BlueSky

I feel your pain. I have a Sears 18" 3.4cc gas chain saw that I bought about 1980. Boy is it a pain to get started. I use it about once every several years. If at all possible use ethanol free gasoline in all of your small engines that sit. It makes a big difference in how hard it is for them to be started. The local Home Depot won't warranty lawn tools with small engines if you use ethanol mix gasoline.

I got to ride in the new 2016 Mustang GT today when he took me to the dealer to pick up my car that he had been driving since he came home for the holidays. WOW! It is sooo nice. It is so solid feeling and so well insulated for road noise. It is a far cry from the Mustangs of old. The 435hp engine is impressive too.

Well, today he bought a new 2016 GT Mustang. That was what he originally wanted and then got sidetracked on the Corvette. The 2007 Corvette Z06 with 5.8k miles was just about the same price as the new 2016 GT Mustang.

#2 Our system will provide medical help for people without medical insurance at taxpayers expense (supporting the local county hospitals) and higher charges to people who do have insurance. So, if it saves taxpayer or consumer money by forcing people to wear helmets, this is one argument for requiring helmets. I don't have any strong feelings either way. I do wear my helmet. But, it really increases the feeling of freedom without it. A half helmet is on my list to buy because it feels almost like not having one on. #3 From my experience of pulling a travel trailer, sometimes when I thought I could pass and tried to do so a slight grade change would slow down the passing time considerably. So, some of that may not be intentional on the semi drivers part. #4 I'd love to be able to lane split or at least pass in the break down lane when traffic is stopped. I admit I have passed in the break down lane illegally in the past. #5 How about no license fees for motorcycles especially the smaller ones above a certain mpg rating. The larger motorcycles burn about the same amount of fuel as an economy car. #7 Usually accident prone motorcycle riders don't continue to be motorcycle riders. But, I agree that more training would be a good thing.

I was quoted $400 for cleaning the 4 carbs on my Kawasaki. I cleaned them myself.

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Well, it doesn't look like my son is going to buy a Z06. He came home for Christmas with a bag of cash hoping to buy an 07 Z06 located a few miles from me that only had 5k miles on it. But, he didn't want it quite bad enough to pay a grand more than he was hoping to pay. Probably for the best. It's a dangerously fast car.

I think most people will obey the law most of the time whether or not they think they will get caught breaking the law. I like the law about staying out of the passing lane when feasible. Too many people ride the left lane slower than most of the traffic so they won't ever have to worry about passing anybody. I've done a lot of interstate driving over the last 20 years and I'm sorry ladies, the ladies seem to be the worst offenders of driving in the fast lane holding up traffic.

And most of them smell.

Yeah, I know. Just like the Kawa Concours I had. I commented after the post on Yamaha going to V-twins in the "new Venture".

Pennsylvania has the same law. You are supposed to stay in the right lane on a 4 lane highway unless you are passing. I spent a lot of time on the road in PA going to my temporary jobs in PA and in NY. At night the tractor trailers fill the highways and they don't care if they are blocking both lanes. One night I got tired of being blocked and passed the truck in the left lane with my foot on the floor. I just barely had enough room to clear that truck and the one ahead of me in the right lane. I had to turn hard into the left lane and even harder to the right to keep from going off the road resulting in my F150 going up on the left two wheels at 80mph! I then slowly turned to the right and set the truck back down as softly as I could beside the truck in the right lane. It took several seconds and all of my driving skill to regain control of the truck when it touched down. That was one of the stupidest things I've ever done. The truck blocking the left lane saw what happened and moved over to the right lane. Yeah I know, I'm a big dummy!

I recently had my asphalt shingles replaced for about $6200 and I chose the more expensive architectural shingles. My roof isn't that large. The house is a 2 story with 2,145 sq ft living area with a double garage. In Seattle you must be paying really high union wages or something. I would think the cost of shingles are the same across the country.

I used to pay a couple dollars extra for uninsured/underinsured motorists on my car insurance policy. Now it is many times that. It seems to me to be coincidental to the flood of illegal aliens. Just seems to me.

It's normal for gas prices to jump a little just before a holiday when more driving will take place. It's called capitalism.

Yeah, in the USA when you pass, the butthole may pull over into the passing lane and try to kill you.

Unbelievably warm weather here. It's been in the 70's for a while and will continue for another week here in Wilmington, NC.

Yes, we will read anything about sex!

That is one reason I ride old bikes and don't have collision or comprehensive insurance. The liability ins on my Venture is about $200/year.

$1.919/gallon for my fillup yesterday at Sam's Club for 87 octane. It was interesting to say the least when the Arabs boycotted the USA and wouldn't sell us oil in 1973 because of our support for Israel. At that time we were only paying $2 for a barrel of crude. Gas prices doubled overnight. People panicked and started dumping their big gas guzzlers. Gas lines at the stations that had gas to sell. This boycott spurred the guvment to create the Dept. of Energy for the purpose of getting us off foreign oil!! What a success that has been!

These auto parts chains like Autozone and Advance Auto are pretty big too and probably sell as much engine oil as Walmart. Probably their business model probably requires a higher margin.

Looking back on what I observed, diesel fuel was cheaper than gas when it was only available at the truck stops and the large trucks were about the only ones using it. I'm sure that distribution costs went way up when they started distributing diesel to most of the gas stations to accommodate pickups and cars that now have diesel engines. As an afterthought, I never understood why someone would buy a diesel Mercedes car. Spend all that money for a super nice car and select a noisy, smelly, smoky engine just to save a few bucks on fuel.

I much prefer a 4 cylinder bike due to the smoothness of operation and the higher hp per liter. But, I suppose I am part of a dying breed. And the V4 is the most expensive engine design to build and the touring customers have been mostly won over by the big throbbing V twins. Why build expensive fours when the public seems to want a cheap V twin? An FJR with a V twin just wouldn't cut it in my opinion.

Another question is why are the giant auto parts store chains so much higher than Walmart on engine oil? A guy on a truck forum I participate in who works in an oil company lab tells us we are wasting our money buying synthetic oil.

Oops! I had a brain fart I suppose! I meant over $3k, about $3.5k actually. Thanks for catching that. Still ridiculously high. It helps explain why so many New Yorkers are retiring to my area and other areas in the south that have a lesser cost of living. Lots of retired New Yorkers in my subdivision. Back when I was buying and selling lots of used cars, NC did not charge sales tax on used cars with the logic that tax was paid on the car when new. When they fixed that "tax loophole" I slowed down considerably on the buying and selling because I was usually making a few bucks on the sales or at least breaking even. Sales tax on cars was 3% with a $300 limit but now they have eliminated that other tax loophole, the limit.

He just found out that the car sales tax in NYC is 8.8% which means it will be over $8k for the car he wants. Incredible!