The General Chat Thread (2023)

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The Velvet Curtain said:
A couple of hours ago a nice lady let her BMW mate with the back of my Mini whilst we were stopped at traffic lights. New bumper required but fortunately Lu and I are fine, if a little miffed.
By chance the police turned up soon after and she admitted liability in front of them, further good fortune we both have the same insurance company so repairs should be sorted swiftly.
I have been driving for 40 years and this is the first collision I have been in. Ho hum.
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I guess it is appropriate that a Beamer "mated" your MINI -- keepin' it in the family. :laugh:

I have been re-ended at stop lights four times. All four times, the other driver didn't have insurance, so my insurance had to fix my car. The last time, the police impounded the truck that hit me. Oh, one time, the truck that hit me took off. It was found abandoned a few miles away -- it was stolen.

That final incident was the worst. The other vehicle was a Ford Excursion, a 6,000 pound SUV. :eek: It hit me so hard, it pushed me into the SUV in front of me. $16,000 in damage.

CD
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Last time, even though I was completely stationary and the insurance initially said they would pay, once the work was finsihed they then refused.

They did pay in the end but it was stressful and I had to put that accident down on my insurance forms for 5 bloody years.

Most annoyingly even if it’s not your fault it can affect your premium if you have another accident. This is because the insurance company are b**sta*ds will consider something like your route or where you park your car or that your beahviour in some way contributes to the accident happening, ie you are a riskier bet.
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Here, if you buy full-coverage car insurance, they have to pay a claim.

I've been lucky, my accidents haven't raised my risk level. My rates have gone up, but not because of accidents.

CD
 
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SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
There's compulsory 3rd party CTP, which is mandatory to even have a vehicle, then there is another insurance for your vehicle and passengers.
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Liability insurance is required by law to register a car in Texas, but what people do is buy the insurance, get the car registered, then cancel the insurance. Every year, they buy insurance for one month to get their registration. This is a big problem in the hispanic immigrant community. They don't seem to believe in having insurance. The police can impound the uninsured car, but the people who drive them just stop making their car payments, and let the lender repossess them. They are basically just renting their cars by the month.

CD
 
caseydog said:
Liability insurance is required by law to register a car in Texas, but what people do is buy the insurance, get the car registered, then cancel the insurance. Every year, they buy insurance for one month to get their registration. This is a big problem in the hispanic immigrant community. They don't seem to believe in having insurance. The police can impound the uninsured car, but the people who drive them just stop making their car payments, and let the lender repossess them. They are basically just renting their cars by the month.

CD
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Like most things, it's different in different countries. Here CTP is mandatory. No CTP, the vehicle isn't legal, and you've no rego etc which invalidates your other (optional) insurance and so on. But you only need CTP to be on the road legally if the vehicle has passed very relaxed tests (UK equivalent of MOT about 50 years ago) and you have a license.

In the UK you only need 1 insurance, it's the level that you choose. Third party, third party fire and theft, comprehensive.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Like most things, it's different in different countries. Here CTP is mandatory. No CTP, the vehicle isn't legal, and you've no rego etc which invalidates your other (optional) insurance and so on. But you only need CTP to be on the road legally if the vehicle has passed very relaxed tests (UK equivalent of MOT about 50 years ago) and you have a license.
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That's basically the same as in Texas, but people have found a way to cheat the system. If you get caught on a traffic stop without proof of insurance, you get a citation, and a $75 fine. No big deal. There are enough people out there that really don't care if they wreck your car. If you have a nice car, especially an expensive car, they care even less, because you obviously have more money than they do, so it doesn't matter if they wreck your car. You can afford it.

CD
 
Florida took care of the buy insurance for 1 month to get your registration then cancel quite a few years ago. The insurance companies are required by law to report a cancellation for any reason. Your license gets suspended, as well as your registration.

Right after they passed the new law, I changed insurance companies and got a notice my license and registration had been suspended because the new company didn't report me as having insurance. That was a PITA to get corrected. Fortunately, they got the reporting new and canceled insurance policies worked out as we've not had a problem since, though we've only changed companies once, maybe twice.
 
