[Toshi]

My landlord said to cut up the branches and put them in a pile on the driveway, near the road. He opined that the Town of Bethpage garbage collectors might pick it up, being more lenient after Tropical Storm Irene's passage through the area.

I think he's awfully optimistic. Note Honda Fit for scale: That's several pickup truck-loads of branches, I reckon.

 

[DaveW]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8730385/Irene-submerged-US-Army-truck-drives-through-flood-waters.html

CN: Big Deuces (?) driving through water up to their roofs. Amazing.

Looks like a pretty retarded thing to do to me.

 

[Toshi]

My landlord said to cut up the branches and put them in a pile on the driveway, near the road. He opined that the Town of Bethpage garbage collectors might pick it up, being more lenient after Tropical Storm Irene's passage through the area.

I think he's awfully optimistic. Note Honda Fit for scale: That's several pickup truck-loads of branches, I reckon.

Even after seeing this photo my landlord remains optimistic that the trash guys will whisk it all away. Even though it's his job, frankly speaking, I dutifully moved the whole pile to take up about two parking spots in the street in front of my house. We'll see what happens.

In other news, I had a very displeasing (motorcycle) ride home. Since Jessica's away in the city for the evening--audition and dinner with friends--I thought I'd take an extra hour and ride my riding loop, traffic be damned. That plan didn't work at all, as the road to start my loop was closed, probably due to flooding given past rains, and I instead fought traffic for 50 solid minutes instead having deviated from my usual straight route home.

All this and I wasn't riding well. Shifting wasn't smooth, just wasn't into it, and wasn't enjoying it. Blah. Perhaps I'll commute in a few days in the car next week and fight it out with the poor parking situation at work.

 

[Toshi]

Friend of mine (banker!) just picked up one of them Lexus XL, oops, pardon, LX 570s. He's the toast of his eminent-domained, gentrified, urban Jersey City fauxborhood in that thing. It really handles the parking garage speed bumps with aplomb.

I think I'm over my Lexus LX-lust phase. The realities of paying off loans (not huge deal), saving up for a house (bigger deal), and starting saving 20% of my income for retirement from day 1 as an attending (very big deal) are becoming more apparent the closer I get to actually signing a 2013-2014 contract, and as these financial obligations loom larger the concept of spending outlandish money for even a very capable, very nice, very reliable piece of consumer jewelry seems silly.

Simultaneously, my motorcycling enthusiasm is also dwindling a bit, at least for my Versys. My ongoing struggles to get a clear bike-mounted video shot from my setup underscore that it is not a smooth motorcycle. L-twins without much bodywork are that way, I guess. It also has this hollow resonant sound at low rpms that the video camera amplifies. The honeymoon period is definitely over, in other words, even though I still like it as a practical tool to get me to work and to get me a much better parking spot location that I could wrangle with the car. I have to admit that I even had some brief, unfaithful thoughts of selling the Versys outright this afternoon…

I still don't want to just settle for basic transportation, though. I know it's the financially prudent thing to do, it's what narlus preaches and practices with his Civic, and my current Fit is a perfect fit from the dispassionate perspective of total cost of owenship… but the Fit does absolutely nothing for me.

Perhaps it's due to my own pathology--or the nation's cultural pathology rubbed off on myself--that I find myself looking for something other than pure utility from an automobile. Perhaps I'll find an outlet in, say, home improvement once we get to the point where we own something. (I certainly don't have a passion in improving for free the half-maintained rental house we're in, especially when my landlord seems loathe to get off his ass and help me with, say, that giant pile of branches above.)

It's not like I don't have a million other outlets for my energy, with medical research, economics/politics reading, my neglected dSLR, music, and the odd bicycle ride or two. It's just that even with all these outlets I feel something missing.

Hmm.

 

[Toshi]

Perhaps it's due to my own pathology--or the nation's cultural pathology rubbed off on myself--that I find myself looking for something other than pure utility from an automobile.

I think my future-vehicle "crushes" are just an outgrowth of my impatience for the future to arrive. I've been in this pipeline of schooling and now residency so long that the prospect of starting real life, as it were, is both ill-defined and somewhat scary. Somehow I feel the need to paint my vehicular ambitions to match those that I can't express clearly about my life itself due to the haze of the future.

