20 years ago I had the honour of marrying Maggie and my god where does the time go. Like all couples we’ve had our ups and downs (with the ups way surpassing any of the down times) and I’m so thankful with how my life with her has progressed. I can’t thank her enough for changing my life and am excited to see what the future brings. She’s my best friend & partner in life, I simply couldn’t ask for more.
Thank you & I love you Maggie, here’s to many more years together.
Can’t believe how quickly 2024 went by & would like to wish everyone a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2025 to everyone!
I should have posted this update last week but was lazy, anyway Maggie and I went to Cancun Mexico for xmas, it was the first time we’ve been away from Brandon for such a long time, in forever and it was really nice. Our hotel, despite having beach club in its name was not near the beach but the location still wasn’t bad next to a lot of small businesses and restaurants. We mainly relaxed but we did also do two full day excursions which was fun.
We saw some of the Mayan ruins, did some snorkeling, spent time at beautiful Mexico beaches and got to enjoy 28C+ humidity everyday lol. I really do hate that sticky feeling, good thing our hotel room’s AC had a dehumidify option, not just cooling.
Only eventful thing that occurred was when we were snorkelling, there were a few other boats doing the same thing and well I happened to swim to the wrong boat lol. Didn’t help all the guides wore the same coloured clothing and that our group had the same colour life jackets, it can be very disorienting in the water especially with people telling you to follow them. I was lucky I had flippers on, if I didn’t I don’t know if I would have made it back to my boat as I was exhausted already lol.
Man I really love Mexican food, lol nothing was too spicey for me and while tasteful a lot of stuff is super cheap too! A really great trip with Maggie, hehe we went away this year somewhere nicer to celebrate our wedding anniversary a bit early, on the 3rd we’ll be married for 20 years! Wow how time flies, I really am lucky and have the best partner in her.
Here’s to 2024 and I can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store for us. 🙂
I’m enjoying the Liberal party implosion quite a bit but that’s not what I’m here to chat about. Just bragging that Maggie and I are going to Cancun a bit later today and woo just in time for a cold snap to hit Oshawa. Brandon is staying at home & my mom is going to be watching over him so it’ll just be the two of us.
Yesterday the Liberals announced another round of gun bans yesterday and it includes guns like my GSG-16 rifle. This is a plastic gun that fires .22LR but apparently fits their definition of an assault style weapon (there is no definition other than it looks scary) and to make things more comical, they’re going to send seized guns to the Ukraine so soldiers there can use them. Yes I’m sure the soldier that gets one of these things is going to be so thankful, have range out to maybe 25 meters and need to shoot your target 10x to be combat effective… I kid but this is ridiculous but not unexpected since the Liberals are flailing.
Their stupid GST holiday and bribe of $250 cheque (which is in limbo right now) didn’t give them any jump in the polls so I’m sure they’ll go back to their greatest hits of talking about abortion, LGBT rights and guns. They certainly can’t run on their record, 9 years in power and the quality of life in Canada has gotten dramatically worse so time to roll out the social issues and try and create a wedge. All fluff no substance with these idiots, sunny ways.
One good thing is that with all the activity on legal guns and the rise of gun violence (with illegal guns), I think we’re reaching a point where the populace is starting to realize the Liberals are simply gaslighting everyone and trying to scare people about guns is no longer working.
Man a federal election can’t come soon enough, it took 20 years to after Pierre Trudeau left office to get spending and our budget back into the black, sigh with JT’s stupid policies it may take another 20 painful years to get Canada back to fiscal responsibility… I’ll also say this, after seeing how PET & JT have governed, I hope Canadians understand we cannot have another Trudeau politician again.
