Thank-you for the compliment. The thing is I'm not alone out here, and I know a lot of guys that are even better techs than I am. Let's say that's one of the reasons that when I see sham stories like Danielle's on TV I simply don't roll over and let her say what she wants without challenging her. " what do you think of buying a new car and when the warranty is about to expire trade it in" People that do that enable the dealers to build the castles they sell the cars out of. One of my customers had a stroke about seven years ago, and has been disabled since then. He had been to the shop only hours before and I had done a pre purchase used car check for him, and at the same time I was fixing a battery cable on his Celebrity to cure a no-start. Of course it turned out that they needed the Celebrity to run, and suddenly they were not in a position to buy another car. Time passed, and while DV is still no longer working, the kids have made it through college and they have moved to a smaller house and are getting by quite nicely. About three years ago the Oldsmobile Aurora that was still a relatively new car for them when DV had his stroke lost the head gaskets. It's a 3.5l DOHC aluminum block known as the mini Northstar, so that means you drop the engine and tranny as an assembly out of the bottom. Every headbolt pulls the threads out with it, and that means I had to buy a special tool kit which rebores those bolt holes, and installs threaded inserts into which the headbolts thread back into. Combine that with some other service issues that were due to be performed and the total bill was close to $3700. This car was worth nothing in a trade since it was over 130K miles. I gave them their options, anmd let them decide what they wanted to do. If you "assume" payments of around $400.00 a month for a new car, then at ten months to a year they are essentially at the break even point. Except for the little detail of depreciation of the new car the moment you drive it off the lot. Every month past that is a bonus. There is always some risk in any decision. Have an accident with this, and it's gone and you don't see your money for the repairs back. Buy the new car, and while it's not likely that you get a bad one it is possible, and with your current car at least you do know what you have. Today she still makes the "car payment" to a savings account exactly as I outlined earlier. She of course since she was doing that had the cash available to go ahead and decide to fix the Oldsmobile. If the transmission failed on it today, she could very comfortably choose to fix it or go ahead and buy a new one with cash. When she hit 190K miles, she was in for basic services and asked me how much further will this car go? She still loves the car. My answer was basically what I said earlier, it can keep going till the day she decides she does not want to go further with it, or until I tell her it's time. Frankly, I don't think it's any time soon. At least not in the next five years anyway.....

" Is it nuts to hold onto an old car?" Not no but He@@ NO! Whats nuts is buying a new car. First off, the only time you ever get a chance to drive a "New Car" is that brief period at the dealership when they allow you a test drive. During the test drive the car is still registered under the dealers "In Transit Title" and it is legally a new car. The moment the title is put in your name and you sign the document it becomes a "Used Car" and the value instantly drops from the MSRP window sticker to the "Blue Book Price" even before you attach your license plates or start the motor the first time. What is really nuts is taking a cash rebate instead of demanding they take that number off the selling price. Consider the facts. They artificially inflate the price by $2,000 and offer you a $2k rebate which you are to receive after the sale. You negotiate your best price (which still contains that artificially inflated $2,000) and you sign the contract. You now have two choices, you can write them a check for the full amount or you have to finance the transaction. If you have to finance it, you are now paying interest for the full term of the note on that rebate, even though you will get the money back at closing. Not a bad deal for them, they hold your money for perhaps one day and you pay interest on it for 5 years. Now, when you get insurance you are also paying insurance on that $2,000 rebate that you took back immediately and went shopping for other stuff you probably didn't need. Oh yes, Did I mention that you also payed sales tax on the rebate money tooo. But then it is not all bad, hopefully you don't live in my state where you have to pay an excise tax on the value of your vehicle every year, including that $2,000 artificial markup. Personally, I wouldn't buy a new car if I won the lottery.

I'm actually a dermatologist in my other life. First statement: you can't make a diagnosis or treat patients over the internet. He needs to see a doctor, today preferably. I don't think a GW Kitchen forum, no matter how great, is the place to get advice! Best thing which is so often neglected would have been a swab culture from the area at the initial visit, before treatment was initiated, for both bacteria, and also herpes simplex, if they really suspected "cold sores," though that's quite rare in that location. Many do what you doc did, which is to treat empirically with Bactrim, a drug that covers probably 98% of all staph including MRSA. Failure to respond certainly could indicate that this was not staph, or the incredibly rare case of Bactrim resistant staph. Equally likely, as we see this all the time, is that he's doing fine and that what you interpret as "not better" actually is improved to an expert's eye. Because of your concern, and even more so if other symptoms are present (fever, chills, red streaking, swollen lymph nodes, pus draining, etc etc) a recheck is indicated and I woudl press to get bacterial and HSV cultures if they think it's a consideration. Maybe you can guilt your derm into seeing him if he's worse. PS: staph is almost certainly acquired at school, not in the temp kitchen.

Try a "vinyl repair" search. I saw a youtube video of vinyl repair, and kits are available too. Maybe check at an auto supply store for a kit. Or stop an auto upholstery place and ask for suggestions. Maybe they could replace a section for not too much $. I'm not a fan of duct tape as it doesn't hold well. There is a much better tape: Scotch plastic tape. It comes in colors and clear, different widths and sticks really well. Sometimes hard to find. I once used to fix an underwater aquarium part, and the tape held in the water!