Just a few of these as-of-yet unanswered questions involving the next few years: Where will I end up for fellowship? In which subspecialty? Who will hire me as an attending? Where will that job be? How long will I stay with that group--forever? (Moving around all the time like my own father? Somewhere in between?) Will my wife and I be able to have children as she so dearly wishes? Will the kid(s) be "normal"? How will my life change due to just that one factor? Will I have any free time?

With all these questions it's nice to imagine that I'll have a robust, young family and will have the means, motivation, and time enough to explore the national parks by leather-lined 4x4 as per the implication of past posts. The reality is that nothing is for certain until it transpires and that my vehicular tastes are more fickle than even I give myself credit for.

When I got my MCAT results back in undergrad I knew right then that my life's trajectory would follow that familiar-through-my-family, well-trodden path of medical training. Little did I know how many forks exist on that very same road, and how much uncertainty lurks around each bend…

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

I think my future-vehicle "crushes" are just an outgrowth of my impatience for the future to arrive. I've been in this pipeline of schooling and now residency so long that the prospect of starting real life, as it were, is both ill-defined and somewhat scary. Somehow I feel the need to paint my vehicular ambitions to match those that I can't express clearly about my life itself due to the haze of the future.

Just a few of these as-of-yet unanswered questions involving the next few years: Where will I end up for fellowship? In which subspecialty? Who will hire me as an attending? Where will that job be? How long will I stay with that group--forever? (Moving around all the time like my own father? Somewhere in between?) Will my wife and I be able to have children as she so dearly wishes? Will the kid(s) be "normal"? How will my life change due to just that one factor? Will I have any free time?

With all these questions it's nice to imagine that I'll have a robust, young family and will have the means, motivation, and time enough to explore the national parks by leather-lined 4x4 as per the implication of past posts. The reality is that nothing is for certain until it transpires and that my vehicular tastes are more fickle than even I give myself credit for.

When I got my MCAT results back in undergrad I knew right then that my life's trajectory would follow that familiar-through-my-family, well-trodden path of medical training. Little did I know how many forks exist on that very same road, and how much uncertainty lurks around each bend…

/quasiwhitepeopleproblem

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

i doubt there is much to worry, other than form.
such as what color interior will the leather be, or whether time will be enough to visit them before little toshi´s summer camp starts...

 

[Toshi]

/quasiwhitepeopleproblem

It's true, it's a problem of limited general relevance.

The whole medical training track is unique in that way: You know you'll end up with something that'll work out ok* and you also know what and where you'll be up until the last minute of your residency, but beyond that it's very opaque. It's not like in regular industry, where I could conceivably either be satisfied with my job and thinking of settling down more or unsatisfied and looking to jump ship at any time. It's much more rigid, in a way.


* Unless you royally screw up your boards and don't end up with anything, as has happened to one of my classmates back west who is doing insurance physicals for "a living" instead of finishing out residency like the rest of us)

 

[Toshi]

i doubt there is much to worry, other than form.
such as what color interior will the leather be, or whether time will be enough to visit them before little toshi´s summer camp starts...

You're probably right, and if I land one of the two fellowship spots at UW for which I'm interviewing/have interviewed then I'll be able to rest a lot more easily. (I should know by late September/early October… )

 

[Toshi]

i haz a helmet cam

I no longer have a helmet cam:

I'm crying uncle and returning the ContourHD. It proved just too susceptible to rolling shutter jiggliness when its mount was anything but perfectly steady, and the general suckage of the bicycle and motorcycle helmet mounts didn't help.

I do now have this stash of now-idle RAM mount gear, but I think I'll wait for the next generation of helmet cams to crop up before jumping back in the fray. Hopefully these cameras will not just emphasize resolution above all, will have better mounting setups, and will have a solution to the rolling shutter issue.

(With the universal camera mount adapter and my RAM parts I did eventually produce a fully workable car windshield mount but I never found a mounting setup on the motorcycle that produced satisfactory results. Well, on the helmet itself worked ok aside from the resultant neck pain from the metal RAM bits…)

 

[Toshi]

Mother of god.

 

[DaveW]

Perhaps a tad quicker than I'd like to ride around that track.........

 

[Toshi]

This weather blows. The bike is back on the battery tender instead of the car. Screenshot is of tomorrow's forecast.

 

[Toshi]

Tomorrow I both take the written radiology boards and then, several hours later, fly out to Seattle. (The written board exam is the second to last exam that must be passed before becoming a board-certified radiologist, with the oral boards in May 2013 the sole remaining hurdle after this. So close! yet so far.)

