Be a Teen on Earth Day

Not my cousin.  I could put the FaceTime pic we have, but she'd FREAK OUT!

I meant a teenager.
Lucky number 13.
Not sure who's lucky though.
Who needs TV when there's YouTube (as long as the WiFi is on).





Last year Kieran's allergies were on HIGH Alert.  He looked like Ms. Puff from SpongeBob.
This year so far his allergies have been much better.
Maybe the Slush-Ice-mageddon killed off the pollen?
Only thing on HIGH alert is attitude.  But that's another story.





Hey doesn't Burrito Boyz cater?

This was really nice.
Yahvi made this for Kieran.
It's so cool.




Happy B-earth Day!
It's really easy to remember his birthday.
It's always on Earth day.

Finally some nice weather.
Still there's some snow hanging around.

SMCS and the Beast

Kieran joined the stage crew for the SMCS production of Beauty and the Beast.  He'd been staying after school to help build the sets for the musical.  But since he didn't attend the meeting in Sept for production crew, he couldn't be involved in the musical.
But he is in the program.  A bunch of his buddies in his class also helped with set production and one of his Gr7 friends played Chip the teacup.

You can tell his voice hadn't changed yet.  Which was probably one of the things they were looking for when casting this character.

And when the play started I'd forgotten it was a musical, so hearing the kids sing was really cool!

It was dramatic getting there, as traffic and parking are always a challenge.
Getting home was also dramatic as a car conked out just before the train underpass and no one could get by.  Finally a tow truck showed up about 20mins later and allowed us to go home.

What an eventful evening!

iM confused

I'm so confused on which car to get.

But we finally decided to replace the 2001 Civic after 17 years.
Deciding on a replacement was needed.
Getting a decision was going to be difficult if not impossible.

I had thought that the Toyota iM would be a good replacement for us.  It was a small city car like the Civic, I was hoping it'd be larger to satisfy Tresa's trunkification criteria.  When she first looked at it in the Toyota dealer show room she said the trunk was smaller than the Civic.
She didn't like this and that.  Lots of negatives.  It was a long list.

So then I asked what about a new Civic.  And the response was.  I love the Civic so you don't have to sell me on another Civic.  So but before we confirmed on the Civic we went to go check it out in the real.
I warned the sales guy that it wasn't me that he had to win over.  So I told him to save his breath for when my wife came around.  I liked the new civic.  I think it looks good, lots more power, rides nice, comfy, but one thing I noticed was how hard it was to get out of the seats.

Most of the Honda Civic buyers are young'uns.  They like it's flashy tech stuff and it's new style and everything.  I noticed the new Civic resembles a BMW 3-series in many ways.  And I think the target audience is similar.

But then then Judgement Day came and she said - I Don't Like It!  She commented on how smooth and quiet it was when we were driving the demo.  But it had evolved too far beyond her 2001 Civic that she didn't like the evolved version.  Visibility was not as good.  I guess that's why there's cameras everywhere.  When you put the right turn signal on the camera activates the screen so you see what's to the right, that you may not see.  I thought that was neat.  A bit distracting but neat.  Although it was larger, inside it felt more encroaching.  It didn't feel open and airy.

We both didn't like how low it was.   Getting in both the front and back was more difficult.  A couple of inches makes all the difference in your backside.  I like the Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.  But it's not important to us.  Too much technology while driving can be more dangerous than not.
There was a long list of dislikes.  How high the tunnel was between the driver and passenger, the fact she can see the fender humps while driving, cheap fabric, the extensive use of black fabric, the black headliner, the digital display, the digital speedometer, and digital period!

She sat in a Honda Fit and she liked it.  Mostly cuz it reminded her of the 2001 Civic.  It was open and airy for a teeny tiny car. But then we drove it and it's engine is buzzy and we were just driving around city streets.  The seats are firm as in butt numbing firm.  I didn't want such a tiny car and neither did my behind.  I mean the iM seemed to be smaller, but this was even smaller since it's a sub-compact.  And with the APR the cost per month was the same as the Civic.  Even the sales guy was telling us to forget the Fit and get the Civic.  And if you want

We then went back to the Toyota dealership so she could test drive the iM.  We never did the first time, we just looked.  There were so many dislikes, I didn't bother troubling them for a drive.
Tresa would've preferred this 1969 Corolla, the same one she used in Australia.  But it's not for sale.