Sorry for the lack of updates (a common thing said huh) but just wanted to tell everyone that I’m off for the rest of the year woo and won’t go back till January 6th 2025. I’m very fortunate to work a job that I enjoy but even then, I’m going to like having the next month off it’ll be great. 🙂
It was my 45th birthday yesterday and I certainly felt a lot of love from family & friends. 🙂 Life is never smooth but I definitely feel that I’ve had a great one so far and the future is really bright. I have the best partner one could ask for with Maggie, an amazing son, family & friends. Despite being grumpy all the time, I’m a very happy man and want to give my thanks to everyone that’s been in my life!
So I drove down to OEM Auto Audio and woo they were able to fix my Lexus RX infotainment within 30-40 minutes! The gentlemen I spoke to said he services Lexus head units (along with other cars) for many dealerships and that this is a very common problem unfortunately. Why Lexus hasn’t done a recall or released a TSB is beyond me, all in all it cost me about $1k CDN to get the work done and I am happy that my car works properly again.
I drove back with the head unit just attached by the cables but when at home, I bolted it in along with putting the trim pieces back on. Odd the center clock seems to have died but that’s a module that I can replace myself and I’ll look at it on the weekend. CBSA gave me the side eye when I explained that no one in Toronto (or Canada) works on Lexus head units, even authorized Pioneer dealers up here and yes I had to drive all the way to Manlius NY (a suburb of Syracuse) to get the work done. I could have shipped the thing but it’d take another 2 weeks at least and I didn’t ant a huge gapping hole in the center of my car.
He said that Maggie’s car is also affected by this problem and that if I have to change the battery, to get it done at the Lexus dealership in case it breaks there too lol.
Overall I’m still pretty pissed at how things turned out and I might see if I can get enough names to start a class action, we’ll see how motivated (or lazy) I am but it’s ridiculous that my only option was a $14k replacement.
So the battery that came with my 2018 Lexus RX350 was the original and was weak (died a few times which required me jumping it) so I purchased a battery from Canadian Tire with the intention to replacing it myself. I’ve done this with other cars in the past and it’s fairly straightforward but just in case, I went on YouTube to look it up and followed these instructions minus the pressure washing. The CT battery was neither tall or wide enough to use the Lexus battery restraint (odd it’s the one the counter gave me after getting my car details) so I didn’t even connect it, pulled it out and put the old battery back so I could get something else that fit properly and that’s the beginning of a nightmare.
Apparently it’s a common problem for Lexus head units/infotainment to stop working after the battery is disconnected (here, here, here & here as an example but there are more) and this affects all models, not just the RX. I brought the car to my mechanic (who has a lot of experience with Lexus/Toyota products), he confirmed the head unit was dead, that he can’t fix it and a new one would cost $14,000 just for the parts from Lexus! Talk abut being disappointed, in my search of forums, FB Lexus groups & Reddit this has been occurring since the late 2000s, how is this still a problem now?
So after assessing my options (buying a new head unit, a used head unit on eBay or trying to get it repaired) I’ve decided to drive 8 hours (4 hours one way) to Manlius NY (a suburb of Syracuse) to OEM Auto Audio to have my head unit repaired (they said it takes about 2 hours). Finding the exact same head unit is difficult as there are a lot of different models for the 4th generation RX, even if they have the same features & specs and there are no local shops that can do this repair. Yes I could ship the thing down but that’d add another week or two to this whole process and I want it fixed asap.
Anthony, my mechanic said after it’s repaired to plug everything in to test to make sure it works and fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly but OEM Auto Audio has good feedback by the various Lexus groups I’ve searched. Will update after it’s done but quite disappointed that this has been occurring for over a decade and Lexus hasn’t addressed it yet.
Last week I got a new set of tires for my car as well, the Michelin X-Ice Snow tires that I wanted couldn’t be found after ordering them 2 weeks earlier so I settled for a set of Continental IceContact XTRM. I thought I was getting the VikingContact series (should have asked) but whatever, much better than a set of all seasons and it’s not like the RX is a performance car as long as it grips on snow and ice in the winter I’m happy.
I usually buy Michelin tires, mainly because that’s what I’ve always gotten so I’m quite interested in seeing how these perform.