We had almost constant lightning last night. We'd get 5 or 6 flashes, all at once on top of each other, a brief pause of maybe 3 or 4 seconds and then another set.... all around, all night long. Literally.

This is an image that a local photographer (Timothy Dean Photographer) posted on FB that my mother sent to me today. If that is a 5 minute exposure, I'd be being very generous....

They're was no need for turning on electricity to walk around the house. I didn't sleep well. My asthma was playing up with the storm, and the beat constant lightning was keeping me awake. Some was that bright, it hurt my eyes even with them closed. We lost power so many times.

This picture is about 20-25 minutes drive from my house.

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It's a compilation of 20 images, all roughly 4 seconds in exposure, laid over the top of each other.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
We had almost constant lightning last night. We'd get 5 or 6 flashes, all at once on top of each other, a brief pause of maybe 3 or 4 seconds and then another set.... all around, all night long. Literally.

This is an image that a local photographer (Timothy Dean Photographer) posted on FB that my mother sent to me today. If that is a 5 minute exposure, I'd be being very generous....

They're was no need for turning on electricity to walk around the house. I didn't sleep well. My asthma was playing up with the storm, and the beat constant lightning was keeping me awake. Some was that bright, it hurt my eyes even with them closed. We lost power so many times.

This picture is about 20-25 minutes drive from my house.

View attachment 107831

It's a compilation of 20 images, all roughly 4 seconds in exposure, laid over the top of each other.
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We had a storm like that one time in Frisco. It burned at least three houses down, and several units of an apartment complex.

CD
 
Watch this video, it’s short, and it shows you’re never too old to learn a new tip from an even older pro:

View: https://youtu.be/yDk0xj905fA?si=m_5W_VVKWuKejbgP


Pay attention at 25 seconds or so, and he’ll show you a hilariously simple little tip for something that I’ve run into many times over the years…now I know! :laugh:
 
It was 81F/27C today in Houston, and quite... moist (yes, I used the "m" word). :laugh:

CD
 
caseydog said:
We had a storm like that one time in Frisco. It burned at least three houses down, and several units of an apartment complex.

CD
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Here, these storms are surprisingly common.
We don't tend to get solitary thunderstorms.

That storm was made up of many smaller cells. Whilst that was being taken, I was watching 6 cells around our home. I have been giving serious thought to getting my Canon eos 5Dmkii functional again. The batteries don't hold charge anymore due to their age.
 
The bad thing about eating a big lunch is that you are hungry at dinner time. I got to DFW airport, and I was hungry, and I was taking a UBER ride home, so I decided to pop into this little bar for a snack. When I say little, this bar had three booth tables and a bar with about eight stools. I had a flatbread Margherita pizza that was surprisingly very good.

Anyway, I sat at the bar, and the bartender was super-cool. The other people at the bar were cool, too. We had a good conversation going. Some Gen-Z entitled d-bags came in with food from the fast food joint nearby, and sat down to eat at the only table not occupied by a paying customer. The bartender asked them if they wanted to order drinks, and they said no. He then politely told them that they had to leave and eat somewhere else. They copped a big time entitled Gen-Z attitude... and I stepped in. :ninja:

Me: Are you surprised by this?
One of them: Yeah, we are.
Another entitled one: This doesn't involve you. (to me)
Me: <hairy eyeball>
His friends: We should leave.
Me thinking: Please mouth off to me. My dad died a few days ago, my mom and sister have pi$$ed me off for three days straight. I will walk my 62 year old hand over there and slap the s--t out of you.
Them: they left.

The bartender thanked me, and everyone else in the bar had a good laugh.

There are some benefits to being an old guy.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx0z9FjxP-Y


CD
 
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So I've got into the habit of buying secondhand books from wob.com

And some of the cooking books come with handwritten notes left by the previous owner :laugh:

Thank you, kind stranger, for letting me know this frittata is very good!

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(Moderator note: I've had to edit this image to remove copyrighted material. Anything in a book is covered by strict copyright laws unless the book itself says otherwise. )
 
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