Les Bonnes Choses

I just answered the door, so I'm returning to the computer from an unplanned but well-deserved break from editing my manuscript. The painter had stopped by to drop off some paint chips so we could pick the colours for next week's paintapalooza, where the largest rooms in the house will be painted by someone other than me. Now, he hasn't actually painted anything yet, but so far my dealings with Ross Chapman Painting have been very good. Though I don't know him personally, I dropped the name of the family friend, Paul Luksts, renovator and now cabinet maker (Maple Leaf Millwork, of London, if you care), for whom he used to be a sub-contractor. I think I feel about as comfortable with having Ross take care of painting my house as I would if I knew him personally.

I also had Tim Filipi, owner of Filipi Lawn Care in London, come by in the rain to give a quote on prettying up my lawn. If you didn't already know, the Weed Man's program didn't really do a helluvalot over the last 2 years, though to be fair, I didn't do a helluvalot on my lawn in that time either. I'm not sure if lawn care companies can smell blood, but no sooner had I canceled our service with the Weed Man then two or three other lawn care companies started calling to offer their seasonal packages. Telling them that you're having your lawn taken care of by another lawn care company owned by a friend derails their script almost as well as does "I'm moving out of the country". Though on this last point, it doesn't stop everybody. I am just now remembering a recent call from a Canadian bank offering me a Mastercard (I already have one). When I told the guy at the other end of the line that I was moving out of the country, he replied that Mastercard is a multinational company, so I could use the card there. I'm quite sure I did nothing to mask my contempt when I asked him whether he'd agree that using a Canadian credit card exclusively to make purchases in the United States and incurring a currency exchange fee on each purchase was a remarkably stupid idea. He did agree sheepishly.

Finally, I expect we'll be picking up our new Rav4 today or tomorrow, which is quite exciting. I mention this in relation to my overall consumer-report-themed entry because we hadn't yet decided on whether we'd get the extended bumper-to-bumper warranty on the thing. Being a researcher, I hit the internet this morning, and learned that you're better off to buy your car warranty directly from a warranty provider, rather than through the car company (who acts as a middleman and marks the price up). I actually expected to find everyone nixing the idea, saying that they're a waste of money. After all, if you want to stay in business by selling warranties, you're going to have to sell them at or above the expected value of providing the service. In other words, if a company is selling a warranty for $1000 for 4 years, they have already figured out that it should, on average, cost less than $1000 to keep the vehicle under repair during this period. Of course, the expected value is an average, so it will sometimes cost more, and sometimes cost less; people buy into it because they're risk averse when things are framed as losses, which is why when they pitch the product, they emphasize that, though they sell a quality car, with all that driving, you just might find yourself facing a big repair bill, and the warranty can pay for itself.

Wow, look at all that education that I used in writing this blog entry. I'm not sure that a blog is the best way to get a return on the investment though, so I suppose I should get back to that manuscript...


The TomTom EasyPort mounting kit that just arrived as I was finishing this blog entry. I ordered it 2 days ago online from gpscity.ca