1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

Today marks my 1 yr anniversary at the dealership. I've just accrued 5 whole days of vacation.
Also, my lady just learned she got another promotion. I suggested it may be time for me to retire and become a house-husband. She said, "I told you months ago you can if you need to."
I did some math.
We could keep the house and the cars, but significant lifestyle cuts would have to be made. But it does feel good to know I don't have to be tied to this shithole because of the $$$.
Also, fork these motherforkers. I have already been recruited and am waiting to hear their offer after sending a resume a couple weeks ago.
I'm done being miserable at work. There's no point.

C'mon, man. On anything but a sports car (even something sporty), they're stupid.
But blasting backroads/canyon roads/track/whatever, having control of the car without removing your hands from the wheel is a total game changer.

I don't have a leg to stand on to judge your consumption of processed foods.
But discount sushi seems sus as fuck, my dude.

 

Discount sushi seems like a terrible idea.

 

Tundra2 iron gut. Get with it

 

I was reading some of the retirement thread on TW this morning while trying to decide if I'm awake or not.

I'm 46. Doing OK financially. Just with young kids I can't really think about "not working" even if the numbers are fine.

Honestly, I could genuinely see working at 60 or 65 for a dealership or even food service / bartender. When you don't need the work for money it becomes an entirely different animal? At least from the outside in it feels that way.

Time is the most precious commodity right now. I have no time for anything I wish to do. To gain that level of freedom, at this stage of the game, requires kids to get older which is a matter of the clock doing it's job.

On paddle shifters, I guess I've never driven an auto sports car with them. I can see how that might be a game changer. On a minivan or subaru, especially a 9-10 speed, they just seem so ridiculous.

 

I'm 43, but no kids.
The dealership should be perfect....but terrible leadership is a rough thing to live with 43-52 hours a week. The job itself is cake and generally fun.
Go drive a late-model VW or Audi with DCT/DSG and the flappyboiz. Total game-changer.
Agreed on Subarus and minivans with flappyboiz. There's no point.

 

Since college, i love to make gourmet ramen. Add some steak seasoning, velveeta, a splash of milk, etc. everyone calls it prison ramen, even though i havent spent more than a week in jail (not prison), but its a great lunch, if you’ve got half an hour and a couple bucks. I usually make a couple slices of toast to clean the bowl with.

But stick with nissin (same people that make brakes?) or maruchaun. This mario stuff i picked up has a weird taste in the flavor packet.

 

If you don't need the money, I'd say look for something you like doing. It sounds like you already have though. What's the other job you applied for?

I don't understand flappy paddles either. My gf's SHO has them, and they work fine, but once you put it is S it downshifts automatically. Plus, it's already an auto, so it upshifts on its own at redline. Give me a stick any day. I don't car if the car can shift 2/10ths of a second faster. I'm not going for the lap record at laguna seca.

That's the brakes on my bike. I just hope they have like a plastic sheet or something between the 2 production lines.

 

Yeah, the paddles, you play for a bit and then you realize the engine is smarter than you so what's the point, right? Especially with a 9 or 10, it's like start a-b-a-b up-down-up-down, all this click click click, not at all satisfying.

 

I was recruited by one of our vendors to run a warehouse. We'll see what comes of it.
I've also got a part-time opportunity at my friend's fab/motorcycle shop. It could be parlayed into a full-time job if being there allows business to increase enough to pay me full time.
I'm not going to paint myself into any corners by rushing out of (or into) any thing.

There are times when just knowing you can make shifts quickly and accurately is a huge step forward.
I can tell you on the Tail of the Dragon, a missed shift can be a real bad time.
And no one money-shifts a DCT.

 

I fiddle my OD button all the time for hills and traffic. Im way smarter than the trucks computer, and habitually use engine braking.

drove a buddies focus st with the garbage dct. Told him i never wanted to drive it again.

 

Put a deposit on a big brother for my Tundy. 2019 Limited Crewmax TRD 4X4. Comes with a nice ARE topper and full Bedrug kit in the back. Certified with lifetime powertrain warranty. Got a smoking deal on it too! NOT.

 

Congrats?

 

Yeah, newer trucks are way too much money. But I needed a bigger tow rig.

 

Understandable.
That 'not' at the end of your post felt like mixed emotions.

I bought my Tundra so I could tow the p-car. LOL. The p-car has been on a trailer once since I bought it and I didn't tow it that one time. MOF, I've only towed two things in the nearly 2 years I've owned the 1GT.

 

Pre-pandemic, this was me. Yearly, I'd typically take off every Wednesday between June and November, then off from 3rd week of December to end of year off, just to keep from losing time during the first half of the year. Trying to juggle working remotely, with the kids schooling remotely (they're back now), then keeping track of them during their end-of-semester weeks off has decimated my PTO time. I may have 20-30 hours on reserve right now. I accrue roughly 0.5/wk so never had issues before.

While I may be miserable at my job, that's the one place they have me by the short-and-curlies. The PTO is amazing, I won't find another place giving 6+ weeks PTO per year. Flex hours, too. And no micromanaging.

I mean, I hear you, but I'd rather wind noise than the drivetrain whine/drone we have from the known transaxle defect on our '12 (TSB-0097-13). Between that and the clunky driveshaft issue - neither of which Toyota would own up to & repair at this point - we're done with the '12. We absolutely love everything else about the vehicle, it though. Sadly, even if they would repair the drone/whine issues, I've read dozens of online reports of it returning not long after repair.

