I bought a 1995 Acura Legend in 1998 with 32,000 miles on it. It was a 36-month lease turn-in and was literally in PERFECT condition. It sat unsold on the Acura dealerâs used lot because it was the least expensive model, the L 4-door, with cloth interior and 5-speed manual transmission. But it was exactly what I wanted, White with Taupe interior, Bose stereo, Power seats with memory and (the best part) the sweetest 200hp 3.2L V6 Iâve ever experienced! I paid $26,000 out-the-door, which felt like a fortune at the time (I was 23). I drove it 40-50k miles per year until I was t-boned by a commercial truck in August 2005. It had just turned 329,000 miles at the time and didnât burn a drop of oil (synthetic), the clutch had only been replaced once and the transmission shifted like new. Other than scheduled maintenance, the only thing I ever had to replace was the A/C compressor and two ABS sensors. The impact was so hard the passenger-side door panel ended up breaking my right hand and forearm (it was in the middle of the car). The rearview mirror broke loose during the crash and hit me in the head just above my right ear. It left most of the glass mirror fragments in my head and took 38 staples to close the wound! I also had damage to two discs in my cervical spine that required a 3-level c-spine fusion the following year. But I was able to recover from all of those injuries, which was pretty amazing considering how bad my poor Legend looked. I bought a 2006 Mazda3 Hatchback to replace it in December 2005. Eight years later, Iâm just past 190,000 miles and going strong!

I realize I'm late for this party but feel I needed to add info for similar questions in the future. I've been an HVAC licensed contractor since 1979 and now support 3 equipment manufactures with onsite consulting and training. This is a very common question easily answered. What are your needs? How long will you be in your home? I'll start with the difference in 80% and 95% (condensing) furnaces. With an 80%, every dollar you pay the gas company 20 cents goes up the flue. With 95% only 5 cents goes up the flue. So basically you save 15 cents on every dollar previously spent. Now for single vs. 2 stage. Your home has an average heat loss figured for anywhere in the US. A competent contractor will do a Manual J calculation to determine the load of your home (more on this later). This load will provide enough heat for your average lowest temperatures in your area. But how often do you hit these lowest temperatures. Generally only a few hours a day or a few days every month. Which means you actually burn more gas than you need to and your furnace cuts on and off often (short cycles). Basically it's oversized for most of the winter. With a 2 stage furnace the furnace fires at a lower rate when demand is lower then bumps up too second stage if the demand becomes greater. This creates far more comfort in the home by reducing the hot and cold spots in rooms which are more prevalent when a furnace short cycles. So efficiency (80 or 90+%) reduces your money up the flue and staging reduces your money spent on comfort. Here's a problem I run into often. A contractor sells you a 95% efficient furnace and removes your 80%. After a month or 2 you see your gas bills go up! What happened? Furnaces have an Input and Output (or bonnet) rating. A 100,000 btuh 80% puts out 80,000 btuh. A 100,000 95% puts out 95,000. Some contractors just look at your old furnaces input rating and goes "like for like" rather than a proper Manual J calculation because it's easier. So if you remove your 80% 100,000 btuh furnace for a 95% 100,000 btuh furnace as you can see from the example above you would burn 95,000 - 80,000 = 15,000 btuh's more of gas than you did with your old furnace. Choose a dealer wisely and ask to see the Manual J of your home (also shows cooling needs). Hope this helps....

Was that in 1978, dcarch? Elery got stuck at work for 4 days during that blizzard and I had to break a path from the pond to the house because the cattle got "lost" in their own pasture and couldn't find their way to the barn. It was a doozy, although we've had others not quite as impressive. I drove to Grand Rapids yesterday, but I park the Enclave in the garage, and Elery keeps the old Silverado truck outside. That old Chevy is a 1994, but it sits outside and has started every morning when it's been 15 or 16 below zero, it's dependable, that's for sure. Michigan has icicles because heat rises and even a little heat loss through the roof will cause enough melt to drip off the edges, where it freezes into icicles. The next step is that those icicles cause an "ice dam" and moisture backs up behind the shingles and your roof leaks. We have to shovel our roof several times per winter and spread urea on the "valleys" to avoid leaks. I think we're installing a metal roof this year, the snow and ice mostly just slides off them as long as there is sufficient pitch. The sidewalks heave, the roads heave, freeze and thaw, freeze and thaw. Much like New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, any of the cold states, we work on roads all summer and move snow all winter and start over again. Somehow, our tax money never manages to cover sufficient repairs. (sigh) Roasting coffee? I have a small roaster that does about 1/4 pound at a time, I put it on a small table on my front entry way, and close the door to that. I "crack" one of the windows about 1/4 inch to let out the smoke and roast. I have the SR 500 model, they have bigger ones but 4 batches gives me a pound, which is about enough for a week. So my beans are always less than a week old and I grind enough for a pot at a time, then do a "pour over" with the Chemex. Yeah, I'm spoiled. I first started roasting coffee using a hot air popcorn popper after reading a Cook's Illustrated article. It works, but is time consuming. Then I read Mother Earth News and tried my cast iron skillet. Also works, but is time consuming AND hot. Finally Elery bought me a roaster, I've had it for a couple of years and it's been roasting my weekly coffee ever since. My current batch is Chinese, the first time I had coffee from China, and I'm enjoying it very much. I still like the Costa Rican the best, but Burman runs sales and I can often get a pound for $4 or less, so I give them a try. Some are good, some...well...not so much, LOL. I highly recommend it, if you have one of those old air poppers, it's well worth the time. For me, at least, and I don't have to leave the house to buy coffee in a caffeine "emergency". (grin) Annie

I am so excited--looks like clear sailing for planting now. Our onions were protected perfectly with that snow blanket on top of the mulch. And the garlic looks great. Now I'm wishing I'd planted more of both. I only have 7 dozen garlic, and about that many onions. I gave some of the onions to a young lady in town so only had that many left. Blackberry bushes are in, carrots and beets planted. I'll plant greens, lettuce and spinach in the mineral tubs tomorrow in a couple of days. And get flowers going. I fell off the wagon and ordered six plants from Missouri Wildflowers: 2 each of rudbeckia laciniata (it's a smashing plant, gets up to 4 feet tall, bushes out--and flowers everywhere--I planted a couple at the school last year); goldenrod; and Drummond's aster. But since I vowed to work on Bermuda in the yards in ground, the only other flowers this year will be cosmos, zinnias, and tithonia.