk with my Mom this year. She fears her car though older with only 40K miles and in good mechanical shape might fail and she may have to replace. (she has the money no issue just the thought she will likely only be able to own it for a few years before not being able to drive at 83) I told her it be stupid to buy a new $30K replacement. She is a perfect example at her age to lease. And everyone is different in what makes them happy. Me I need my truck to get me to and from. I never cared if it was the latest or the newest. I needed it to start and get me from point A to point B and be safe. Beyond that I always viewed cars as an Asset that depreciated way to rapidly unlike other major investments that gained in value. Just my personal take on autos.
 

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
Just wondering where a camera is in a hotel room there? Were you referencing if you hooked up your laptop, for example? I'm not a techno person, so I was trying to figure this out.

Giggle. I didn't go far enough with that. Sorry. If I see a red light which can be for a battery or more nefarious I just place about a one inch piece of painters tape over that area in a hotel room. It is difficult to tell the difference between a creepy camera and a battery red light or a camera red light and it is ever changing. Turn the lights off in a hotel room and look, it is easy to spot. I also put blue tape over the peek hole on the door. Creep's have been known to turn them the opposite way to peek in. If I need to look out I can peel the tape off.

I traveled a great deal with my career especially when I was a bit younger. My neighbor our Deputy Sheriff taught me what and how to look for things. He also sent my DD off to college her Freshman year with a pretty, baby pink can of Pepper Spray concealed on a lanyard and taught her how to properly use it. Precaution never hurts.
 

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
That was always my mom's way....she'd save for several years, and we'd buy a used car and she'd drive it for almost a decade. She always said never to make payments because you end up paying so much more than the car is worth and you never OWN it. Which I see her point. But then we got a real lemon. When we bought it, the salesman said that they had just replaced the engine, so it was like getting a brand new car, but for the price of a used one. We had nothing but problems with that car. 2 years into driving it, we had to replace the engine again...it was completely shot. We thought it was a fluke. In the winter, all the locks on it would freeze. DH couldn't get his door closed, so he had to drive down the street with one hand holding the door closed until it warmed up enough that he could close it. My door wouldn't open from the inside, so I had to roll down the window and reach out to open it up....and then one day, the window was frozen shut and I had to wave frantically to a coworker who happened to be by the door at work to come out and open the door. One time I had to crawl out the window because it wouldn't open either inside or out. The dealership said it was a manufacturing issue with that make and model of car...then why didn't they recall it? Driving with only one hand because you have to hold your door closed is not safe! So, after another 2 years went by and the engine cratered AGAIN, it just wasn't worth it to repair. We had already put several thousand into repairs and it wasn't even WORTH 2 thousand by that time. We didn't want to get stuck paying more in repairs than a car was worth if there was a "manufacturing problem" so we started leasing. If there's a problem, it's not OUR problem, and we get a new one every 5 or 6 years....it's fantastic. SO much nicer than owning a car and having to worry every time something goes wrong how we're going to pay for it.

It is just what we value. I've never had a car payment. I didn't like a mortgage payment either. Early in life I bought a condo. Sold a condo. Bought a house and worked 2 jobs cause I wanted to own it not pay interest, paid it off in 12 years which felt like an eternity to me to owe...I have friends that just kept refinancing and still keep paying on the same house. Me I could never do stuff like that not wired for it. Not necessarily wrong, just not a me kinda thing. So goes life.
 

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
@Gabe1 I like your new shoes:joyfull:

I love my new boots. I am a pretty conservative dressing woman, style but I'm not the kind of lady to try and dress like my DD and relive my youth, not the type to wear a sundress half way up my bum in my AARP year and look ridiculous. But then there is a weakness. It is shoes. I LOVE shoes. If they are colorful or eclectic, frye boots, or Jimmy Choo's latest I've owned them at some point or still do. My weakness. It is a pretty safe vice in the wardrobe department and have always had an addiction to shoes. I've passed that addiction to my kids. But I have always avoid rack rate, I find amazing sales and discounts, also taught that to my kids and it stuck.
 

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
Hello forum friends!
Just curious....how often do you check personal e-mail?
I feel that many people really depend and focus on texting and therefore they seldom check their e-mail.
What say any of you on this topic?

I text. Email I gave up on about a decade ago on a personal level. As an example I was up in Wisconsin with my DD for a Day Trip. My Mom sent me an early morning email (retired elderly lady) and by noon she had left a message on my landline answering machine telling me off that I had not replied to her question about dinner times when my Sis would be visiting...I stopped social email, switched the landline answering machine to off and subsequently dropped the landline. I have my iPhone. A quick text will do. I they go to voicemail I receive a print text of the message left. Rewarding not to be left with 'work' of replying to knee jerk emails I had to respond to, answering machines with messages I had to deal with. Social and family life shouldn't be daunting. A quick text to me is something I can respond to in due time and when my life allows time for it. The amount of emails at one point I received on so many family friend levels was stupid. A husbands cousin that was anti abortion sent explicit emails in mass contacts and then because of exposed email addresses I was then hit with similar emails from others of like form. No desire, no time for that, not how I wanted to spend my time responding. I exited that life. I now receive a couple of emails a week of value at best, sometimes less. Freedom.
 

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
I don't text. I read email a few times a day if at home. When I'm at work, I'm hammered with emails all day long.

Both my kids format at work is IM'ing. It isn't always an immediate response but the platform is set to be few words and quick answers. The younger tend to be less wordy in business life. Have you proof'd this. Yes, No.
 

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
I think the site needs some coffee this morning. Some peoples avatars aren't showing and I'm having problems quoting. @SteveBrickNJ Prayers and pixie dust for you and your dw. I hope this is the last of her medical problems

I've seen Steve acknowledge some issues with the site in the lounge and the thread dedicated to tech issues. He is trying his best but many things are due to ads that are needed to sustain the site vs not having this site at all which would please members less.

Many of us watched WDW Radio form site go dark forever one day. I'd hate to see that happen here so I'd plead for people to be kind and constructive with their problems vs some peoples rants about their troubles and certainly about his choices about smiley faces offerings if we think of it from his point of priorities. :oops: An acknowledgement about it needing coffee is cute vs nasty. Well done. The overwhelming majority of members are non-contributing members of $5 a month that offset his costs, he doesn't turn away non subscribers. Admirable.
 

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
I checked for my family for the week before labor day with the free dining. Staying at the cabins is just under $5000 for 5 nights and 6 days. I don’t think that is terrible considering the meals and tickets are included. We could go to AOA for $5000, or get 2 rooms at Port Orleans or Caribbean Beach for about $5400. It is making me rethink May.

Why we as a family do late summer for our long trips, with either the Free Dining or the best discounts on rooms, it is a no brainier. We use to do October but the costs ramp up by then and the free dining dwindles, steep discounts are not as great in the fall anymore, especially this year given the StarWars launch, so late summer it has been for the last 5 years or so, usually first weeks in September for us. But lately we sneak in a Christmas and Flower and Garden short trips, at best 5 nights for those. I'm enjoying having adult children with careers and income. There is light and rainbows at the end of college tuition.
 

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