On Monday I'll be interviewing at UW, just as I did 3 weeks ago but with a different program.

On Tuesday, after a redeye flight back east, I'll be back at work reading CTs like a good worker bee. By the time I drag myself to an evening lecture on malpractice issues I'll likely be on the verge of passing out.

I really hope I get an offer soon so that I can return to my normal non-traveling routines of obsessing about cars and politics…

 

[Da Peach]

Tomorrow I both take the written radiology boards and then, several hours later, fly out to Seattle. (The written board exam is the second to last exam that must be passed before becoming a board-certified radiologist, with the oral boards in May 2013 the sole remaining hurdle after this. So close! yet so far.)

On Monday I'll be interviewing at UW, just as I did 3 weeks ago but with a different program.

On Tuesday, after a redeye flight back east, I'll be back at work reading CTs like a good worker bee. By the time I drag myself to an evening lecture on malpractice issues I'll likely be on the verge of passing out.

I really hope I get an offer soon so that I can return to my normal non-traveling routines of obsessing about cars and politics…

Good luck mang.

 

[Toshi]

Thanks. Even if Seattle < Vancouver, it still is a hell of a lot better than here. I want out. Please. OUT.

 

[Toshi]

Holy crap. Upon examination of appropriate websites this morning--the morning of the exam--it appears that I forgot to actually schedule this exam.

While this actually doesn't throw off anything in the grand scheme, as I can take it next year at this time instead, it sure throws off my day. Jesus.

 

[Toshi]

On Monday I'll be interviewing at UW, just as I did 3 weeks ago but with a different program.

On Tuesday, after a redeye flight back east, I'll be back at work reading CTs like a good worker bee. By the time I drag myself to an evening lecture on malpractice issues I'll likely be on the verge of passing out.

UW interview(s) #2 done. This program, the body imaging fellowship, seems a much stronger one than the other UW program at which I interviewed 3 weeks prior. The body imaging people said that they'd make their decision, yea or nay, in two weeks or so and fire off an email. At that point I'll know whether I have to book more plane flights (to SLC and San Diego) or whether I can cancel the interviews and kick back.

Anyway, while in Seattle this past weekend I hijacked my mother-in-law's Lexus RX and took it off-roading for probably the first time in its 90,000 mile life. Despite sharing underpinnings with the Camry it did fine on the ~15 mile forest service road loop that I took it on out in Eastern Washington. Yes, eastern: I drove my own version of the Cascade Loop, up on 522 then 2 over to Leavenworth, on an offroad loop on forest service roads north in the hills that dumped me at Cashmere, down 97 with another side jaunt on forest service roads, then back on I-90 to end the 295 mile day.

Photographic evidence:

Yes, I washed the car before I gave it back.

 

[Toshi]

UW interview(s) #2 done. This program, the body imaging fellowship, seems a much stronger one than the other UW program at which I interviewed 3 weeks prior. The body imaging people said that they'd make their decision, yea or nay, in two weeks or so and fire off an email. At that point I'll know whether I have to book more plane flights (to SLC and San Diego) or whether I can cancel the interviews and kick back.

No more flights necessary: I'll be returning to Seattle in 2013!

I just accepted an offer for the 2013-2014 University of Washington Body Imaging Fellowship, thereby following in my father's footsteps--NY residency to the very same UW fellowship--22 years later.

 

[dump]

congrats man.

 

[Toshi]

Thanks. Coming full circle, I am, returning to Seattle.

A peculiar thing about this circularity is that my sister's doing her fellowship (heme-onc for her) in Colorado. Both she and I were born in Denver, and she rotates through the hospital where both of us were born&#8230;

 

[Toshi]

I've always planned on selling my Versys before leaving New York (~spring 2013). I'm not so sure I'll replace it with another motorcycle, though, both because my enthusiasm is waning a bit and because many of the advantages it brings to my life in NY will be for naught in Seattle.

It brings me a great parking advantage at work here in Long Island, for instance, and I think for that alone it'll be worth keeping around until I leave. I can park (for free, of course) right by the hospital's ambulance entrance, whereas I might need to park a half or a whole mile away in the car depending on how many patients and staff are around jostling for spots.