She said the boot was smaller than the old Civic, but after looking at the photos.  I'm not so sure. It may be a bit. But the hatch lets her put bigger stuff in.  It's just way more flexible that way.  And if she can jam more stuff in when she goes shopping, she'll do it!
Plus, it's way easier for me to get my hockey bag and sticks in.

The extensive use of fabric wasn't appealing to her.  But it was the same in the new Civic.  The light coloured headliner was a plus though.  When she drove it, she liked it.  It didn't feel claustrophobic, the sight lines were better, it didn't have that high middle tunnel that she disliked.  And it was way easier to get in and out.

My original choice for a replacement car ended up being the one.  Or the lesser of two evils.  In any case we came full circle.
One very good thing about the iM is that it has almost NO option choices.  It has 2, Colour and Nav.
That's it!  That's perfect for some one who has a tough time making decisions.
Everything else is standard - heated seats, back up camera, lane departure, pre-collision system, bluetooth.  Like it's got so much more than what was in our old Civic. I mean it is 17 yrs newer.  It should.


I was happy we had made a decision.
So was this guy.  It's a good thing we're good friends.
On the outside he's smiling, but on the inside - we were driving him bananas.
But he got us a great deal.
The iM is a great little car.  The nicer rims, lane departure and pre-collision system are standard (but not on the Civic).  The seats, materials, and overall finish were all better than the Civic.  Not by much, but after looking at both, I began to notice the differences.  It even has a button to fold the mirrors.  This car is built in Japan and is sold all over the world.  So this feature is pretty standard on Asian-Pacific market vehicles.  Due to the tight parking spaces.

If I compared apples to apples.  The Civic would have been thousands more.  And Toyota's APR was way better.

It is smaller and has less power, but the Civic is also bigger and heavier.  The Civic hatch is much more $$$.  That's the version that can hit close to $50Gs (for the Type R - for RICER).

Even though the iM looks small, we can fit 3 adults, with 1 being a large 250lb asian in the back seat.  Something we discovered we couldn't do in the old Civic.

The 6spd MT takes some getting used to.
MT was something we both wanted.  It's rare to find one.  Most are AUTO.  It takes some getting used to. Especially the R next to 1st gear.  That ring attached to the boot is actually a button that gets you in R gear.
It has this neat feature that if you are on a hill, the car has a built in brake assist.  So it won't roll back for 2sec giving you time to get going in 1st gear.  The Civic has that too, but they pointed it out, at Toyota they didn't mention it at all.  So it was a nice surprise.

I kinda wish it had some of the bells and whistles of the Venza, like the push button start and proximity sensor for the door locks, but that's it.  Apple CarPlay and Android Auto woulda been good.  But it's ok.

Insurance is WAAAY better on the iM than the Civic.  Not because it's a safer car, but because it's less popular.  So it automatically has less claims than the Civic.  Because of that the premiums are less on the iM.  That's a savings bonus.  One of the reasons it was on my short list.

We decided on the car just before April.  We coulda gotten it for Tresa's b-day.  But we opted for the one that had never been touched by human hands, that en-route from Japan.  So we waited.  Which gave us time to sell the old Civic.  It worked out.  And it's White.  Like it's shiny White!  Pretty much like everything else in our house.

Where's Spring?

Just a few weeks ago I was raking the lawn.  Prepping it for spring. About to buy the lawn stuff.   I remember cuz I was at HomeDepot and it was freezing out in the garden centre.  So i skipped it for another day.

Then we get this Slush-mageddon.
I think I hurt my back from moving the slush from our step.
I thought. WTF?!  It's mid-April.


What was gonna be worse was that this stuff was gonna freeze.
Great!  Slush-to-Ice-mageddon.

