Monthly Archives: August 2009

Traveling on Their Dime

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Posted by Man on the Door on August 21, 2009 – 6:38 pm
Filed under Uncategorized

Radio-Flyer-WagonThere’s nothing quite like taking a trip on someone else’s dime. I really wish that my family could have come along though. A week away from those you love is a long time!

I’m writing this while I’m gone but not posting it until I get home…

I got a couple of projects finished up the week before last and then I kind of fell off of the edge of the world. There was nothing really pressing on me at the office so I was helping someone else out when my boss walks in to my office. “What are your plans for next (this) week?” Well, now I’m sitting in a hotel in Spokane, WA two time zones later than what I’m used to. The one good thing is that our architect really treats us well. I’ve got a hotel room with 2 queen beds (not sure why, but hey — it keeps my stuff off of the floor) and they take me to so many of the really good restaurants. Up here in Washington, the restaurants are really heavy on the sea food since they can actually get it fresh. The problem is that if it swims, I generally don’t like it. I’ve tried to branch out and try the appetizers for the table — calamari so far — and it has been pretty good, but I don’t know if I can really “risk” a whole meal on fish. If I would ever get a good dish to retry seafood I’m sure it would be here on a coastal state, but it’s just hard to actually order it.

The reason I’m up here is to inspect an existing 4-bay airplane hangar that was built somewhere around the 40’s. This thing is really beautiful on the inside — at least to a structural engineer. The main hangar bays are barrel vaulted trusses and and the simplicity of the structural system is just astounding. What is even more amazing is that this facility was completed with a slide rule and drawn by hand. I know how to use a slide rule and have done hand drafting, but this would just be ridiculous. We are now adding a fire suppression system to the building. It would be a highly expansive foam system, similar to this:

Our space is much much MUCH bigger though. Maybe not square footage wise, but volume wise for sure. Hopefully I can make it through a week of being on my feet and get back to my family in one piece!

I Feel So Unsatisfied

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Posted by Man on the Door on August 6, 2009 – 7:58 pm
Filed under Accidents!, Cars, satisfaction
Tagged as , , ,

Teddy KGB: Want a cookie?Although “favorite” might be a stretch, I really like the movie Rounders. There are so many one liners that and parts that just stick with me. Especially John Malkovich’s awkward accent as “Teddy KGB”. The most relevant of the one liners to me recently is what  I titled this post. I feel so unsatisfied.

We got the Mrs.’ car accident taken care of. Well, the “we” part was a bit lacking — she did 99% of it. First call to insurance led us to a Friday appointment with an adjuster (the accident happened on Monday the 27th). That was too long to wait, so she got it to another adjuster that had walk-in type hours the next day (Tuesday). He got the paperwork taken care of and said that the car was probably going to be totaled. Friday (still taking the same week here) we got a call from the total-loss guy and got that paperwork started. The settlement they offered was dead on with what we were prepared to argue and we accepted the paperwork through email and hand delivered it back to the adjuster. We picked up our check today. Way to go Farmers! Really, I was prepared for an argument — or at least to back up the Mrs. in her’s.  Nothing like getting worked up for a fight an then nothing.

Well, in the midst of all this, we’ve been looking for a replacement car for the Mrs. for a while now. My brother is a salesman at a local dealership and we’ve been talking with him about it and we even had his ‘guy’ out checking auctions for us. We had also been checking his dealership’s website looking at what was out there. After driving an Equinox and an Escape (both used of course…), we decided that the cars were essentially the same other than looks. The Equinox held the lead in this category slightly, but we never ruled out the Escape.

Well, last Friday, we checked the dealership’s website and found an 06 Escape in the miles and (almost) the price range we wanted. They also had an Equinox on the lot that was a little more, uh, loved, but cheaper for sure. It felt like that was going to be the day. We drove both and it came down to my short wife being able to see out of one of the car better. The Escape was the car for us and our car fever was about maxed out. Now, we were working with my brother and it was the last day of the month, so good time to deal, right? Well, not so much. The vehicle was already priced really low for the mileage, age, and condition it was in according to our research. But we tried anyway. We started out the back-and-forth with about $1500 off of what they were asking and sent my brother out for the approval. Well, the general manager was not so, well, pleased with it and basically said, “Thanks, but no thanks”. We tried again and again a couple of times, but we ended up not getting much off of what the dealer had it listed for. But like I said it was still a good deal according to our research ($2k+ less than KBB, among others…)

So all that preparation for the fights and nothing, really, out of either of them. Insurance treated us well, and I still feel my brother did the same. I still, just, feel so unsatisfied.