It also brings me the advantage of being able to take the HOV lanes in and out of NYC on the LIE, and the ability to split traffic during the inevitable jams, if I choose to do so. In Seattle there certainly are traffic jams, and where I'll be living (West Seattle) has a notorious bottleneck, the West Seattle Bridge. Drivers out there aren't used to lanesplitting motorcycle riders, though, the roads are often wet, and that particular bridge has narrow lanes. I don't think a motorcycle would help me get to work faster.

Furthermore, when I would get to work at the University of Washington there'd be no free parking waiting for me. It's a green campus by choice, and that means $15/day car parking (maybe an even higher rate by 2013), only marginally discounted motorcycle parking, and no real subsidy of these rates for the faculty and staff.

Put all these together and I think I'll sell the Versys in 2013, as planned, not replace it with anything once moved back out west, and revert back to bicycle or bus + bicycle commuting while in Seattle.

 

[Toshi]

In Seattle there certainly are traffic jams, and where I'll be living (West Seattle) has a notorious bottleneck, the West Seattle Bridge.

when I would get to work at the University of Washington there'd be no free parking waiting for me.

Put all these together and I think I'll sell the Versys in 2013, as planned, not replace it with anything once moved back out west, and revert back to bicycle or bus + bicycle commuting while in Seattle.

After talking it over with teh wife-unit last night, we decided that in 2013 pre-move we'd sell not only the Versys but also the Honda Fit. Neither of us are too fond of it, and we don't want to pay to ship it across the country. (We'll drive the Prius across ourselves in a vacation week at the end of the academic year.) Yes, we'll be going back to sharing one car between the two of us, at least temporarily, for the very same things about my commute outlined above: traffic and parking. Logically, my commute will be better accomplished by bicycle + bus for my own sanity, fitness, and the $$$$ potentially saved that could be used towards a down payment on a house.

If I get antsy without powered wheels once back on the ground in Seattle then there'll be 5 Zipcars about 2 miles away from the mother-in-law's house (Prius, Outback Sport, CR-V, Kia Soul, VW Golf), which, although a far cry from ideal, would be workable in a pinch. If worse really does come to worse then Jessica will simply get a new/used car sooner rather than later (Google Docs link), using some of the money freed up thanks to our super-cheap living-with-mother-in-law living expenses, and I'll get the hand-me-down Prius to putter about in when not at work.

(Yes, I think through and plan out everything this way, not just our transportation. It's just that I post more about the car stuff since it's tangible and at least a little universal. No one besides other radiologists care about fellowship particulars, and no one besides our parents probably care about when we hope to have a kid, etc. Those things are also less in my direct power to control: teh sweet baby jeebus knows that I know all too well via medicine the million and one things that can go wrong in pregnancy, for instance. All those things play into The Plan, though, a plan that looks like it will get back on track after this 4 year-long Long Island detour.)

 

[Toshi]

Logically, my commute will be better accomplished by bicycle + bus

This, in turn, means that I might come full-circle back to where I was in 2008: I might end up buying the electric bike that I built back from my parents, who are barely using it if at all out in Wyoming.

Downsides would be that I've already been down that road, that the 75 lb beast is a pain in the ass to lift onto the bus bike racks (negated in part because I'd use the bus as a range-extending/laziness-enabling "crutch" less), and that a 24 mile round trip commute with a major hill in it is nearing the battery's range limit. I used about 30-33 Wh/mile with it typically, and the battery only theoretically holds 576 Wh. On the other hand, I did buy an extra battery for the parents earlier this year so could definitely work out a system either with a spare battery or with recharging at work.

Upsides would be that it really did and does fit my Seattle commuting needs pretty well: gratis to lock up at the UW bike racks, bike-like enough to ride on bike paths without guilt or fear of prosecution, full fenders for the slop, waterproof panniers for carrying work-related stuff, wide enough tires to not need to run 120 psi, and enough extra oomph to really speed things up. Not having to wait for a potentially late or full bus would be a bonus, too.

Hmm…

 

[Toshi]

This, in turn, means that I might come full-circle back to where I was in 2008: I might end up buying the electric bike that I built back from my parents, who are barely using it if at all out in Wyoming.

Another idea, one that I also floated back in 2007-2008: recumbent. I do like the bearded-old-professor aesthetic.

