Hobo Jungle

[healey36]

Healey:

I know that drill; my last six years from north of Gettysburg to Gaithersburg and back each day (four hours on a good day in the car).

Now, a different world. I took a break from editing articles for March/April OST and had a lovely playtime with the Mini in the snow for no reason other than the fun of it.

Epic fun and an absolutely brilliant day.

I've got an employee who drives in from Fairfield PA every day Sarge, just a few miles southwest of Gettysburg. That has to be grueling...I feel for him. I know why he does it...he's got a beautiful old chalet up there built into the hillside not too far from Liberty, but I couldn't do it.

So how is the Mini? You're killing me with envy. My neighbor is telling me she wants to trade hers in on a new Fiat 500...nooooooooooooooooooooo! She knows I want her car...I think she's just jerkin' my chain.

Healey

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I've got an employee who drives in from Fairfield PA every day Sarge, just a few miles southwest of Gettysburg. That has to be grueling...I feel for him. I know why he does it...he's got a beautiful old chalet up there built into the hillside not too far from Liberty, but I couldn't do it.

One of the investigators 2 1/2 floors (yes, we have 1/2 floors.......) below me commutes in from Hagerstown down to Bethesda. Rt 70 to Rt 270 and then back -- hard to fathom the amount of pain involved in that commute, but then he's been one of those MMA fighters so I guess he enjoys the pain.

[sarge]

I've got an employee who drives in from Fairfield PA every day Sarge, just a few miles southwest of Gettysburg. That has to be grueling...I feel for him. I know why he does it...he's got a beautiful old chalet up there built into the hillside not too far from Liberty, but I couldn't do it.

So how is the Mini? You're killing me with envy. My neighbor is telling me she wants to trade hers in on a new Fiat 500...nooooooooooooooooooooo! She knows I want her car...I think she's just jerkin' my chain.

Healey

I did it for several reasons as part of a retirement planning and social environment exercise.

We figured that we could sell our house in Montgomery County MD for enough to pay our mortgage off and have enough to pay for the lion's share of a place in PA. I bought that house when I got married (in my mid-forties), from a friend of mine who needed to pay his corporate taxes, as it sat, and my wife and I put our ready cash into it rather than following the common advice from the "financial advisors" that said (inexplicably to my simple brain) to keep the mortgage and put the money in "investments".

By a bit of a fluke, we sold it just before the real-estate bubble detonation, and the difference between suburban MD and rural PA found us not with a smaller mortgage, but paying cash for a modest Cape with a 25x35 Morton "toy-box" in back. Instantly we caught up to where we would have been if we had married in my 20s and I had had a normal career that involved living in the same place for more than six-months at a time. No mortgage is a good place to be when retired.

Even more important in our mind was to get away from the urban and into a small-town environment before our son started school. I can't say how important this has turned out to be in his social development. I've been taken to task over this one, as the all-knowing school raters have the schools in Montgomery County and Fairfax County Virginia as some of the most academically superb in the nation. It's more than academics that form a mind, though, and here he can go to school without much of the social baggage of urban/suburban culture, enjoy smaller class sizes, a tight circle of friends, and all that goes with a small town. Academic we can make up for as parents, and we haven't found much to complain about here compared to there, if I'm honest. The suburban social environment we can't make up for. He is getting a broader grounding he wouldn't have gotten if we had stayed.

My wife and I also find the pace to be much less frenetic. She has a good circle of friends here, something that was not very successful there even though she was born and raised in Northern Virginia and DC. The competition/cougar element just isn't here, and she has thrived in ways that she never would have; a nice circle of good friends, cultural things by choice, and peace to retreat to when needed.

Lastly, PA doesn't tax retirement income. It helps, but ranks a distant fourth to the other reasons above. Fuel taxes are high in PA, property taxes are no slouch either, but still my tax profile across the board is less than what I was paying there though not as much as to be a driver all by itself, if I'm honest.

We made the jump six years before I retired (it would have been five but for a little annoying glitch), so the payment for all this nirvana was four hours a day on the road on a good day for a long time. It can beat you up, you don't see your family for more than an hour or so a day, and the end of the week finds you in a right state of exhaustion so weekends aren't that great either.

Now, though, we enjoy the fruits of that effort. I'm home now as my son is in Junior High and growing into a fine young man, my wife is happy in an environment of friends like she has never known, I'm editing OST as my only employment and we still manage the bills, it was not for the faint of heart but for us it was worth it.

I'll catch you up on the Mini later today; don't let her sell to anyone but you! For anyone who is a true petrolhead, a Mini as daily transport is epic fun. More later on that.

[rogruth]

Sarge,

You had a good plan and now you have the benefits.

Congratulations.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Even more important in our mind was to get away from the urban and into a small-town environment before our son started school. I can't say how important this has turned out to be in his social development. I've been taken to task over this one, as the all-knowing school raters have the schools in Montgomery County and Fairfax County Virginia as some of the most academically superb in the nation.

Both counties are legends of academics in their respective minds........both are terribly overrated, bloated operations that do an excellent job of teaching students how to pass standardized tests. If your child fails to fit into their list of pigeon holes, you and your child are in for a lot of pain.

