Tree Blocks Street Access

Yesterday the weather service called for high winds at night. At lunch today, I drove off to get some Roy Rogers for lunch. Did not make it far. The cul de sac was blocked by a tree that had become uprooted this morning. A sign on the tree stated that the county had been alerted.

Momoko and my brother needed to park on the other side of the tree and walk down the street to our house. The yard clippings truck could not make it down to our house, leaving 3 trash cans full of sticks that I am stuck with. Surprisingly the mailman walked down our street to deliver the mail.

My brother and I ventured out when he got home to buy the family some pizza and subs for dinner. Little Kat normally cooks on Mondays. However he went to class. So it was a fend for yourself night. I hope the county comes soon to cut this tree. Tomorrow is trash and recycle pickup at the curb.

If the county comes later in the week and cuts a path through the tree, I might need to borrow my brother's truck and make a run to the dump. We cannot hold all this trash for 2 weeks. Yikes.

The Passing of Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld died yesterday. He was reportedly 85 years old. I only knew of his signature look. Always wore very high collars. Usually had a fat tie. Always had his sunglasses on. People say he also wore fingerless gloves a lot.

Lagerfeld was of German descent, but moved to France to be near fashion. He won a contest early on by designing a coat. Yves Saint Laurent won a prize in that contest as well for a dress design. Lagerfeld eventually became the creative director of Chanel in 1983, a position he held until his death.

Karl reminded me of my prior interest in high fashion. So I went to the store and picked up a bunch of magazines. I thought W magazine would be the best. It seems a lot thinner these days. I was surprised that Marie Claire had the best pictures and articles. Both Elle and Vogue were thick magazines, but I found them lacking. Nevertheless I subscribed to them all.

Vacation Car Purchase

I had decided I wanted to buy a new car instead of renting one every time we visited Momoko's dad. Had some bad run ins with the local Kia dealership. Then my mind turned to the Hyundai Elantra. I fit pretty well in the back of it. I called up the dealership. Turns out they have a ton of rebates I do not qualify for. No need going there to pay full MSRP on the thing.

Was running out of cars that had a large back seat. Then I thought I might just find a little car that only has good front seat room. I decided to go with the Chevy Spark. Kit Kat and I had tested a manual transmission Spark a couple years ago. I liked it except for the price and the back seat.

This time around, I found a dealer close to Momoko's dad's house. I called them up. They said the only rebate I did not qualify for was the local buyer's one of $500. Their discount was so deep I decided to go check it out anyway.

They had a black 2019 Chevy Spark on sale for just under $11k. I had to pay an extra $500 because I was out of state. The thing was Spartan - no power locks/windows/mirrors. But it did have a backup camera. The acceleration was decent for a small car.

The real deciding factor was the attitude of the salesman and his manager. They were low key. No high pressure sales. It took 30 minutes for me to decide to buy the thing. This dealership did not have the ability to do an electronic transfer of funds to pay for the vehicle. And I had left my checkbook back home for my brother to pay my bills. Therefore I financed the thing.

I decided beforehand that a 3% APR was good, and that I would not settle for more than 5% APR. When the sales manager came out with some sample monthly payments that I had to sign for, I did the math and found them to correspond to almost 9% APR. No way. I had excellent credit.

The sales manager said he only wanted to know how long I wanted to finance the car for. I chose 48 months because that is the period I have always used to purchase cars. When I got to the finance guy, he told me he could get me a national bank to fund me under 5%. Perfect. That sealed the deal.

I did have some problems trying to obtain insurance for the car. That is a long story, definitely for another post.

Rental Versus Owning

I have become tired renting cars when Momoko and I visit her dad's house. This became especially tiring once the last company charged me for damage to the vehicle. I am pretty sure the damage did not happen during my rental. I just did not check the car before renting it.

So I thought I might buy a lightly used car instead. Had my eye on a 2016 Nissan Versa Note. It only had 2k miles on it. Price was a reasonable $12k. It was a repo. Unfortunately it was being sold 2.5 hours away.

Then I thought I might buy a fun car. Saw a 2007 Mercedes Benz S550. It had 100k miles on it. But it was going for $11k. I read an article that said, "For the love of God, do not buy a 2007 Mercedes S550". I heeded the warning.

Next I decided I might buy a cheap car. I fit well in the Kia Rio, even in the back seat. Found one for sale just under $13k. I called the dealership to make sure there were not tricks with the price. They said there were not. Once I went to the dealership and was test driving the car, the saleswoman started mentioned all the good things the dealership does to customize the car.

When we got back to the show room, I wanted to confirm the bottom line for the car was as expected. Nope. Turns out the customizations were an extra $1800 they tried to sneak in there. Nope. I told them I might come back and make an offer on the car. The engine was weak. The mirror manual adjusters were broke down. And the dealership seemed like a bunch of crooks. Skipped.

Cashing in the Jewelry

Momoko and her sister went through her mom's jewelry. There was allegedly one piece that got appraised for $4,000. They needed to find a way to sell the jewelry. Momoko called around. We ended up going to the jewelry store the family has been going to for ages.


The store was far away. We drove there with a bag full of the best jewelry. I said that if they offered $10k, they should sell it immediately without even a second opinion. A lady helped us. She looked through all the jewelry. Most she immediately set aside as worthless.


The jeweler used her eyepiece to get a good look at a couple pieces. Turns out the top item was only worth $250. Another was worth $200, and another maybe $100 to $150. The smaller items were maybe worth $50. In total, the lot was about $500 to $600. This was based on the scrap value of the gold.


They recommended we try to sell the items on Facebook Marketplace. They thought we could get lucky and maybe get upwards of 50% of retail value. However we might have to let buyers bargain us down to 33%. They emphasized that we should conduct the sale at the police station. Yikes.


I did like the Seiko wall clocks they had for sale there. There ran a few hundred dollars each. But they looked really cool.

The Demise of Grannie Kat

Momoko's mother has been in the hospital for a year. She was on a ventilator to breathe. They tried to wean her off, but she could not do without it. In fact, she sometimes had trouble breathing even with the ventilator. This resulted in her feeling like she could not breathe. The doctors declared that they could not cure her. She decided to have them administer her some drugs, and take her off the ventilator. She died hours later.


We had planned to visit her again during spring break. She said she wanted us to come much earlier. So we planed a trip for this month after science fair at work. Grannie Kat did not live that long. We decided to go forward with the trip to visit Momoko's father. I got one day off work for travel. We left for the airport at 5am.


The airline steward said there would be some bumps on the plane ascent. I learned that was code word for rough turbulence ahead. After a treacherous 5 to 10 minute ride, the weather and flight calmed down. I tried a new rental car company this time. Inspected the car thoroughly and found prior damage that I made sure to report. I am now pondering buying myself a new car to leave at Momoko's dad's so I don't have to spend all this money renting cars.

Super Bowl 53

Momoko, Kit Kat, and I went to get some Hibachi to go for lunch today. Little Kat was too poor from buying Korean food all weekend. Kit Kat tried the bento box. Momoko and I opted for the Hibachi. Normally we just eat snacks for the Super Bowl. However Little Kat decided he was cooking us spaghetti for dinner.

During the game, Kit Kat baked some pepperoni and sausage pizza rolls. She also baked some jalapeno poppers. There were some small salami slices, as well as an assortment of cheese slices. We did not even get into the different salsa and chip varieties we bought. Probably due to the full dinner.

This was a boring football game until the forth quarter. Not much scoring by either the Rams or Patriots. Half time show was decent due to many popular Maroon 5 songs. Little Kat was unhappy that there was not more Sponge Bob songs.

Commercials were drab this year. None really stood. out.