This new pair of burrowing owls live in a storm drain under a driveway right on Ocean Boulevard. Some of our other South Puffin birds can be found here under the Aminals tag. Others are in the North Puffin Gallery. Enjoy.
Does Anyone Speak Owlish?
Author Archives: Dick
Keep On Truckin’
I need a new-to-me pickup truck. Understand that I don’t need a pickup very often. It’s just that sometimes not much else will do. It’s really hard to carry a sheet of plywood in the Camaro. The plywood lays flat in the bed of my truck. And I can’t tow a boat or any size camper with a Chevy SSR. Or bring home a refrigerator in SWMBO’s sedan.
The current resident in the Great White Fleet is a 16-year old Silverado just broken in with under 150,000 on the ticker.
It’s a pretty nice LS, Z71 truck with Chevy’s great 5.3L V-8 and automatic trans, four-wheel-drive, towing package, alloy wheels, the third door, air, power steering and door locks, cruise, premium AM/FM/CD/MP3 radio, a bed liner, sliding rear window, and running boards. Pretty much everything I need except the fourth door and a sunroof. Trouble is, it also comes with the optional rust package and my mechanic said, “Don’t bring it back to Vermont, Dick.”
I guess it’s really time.
Sad. That truck has been as economical to own as any.
The economics are important. I have in the past figured to spend about $1,000/year to own a vehicle — that’s just the cost I pay less the cost I can sell the junker for divided by the number of decades I own it, not the cost of gas and oil and repairs. Inflation meant I figured I’d have to spend $1,500/year to own my next truck.
I.Will.Not.Buy.A.New.GM.Vehicle. Not after that car thief in Washington stole the company.
Used cars are still fair game so I’ve been looking for a used Chevy, F-f-f-f-f-f-ford, or GM pickup. I’ve tried to find a good ’96 Buick Roadmaster station wagon with the towing package. No joy.
So. Buy another 5-6 year old truck for $15,000. Keep it 10 years. Or buy an 8 year old truck for $10,500. Keep it 7 years. And so on. I’d prefer one I can keep for more than a decade.
I found a pretty nice 2013 Chevy sold by a Russian fellow on Long Island who called me from Baltimore. I checked out the seller (cops had never heard of him). CarFax OKed the truck. It wasn’t white, but I made an offer anyway. We made a deal. I sent him a deposit on Paypal.
He relisted the truck and sold it to someone else who offered more money before I could get up there.
Fortunately, I had made it a refundable deposit and I got it back.
I’ve kissed a lot of other frogs. There was the 2011 Silverado Work Truck. Turned out that seller wanted $28,000 for a “low mileage” five-year-old with 80,000 miles that cost about $28K new. Really really proud of that truck. A lot have been priced that way. The red ’97 Chevy might have been almost worth taking just because of the 303,640 miles! It needed a seat, though, and that got me worried about the suspension. A real beauty was a two-tone Silverado in Sebring that survived Hurricanes Wilma, Jeanne, and Frances. OK, no.
I got to thinking that if I buy a 24-year-old truck, it’s gonna have too too many miles so it’s better to go for as many as I can get (456,000 anyone?). I found that one in Houston but everyone said I was nuts.
None of the trucks that fit my criteria have been anywhere close to my price.
I finally found a lovely 2013 GMC Sierra 1500 SLE with just 19,000 miles advertised in Bowling Green (home of the Corvette)!
It has the right engine, the 5.3L V8 with the good 6-Speed automatic, and the other options I need: the HD handling/trailering package, locking rear, 170° rear doors, power steering and door locks, cruise, a premium AM/FM/CD/MP3/XM radio with steering wheel controls, a bed liner, and 20″ chrome wheels. It also has all the options I’d like: leather, power seat, power windows in the rear doors that go all the way down, dual zone air conditioning, locking tailgate, Bluetooth, and more.
Oh, yeah. It’s even Summit White.
I had the high bid in the auction but it didn’t trip the seller’s reserve price. He’s asking $25,000.
Rufus said, “So make him an offer — not your usual lowball, just absolutely the best you would be willing to do (and somehow convince him that you really mean it.) Nothing to lose…”
Lotta lotta money on the table for a used truck.
I use Kelly Blue Book pricing to check these used “deals.” The KBB Average Trade-In ranges $21,349-21,874 for good or very good condition for that truck in Vermont. Interestingly, The Average Trade-In is $21,703-22,228 in Bowling Green, KY.
Worse, NADA says the Average Trade-In is $22,925. Vermont charges tax on the higher of the purchase price or the NADA Average Trade. $1,376 in tax. The typical cost to register and title a vehicle for the first time in Florida is $420, plus sales tax; the state imposes a 6% sales tax on the full purchase price.
It will cost to get it here. About $900 if I grab a rental so Anne and I can drive up there and back, a little less if I fly into Nashville alone, grab a rental and a motel, and drive back. About $1,100-1,200 if I ship it. Add in the sunroof and $900 in tires sooner than later, and suddenly it’s a $27K truck for a guy sweating to buy a $15K truck.
I really want a truck like that one. I really should get a truck like this one:
I heard on the radio this morning that people who sleep just one extra hour per day can make up to 16% more in salary. Looks like I’ll need to nap here at work. A lot.
