The Coffee House

[terri46 18]

@terri that’s great news! I agree about the kitten names. A bit too cutesy.


Princess got in a fender bender today. Everyone is fine no injuries and no damage to the rear of the car she hit but - the front of our old Ronda the Honda is crushed. She’s an older car so they might consider her totaled which would be a shame since she’s definitely got many good miles left in her. So now have to deal with the insurance company and sharing a car until it’s resolved. Big pita.

Omg - I bet that scared the crap out of her. Glad to hear she's okay.

Hopefully, you can convince your insurance company that it's worth it to repair the car, if there's no damage to the engine.

 

[smoke665]

@SquarePeg not sure how your state works, but here if the insurance company totals it, you can keep the car for the salvage value, you'll get the settlement minus the salvage value. You can then rebuild it, or use the best parts from it to rebuild another one. (IE engine, transmission, seats, tires, body parts, etc.) Or, just avoid the hassle take the money, and buy another one.

 

[CherylL4]

@terri that’s great news! I agree about the kitten names. A bit too cutesy.


Princess got in a fender bender today. Everyone is fine no injuries and no damage to the rear of the car she hit but - the front of our old Ronda the Honda is crushed. She’s an older car so they might consider her totaled which would be a shame since she’s definitely got many good miles left in her. So now have to deal with the insurance company and sharing a car until it’s resolved. Big pita.

Glad princess is ok! Scary when they get their license. I had a rule that they had to leave at a certain time and not be home by a certain time. I didn't want them rushing to beat curfew.

 

[CherylL4]

Just got back from my first dose. It all went very well, and I was in and out of there in under 45 minutes. Already have the second dose scheduled, so I'm starting to feel better about Covid. My mom is now 100% vaccinated, and so is her next door neighbor with whom she is good friends, so she's starting to have a bit of socializing again. They can do better than chatting through the fence. Hopefully, we can get up there for a visit this summer.



In other news: Kitten update!

We learned yesterday that they have, in fact, been re-named by their new mom. They are going through life as Skittles and Snickers. Quite frankly, I couldn't be bothered to ask which was which after hearing that. Eww.

But OTOH, the names Rose and Sage are now officially released! and can be re-used, WHEN and if the need arises. I'm okay with that. And more importantly, they are both doing well, and are very happy. That's what matters. It kills me to know they are likely twice as big now as they are in this picture. Still miss those sweet little girls.

View attachment 204808

Ahhh thanks for the kitten update. I like the names Rose & Sage. Our Snickers came with that name. He was a year old when we got him.

 

[SquarePeg47 1]

If the Milky Way is everywhere do you need a particular constellation or star to shoot at or do can you just point anywhere in the sky and capture something cool like with the last two pics?

The last two are the Orion Nebula and you need to center it in a lens that is at least 300mm and use a tracking mount.

I believe @SquarePeg shots are taken with a 12mm lens on a Fuji (micro 4/3rds?) covering a nearly a quarter of the sky. You don't need a tracker for multi-second shots but it can help. Maybe she can tell us how long these were. I'm using an R6 and the hype about low light performance is true, meaning I can jack ISO up and shoot a bit faster for sharper images.

Something else you will see in her shots is a nice balance between a foreground object, like a lighthouse, and a dark sky. That is really tricky to pull off.

I have two lenses that I think 'may' be able to capture some night shots. I know they wouldn't be the best at it because one is a 50 mm f/1.8 so it could capture the light and be fast enough but it wouldn't be very wide at 500 mm. The other lens is an 8 mm f3.5. I know it's recommended that you use at least an f/2.8 for astrophotography but could you pull it off with a longer exposure or would it be too slow to capture with any sharpness? Thanks for any help.

Of those two lenses I would think the 50 mm would be better but I would maybe shoot at F2 not 1.8. You would probably have to shoot a pano in order to get everything that you wanted to into the shot at 50 mm. Are you using a crop sensor or a full frame? I would think you would need at least 4-6 frames to get foreground and sky with a 50.

For the other lens you would have to bump the ISO not the exposure time or you’d get star movement. If you shoot 10 or 15 frames that are relatively high ISO but shorter exposure times you can stack them to get rid of some of the noise. You really have to experiment. But if you’re living in a dark sky area and you’re really interested check out the Samyang 12 mm it’s pretty cheap.

It's a crop sensor. Thanks for the info.

@terri that’s great news! I agree about the kitten names. A bit too cutesy.


