My car strategy is to buy new and drive them into the ground hoping to get at least 10 years out of my cars (I drive a lot) and 12-15 out of my wife's (she drives about half as much as I do).
I maintain my cars well and have always gotten at least 180k out of them with as much as 250k without any major issues. Here's the car advice: If you buy new, take it straight to a Firestone and get the $200 lifetime alignment. Any Firestone will align it and rotate the tires for free after that. Just make a copy of the paperwork and keep it in the car's glove box.
So, I took my wife's car to my local Firestone last week to get the alignment check and tweaked if necessary since I was noticing a little extra wear on the outside of her front tires. I'm a granddad but I must admit to noticing, as soon as I got in the door, an uncommonly stunning young woman sitting in the waiting area. She was blonde and wearing what looked like a man's shirt with something of a belt on it. I had to mentally slap myself as a reminder to act like the man I'm trying to be. I walked past a young guy wearing a gray wife-beater shirt with tattoos down each shoulder to his forearms, looking at the rack of tires.
There was one Tech at the counter so I stood in line behind an older black man that was slumped from age but still a good bit taller than me - he was probably 6' 6" as a younger man. I don't remember his shirt but he had on a VFW-type hat. I silently thanked the Lord for him and the men like him that served their country. He was slow and doddering and I always feel like I'm in a hurry so I felt myself tensing up. I had to mentally slap myself again about being the man I'm trying to be become and took the time to thank the Lord, once again, for this man and everything he gave up and risked so I could enjoy life and hunt ducks. I settled down in that realization and decided that I would wait patiently for as long as necessary. It wasn't long and the tall man left the counter to take a seat in the waiting area. The tattooed man ran over to him, thanked him and asked where he served. I didn't catch the older man's answer but the younger guy responded that he had been deployed twice into Iraq. I was humbled and again thanked the Lord for these two men that were braver at time in their life when I would have been the biggest coward. The young man continued his story.
He said he'd been working but just quit his job and was about to leave to go fight in the Ukraine. I think he said something like he wasn't planning to be there but 8 months but the money was phenomenal. Here's the creepy part, he said his girlfriend was from the Ukraine then walked a couple of steps over the the blonde and bend down over her. She looked up and he planted one on her but she clearly did not kiss him back. He straightened up and said, "She's from Kyiv. She's going with me." She stood up, ducked under his arm and went to the water cooler with out any real acknowledgement of her "boyfriend" or the tall American.
What on Earth? Is it possible that the Ukraine is sending these young girls over to drag American men over to fight for someone else's country? I just can't wrap my head around this...I live a sheltered life...
When I got home, I told my wife about it and we both thanked the Lord that the biggest issue my son has is not taking proper care of his yard, according to my wife anyway. I think a young man that prioritizes fishing over mowing is lawn is fine by me.
Bookmarks