Downside:

http://metro.kingcounty.gov/tops/bike/bikeride.html

 

[Toshi]

After talking it over with teh wife-unit last night, we decided that in 2013 pre-move we'd sell not only the Versys but also the Honda Fit. Neither of us are too fond of it, and we don't want to pay to ship it across the country.

More rumination: To sell, or not to sell?


Keeping the Fit would cost about $1200 to ship it, $800 to insure it, $1000 to account for depreciation, and maybe another $1500 to keep it registered, shod with tires, filled with gas and oil, and in good repair. So, roughly speaking we're looking at $4500 for one year of car-monogamy, just about what AAA predicts for a small sedan even accounting for moving costs.

Spending $4.5k to keep a car that I don't really like driving it doesn't seem worth it to me. The inconvenience of picking up a Zipcar 2 miles away would be outweighed by the relative "niceness" of said semi-local Zipcars.* I'd also save a bunch of money based on past habits.**


Keeping the Versys for that same year, on the other hand, would cost less: about $200 to ship it (within the moving truck we'll be paying for in any case), $600 to insure it, $300 to account for depreciation, and perhaps $750 in miscellaneous costs/operating costs. Call it $2000 to be generous.

So I'd save less by ditching it--kind of obvious. The less obvious question is whether what it means to me can be easily replaced by 200 hours of Zipcar use. Basically, I think it comes down to the question of how much is my perceived freedom worth to me? Hmm. I'm not so sure of that answer.


* Current Zipcars in the mother-in-law's neighborhood, all ~2 mi away:

- CR-V
- Soul
- Golf
- Outback Sport
- Prius

** My total year-long usage of Zipcar during my prior carless 2008-2009 stint was 22 hour-equivalents.

 

[Toshi]

A new day, a new car test driven for ****s and giggles. Or to satisfy my compulsions. Whatever/same difference. :lol:

2011 Hyundai Equus Signature

(Final US spec, uh, Equii don't have hood ornaments, just for the record.)

Dealer impressions/pre-drive experience: Setting up a time to come and test drive was easy, via the Hyundai webpage, whose form prompted an auto email and a phone call the next day. Good so far.

Not so good was that when I arrived at my scheduled time only the front desk chick knew who I was. The sales staff were clueless, and they had to rustle around and pull one of the two Equus-certified sales guys. In the meantime I waited, and waiting on a Hyundai sales floor is not a high-value experience. It's the paint. It's the loud pop music. It's the Accents and Elantras all over the show floor.

When I finally got a salesman he immediately walked over to the inventory computer and quizzed me on what color I'd want. I had to do some gentle prodding to get him to grab keys and head out for a test drive. Given that I'd signed up in the first place for exactly that--a test drive--this took too much effort.

Walkaround/interior test-sit: While waiting for the proper sales guy to arrive I had a chance to ogle and sit in an Equus on the show floor. Black leather inside is definitely the way to go. The interior was impressive: the smell of the leather is just right, the Alcantara headliner mouse-y soft, the actions of the controls well damped, and the proper touch points done up in stitched leather. In all of these elements, individually minor but collectively important, the Equus represents a big step up from the Genesis sedan, which I found to look good but not feel good.

Interior room was very good in general. Rear seat legroom is first class, or at least business class if sticking strictly by the book. Somewhat odd is a high h-point in the rear seat, which meant that I (of admittedly long torso and big head) was right up against the headliner when sitting up straight. No such issues were found up front, though, and that's where I'd be spending my time. Leg, head, shoulder, and knee breathing space was plenty, and the nearby surfaces well padded and done up.

Driving the beast: After playing the usual small con game to convince the sales guy that I am actually a serious potential purchaser of a shiny new $58-65k automobile (hint: I'm not) we finally checked out the keys from the lockbox and headed out to the lot. After some nonsensical statements from the sales guy about how this was a prototype (I think he just meant to imply that it's a low production model) we hopped in and I pulled out.

Driving it felt very akin to any other big, soft, quiet sedan. Nothing was really exceptional save for the abrupt throttle tip-in in Sport Mode. I couldn't tell any difference in the air suspension in Sport vs. Normal, and didn't wind out the engine in any gear, let alone do so enough times in each mode to discern any fine distinctions between each. In any case, it felt fine, and I didn't experience the road noise that has irked some other reviewers.

The standard backup camera was welcome, although its display looked awfully grainy. Think Toyota products from the better part of a decade ago and you get the picture. It did its job despite looking cut-rate and odd in the context of other such finery.