Sure enough it delayed the delivery of our new car.
It was coming from Japan and was here in the SIX, but the tractor trailer wasn't going to chance it bringing it to the dealership.
So we had to wait a bit longer.



But we ended up getting it the next day.
Exciting!
It was going to be a full day for me.  Running around from 1 appt to the next.









I had put away our shovels thinking we were done with old man winter.
The city also put away their snow plow and salter contracts.
So I spotted these clowns spreading salt from the back of a city pickup truck.
Toronto always has a plan.

Out to pasture

What's that noise? It's noisy cuz of the winter tires.  Then I switched to the all seasons and it was just as noisy.  Guess it wasn't the tires.

It was the end of Feb and I took it to my hockey league game and on the way home the clutch felt like it was slipping.  It was barely noticeable but I sensed something wasn't right.

We weren't thinking of replacing the Civic.  Well not now.
Especially since like most people, we had bills to pay, things to do,  places to see, never ending things to replace or buy and a kid to take care of.  A car is car.  If it runs, great.  Don't care if it is 17 years old

This is a 2001 Honda Civic DX.  That we got from my brother.  It's been super reliable.  It's never broken down.  We have had the regular oil maintenance and yearly rust proofing, brake maintenance. And it's been great.  Great to learn off of.  There's lots of things that anyone can learn to do themselves.  So I learned.

The power window cable broke on the front drivers side door on our way to NJ one year.  I got the window up but it was hurricane season.  But I fixed it myself for cheap in NJ,  there's an old post on that.   That's when I learned that replacement  costs for parts differ depending on the location.

The OEM stereo was replaced with a Pioneer bluetooth unit.
The driver's seat belt had a SRS err. So I found out that in NJ, that would have been replaced for FREE.  But here in the GWN it's not.  That sucked.
It was like 150-200 for that component here in TDOT.
Both front control arms were replaced.
The trunk/gas cap cable was replaced.
The headliner was coming off so I replaced that last year (again. The first time I did it, started to come off when it got warm).

Other than that.  It's ORIGINAL like my Organic son.

We are pretty grateful for this car.  We took care of it and it's been good to us.  It's never left us on the side of the road stranded.  Never.  But never say never.  The Subaru failed on me back at the end of 2012 when the fuel pump went.  Shoulda saw it coming.  I didn't want the same thing to happen to Tresa.   So I figured it was better sooner than later.  And it was worth something to someone while it was working.  I knew the timing belt was due, and the clutch.  Those were the two big services to be done.  Better to sell it now and put it towards a newer car than to try to recoup that cost when it's older.  Because people won't pay much for an old car, especially on Kijiji, they're all cheap-asses.

It's 17 years old, so expect it to be used.  But for it's age it looked pretty good.  And only recently did it start to show it's age.  It has been dinged a couple of times in the last year.  We got rear ended on St Clair back in Sep 2017.  There was no visible damage cuz the rear bumper had some bumps in it from what I did years back, but we did get whiplash from the impact.  We are still feeling the effects.  More Tresa than me.

About 3-4 months before that, Tresa got bumped on the rear quarter panel by a girl that didn't look before she backed out of her spot at Sherway and Tresa was driving through.

The damage was cosmetic, and Tresa was upset since she'd never been in a car accident, but we got a settlement out of it, which made her feel better. I think she bought new shoes.  :-)

I created an ad on AutoTrader and kijiji and all but 1 person that contacted me was from kijiji.   AutoTrader seems to have higher prices but kijiji has a lot of people looking through it.

The fellow that bought it (from Kijiji), did so without seeing first.  I wasn't going to get the Used Vehicle Pkg unless the person decided they wanted it.  I had 3 serious offers on the table.  All were scrap yard dealers.   My car buddy said it was worth at most $300.  I got $220, $350 and $400 from scrap guys.  They would come and pick up the car and that's it.  No need for a Used Car Vehicle pkg.  They just need to provide an invoice and that's it.  But I'm not 100% sure.