Liz Arden says, “Get guitar (steal Rufus’ dreadnought — he won’t notice). Sit on corner. Place guitar case, cover opened, in front of you. Strum guitar.”
Rufus, who noticed, said, “Ahh, the American farm model. They’ll pay you not to play!”
WORLD ART — VERMONT STAGE
Christo has authorized a team led by Vermont artist and water expert Parker Vogt to do a series of United States environmental projects starting this year.
Replay the Bay, their first project, will be unveiled with joint receptions in Highgate Springs and Alburg Springs, Vermont, tomorrow. They have covered the entire surface of Missisquoi Bay with a double layer of floating panels of woven polypropylene fabric. The top layer is the white of winter snow and the underlayer is a rippling, iridescent, blue-green. Read more…
Wordless Wednesday
The Campaign of 4-Year-Olds
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says Trump supporters should “leave it to the professionals” when it comes to quelling interruptions.
Mr. Priebus also says the GOP could have a different candidate at the national convention in Cleveland this July.
A brokered, or contested, convention occurs when no single candidate has secured enough delegate votes to secure the nomination on the first ballot. Sadly a brokered convention can also occur when the party elite change the rules so the popular vote doesn’t matter.
The winning Demorat needs to have at least 2,383 delegates in the primaries and caucuses; the winning Repug has to get at least 1,237 of the 2,472 delegates. Hillary Clinton currently leads the Democratic pack with 774 pledged delegates to date, far surpassing Bernie Sanders’ count of 946. That means she’s currently well on her way to the nomination.
Say what?
Yeah, the guys on the other side of the aisle already cooked the books; they have “superdelegates” to swing the nomination wherever they want. Ms. Clinton has 469 cheaters, so she really is well on her way to the nomination unless the Sanderistas can take over that convention.
Mr. Priebus says the GOP could have a different candidate at the convention in July, too. Repugs are looking for ways to cook the books, too.
Donald Trump leads the Repuglican pack with 739 pledged delegates to date, far surpassing Ted Cruz’ count of 465, which means Mr. Trump is well on his way to the nomination, too.
Mr. Priebus is counting on the GOP having a different candidate at the convention in July.
Dear Reince Priebus:
I’ve been a Republican Town Chair. I’ve run for and held elective office. I’ve put governors and congressmen and bank presidents together to register new voters. Now I’m just a crotchety op-ed writer with a message.
You say, “We have rules.” We hear you say, “We are weasels.”
You’re going to have a populist candidate with pretty close to the 1,237 delegates required for nomination. If you go ahead with this plan to steal the nomination, just to give it to another party hack, you will have stolen the party that freed Americans from slavery and made it the party that enslaves Americans.
Remember the “stiletto” job the “mysterious cabal” attempted in 1964? When Nelson Rockefeller appeared at the convention, AuH2O voters shouted down Mr. Rockefeller and beat back your backroom deal makers.
And they were still so mad at the party that LBJ slaughtered Mr. Goldwater that November.
Here’s what is likely to happen. You give the nomination to another party hack. Demorats do the same at their convention:
- It won’t matter whether you pick UNTrusTed Cruz or Mitt Romney or Bruce Wayne.
- Repuglican voters will stay away from the polls.
- Ms. Clinton will win the White House.
- Democrats will win 7 of the 11 gubernatorial races, a dozen of the so-called “safe” Senate seats, and more than half the 18 retiring Repug House seats.
- We’ll get a business friendly Supreme Court Justice.
- Business pretty much as usual.
The bills getting passed will change but the real business of politics will just keep on keeping on. The trillion-dollar deficits will continue to fund your cronies. Congress will continue to do everything for themselves and nothing for us. You’ll grumble in the press and be secretly pleased that you survived.
That’s the best you can hope for.
Now imagine what happens if give the nomination to another party hack and the Demorats actually let Mr. Sanders win their Convention!
- It still won’t matter whether you pick UNTrusTed Cruz or Mitt Romney or Bruce Wayne.
- Repuglican voters still stay away from the polls. (New) young Demorats will turn out by the million.
- Mr. Sanders will win the White House.
- Democrats will win 9 of the 11 gubernatorial races, a dozen of the so-called “safe” Senate seats, and at least the 18 retiring Repug House seats.
- We’ll get Stephen Reinhardt or Goodwin Liu or Vermont’s John Dooley as a Supreme Court Justice.
- And a Sanders administration will start prosecuting all the bankers and businessmen he rails against.
That’s the second best you can hope for but you still haven’t thought about all those voters who stayed home.
This isn’t 1964 but this could well be your Viet Nam.
See, social media will keep that core of disenchanted voters alive. Sooner or later, we will elect a populist candidate. And we will throw out all your party hacks.
Here’s your real nightmare:
- Repuglican voters will come back to the polls.
- A businessman (and loose cannon) will win the White House.
- In three election cycles, every sitting bum^H^H, ahem, politician will be replaced.
- And then a populist administration will prosecute EM>you.
The Arab Spring can become the American Fall. You whining 4-year-olds won’ get a time out, though. That means actual jail time.
The country survived Viet Nam. The politicians didn’t.
We get a great choice this year. A loose cannon businessman v. a liar-turned-party-hack and a liar-and-party-hack v. a loose cannon socialist. I can hardly wait.