It's more than academics that form a mind, though, and here he can go to school without much of the social baggage of urban/suburban culture, enjoy smaller class sizes, a tight circle of friends, and all that goes with a small town. Academic we can make up for as parents, and we haven't found much to complain about here compared to there, if I'm honest. The suburban social environment we can't make up for. He is getting a broader grounding he wouldn't have gotten if we had stayed.

Completely agree with one slight exception/caveat - there is also a social baggage associated with a small town // rural culture that can be problematic.

Lastly, PA doesn't tax retirement income. It helps, but ranks a distant fourth to the other reasons above. Fuel taxes are high in PA, property taxes are no slouch either, but still my tax profile across the board is less than what I was paying there though not as much as to be a driver all by itself, if I'm honest.

School tax in PA can be brutal,

But I would also make the jump to PA as my primary residence were it not for some exceedingly complicated estate laws that permeate the PA/Phila lawyer/banking establishment that I and my better 1/2 have suffered through the horrors of now on far too many occasions. And, while I am relatively comfortable in the small town // rural environment, my better 1/2 is not.

So it goes....

[rogruth]

Good luck.

[sarge]

Completely agree with one slight exception/caveat - there is also a social baggage associated with a small town // rural culture that can be problematic...

I get that one from the urbans a lot, and there is truth to it to a degree. However, having to drink the occasional glass of water doesn't make drowning any the more acceptable.

Healey:

To the matter at hand. The Mini is brilliant.

I had an Austin Mini in my younger days and the new ones are not the same car. That's fine, because these still are both practical and insane all at the same time, so in that regard they do have a similarity. It has no vices I can find so-far, other than perhaps a little heavy on the gadgetry. The voice activated phone stuff doesn't understand my voice very well, and other tech stuff is best left ignored, for it is German tech stuff therefore quite inscrutable. One day I intend to figure how to put music on an USB idiot stick, for the car will read one apparently.

Luckily, the tech crap is quite ignorable; the only thing I use is the CD and the hands-off phone answering. From then on, it is well behaved and scoots about like a cat chasing a laser pointer. My wife is in love with the heated seats (actually the only option on the car!), so she doesn't mind the ride. In fact you can fair chuck the car without her falling victim to car-sickness (a proclivity of hers) or her giving me a lecture on male behaviour (another proclivity of hers).

Back to the tech stuff for a moment, I find the need for CDs and such only on long drags down motorways. Once you hit the back-roads, you easily fall victim to the desire to turn off the dam noise and listen to the car as you playfully think about proper shift-points and lines and apexes through corners. Turn off the radio and play with the car? Most people here won't understand the significance of that statement, but I think you are one that does.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Though my wife and I prefer BMW and M. Benz, I think Mini-Coopers are very cool. They seem possessed of their own particular cachet, enhanced by a 2-tone paint job. It's not my time (or size ) in life for such a vehicle, but I don't have to own something to respect or appreciate it for its qualities.
Murph

[AG]

[quote="sarge
I had an Austin Mini in my younger days [/quote]
Stromberg carburetor.
steering wheel I think was bigger than the wheels.
and of course Lucas electric system.

My first car was a chevy 3100 1949 6 volts. A present of my grandfather. since I like GM's cars.


AG.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Completely agree with one slight exception/caveat - there is also a social baggage associated with a small town // rural culture that can be problematic...

I get that one from the urbans a lot, and there is truth to it to a degree. However, having to drink the occasional glass of water doesn't make drowning any the more acceptable.

Having been raised not all that far up the road West of you, I experienced that baggage all too well......these things run both ways.

Turn off the radio and play with the car? Most people here won't understand the significance of that statement....

Actually, I do. But, not having music in the background allows me to become............distracted. Some aspect of it occupies my ADD just enough to keep it occupied.....while I do important stuff.

[rogruth]

Being an ex musician I do like having music playing except in towns.

Waving my hands around and stuff helps keep me awake.

[healey36]

Sarge - I unfortunately live in a world surrounded by very few true car lovers. If I had a buck for every time one of my four sisters-in-law say to my wife "Why's he out in the garage so much...it's just a car." Aaaargh!!! It's not just a freakin' car. The automobile, thanks to the Toyota Camry and its ilk, has become an appliance to so many. When I read that youngsters are forsaking their driving privileges to live in the city and take mass-transit, it breaks my heart. And for God's sake, take the ear-buds out once in awhile and listen...the sounds around you are pretty neat!

I'm glad you're liking the Mini...can't imagine how one couldn't. Sure, you're missing your old hydro-elastic suspension from the Austin , but I'm thinking BMW has provided a few improvements/refinements that more than compensate (and I'm not talking about blue-tooth enabled seat-warmers and all of the other stuff they jam in there these days) I want to drive a car with such a low center-of-gravity it feels like my behind is just an inch or so from dragging on the pavement, and you can actually accelerate through a curve and feel like your not going to pitch over or slide into Farmer Brown's pasture. I want to hear the engine's "report" cracking back at me. I want to smell the hot oil, the clutch, and leather seats in a hot sun. I want an automobile that feels like an extension of me, which is what the Sprite is...one has the sense that he/she is wearing the car, like a pair of gloves.