We like the Venza and the RAV4, but neither are big enough. Sequoia is too big, and no hybrid option for Sequoia or 4R. Not down with paying premium on a Lex. Always open to suggestions, though.

If you want to budget and also make small-serving meals with limited work, look into budget meal prep. There's a lot of meal prep groups out there for every taste, crap you can toss together in 30mins or less to prep for a whole week. Many can get you in the ballpark of $2-3/meal for something that won't taste like cardboard nor smack of healthy hospital food. Tons of Reddit groups out there on meal prepping also, full of ideas, advice, and recipes.

The big issues I see in that cart - completely overlooking the marked-down sushi - are the salt in the ramen and the sugars in the fruit cups (and soda you mention). The soda is probably 5x worse of the 2, just stopping soda intake for 6 months with no other diet changes will slowly whittle away 10-20lbs in an average adult, get pre-diabetics back into the safe zone, and extend your life another 3-5 years without the added health complications.

Believe me when I say, I wish I would've taken my advice on this. I went from 175 -> 220 in my early 20s thanks to canned drinks. I was poor af at the time, living on ramen, rice, eggs, bread and Campbell's soup with whatever meat was cheap, usually jumbo packs of chicken thighs. Veg was too much $$ so I'd get whatever was cheap. Make a broccoli chicken casserole at the start of the week and eat it for lunch and dinner Mon-Fri. Sucked ass. Don't look US RDA values for sodium on a can of Campbell's soup.

First thing my eyes went to. I'd nope out quick, irongut or not.

As someone that spent more than a week in jail (not prison) during my teens thanks to some BS I've talked about on here before, we used to make this riff on trail mix called 'jail mix'. Crush up a spicy pickled sausage (Tijuana Mama) and mix in with a semi-crushed bag of Fritos, peanuts, pretzels and other stuff easily sourced from commissary goods, and you eat it like a Frito Pie. Some may need to look up Frito Pie, there's another delicacy you eat out of a bag.

Nissin is great, but Nongshim is king. A lot of BFE ass places will carry Nissin's top ramen, too. No offense to Maruchan, their tomato is what I'd eat on the regular with a 6-7min soft-boiled egg. Back then, no A-Zon. While I hate on A-Zon a lot for their counterfeits and China-sourced garbageware, I wish I had them back when I was super poor just so I could buy high quality bulk dry goods on the cheap....

 

Ballpark? 40's? I'm guessing 50+?

 

The NOT was about getting a good deal.

 

$48k. It's got 43k miles on it. Upgraded package with sunroof. One owner with all service records. There were 8 Tundras within 500 miles of me that fit what I was looking for. 8

 

I like you're aware & pulling back from the frequent restauranting. But hope you can take it the next step - everything in there is in convenience/single serve packaging. You're buying at the most expensive end of grocery store buying. Buy a tub of those oranges, pour them out into 7 small Tupperwares & you're at the same place for even less money. You've got to be thrifting to pay for a new rocker panel on the crackhead.

 

My wife and I have called it 'drunk ramen' since college. That was our 2am chef Bobby Flay go to.

 

Fresh oranges are even better!

 

Agree 100%. A 20lb bag of rice, 10lb bag of potatoes, 5lb bag of quick oats, and a box of frozen chicken breast should cost around $50 - $80. That's breakfast, dinner and some lunches for a few weeks. The bag of rice alone will last you months. Supplement with lettuce, carrots, celery, bell peppers and onions which are all pretty cheap and you have fresh, crunchy snacks as well as salad fixings, you can roast them as dinner sides or slice and toss with stir fry. Add another $50 per month or so and pick up some cheap cuts of beef for stir fry, some eggs, some ground beef, and pasta. You'll be eating healthy for cheaper or at least not much more than all that junk food.

I'm about $60 - $70 (Canuckistani pesos) per week and I eat very well. Lots of meat, veggies, rice, pasta and a bit of junk food now and then for sanity's sake.

Here's a quick, cheap and easy dinner:

6 - 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs

1 cup of apricot jam

1 cup of barbecue sauce

1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

Rice

Put the thighs in a glass casserole dish. Mix the jam, bbq sauce and Worc sauce together. Pour it over the thighs, coating all sides of them. Into the oven at 350F for about 45min. Cook rice while thighs are cooking. Serve thighs and sauce over rice with a side salad. Leftovers are great for lunch the next day.

 

Dealership I bought this truck from has a 2022 Army Green 4X4 Crewmax TRD SR5 coming in mid December with no deposit on it yet. Up for grabs. TT V6, non-Hybrid

 

They allow you to redline in an automatic. At least in the rentals I've driven.

 

I had been considering sending my scan gauge in for a firmware update since mine is way out of date. But decided to order a new one from AutoZone instead since I got $30 off, free shipping and reward points for it. I'll put the old one in the t100 since it ran great on my 03 Taco and the new one in the Tundra so I should finally be able to get the auto 5 spd trans temp to work

 

Nice truck. Congrats.

 

I know your young, but you may want to keep an eye on the sodium intake if you plan to eat preprocessed foods regularly.

My weekly regiment consists of buying produce to make salads for my weekly lunches. That way I can eat a better meal for dinner.

I used to buy hot lunches at my work, but at $5-7/day that adds up.

 

You only make that mistake once...

 

Supermarket Sushi?

 

Discounted supermarket sushi. I buy it at my local Kroger all the time because I can see the Japanese gentleman make it fresh in store and it's pretty good sushi at a fair price. But once I bought from Walmart because the price was too good to pass on and I got sick and it wasn't even good lol