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Showing posts from 2022

The Nissan Leaf Gets a New Rear Axle

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Well, I finally have a salvage title for the 2013 Nissan LEAF (Actually I dont have the title yet, but I think they mail it to me. We are far from settled with the insurance company for sure. It has been six months since Angie was rear ended. The following chart shows a very sad and disturbing trend. Insurance companies aren't paying out. It should be criminal. I went shopping for a new rear axle so I can get the car driving again. The rear ended axle was so bent, the car couldn't move. The new one with no connecting bits was over a thousand dollars. The cheapest used ones I could find on ebay were over 500 dollars. I finally scored at a local used parts place for 95 dollars (removed) and with associated bits such as bearings, bushings, parts of the brakes. It took me a concentrated day with cancelled and moved meetings to get the axle replaced and the car running again. The accomplishment felt good. I am now configuring the car with tractor tires and other modifications t...
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Cuba Jurassic Park

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We are back from our Christmas trip to Cuba. A very unusual place for sure. Currently, there are no independent tourism visas issued by Cuba. We traveled on journalism Visas. So I am shamed into writing more as we get unpacked. Angie was questioned entering Cuba for at least 30 minutes. I had no questions asked of me. We don't know why. The people in Cuba were the most pleasant surprise. Extremely upbeat. I suspect you have heard outlandish theories of lizard people or Anunnaki or an otherwise different species of humans living among us. They are different, but look the same as everyday humans. In Cuba, it feels the locals think of the gringos as lizards. The lagartijas and the largatos, the special men and women intermingle among us, take pictures, drink alcohol and observe. They are indeed different. The clothes are different, the shoes are different. They walk a little different. It’s almost as if there is plastic bubble around them moving along with them, protecting them. ...
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Middle East 2022 trip

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We are back in Atlanta. We took our Thanksgiving holiday primarily in the Middle East. The country list was France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Lebanon. That made four new countries for us bringing our total to 85 Countries visited. We had 9 flight segments in 12 days and capped the trip off with marching in the Macy Day parade in NYC again this year. We are very strict on what we consider a country and we use the US State Department as the standard. We both lost (and gained zero) "countries" using this standard. Examples: Antarctica is not a country and isn't counted. Macau and Hong Kong were indepenpedent counties when visited, but now don't exist and aren't counted. There are a number of unexpected occurances that happen when using the standard over time. Unfortunatly, we got a bug somewhere in our travels that started providing symptoms in NYC. Black Friday was indeed Black Friday for us. We dont have much more recollection than being home in Atlanta. O...
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