Neanderpundit

Look, folks, the Alpha particles and Gamma radiation that might- and might is the operative term- might end up in the USA in total may be the equivalent of the contents of a handful of smoke detectors. Which you could tear apart and EAT, and probably not suffer any harm (the Americium in a smoke detector is in a non soluble form- in any kind of soluble form, you’d get a healthy dose of gamma radiation and probably get bone cancer.)(I still would try to avoid, if possible, but if someone breaks in your house, ties you up, and forces you to eat the Americium pill out of the ionization chamber of a smoke alarm, you’ll probably be OK.) (Unless they shoot you, or force you to watch the Barry Manilow Farewell special)

I had to explain to someone at work what the Banana Equivalent Dose was, and they freaked out that their fruit had radioactivity!!! Then they didn’t believe me, and googled around until they found someone “Proving” bananas weren’t radioactive by holding a CDV-715 over them.

Sigh. Science is such an undiscovered country for most people.

I have liked the 98 Exploder, and I have enjoyed driving it for a long time now. It’s getting tired, and while it’s still plenty reliable, it’s going to have 400,000 miles on it in a month.

So I bought another one.

I like the truck. I understand it. I know all about it, and all it’s quirks, and all it’s contrivances. I want to keep driving it, forever. So i bought another one just about just like it.

The New exploder is a 99, just a year newer. Everything is the same but for the trim package, this is a limited while mine was an XLT. It has 1/4 the miles on it the 98 does, and I expect it to live a long, long time. More so, because I know more about them now.

There’s not much physical difference between the two. I’ve got a few things on the 99 to rectify, like it has a bad power antenna (easy fix) a bad door lock solenoid (part on it’s way from Ebay) and a noisy front wheel bearing (I can do them in my sleep). I’ve already fixed the radio display (they have an iffy power supply, and it desolders one of the resistors after some time) and I need to get a new jack and jack handle. (Who trades in a car, and keeps the damned jack and handle?) Otherwise, it’ has better wheels, (easier to keep clean) and better seats(the cloth always wear out, the leather, I hope, will be more durable) and a LOT fewer miles.

I was not going to be buying a new vehicle and accumulating heavy debt in this economy. I got a small personal loan to buy this (thought I could have paid cash) and I’ll be paying for it out of pocket money for two years. By the time I pay it off, Inflation will make the payment worth about 2/3 what it is now.

yeah, I’m a ford Explorer fanboi. I like it, it’s almost perfect for what I do with a vehicle, the only thing I’d change is the blasted heater, which, like all Fords, is designed to drive you out of the vehicle.

nah, I wouldn’t even change that.