The Coffee House

[waday]

Gary looked hard at the EOS, as he desired a hardtop. It ended up a contest between the Volvo and the VW.

Just curious, what made you go with the Volvo?

My father-in-law is funny. He often says, "it took my eye". When he sees something he likes, no one can convince him otherwise. The Eos "took his eye".

Gary got a back seat pet hammock for Miss Maggie.

We need to get something for Roxy. Right now, she has a harness that allows her to walk back and forth, but we haven't used it since we put the car seat in for baby. Unless we're on a highway, Roxy will not relax and chooses to stand. Before we got the harness, she fell off the seat in a near miss.

 

[limr50]

This conversation makes me so happy I don't have kids.

 

[SquarePeg1]

I roasted some Colombian beans tonight. It's been awhile since I've had any beans from there.

I also am doing the research to buy a man-van. We looked at like a dozen different three-row cars yesterday, and all signs point to either a Toyota Sienna or a Honda Odyssey. I looked at the 3-row SUVs, and I just can't justify the 25% plus premium that they add for something that's smaller and less useable. Besides my own ego, the only other advantage to the SUV is that they all come in AWD, but honestly...I don't have to leave my house in bad weather, and if I do need to for some reason, my wife's Subaru is there for the taking.

I did drive a Ford Expedition EL yesterday. Jesus that thing has a big ass. I can't imagine driving it everyday.

We're not planning on more than two kids, but we're already talking about upgrading. While my Outback only has about 120K miles, I'm thinking trade-in before it gets too low in value.

What 3-row SUVs have you been looking at? I'm assuming midsize SUVs? The minivans I'm aware of (my sisters' vans) all were pretty pricey with base-prices similar to that of many midsize SUVs (~$30K).

I Have only the one Princess but you’d be surprised how many times we’ve used that 3rd row. Keep in mind your kids will have friends with them a lot and when you go to the beach or camping you’ll need the extra storage space that the big suvs provide. I had a Mitsubishi Montero 5 passenger suv prior to the Honda and loved it but we were frequently having to make choices on what we could bring with us on Road trips.

Although one con of the 7 or 8 seaters is that when your kids get into tween/teen years, you’ll be tapped to drive all the time because you can fit everyone. Princess has 5 bffs and, other than me, only 2 of them have room for everyone in their car. I celebrate a little when someone else is able to drive them.

If Gary had Peg's money, he'd make the Pilot the Greater Princess Community Transport, GPCT, or better yet ... Princess On Wheels (POW). Allow and schedule the parents driving and maintenance privileges with the Pilot. Then, purely in the name of alliteration, get yourself one of those little, high mileage Porsches for your personal needs. (With all those Not-My-Boy-Friends Princess needs a bus).

NMB2 turned out to be...not her boyfriend. We have a new NMB3 that I have yet to figure out. He’s exceedingly nervous around me so guessing he’s a BWB (boyfriend wanna be).

 

[waday]

This conversation makes me so happy I don't have kids.

Apparently, I chose to have a kid, because I don't like money, sleep, or free time.

 

[Gary A.]

Gary looked hard at the EOS, as he desired a hardtop. It ended up a contest between the Volvo and the VW.

Just curious, what made you go with the Volvo?

My father-in-law is funny. He often says, "it took my eye". When he sees something he likes, no one can convince him otherwise. The Eos "took his eye".

Gary got a back seat pet hammock for Miss Maggie.

We need to get something for Roxy. Right now, she has a harness that allows her to walk back and forth, but we haven't used it since we put the car seat in for baby. Unless we're on a highway, Roxy will not relax and chooses to stand. Before we got the harness, she fell off the seat in a near miss.

The Volvo "took my eye". Gary thinks it is much more stylish than the VW. Gary hates the huge VW emblems on the front and back. The Volvo is larger, more 'sporty' in looks and performance and he feels it is better built. As one would suspect, convertibles are common out here ... but a hardtop convertible is less common and a Volvo hardtop convertible is in the unique category. (Plus Gary had a Volvo wagon when the kids were young ... couldn't bring himself to get a van, and it was very reliable. He also has a few friends with Volvos and again the reliability was reinforced.)

 

[JonA_CT]

This conversation makes me so happy I don't have kids.

Apparently, I chose to have a kid, because, I don't like money, sleep, or free time.

Squared over here.

 

[waday]

Gary looked hard at the EOS, as he desired a hardtop. It ended up a contest between the Volvo and the VW.

Just curious, what made you go with the Volvo?

My father-in-law is funny. He often says, "it took my eye". When he sees something he likes, no one can convince him otherwise. The Eos "took his eye".

