and there is where the power or control is held.

Ah! Power to remove power! (Tim Taylor grunt here)

"I have the power!" —Heman

That was weird.

Had a department Christmas party at a long lunch today. From 11am to just got home at 2pm.
Weird because it was during work hours.

Even did Dirty Santa.
Being the IT department it was stuff like portable phone chargers, Google Dots, wireless charging station, smart LED light bulbs, USB coffee cup warmer, and even a small USB powered waffle iron with syrup.

The IT Director made BBQ for everyone. He does some good smokin too. Said he has 2 smokers.
His wife sent everyone a half dozen home made chocolate chip cookies to take home.

Yea. I had a tough afternoon too.......

Zipped over to the airport and we updated the G1000 instrument panel on our 182T. Then we had to go for a test flight, and see if the autopilot works like it is supposed to. Punch in the destination, tell it what altitude, and what climb rate, and let er rip. It will even do a way-point if we need to stay out of controlled airspace like most of the OKC metro area is. So we just flew out to a little town called Kingfisher, then flew to a waypoint north of Sundance airport where we hangar the 182. Trying to get the autopilot to descend to the right altitudes, and then bring us right to approach. Some of that worked, some still was not quite right. $50 in gas and back in the hangar.

Well, wasted the day. I got down to Ocala to pick up that Disco and it was riddled with issues....
I'm irritated.

Understand. That kind of thing happened to me couple of times when looking for a 928.

Thought I found one in Kansas City. Nephew and I drove there. Found not only the car was riddled with issues. The only thing about the pictures and description they gave of the car that matched was the color.

Second, drove from OKC to FT Worth by myself. Car looked great. Gave him a downpayment and made arrangements to pay for and pick up the car the next weekend. He kept calling and changing the exact time I was to show up to get the car. As he had asked we called to let him know we were leaving OKC and he backed out of the deal. Said he had talked the car up so much selling it he decided to keep it. Wired my downpayment back.

After that and looking at a 928 that looked like Freddy Kruger had been through the interior I gave up looking for a nice 928 and bought a 944Turbo instead. With the idea a 944 it would sell fast when I did find a nice 928.

Sure enough four years later really nice 928 just kind of fell in my lap. Local Porsche garage called and told me about a really nice 928GT that was in their shop for a PPI. The other buyer backed out and I grabbed it.

Had both 944T and 928GT for a few months. Just mentioned I would need to sell one or the other because 2 Porsche sports cars were a little too much and a local guy offered as much fo the 944T as I had paid for it 4 years earlier. Sold! Didn't even have to advertise. Was right about being able to sell the 944 quick when I found a 928.

I have very little experience looking for used cars. When I was looking for my El Camino back in 1991 I looked a vehicles that were beat to hell, because someone tried to use it like a real pickup. The nice ones were just not out there. Then one day driving down highway I saw my El Camino calling to me from a used car lot. The previous owner had traded it in on a new car. The PO was a Wal-Mart shopper and the side of the Elky were covered in door dings front to back. It had never been waxed, and the car lot had sprayed the engine down with clear lacquer to make it look nice. It was in good mechanical condition, and we worked out a deal.

For the 911 back in 1995 the internet was little more than a puppy, and had just become available for commercial traffic. The we sites were horrible, and Google was npt around, and finding anything was hard. I looked at dozens of 911 from early SCs to late Carreras, and they all had lots of issues, or were black, or silver. Finally I bought the Tulsa newspaper and there was the ad. I called him, made an appointment to go see it. My wife said I started drooling as soon as I saw it. I paid the loan value for the car, just wrote him a check, and drove home. I dad not do a PPI, so I got lucky. The PO was a oil and gas man, and worked in one of the high rise downtown buildings. He drove it everyday, but parked it in an parking garage, so it was in the shade all day. He had assigned parking and parked between two guys with nice cars, so not one door ding. When it needed any service, he had a local shop do whatever it needed.

I had the Elky painted back in the 1990s, and it was done by a local Porsche specialist, it has great paint, and not one door ding.

Hope everyone else is having a better morning than myself!

Interesting, my electric bill is higher in the winter than in the summer. That smart hours thing really does save money. It's only about $15 difference but I think that's a lot considering summer is AC and winter is heat.

I assume you have natural gas heat. That is weird, but so are you. ;)

I have my utilities averaged over 12 months. I know exactly what they will be next month and in in February. My water bill is the only one that changes by use, and not by much.

I've already found another Diesel Disco. Can't do anything until after Christmas, but it looks really clean and had a lot more photos. It's about 6 hours away.

I hope it’s a good one, Joe. Even if it’s not, take a road trip is always fun.

For Joe 6 hours is a fair distance. For Jim 6 hours might not get you out of the county, let alone the state. OK, Jim probably isn't in the bad traffic area.

It is weird how tiny the states back in New England are. We drove from Danbury, CT on the far west side of CT to Providence RI in the middle of the state on 1/4 tank of gas. The drive from our house close to the middle of the state, to just across the state line in Clayton, NM is 368 miles. Of course you can drive in Texas all day long and still be in Texas.

Texarkana, TX to El Paso is 814 miles, El Paso to San Diego is only 724 miles. It is hard to believe, but for the people that live in El Paso, they can get to San Diego with 90 miles less driving that a city in the same sate.

In LA it isnt the distance, it is the traffic. From the Tar Pits museum in LA to El Centro is 225 miles and with traffic took almost 8 hours. Over half that time was spent in LA traffic.

Yea, I remember vividly driving through LA from Santa Barbara to Sand Diego with a smashed windshield in the 911. It was exciting. We got to San Diego and I got my windshield replaced, and drove home with good visibility.

In Vermont, they only have about two miles of straight roads. Well, OK maybe four. The roads all are 35 MPH and no passing. It takes forever to get anywhere. Fortunately it too is a tiny little state. Yea, they do have a few interstates, so I might be stretching the truth just a bit. But the love roundabouts, and millions of rural highways.

I wouldn't be in much of a hurry to get to El Centro either ;)

And saying that El Paso is in Texas is a bit of a stretch.
Most Texans I know say El Paso is ALMOST Texas.

Hey now, El Centro has...stuff. :)

Went to see family. Holtville has (or had at the time) a really good pizza place. Even zainy brain John Travolta would fly down for that pizza.

Actually it isn't a bad town but there is a ton more here with the same population than there was there. Unless you like to go jeeping, then EC has here beat. Even close to Glamis if you like sand.

Yea, El Centro is not a place anyone would WANT to go to. Like Boron, CA. It makes Bakersfield or Fresno look like paradise.

When we drove up to San Fransisco from San Diego we got in the car with typical San Diego wonderful weather. We wanted to avoid LA so we went to the east to get to a route to go east of LA.
Our first pee stop was some gas place and the temp was over 100 and just brutal. I had noticed of course having to crank up the AC on my 911 to max as we left the coast. We were happy to get back to SF and the high was 55 degrees in July. Needles , CA was the hottest, at 118 as I headed home from Monterey. Again, that morning I had on a jacket, and a few hours later it was stupid hot.

It gets hot quickly as you go inland.