Just need to vent...

Dealerships around here are required to print and install a plastic temporary plate. I don't believe the law applies to private sales; but the car should already be legally registered. I don't know what they do about Tesla's; since dealerships are few and far between.

@fuzzy1; I never stated the technology didn't exist - my pet peeve is enforcement. It's not like one of those cameras is going to jump off the pole; arrest the individual; and impound the car. Those systems are usually leased by the jurisdiction they're in and maintained by a 3nd party company - so not really cops either. Mostly red light and toll road cameras. Then the state law gets tricky too, the moving infraction goes against driver not the car, unless it's a non-moving violation. So the camera has to have a clear picture of the driver, in order to make the violation stick. I believe they use driver's license photo w/license plate registration to make a match.

 

Here in FL, the plate stays with the owner. You sell or trade your old car and keep the plate. (We just use one on the back.) It goes on your new car and you give the state some money to register it. If I see a temp tag I know that it's either the driver's first car or they just moved from out of state.

 

On the West Coast, I think that is just a California thing. Washington still requires a temporary plate, which is paper and taped inside the rear window. Now that many vehicles have tinted windows, it can be very hard to see.

That is an advantage of combining registration operations with a single government-linked insurance carrier. Not something that is likely to happen in the U.S.

 

Don’t know about Canadian regs but a 5 cm (2”) receiver hitch and small trailer woul be a great addition.

Bob Wilson

 

Why does renting a 12 or 15 passenger van for a couple days have to cost over $3,000?!

I can't seem to find one within 200 miles of here. So I'd have to go get one in Denver, bring it back here, then take everyone to Denver, then bring them back, then take the van back to Denver. Before Covid I could get one within walking distance of my house, but not any longer, and not in any town near by. Also, since I have to go a weekend before or a weekend after the total comes to over $3,000 to rent a van for a weekend.

It might be cheaper if everyone just got on a plane and we all used Uber down in the city.

So I thought at three weekends a year, that's now $10,000 per year, I might as well as buy one. But man, that's still a lot of money!

 

That.

When oft-called 'lockdowns' happened, people quit traveling, and the vehicle rental companies trimmed their fleets. When travel resumed, they were caught short of capacity, and supply chain shortages made it difficult and very slow to rebuild, so recovering demand caused prices to surge. I even wonder if it was more profitable to keep supplies short to maintain those demand-driven prices.

The recent holiday airline meltdown likely also boosted demand and prices, as least for a few weeks. There was a lot of airline trouble in the summer too.

Spouse has long wanted a camper van or small RV, and thought 2021 would be a good time to rent one as a trial. But prices and shortages squelched that idea.

 

I think it's time to admit that I'm poor, and I have a lot of needy family and friends. It's time to go to the fields and plant cabbage and potatoes.

I just wish society would stop expecting me to have the solution to everything. I can't own a brand new car, a brand new house, a brand new iPhone or any other rich expensive device just to make everyone else's day. When I was a kid I walked to school, fished and swam in the river and helped grow our own food. We had an outhouse, a well to get water from and only one outlet and two light swtiches in the whole house and we never complained about it.

If renting a van is out of the question, well me being the only driver in a group of more than 10 for a weekend is also out of the question. Go plant a potatoe.

 

You shouldn't be when most of the issue is caused by corporations and the truly wealthy.

 

We live in a reciprocal society. We work for corporations and the truly wealthy and in exchange we get paid and get technology and other manufactured items that would not be possible if everyone had the same income and assets.

But then there's inflation. Rent triples, food skyrockets, my next car purchase may have to be a pogostick, which I would be fine with, but then my boss wants me to be at work whenever he snaps his fingers, the neighbors can't understand why I don't have cable and store clerks shame me for buying non-organic beans.

The point is there's no need to keep up with the Jones. It would be nice, but not a necessity, and I wished others would understand that.

 

eff the jones

 

Do remember that many of the Jones are in hock up to their ears, and a not insignificant number have negative net worth. When financial squalls happen, many sweat profusely at the rough ride, and numerous capsize. Appearances are a poor gauge of their actual situation.

Then there are numerous non-Jones who only look poor or lower middle class, but are actually in quite solid shape. They would rather stay relatively anonymous, or just don't get off on displays of affluence.

Appearances are often quite deceiving.

 

Most of the Jones' are buying stuff they don't want or need with money they don't have so they can impress people they don't like.

We have some friends who fit that description well. They are VERY wealthy, but you'd never know it looking at them. They live comfortably but well within their means so that they can be generous. In fact, they are the most open handed people I've ever met and, in fact, do not like rich people. These guys blend right in in an upper middle class neighborhood. No gated community or even a gated yard.

 

Triangle wouldn't matter if we just recycled it all back into a synthetic petroleum.

Might not be easy to find or available for tea lights, but there is beeswax and vegetable based wax candles. I'd say the odds are more likely such candles avoid the lead core wicks.

 

Bathroom medicine cabinets.

The big box stores usually have an aisle of them, a bunch on display mounted up above, unopened boxes of them below.

Some are made for recessed mount into the wall cavity. Some are made to mount on the wall surface, with finished sides/tops/bottoms that will show.

Some are billed as "recessed or surface mount". And some of those will say on the box that they include finish panels for the sides/tops/bottoms for when you surface-mount them, and they'll say what color or finish those panels are.

And some don't say or show any such thing, anywhere on the outside of the unopened box. Why are those even called "recessed or surface mount" at all? Just because they have screw holes at the back, in case you want to surface-mount them and spend your mornings looking at their nekkid stamped bottoms and sides?

Even the ones that come with finish panels usually aren't mounted that way by the store employees who mount the display ones. They're just up there with their nekkid stampings showing, while you try to picture what the finish panels look like.

 

Haha ain't that the truth! We know people who fit the 'Joneses' to a tee. I just don't get the 'Joneses' mentality...but many seem to need to live that lifestyle.

As for us? Stealth wealth is the key. Lets just say we could likely 'afford' the 'Joneses' lifestyle...to a point...but we absolutely don't want it. Frankly, I could give a F what people think...and I certainly could give a crap about impressing anyone.