Gary got a back seat pet hammock for Miss Maggie.

We need to get something for Roxy. Right now, she has a harness that allows her to walk back and forth, but we haven't used it since we put the car seat in for baby. Unless we're on a highway, Roxy will not relax and chooses to stand. Before we got the harness, she fell off the seat in a near miss.

The Volvo "took my eye". Gary thinks it is much more stylish than the VW. Gary hates the huge VW emblems on the front and back. The Volvo is larger, more 'sporty' in looks and performance and he feels it is better built. As one would suspect, convertibles are common out here ... but a hardtop convertible is less common and a Volvo hardtop convertible is in the unique category. (Plus Gary had a Volvo wagon when the kids were young ... couldn't bring himself to get a van, and it was very reliable. He also has a few friends with Volvos and again the reliability was reinforced.)

If I would ever get a convertible, it would be hard top. I like Volvo much more than VW. Agree with the huge emblems. Also, if I'm going to pay as much as VW requires with maintenance/repairs (I had a very bad experience with a Passat, and father-in-law has had some issues with his Eos), I'd rather pay a little more for Volvo and get better reliability.

 

[davidharmier60]

My ratty old 99 Chevy 2500 has a 5.7 liter engine. It growls pretty good when I shower down on it. But I don't do that very often as at it's best it's a 15-17 mpg vehicle. Sure was weird not to wake up at 4am on a Thursday. Sister called. Dad's surgery went well. They were told at 7am they were getting out. At 11am she thinks two or three more hours.

And that's all the news that's fit to print.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[waday]

Dad's surgery went well.

Glad to hear it!

 

[vintagesnaps]

Seems to be a good thing when a hospital or medical center etc. is ready to kick you out. Glad your dad's recovering and hopefully home soon.

 

[vintagesnaps]

There were days I was glad to send kids home to their parents. (Leo, you sound better today!)

Now I'm trying to picture a dog getting up in a little hammock... or trying to hop back out of it.

 

[limr50]

This conversation makes me so happy I don't have kids.

Apparently, I chose to have a kid, because, I don't like money, sleep, or free time.

Squared over here.

I like all of those things very much

It's an easy equation for me: I like a simple life. There are some complications that I can't control, and I deal with them out of necessity. Children complicate things, but they are avoidable complications that I don't have to take on unless I have a very compelling reason to do so.

I am 46 and have never once felt that itch to have children. And sorry, but if I am going to do something as momentous as creating an entirely new human being from scratch, then I should have at least an inkling of an idea that I would actually want to do so. If not, then I have created a new person simply to be a recipient of my disappointment and frustration. I know what that feels like and I refuse to pass that family trait down to further generations.

There were days I was glad to send kids home to their parents. (Leo, you sound better today!)

Now I'm trying to picture a dog getting up in a little hammock... or trying to hop back out of it.

I "sound" better because you can't actually hear my voice
But yes, I do feel better. Still have a cough and my whole system is still vaguely wonky, but I am much improved!

 

[Fred von den Berg]

Snow has been on my personal agenda these last few days. I started the week by setting the camera to 1/3+ EV with auto bracketing also at 1/3 +/- and shooting in colour and then converting to B&W in post. Yesterday and this morning I set the camera to + 1 EV with no bracketing and to shoot in B&W with yellow filter (with a colour copy).

One or two came out nicely, some were destined for the recycle bin, and a few are work in progress.

It's not easy to get a decent exposure on this stuff!

 

[Gary A.]

There were days I was glad to send kids home to their parents. (Leo, you sound better today!)

Now I'm trying to picture a dog getting up in a little hammock... or trying to hop back out of it.

LOL, the hammock is nothing more than a large blanket like thing that connects to the front and back headrests taking all/most of the bumps out of the back, protects the seats and doors. It has Velcro slits for the seat belts connections. Gary always uses a car harness. On long trips we take Mary Lou’s Escape and drop the back seat for the pooch. The pooch is tied up with some slack so she can move around some and comfortably sleep. Gary hasn’t used the hammock yet.

 

[smoke665]

It's an easy equation for me: I like a simple life. There are some complications that I can't control, and I deal with them out of necessity. Children complicate things, but they are avoidable complications that I don't have to take on unless I have a very compelling reason to do so.

Some might call your decision odd, but as a father of 3, I can truthfully say there have been times when I wished I'd followed your path. There are "complications" as you call them, even after they are grown. Yes there's been great joy, but there's been some not so joyous times mixed in. Parenting is tough. For me I'm happy that I made the decision to have children but, would definitely not want to do it again at my age.