I don't know, man, it's a sickness. The Old Man was a car guy...I think I got it from him. For years I traipsed through British car shows talking to original owners. I couldn't imagine what it must be like to own a real roadster for thirty years, knowing no one other than ones self had ever sullied it...knowing every trait, every idiosyncrasy of the machine. In 1979 I bought my first new car. One could still buy an MGB or Midget, but they were the rubber-bumpered imposters, not true descendants from Kimber's Garage. I instead elected to buy a Mercury Capri (not the German Capri, but the Mercury badged Ford Mustang). It was a great car, brilliant in a straight line with that 5.0 litre V8, but it wasn't a roadster and I regretted it for a long time. The roadsters disappeared from the product lines for quite a few years, than re-emerged with the blissful Mazda Miata. I fell into a windfall in 2000 and decided I wanted what all of those other guys had...to be an original owner of a classic roadster. Rather that the Miata, I went for a BMW Z3...a bit heavier, but a locking rear and a straight-six (there is no engine IMHO better balanced and more heavenly to drive than a straight-six). I drove my econo-box of the time down to the BMW dealership and placed my order, giving a big fat deposit. Unfortunately it was right at their model change-over, so I had to wait five months to get it. Titanium Silver, like the Silver Arrows from the 1930's (in my mind all German cars should be silver). Two weeks after the Old Man died I went to pick it up. It was mid-October, unusually cold, maybe thirty degrees. The salesman brought it around, top down, heater blasting. He said he figured I'd want to drive it home with the top down...I guess he could tell just looking at me.

The Z is a keeper...I plan to hang onto it until I'm in a box. The Mini might be the same way, Sarge...enjoy the hell out of it, and make sure you take the CD out once in awhile and just listen.

Healey

[jw_clarke54]

Completely agree with one slight exception/caveat - there is also a social baggage associated with a small town // rural culture that can be problematic...

I get that one from the urbans a lot, and there is truth to it to a degree. However, having to drink the occasional glass of water doesn't make drowning any the more acceptable.

Healey:

To the matter at hand. The Mini is brilliant.

I had an Austin Mini in my younger days and the new ones are not the same car. That's fine, because these still are both practical and insane all at the same time, so in that regard they do have a similarity. It has no vices I can find so-far, other than perhaps a little heavy on the gadgetry. The voice activated phone stuff doesn't understand my voice very well, and other tech stuff is best left ignored, for it is German tech stuff therefore quite inscrutable. One day I intend to figure how to put music on an USB idiot stick, for the car will read one apparently.

Luckily, the tech crap is quite ignorable; the only thing I use is the CD and the hands-off phone answering. From then on, it is well behaved and scoots about like a cat chasing a laser pointer. My wife is in love with the heated seats (actually the only option on the car!), so she doesn't mind the ride. In fact you can fair chuck the car without her falling victim to car-sickness (a proclivity of hers) or her giving me a lecture on male behaviour (another proclivity of hers).

Back to the tech stuff for a moment, I find the need for CDs and such only on long drags down motorways. Once you hit the back-roads, you easily fall victim to the desire to turn off the dam noise and listen to the car as you playfully think about proper shift-points and lines and apexes through corners. Turn off the radio and play with the car? Most people here won't understand the significance of that statement, but I think you are one that does.

Sarge, In my neck of the woods Houston, its not really too far to get to some country roads and if You want to DRIVE You can. AND BE the Driver!! James Tx

[sarge]

Having been raised not all that far up the road West of you, I experienced that baggage all too well......these things run both ways.

No comparison. Sure it isn't "perfect"; no place with people is, but the social environment is a helluva lot better where we are now; no regrets and no sale. I'll never go back (voluntarily) and we are very happy to have escaped the metro DC "culture" (especially my wife who was born and raised to it).

Andre:
I never had the issues with Lucas that legend says I should have. That old Mini was as dependable as any car of its era, and God it was fun.

[AG]

Having been raised not all that far up the road West of you, I experienced that baggage all too well......these things run both ways.

No comparison. Sure it isn't "perfect"; no place with people is, but the social environment is a helluva lot better where we are now; no regrets and no sale. I'll never go back (voluntarily) and we are very happy to have escaped the metro DC "culture" (especially my wife who was born and raised to it).

Andre:
I never had the issues with Lucas that legend says I should have. That old Mini was as dependable as any car of its era, and God it was fun.

Honestly it was, for the size was very spacious inside.
except the stronberg carburetor that was leaking the oil to somewhere and making the carburation really bad not mayor issues.
My Dad owned a Hillman husky he was dealing with regulator boxes all the time, but his Vauxhall ( british GM) was pretty good too.
So regarding lucas could be just bad luck.
In 1996 I bought an 1979 Ford Cortina (british Ford than move to Germany in the 80's I guess), excellent car as well.
AG.
AG.