Robert Hall

I don't think I'd want to live anywhere colder than NE Ohio. I like how it's hilly near here, and kind of a mix of the Midwest but more like PA and W. New York. I love the Northeast and New England region, but the winters are considerably colder, harsher and longer. Don't think I could live in the South (though I could see spending Jan-Feb in S. Florida or the Florida Keys). I do love So Cal and the Front Range of Colorado, but both places are just too expensive to live anywhere really nice. The Southwest, been there, done that. Had enough desert for one lifetime. The PNW is still an area I want to explore more...visited friends in Portland and Seattle before, but there is more I want to see...

I've done very rural before (family farm is 90 miles south of here in very rural E Ohio), college towns, small cities, big cities, a resort town/island, and suburbia... I think ultimately I'd like to stay close to a major city w/ great hospitals and health care (always important as one gets older), plenty of arts/culture, plenty of diverse restaurants, an airport, close to beaches and parks...so maybe 30-40 min outside of Cleveland close to Lake Erie in a semi-rural setting will be my next move...

Reminds me of my childhood 'farm' in some respects... 130 wooded acres out in the middle of nowhere, 2 large ponds on the property, we were lucky if we could get 2 channels w/ an antenna (until my Dad installed a satellite dish in the early 80s). Alas, after my mother's death in 2016, my idiot brother has made it impossible to visit and enjoy the property. Hope to sell it eventually (my brother has been trying to sell but ignores the fact my sister and I also co-owners) and buy a vacation property close to Lake Erie...

^ looks idyllic... I need something like that in my life. Thinking living part time on a lake in NE Ohio could be very satisfying, as long I can get high speed internet for working remotely...

Reality is complex, there are many things. So much tedious blatherage in this thread, nothing more to say here..done with this thread...

I haven’t swam in a lake since I was a kid. I’ve been canoeing and boating on lakes as an adult, thinking about taking up kayaking or canoeing. So many lakes and rivers in NE Ohio. I miss having a swimming pool like I did in Arizona, was very relaxing. I don’t really like public pools.

No idea. I’m a software engineer, not an accountant.

You do realize Amazon owns Whole Foods?

Note I didn’t say anything about fast food…I’ll go through the drive thru for Dunkin’s or McDs occasionally…for local restaurants, I like getting lunch or dinner delivered via the services when I’m not cooking. Get a nice pasta, pad Thai or chicken briyani delivered, and drink some wine from Whole Foods. Pretty convenient.

Can’t compare food delivery and grocery delivery services to car dealers excessively marking up products. Food delivery companies provide a service and a convenience. I could go to a restaurant and get takeout, or go to the grocery and do curbside pickup, but I’ll pay a bit more for it delivered right to my door.

I buy groceries from Whole Foods via Amazon and a from a couple local chains via Instacart. Very efficient, and nice to have food delivered to my door without having to go out to a grocery. I like UberEats, DoorDash and Grubhub for restaurant delivery...used those a lot during the last 22 months of pandemic to avoid going out in public... I like services that I can use from my phone to procure products and avoid having to go out and shop for, esp. in times like these... I miss dining out, but with COVID highly contagious and even being current on my vaccination, I’m risk-averse about going out around people indoors…

Haggling on prices is fine at a flea market or Turkish bazaar, seems absurd to do a new consumer product. I don't think haggling works if I go into the Apple store and want to buy a new laptop or order dinner in a restaurant. Fixed price, I can choose if I want to buy that product or not.

Well, neither do you...you don't own a car dealership chain.

That's different. A manufacturer raising product prices isn't the same is a corrupt middleman reseller tacking on fake 'market adjustments'.

With a direct store model like Tesla, you cut out the middleman resellers (dealership ownership group). The middleman reseller model is obsolete and provides no advantages to consumers.

^ I don’t get why you are trying so hard to defend dealers and their sleazy practices. F’em. Obsolete franchise laws keep these bottom feeder scumbags in business. Dealers have an obsolete business model, provide no value beyond warranty work and service.

The 'market price adjustments' are fake though, just some greedy garbage dealer trying to profit on short supply. They should be fined and lose their license to operate as a dealer, have their dealerships torn down. It's the same as sleazy merchants trying to sell water or groceries at fake inflated prices after a hurricane.

That sounds like the 2003 remake of 'The Italian Job'. I remember part of it was set in Venice. Saw it in the theater back then, fun movie. Had a Mini chase set in LA instead of the Alps like the original did. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317740/

It seems pleasant but generic. And the boring white w/ black top doesn't help. Very clean and modern, has the currently trendy slim lighting...but nothing really screams Chrysler to me. Looks like something Stellantis can sell in Europe badged as a Peugeot, Citroen or DS with a few cosmetic changes.

HD, regular, whatever. Still a full size. With less than an 8 foot bed?

Not even sure why Balthy even cares. GM is still going to make diesel HD trucks for the foreseeable future, so his niche isn’t threatened by EVs.

Yeah, who knows what's going on..if Rivian is developing other bed length versions they are keeping it internal and quiet for now...

google it, I'm sure there are some spy photos out there...I saw a spy photo of a purported R1T extended cab version (with a smaller rear door than the crew cab), but the bed wasn't visible..

True... about the only off-roading I did in the summers was to drive up to Pinetop, Jerome, or Flag and take some back country gravel and dirt trails. Though I did a lot of summer drives across the void on the 10 or the 8 to the OC or San Diego to visit beaches... As far as the desert in the summer, I had one insane runner co-worker that used to go out at noon for running in triple digit weather.

Given the extreme climate in AZ, it will be interesting to see how much adoption more mainstream EVs will have. I saw plenty of Teslas in Scottsdale, but people buy Teslas because they are Teslas. I did hear a lot of anecdotal griping about Nissan Leafs and sharply reduced range in the fecal summer weather in the Phoenix area.