I was a bit nervous when arranging for people to come see it.  I had just watched the Tim Bosma documentary.  Where he went off with two fellas that came to say they were going to buy his truck and then snuffed him.  I told my car buddy i didn't want to get Bosma'd over an 01 Civic.  But it was fine.  A young couple came to check it out, to replace their 2003 Toyota Echo that the guy had smashed.  But they never called me back.  They did ask me if the AC worked.  It still does.  And works great.  Didn't even think of it, since it works.

Everyone seems to focus on what's wrong with it, it was all i got asked by tire kickers.  In my ad I listed all the stuff that was replaced, and that it was rust proofed every year.  NO RUST.   And that it was still our daily driver.
If you have ever had to fix a dent.  Depending on where it is, it is expensive.  An engine overhaul will be cheaper than a full on body work job.  Just because you fixed a rust bucket is no guarantee that the rust won't come back.  Once rust starts it's a disease.  Ask a body shop guy about it.  And that's what he'll tell you.  Replacing an engine part is way cheaper than doing body work.  Been there. Done that.

The eventual buyer was a young mechanic.  He just wanted something rust free.  And this fit the bill.
I was happy to get something for it.    He gave me close to my asking.  We were just happy that it didn't go to a crusher.  A scrap yard guy would have sold it for parts and made a lot.

This Civic is great.  Kinda sad to see it go, but I didn't want to stress about finding a place to park it when we got our new car.  That was an interesting exercise.

Glad it went to someone that was going to use it and take care of it.
I discovered that the black book value of this car is $900.00.

Happy Easter Birthday

It was for the most part a beautiful Easter weekend!
Friday was GOOD, Easter was Happy.  Lunch and dinner was delicious.

I got to ride on Good Friday.
Blew and slashed my tire on some plastic shards between Brickworks and Pottery Rd.  Used an expensive patch! I didn't have another tube.
But it got me home without another flat.  So it was worth it.

It was also Good because I got to change out the winter tires.  I thought the winter tires were loud, but it ended up that it was just our Civic telling us it's age.

The car is nearly indestructible. It's been uber dependable.
I will be sad to see it go.  But then driving a new car will make me forget about it really fast.

Got to eat a lot of variety this easter.  Seemed to be more so than usual.
Lamb, palachinka, salmon, soup, turkey, ham, sausage, home made horse radish, rice, dumplings, shrimp, adobo. puto, rice cake.  I was a EUROAsian eating machine.

It was international cuisine weekend.  And every professional Toronto sports team seemed to be losing.  WTF?  Guess pros go on holidays too.

Even got some classical music too.
When the angry violinist was not being rebellious.
He just needs 'positive reinforcement'.
Pretty often.  The more 'positive' the better.

April is one of the months of birthdays.
Lets get it all done with a big ass candle and costco cake.
As we were making our rounds from East to West end.







Back to the angry violinist entertaining the family friendly crowd with is facial expressions and violin.  Good thing we aren't Spaniards and it was the Tomato fest.  Kieran would be an easy and deserving target.





Happy birthday to my happy easter OneOfAKind professional organic wife.
Soon, retired will be squeezed somewhere in there.

I hear it every day.  Usually when she calls at 7:25am, 9:56am, 12:48pm, and 2:48pm when I need to tap the Green-P app for her physio appt / hair colouring / pedi-manicure appt.

Everyone loves home made cards.
Anyone can buy a gen pop funny card.
But making it yourself really sends the message home!
You can't buy this stuff. cuz it's free. LOL.

I also can't buy a lot of the stuff she wants.  But I always compromise.
Which is like a long term IOU.  I can't even use her shampoo.  Not allowed.  if I run out of my Dollar store 2 litre sized 8-in-1 stuff, I have to use the bar soap stuff that stays in your hair for the next 3 showers.

But eventually I will HAVE to come up with the goods.  I watch the stock market like a HAWK!  Mostly it's like a shit-hawk seagull.  But I'm learning and turning the corner.  GLTA!

My other option is to become an UBER driver or UBEREats/Foodora delivery guy.  This option seems like it might work out better for some reason.
This is proof that my family loves her more than me.
But I'm okay with that.
:-)


google pics