SwimFinsSF

Audi and a disposable society…

What ever happened to cars that were made to last. Its becoming more and more clear that these days even car companies that I would have considered reputable (Audi, Mercedes, etc.) are conducting business in a way that encourages people to replace their cars regularly.

Case in point. Our Audi just fell out of warrantee. While it was in warrantee they covered EVERYTHING. Oil changes.. repairs.. tune-ups… the works. I got lulled into a false sense of security thinking that these guys were great and the car was a great car. But now that I’m out of warrantee its a completely different story. All SORTS of problems are starting to come up and every one of them seems to require very expensive repairs. Most recently the check engine light came on (again) and when I took it in (to a repair shop that wasn’t at the dealer) they asked me how often I changed the oil. Turns out that the oil changes they were doing under warrantee weren’t frequent enough and now the engine is showing signs of the damage that results… I was furious…

What’s worse is a friend of mine was considering buying his Audi that was just falling out of lease and was asking around for advice.. He is basically hearing the same thing from everyone he’s talked to (and I had heard it from another friend myself). I don’t know if its unique to audi but it clearly isn’t unique to my car..

Anyway.. I suppose its not entirely surprising.. The car makers need to sell cars to make money so why not make cars with a self destruct so they can sell you another one.. It just pisses me off – like the world needs big landfills full of cars that are less than 10 years old… its nuts…

Sorry… Just ranting

Tags: audi, auto, service

In a continuing effort…

to ping the blog a little more often here is my morning bus-bound-note! :):)

Though actually not a whole lot to report since yesterday… Our friend Ray is in town visiting from Calgary.. Poor guy came from Canada undoubtedly expecting a little California sunshine. Boy was he wrong… weather here this weekend is going to be NASTY.. rainy and cold… ah well – an excuse for me to finally check out the De Young.. :):)

Other than that just the usual. Am trying to plan a trip back east to visit Kevin’s ‘rents and mine before our dive trip to Fiji in may. so current plan is week in march in Gettysburg and Winston-Salem (Pinnacle actually) and then a week on a boat in Fiji. Neither of them can come fast enough for me.

And on a final silly note, I’ve got a new favorite quote and a new favorite site… I stumbled on Wikiquote… I really enjoy different proverbs and how they translate and this site is full of ’em.. Anyway – found this one and it has seemed kinda fitting lately (and I’m going to plead the fifth when asked why it resonates right now! :):))

Klug zu reden ist doch schwer, klug zu schweigen noch viel mehr

Ok.. thats it for now… more

Tags: blog, friends, sprichwörter, travel

He Lives

Once again, I fell off the face of the earth for a while.. but back now.. Lots going on and rather than wait till I have time to write about it all i’m just going to post a quick hi and fill in the details as I have time…

But the reader’s digest version is things at home and work have been keeping me VERY busy. I’ve been a little cagey about it since its not entirely my story to tell but the long and short is Kevin found out last june or july that he had Lymphoma. Thats the bad news.. The good news is today is the very last of his radiation treatments and then, knock on wood, its all taken care of… But for the last few months he’s been going through Chemo and Radiation to deal with it and i’ve been trying my best to hold down the fort and help him out… Not going to say no big deal cuz that’d be a lie. Its just one of those things in life that ya just deal with and try not to ask why too many times – cuz there isn’t an answer… But things are going VERY well and we’re doing fine… Kevin has posted some stuff on his blog if you want more dirt! 🙂

As to other things.. Well work is work… I could go into details there but its the usual Apple stuff – can’t talk about details… Suffice it to say the usual challenges continue to make me a little nuts but on a good day are a lot of fun.. The one good thing I can add is that they’ve started a bus system like Google’s to get me to work – so now I have nice buses that pick me up right in my ‘hood and deliver me directly to work.. pretty rockin…

Oh yea – and the puppy… Well she’s just too f-in cute for words… And she’s getting HUGE… Still a puppy though.. Cute as can be but a total handful. Training is going really well though I still don’t know why she does the things she does.. Some times she is PERFECT… sits at the corners on walks… comes when she’s called… sleeps like an angel at our feet while we’re chilling at home.. And then there are other times.. pulling at the leash.. random accidents for no reason we can see… ignoring us when she doesn’t want to obey… Just have to remind ourselves that she’s just a baby.. but we love her to death regardless…

Anyway – bus is half way to work and I have other stuff to do.. so rather than wait a while before posting this again i’m going to post and go… I’ll post more details later…

Tags: apple, cancer, dog, Family, kevin, lymphoma, nina, vizsla, work

HAPPY New Year

My little walgreens elf.. (don’t ask)

Originally uploaded by SwimFinsSF.

Just a quick happy new year to everyone.. More to come later but we all had a very nice holiday (with a few exceptions)… Spent christmas in Sacramento with my ‘rents, sister and brother in law, and step sister.. Then the rest of the break relaxing at home and playin with the puppy… New years eve was mellow at home then a 40th b-day party at brian’s yesterday…

Lots more to talk about but i need to work now…

(oh.. and this picture made me laugh out loud so I had to share… thats my boy! :):))

Halloween the way its supposed to be

Shocked the hell out of me – but it seems that they were relatively successful at shutting down the party in the Castro this year. That meant that this year Halloween at our house was what it should have been… A bunch of cute little kids trick-or-treating at our doorstep and no line of freaks passing by to go cause trouble at the party.. Kevin laughed at me because of how excited I was to be able to pass out candy – but i haven’t been able to do that since I moved to the city.. One of the trick-or-treaters even gave out glow sticks to the houses he visited.. was so cute…

anyway.. was cool to see a more sane Halloween.. 🙂

One more then I promise

Originally uploaded by SwimFinsSF.

to give it a rest… well… maybe not give it a rest… but at least not turn this into my dog blog..

but isn’t she adorable?

She isn’t without her challenges though… My lord puppies are a LOT of work…. no really… A LOT OF WORK… But, bless his heart, Kevin has been doing the lion’s share of the work..

Housebreaking her is definitely a challenge.. We’re working right now on paper training her and once thats down then we’ll start the outside training… Outside training is a challenge living in the city without a lawn. since she doesn’t have all of her shots, she can’t be around places where other dogs have pooped which includes the front driveway… Those who have lawns can just let puppies out there but we don’t have that luxury – so it adds to the fun….

on top of that she really doesn’t like being alone… REALLY doesn’t like it.. if we can fool her into falling asleep we’re good but otherwise she’ll whine a lot.. we’re working on teaching her to be OK with it but thats coming slowly…

We just have to keep reminding ourselves that she’s just a puppy and isn’t going to quite get these things…

But she’s cute and a lot of fun so we’re OK putting up with an awful lot! 🙂