Paint Sale, Bernie, & Honda

After working 7 days straight, I had yesterday off and pretty much slept through most of it.  Not that I didn't get things done, it's just that I left the store around midnight and had to get up at 5:30 to meet my brother for breakfast.  Why was I at the store so late?  We're having a Memorial Day Sale.  More importantly, for me at least, is that we're having one hell of a paint sale and everything should look Grand Opening ready.
I was talking to my friend Betsy last evening and she asked "when did Bernie become such a bitter, old man."  My response:  I suspect he's been bitter for quite some time.  Probably he sees this presidential election as his last chance to make a difference, and if he doesn't, well, maybe he thinks his political life will be seen as a failure.  Or maybe it's just old age.  He is 74.  Or, it could be that he's just pissed because he knows we're going to have a great paint sale and he's going to miss it because he's on the campaign trail.

I'm pissed at Honda because I made an online car payment on the 17th and they ran it through on the 18th, and then for some reason they ran it through again on the 19th.  Idiots.  They'd had a problem several months back with processing payments, not with my account, but with others.  I know this because they'd posted a big warning banner on their website notifying their customers that the problem had been fixed.  Looks like that fix wasn't too good.  Maybe if their IT people were to brighten up their offices with a new coat of paint things might get done right.

Flyer hell

I always enjoy getting old fashioned snail-mail (do they still call it that?) because I never know just what's going to be waiting in my old fashioned, metal mail box.  Yesterday I received a brochure from Honda regarding their "Spring into a Honda Sales Event," which I found rather peculiar.  You see back in August of 2013 I purchased a brand new CR-V.  Now I know there are people out there who feel they need to get a new car every two or three years.  Not me.  When I get a new vehicle I plan on holding on to it for at least a decade, most of the time even longer.  Hey, if you're going to go into debt you might as well get your money's worth, right?  Yet after 7 months Honda seems to think I'm a prime target for a new car.  Actually, I know that isn't true.  By buying my CR-V I put my name and my address on their mailing list.  This means I will be finding their brochures in my old fashioned, metal mail box on a regular basis.  What a waste of paper and postage.  And it's not only Honda, Toyota does the same thing, as does Ford and GMC and every other car manufacturer who can access your information.  Now, through out the years, I have owned on various occasions a Ford Mustang and a Chevy pick-up but I've never owned a Toyota so why do I get crap from them?  I suspect it's because several years ago I paid a visit to Bobby Rahal Toyota in Mechanicsburg.

At one point I thought I might like to buy a Prius.  Of course the sales associate there, seeing I was driving an 11 year old Saturn, felt he should put me into a less expensive vehicle.  In fact, he pretty much came out and said the Prius was too expensive and I should look at cheaper models, cars I might better afford.  He did this without even asking about my finances. So I did what every smart customer should do, I walked, of course he already had my address.  What I ended up doing was going to Honda and buying an Insight, their version of the Prius.  I got great mileage but did not like sitting so close to the ground.  I also got the hankering to get another full sized Boxer.  I already had Gert and, weighing in at just under 80 lbs, she took up the back seat.  It was obvious another one just wouldn't fit.  So, even though I'd only owned the Insight for 4 years I started a vehicle search.  The idea of purchasing a Toyota RAV-4 never occurred to me.  I looked at a Jeep Compass, a Nissan Rogue and finally settled on the CR-V, and then got another Boxer.

Gert and Lilly watching me vacuum

As a result, I'm eternally going to be getting flyers and brochures from Honda about vehicles I have no intention of purchasing.  As I said, I hold onto my cars a long time.  Ford, GMC, Honda and Toyota are never going to wise up.  Oddly enough Nissan sends me nothing and I came really close to buy a Rogue.  Of course it doesn't really matter as it all goes into the recycle bin.  Twelve years from now, when I no longer have the dogs, I may trade in the CR-V or something smaller.  Or, maybe I'll just sell the house and move to the south of France where I can drink wine and ride my bicycle.

Honda - only losers turn off the safety features

I'm getting a new car, a Honda CR-V.  This is something I've been planning on doing for the past several months.  Currently I'm driving a Honda Insight, and while the gas mileage is really good, the car itself just does not overwhelm me the way I thought it would.  Not that it's a bad car, I just need something... bigger, it's a guy thing.  Anyway, this afternoon while I was sitting in the Honda Dealership waiting for my sales consultant to locate a Kona Coffee Metallic EX-L, the consultant to my left was going over the Owner's manual with a gentleman who had just purchased a new Honda.  With all of the electronics in today's cars this is rarely a timely process.  I was more focused on the CR-V then their conversation until I heard the customer say "oh" in a very dismayed tone of voice.  What didn't he like?  The doors automatically lock when you hit about 8 or 9 miles an hour.  "I don't think I like that," he said, and his consultant said "well, if you don't like it, we can always turn that feature off."  And I'm sitting there wondering if this customer has pudding for brains.  Holy Crap!  The locks on you vehicle's doors are not only security features, they're safety features as well.  "Yes" the customer said, "I'd like that feature turned off.  At that moment I knew this guy was a dumb as a brick.

The dot is meant to let you know the door is safely locked.

If you're in an accident, a locked door will do quite a lot to keep you from being ejected from the vehicle, especially if you're one of those morons who doesn't like to wear seat belts.  A locked door will also keep you from falling out of the car, and believe me, I know a little bit about that.  When I was 8 years old I was in the back seat with four of my cousins in a car driven my Uncle Floyd.  As he took a turn a little too sharply the back door opened, because it wasn't latched properly, and I went flying.  After bouncing across the gravel shoulder I rolled about four feet down a hill.  While nothing was broken, I was a living, breathing road burn.  I always lock my car door, you know, been there, done that, don't want to do it again.  I like the safety feature.  The asshole beside me this afternoon likes to live dangerously.  One of these days he's going to hit a telephone pole a little too hard and he will be catapulted through the air with the greatest of ease, head first into a concrete pavement.  At that time it's going to be a little late for him to think "hhmmm, maybe I should have locked that door."