Gadgets and such: After the test drive I took a few minutes in the car to figure out how to do basic day-to-day functions such as inputting an address into the GPS and changing the radio station. You may scoff, but these fundamental tasks are sometimes done up very poorly. The combination twist, rock, and push wheel navigation system worked fine after a short acclimation period, and the graphics (GPS and general interface alike) on the center console screen were first rate. (Clearly, then, the rear view camera crappiness is not related to the screen itself.)

The GPS initially failed to find my desired address by virtue of having been set to search Michigan and Michigan alone by default. Once this was identified and fixed then it did its job ably. I'm not sure if there's a Toyota-style GPS lockout once moving, but even if there isn't I'd say it would be a very bad idea to try to program the GPS while moving.

Tuning a radio station would be something easily accomplished while on the road, which is sadly not a given these days. No hard buttons for presets are to be found, of course, but it's just a matter of pushing one FM/AM (or XM) hard button then twisting the nearby multi-knob. Easy enough even without resorting to the steering wheel controls.

Other things ogled but not tried included the driver's seat massage function, all singing and dancing lumbar function that get its own control pad oddly distant from that of the rest of the seat controls, a normal sized moonroof, and a trunk worthy of a full-size sedan.

Money: Finally we sat and talked (fake) money. I played him a hypothetical lease scenario with (thankfully not-hypothetical) excellent credit in order to get the projected residual value and money factor for their in-house lease offer out in the open. Those figures are 49% and 0.00085 for a 36-month term, respectively.

The residual value, in the context of buying cars, means that I can expect to see 3 year old Equuses (Equii? Eqii?) on the market for about $30k in 2014. Being under 50%, it also means that buying an Equus new is probably a bad financial decision. The money factor, on the other hand, is pretty good, slightly sweetening the lease deal. Going by this guide (http://www.leaseguide.com/lease07.htm) it looks like it works out to an APR of just over 2%.

So is it worth it?: The Equus is a very nice car. From my limited interaction with it it felt comparable to the Lexus LS 460, whereas the Genesis sedan definitely felt cheaper. Although I'm probably in the minority with this opinion, I also like that it's a Hyundai. I actively don't want a European brand automobile, just as I actively avoid wearing brand-name anything (clothing, etc.).

Comparing new to new pricing it also comes up a winner, at least after one factors in its size and laundry list of all-standard features.

I wouldn't buy it new even if I had the money this very day, though. Besides being cheap, I'm leery of others' perceptions of the car. Say what? Didn't I just write that I don't want a BMW? That's true, but I'd have to sell or trade in the car eventually, and I have a not-so-sneaking suspicion that expensive Hyundais will have crap resale values. I think Hyundai financial's anticipated 49% residual value is generous.

Put all this together and I think a 2011 Equus might make a good buy... in 2014.



CN: Start reading from "So was it worth it?" above after ogling the pretty Google Images-sourced photos.

 

[Toshi]

An article relevant to my interests, especially given the schizophrenic juxtaposition of posts describing plans to ditch my car and a test drive of a fancy luxoboat:

NYTimes Opinion: Behind the Wheel, Moving Up

It brought to mind how the car had suddenly become emblematic of a new India that hoped to model itself on the United States, especially in the individualism, speed and liberation promised by the open road.

J’s in-laws had borrowed money to buy [a Ford Ikon, a "middle class car"] as a wedding gift — but it was really his wife who wanted it, and J, knowing that his in-laws weren’t wealthy, had refused it, insisting that his bride travel to the wedding in his more modest Maruti Zen. His wife, unlike him, had been — he hesitated before finding the right word — aspirational.

“She was aspirational, you know,” he said as his story wound down. “She told me she wanted a red Pajero.”

He was referring to the Mitsubishi SUVs much loved by the power elite in India. “I told her that in time maybe we could have a red Pajero.” But she had been unwilling to give him that time, and so they had gone down the road that led to the lawyers and the courts.

In the middle of her narrative she makes note of people like me-as-evidenced-through-my-Zipcar-not-Equus-posts, how there's a perceived shift away from the car in some American and European circles:

... I wondered if the Indian upper classes, in their very race to catch up with the West, weren’t falling behind yet again. I thought of the electric cars, of businesses like Zipcar, of car pools, and of the slowly emerging consciousness, even in the United States, about the limits imposed by the environment and the economy on cars.

