The rain began around 9 AM and continued steadily all day. We got over 3 inches of rain.
The last thing I did before the rain was to pick the remaining good tomatoes we have. More than half of the tomatoes went bad on the vine due to the heat and then all the rain. Still we had BLTs for lunch and will have tomatoes for the weekend..
No cats were at the feeder today but every type of cat food eating bird showed up. Several times today I heard a bird making a racket out there. I peeked out to see a little just fledged starling standing near the feeder screeching to be fed with its mouth open. Then I saw his parent quickly jump out from the feeder and stick a piece of food in its mouth and fly off—all in one speedy motion. The little bird shut up and flew off poorly. It hasn’t been fledged long. It is a good thing no cats were out in the rain.
We went through another used car inspection today in Jacksonville. Christy provided the logistics.(Good job Christy!) The car looked and drove like a good deal. It was overpriced, which seems to be normal for an OBO car. The guy claimed it only had 68,000 miles on it.
While the car was being checked out I decided to do a little more research because I thought I would be negotiating a price soon. I went to E-bay to see if any like vehicles were for sale there and what they were asking. I found the seller also had the car we were looking at was also e-bay. I also found, to my pleasant surprise, that e-bay requires a VIN number and in addition provides a free auto check report (like a car fax). So I got the car check report. Everything looked OK until I checked the title history. The car began its life as part of a rental fleet in Tennessee. That’s not bad, just good info to know. Next at about 37,000 miles they sold it at auction.. The next time a mileage shows in the title history is in 2001 and there it is 68,000 miles, 9 years ago it had the mileage the seller was claiming the car had now. I called the mechanic and gave them this info. It turns out it wasn’t needed. The mechanic called me back and started with “This vehicle has been run hard and put away wet. I wouldn’t believe the mileage claim. The rack and pinion is leaking as is the head gasket. The suspension and steering show a lot of wear. This vehicle is not like the Hondas and Toyotas. It is very hard to work on and you only get about 130,000 miles out of them.” I thanked him, called Christy at the shop and gave her the news. I told her to be polite and just say the repair costs are too much. The mechanic said this car was so easy to evaluate that he only charged me for a half-hours labor. This is K&T’s mechanic and from what I’ve seen I like the guy.
After talking to Christy tonight it appears that the seller wasn't aware of the problems with the car or the mileage issue.
The rain percentage drops to 40% tomorrow so I should have more outside time. C&C show up in the evening.
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