I moved to Indiana after living in Florida for about 12 years. I am originally from Indiana and lived in Wisconsin prior to leaving Indiana and then going to Florida.

Emily,

Long time (+30 years) Mercedes owner. Never used either ECS or Pelican, as I could always find my parts for less elsewhere or from my local dealer, with which I have a jobber account with.

We do not sniff our own farts!

As someone involved directly with H-D during their “peak years” following the buyout in the 80s and well into the 90s, I would agree that hubris has played a large part in their continuing decline.

I’ve been to Yosemite many times and at different times of the year. Best time to go hands down is in October or early November if the snow hasn’t fallen yet. The park is pretty dead at that time and you can go anywhere without a crowd.

One of the best times to go is during Florida’s sales tax holiday weekend. Sounds silly, but all of the locals are busy shopping, so they’re not at the park. I didn’t believe it until I went last year. Like going shopping in Wisconsin during a Packer game. Damned near tumbleweeds blowing through the place....

I grew up in that “farming community” on the south side and worked for a number of the German farmers who own/run these “truck farms” as we called them. A ton of them have large greenhouse operations that grow tomatoes and flowers year round. 

Put new lift cylinders on the rear hatch of my 98 E320 wagon. Did a temporary re-glue of the headliner as well, since it was ready to fall down anyway. That’s a major undertaking for another day.

When I came out of a year and a half of trade school, I was heavily recruited by the local Mercedes-benz dealership. I interviewed, spoke to a number of mechanics there, etc., and was satisfied that it would be a good career move. That is, until I found out that the “new guys” got all the warranty work.

I have sold cars on CL for years, and been happy with it for the most part. Many of the things stated here are correct in that:

Last November I bought an older vehicle from the second owner, who was retiring and had no use for it at this point in their life. They offered it to me for $1800, I countered with $1700 and we shook hands on the deal.

As a former high line mechanic and over 30 year DIY wrencher, I can tell you that when I see parts for sale I always look at the range of prices between OE and the bottom. When I see an OE suspension part that is, say $100, and an aftermarket import part is $20, it seems obvious to me that the quality of the $20 part…

One more day and I’ll have my month’s worth of savings ready to use on some high interest debt I’ve been chipping away at. I’m going to continue to do this on a monthly basis because I can, and use it to target debt rather than for purchases.

The behavioral interviewing thing makes me crazy. It’s such a head game that seems contrived to tell the interviewer little more than how easily you can come up with a bullshit response.

I used to make a living in the early 80s wrenching on these things. Like being an undertaker, no matter how bad the economy was, you’ll always have customers.

Former desktop computer tech in a large school district. Too many stories to list here, but a couple of my favorite:

I work for a government entity that has a policy allowing access to personal email on our (government’s) computers. How/why this exists predates my tenure, but it is by far the vector for nearly every incursion we’ve had since I started working there. I do the onboarding pitch to all new employees for our department,…

As one of those corporate IT security people who are enlisted to scrutinize such matters, I can assure you that we have neither the time nor inclination to do so unless requested by the HR department.

Not a bad price for a relatively low mileage R129 with a pano top. The panoramic top alone is worth $3,000 or more by itself. I say pay the $10k and sell the top to drop your actual cost to $7k. $3k is a slam dunk retail for a pano top, if you’re living right you might get $4k for it.