 

[Toshi]

So I'm going to have some spare time in my next few years, as residency winds down. In addition to knocking some works off of my reading list, I think I'll take a stab at a few of my cheaper, more easily attainable long term goals.

In particular, I think these might be possible:

1. Learn how to weld. There must be some vocational schools around here, maybe even the community college, at which I could take classes. I wouldn't anticipate it being more than a few hundred $$$, too.

Update: No go at the local community college. Time to look further.

Update 2: Sweet jeebus. There is an adult ed place that does welding, but the non-certification course is $725 (and the certificate one is $1640!), not to mention that it's on rehearsal nights. So welding is not going to happen.

2. Earn a private pilot's license. This is a bit more of a financial stretch, as I think I back-of-napkined it as closer to $10k than $5k all said and done last time I had this thought, but that'd be a cost spread out over time. The first steps, to see if it's even for me, would be pretty cheap, and then it's just adding a lot of plane and instructor time, I think.

Update 3: This looks much more feasible. Well, welding would be feasible but I don't put a $1000 value on that ability, especially since I'd have about 0 professional use for it. http://www.faa.gov/pilots/become/ has info, albeit organized in a very non-intuitive manner. Step 1 is read their handbooks, I think. Step 2 would be to get a third-class medical exam done. Step 3 would be to take a test and then sign up for flight lessons? Not quite sure on that.

 

[Toshi]

Following up on the whole "learn to fly" deal above, I emailed syadasti's cousin, a glider instructor north of NYC. His thoughts, excerpted but not edited:

Why do you want to learn to fly? What do you plan to do with the license and ability once you achieve it? Learning to fly in both airplanes or gliders can be a lot of fun, but think about what you want to do with the skill once you have it. A lot of airplane pilots find themselves looking for a reason to fly their airplane - after all the airplane is burns fuel and is good at going somewhere.

Besides taking friends up for some local sightseeing rides, where would you want to go in an airplane? Do you have family and friends who live more than several hours away by car? That would be a nice trip by airplane. Many airplane pilots find themselves flying off for the "$100 hamburger" at other airports on the weekends - an excuse to get in the plane with their friends and go fly somewhere.

Flying gliders, on the other hand is all about the pure enjoyment of flight. Many people liken it to the sailing of the aviation world. It is a sport - a challenge with yourself - can I fly a little higher, faster or better today? Any nothing beats the sensation of just floating around quietly without an engine, hearing and feeling the air rush by.

His questions are the right ones to be asking, and I don't really have a neat answer. I don't see myself volunteering at all hours of the day and night for Civil Air Patrol, I don't have relatives located in that nebulous too-far-to-drive-but-short-enough-for-Cessna distance range, and I probably honestly would end up just getting a bunch of "$100 hamburgers", as he puts it.

A splash of cold reality to the face. So no welding. No flying, unless I can come up with a rationale. (Glider piloting would be cool but his comments are even more valid for an expensive means of entertainment with no transportation value whatsoever.)

I guess I'm still searching for something external to occupy and entertain me. I suppose I could shoot some more photos, but I'm not out for flickr-fan-whoredom and am not going to be selling them to any organization... I think with photography, like motorcycling, I've quickly come to a level of competence but lack the passion to go further.

(There's music, too, of course, but that's always been there and is unchanged. Playing principal with local symphonic band, deleting my ill-edited youtube videos, etc. No desire to start or join a quintet given my limited time left on Long Island and variable quality of low brass players that I know...)

 

[Toshi]

I'm raring to pick a fight... with my landlord.

Why? We live in a nominally single family house that has a(n illegal, I'm betting) downstairs apartment that he just rented out. The new tenant is being a stick in the mud with regard to a number of things, including paying me for utilities as well as his occupancy and use of an additional room that is explicitly ours per our lease. (There are other issues, such as him snoring really loudly, and he or an occupant of the apartment having taken up playing an amplified bass guitar at very loud volumes.)

My project for tomorrow is going to be to find out if the apartment is indeed illegal, and assuming so, then report the landlord for the illegal apartment. If we don't get paid for the month then that's fine if the tenant ultimately goes away and no one else takes his place. Will this infuriate the landlord? Probably, but I'm at peace with that since he's been less than supportive about this whole experience, salivating at the prospect of garnering extra rent no doubt.