Princess got in a fender bender today. Everyone is fine no injuries and no damage to the rear of the car she hit but - the front of our old Ronda the Honda is crushed. She’s an older car so they might consider her totaled which would be a shame since she’s definitely got many good miles left in her. So now have to deal with the insurance company and sharing a car until it’s resolved. Big pita.

Glad princess is ok! Scary when they get their license. I had a rule that they had to leave at a certain time and not be home by a certain time. I didn't want them rushing to beat curfew.

That is how we do it too. She has to leave at a certain time and text me to let me know she is on the way. She wasn't going anywhere after school - just heading back here.

 

[SquarePeg47 1]

@SquarePeg not sure how your state works, but here if the insurance company totals it, you can keep the car for the salvage value, you'll get the settlement minus the salvage value. You can then rebuild it, or use the best parts from it to rebuild another one. (IE engine, transmission, seats, tires, body parts, etc.) Or, just avoid the hassle take the money, and buy another one.

I don't think that the damage is anywhere other than the front and side bumper. It didn't affect the engine as far as we could tell. It was drivable, not leaking anywhere and the headlights worked. The main reason I question whether or not they will fix it is that it is an older car - 2007 - and they redid the body shape a few years ago so I wonder if parts will be too tough to get. With the cost of repairs and the low value for an older car... the math might not be in our favor. Which is too bad because it's in great shape otherwise and only has 125k miles which for a 2007 Honda is nothing! If the body shop can't fix it we will probably take the money and walk.

 

[SquarePeg47 1]

 

[snowbear127 59]

That’ll buff right out.

 

[smoke665]

Or third option is to drive as is, as a reminder to be careful. Many years ago as a just turned 16 driver, Mom and Dad left in the pickup, leaving me and the family car at home. Having watched one of those car chase movies the night before, I got the bright idea to try some moves in a big barn yard. I was sliding around having a merry old time, till I went sailing backward straight into an immovable plow. It hit dead center in the middle of bumper, putting a huge dent in the backend. Everything still worked, still drove okay but it was butt ugly.

When my parents got home, I calmly told them, I had some good news and some bad news. The good news was I was okay, not even a scratch, the bad news was I'd been acting dumb and wrecked "their" car. Never will forget my Dad kinda grinned and said, son I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is, my "new" car is sitting out front. The bad news is you wrecked "your" car.

I worked every odd job I could find for over a year to get enough money together to replace that car, and learned some valuable life lessons along the way.

 

[terri46 18]

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That looks ugly, but very fixable. Used cars are fetching a pretty penny these days, and of course new ones are even worse. I'd really push for the repairs, because otherwise it does look really good.

 

[limr41 11]

Morning, hosers.

Kitties!!! Stupid new names but still

Glad Princess is okay. My mother used to say that you don't really learn how to drive until you've had your first accident. Sounds more like something she said to justify her first accident But still, there are lessons to be learned about driving from each accident, so hopefully this will help her avoid further accidents.

"not leaking anywhere" = famous last words But seriously, it doesn't look like it got to the engine proper, but the costs can ramp up fast if it affected the cooling system, which is often in the front. Or if there's subframe damage. Apparently, it could also cause some electrical system issues, which then translates into problems with windows, locks, lights, starters, etc.

And apparently I need more coffee because I could have sworn I hit "Post Reply" on this post while it was still morning.

 

[Rickbb77 16]

Very minor, I'd fix that myself. New bumper and grill yank a bit on the brackets that hold the headlight to make it point in the correct direction and good as new. Less than $500 in parts on Amazon, a Saturday's work and she can have a car for the next fender bender, (instead of a more expensive replacement car. Can you tell I've been through 2 teen drivers?) lol

 

[Rickbb77 16]

On a totally separate note, why does the search tags at the bottom on the page list "wife in short shorts" ?

 

[SquarePeg47 1]

Very minor, I'd fix that myself. New bumper and grill yank a bit on the brackets that hold the headlight to make it point in the correct direction and good as new. Less than $500 in parts on Amazon, a Saturday's work and she can have a car for the next fender bender, (instead of a more expensive replacement car. Can you tell I've been through 2 teen drivers?) lol

Got the estimate. Parts 2263. Labor and materials 1779. When they add in the tax we’re at just about max book value. Sigh. It’s going to be close. Waiting to hear back from insurance company now. She knows I prefer to fix it.

 

[limr41 11]

On a totally separate note, why does the search tags at the bottom on the page list "wife in short shorts" ?

I have no interest in pulling that thread.