Clues that it's an illegal apartment:

- Land Title per the county is "One Family Year-Round Residence"
- Neither we nor the new downstairs tenant own the place or are related to each other
- Only one address and one mailbox/mailslot
- Only one electrical meter, one furnace/tank, one water meter

 

[Westy]

I would also explore the location of the electrical breaker box. If never intended or designed as a multi unit building you may hold the cards at least when it comes to the utilities and guitar amplification.

 

[Toshi]

There's a single breaker box (itself most likely not up to code--previous owner was an electrician who apparently did a ****ty job when working for himself) that is within the garage.

Update: official illegal housing complaint form now in the mail to the Town of Oyster Bay's Code Enforcement Division.



(I also signed a sublet agreement with the downstairs tenant for said $300/mo, worded explicitly to limit my liability should the apartment downstairs be found to be illegal. I only sublet out what is mine per the lease and defined his transaction with the landlord for the MIL apartment itself to be separate.)

 

[Toshi]

We went leaf peeping this past weekend. Gallery here. A few highlights below.

 

[Toshi]

Autoweek's Mark Vaughn has a habit of writing derivative columns, as I've discovered through the magic of Google. That said, his latest derivative column is on a similar theme to my earlier "the futility of the Prius and the end of the world" thread. No online link yet. Relevant quotes, errors likely mine due to typing it out:

Slowly but inexorably, the rest of the 7 billion people in the world--not just the half a billion or so who have always gotten everything they wanted--are going to start demanding 600-thread-count bedsheets, airplane tickets and Paris Hilton dolls with lifelike hair. ...

At that point, it won't matter how many parts per billion of CO2 your car emits. It won't matter if you have solar panels on your garage and if you separate your aluminum cans from the rest of the garbage. It'll be too late. The cycle will become completely unsustainable. We will have eaten all the way to the edge of the petri dish.

One thing I'd add to his statement, as I did in my own earlier thread, is that in such a Mad Max-type future world of generalized resource scarcity then a person with the facilities to generate enough power to enable a "normal" life and mechanized transportation will live like a king. Solar panels, a BEV, enough spare parts and batteries to keep it running for a lifetime, and enough barbed wire on the fences to keep the ruffians at bay...

 

[Toshi]

I'm in another house-cleaning mood. After languishing unloved for a year and change I've sold off both Gran Turismo 5 and the accompanying Driving Force GT wheel/pedals. (Net cost to me is about $50 overall thanks to savvy shopping when buying the wheel at the get-go. )

I also just idly listed my Versys on Craigslist, as it's still early enough in the season that someone might fancy it.

http://longisland.craigslist.org/mcy/2651060700.html

A Craigslist ad x 1 ad-duration is as far as I'm going to go at this point, although I might list the heated gear separately on ADVrider if I get the bug. Otherwise I'll re-list it in the spring if I'm still tired of it, and repeat every season until Spring/Summer 2013, in which case it'll be packed up onto the moving truck if still around.

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

hey toshi, after having lasik surgery done last night....
i have come to terms with the fact am in the wrong business.

i should have gone to med school and set up a lasik mill.

 

[Toshi]

I saw you post about that&#8230; and an MRI, too? (unrelated?)

Lasix mills (opthalmologists) and botox mall kiosks (dermatologists, but really any MD could do this) are the places to make semi-unethical businessman-type money in medicine, yeah. Outpatient imaging centers offer a bit of that chance for radiologists, too, but there's a lot of financial risk involved since the CT and MRI machines themselves are a pretty penny, to say the least.

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

yeah, i´ve been on a medical leave from work since wednesday because of a really bad hip pain. since i already had at least 4 days of medical leave for the hip, i thought i´d better go the overhaul and get my eyes done in the meanwhile too...
i had 2 visits to the ER for pain on wednesday/thursday morning... an appt with a traumatologist on thursday, and now am waiting results for a hip MRI.

the pain has been agonizing, fortunately ive getting some anti-inflammatory/pain IV which have been good so far. although ive been walking on a limp ever since.

gotta wait until monday for results to see whats up the hip, hopefully nothing as catastrophic as what ive been tormenting myself with on webmd.... sucks really bad, since i havent even gotten 30 years of trouble-free use out of it....

 

[Toshi]

Do you have the MRI images? Post them up and I'll take a look, for what that's worth.