Laboring During the Labor Day Weekend: This Just Isn't Right!

My upstairs bathroom at the start of the renovation.

I'm not the kind of guy who goes out of his way to labor during Labor Day weekend, but I made an exception this weekend. Any halfway-regular reader of this blog knows I don't go out of my way to labor at any time. I used to say work interfered with my social life. That, of course, was when I had a social life. Now I have to face the fact that I'm just lazy. Even without a social life to speak of, I still don't like working.

Several things are competing for my time. I have several videos for just3things that require editing and uploading. Autotrader assigned a story due the morning after Labor Day. A deadline and a pay check are compelling motivators. I wrote the story on Saturday and submitted it Sunday morning. 

Here it is with most of the demo done and the new water lines in.

Finally, my upstairs-bathroom remodel continues to drag on my bank account and time. As with every undertaking in this 60-year-old house requiring anything more than a screw driver, this project is punctuated with skyrocketing costs and much greater demands on my time than I budgeted. My goal was to have the room functioning – not finished, but functioning – by the Saturday evening before Labor Day. Ha! I crack myself up. Not only is it not functional, the new commode and vanity are resting undisturbed in the upstairs spare bedroom. 

What it looks like now.

I did lay the new flooring last week. This took longer than I anticipated, but I can chalk that up to never having laid a floor before. It's only vinyl tile, but it did require a lot of measuring and cutting. It's done, and I'm fairly pleased with the results, in spite of it being a half a step up the quality ladder from linoleum. Because of the neighborhood in which I live, there's not point in investing big bucks in the flooring. Anyone who buys this joint isn't going to pay a premium for ceramic tile. Since my goal is to sell this place in the next year or so, I measure everything by the return I calculate I will get when I sell it. I'm not going to spend money on which there will be little or no return.

What got me off the dime to begin this project in earnest was visiting the Home Depot down the street from me a couple of weeks ago. It happened to be inventory day. Whenever I'm in a home-improvement store with a little time to kill, I wander around, dreaming. Yes, I know, I used to dream about sex; now, my fantasies revolve around paint colors and power tools. It's hell getting older! I headed down the bathroom-vanity aisle and discovered a 48-inch vanity top no longer on the store's books that the inventory had uncovered like some ancient-Egyptian archaeological find. It had just been marked down from $239 to $57. Dashing back to the front of the store, I grabbed a double-tiered cart and headed back to the vanity aisle. Fortunately, Honda had dropped off a new Ridgeline pickup for my driving pleasure that week.

At this point I had a vanity top in search of a bathroom remodel. The stage was set, the die cast: I had no choice, but to forge ahead. About $1,200, two trips to the dump, 11 trips to assorted home-improvement stores and 30 hours of work later, I still don't see light at the end of the tunnel. I will be gone 18 or so days in September; I don't anticipate making much headway this month. Did I mention that my other bathroom is also under construction. Yep, I'm redoing some of the drywall around the shower. For the time being, I am showering in the upstairs bath and doing everything else in the downstairs one.

The downstairs-bath project is child's play and won't require more than a few hours to complete. I just haven't gotten back to it, well, because I just haven't felt like it. No doubt it will require someone wanting to come visit to get me off my duff to finish that project and then paint the room. Here again, no social life. Who in the hell wants to visit me? I think I'm safe.

I Really Hate Covering the Same Ground Twice!

I'm not the kind of guy who welcomes covering the same ground twice. It runs counter to my nature. I am such a slacker at heart, I can barely stand to do something the first time; let alone, go back and do it again.

This goes double for sending off an e-mail to an editor to make a correction in a story that I've already filed or, heaven forbid, one that has already posted. I found myself doing that twice in the past week with two different first-drive reviews that I had to knock out over a 36 -hour period. It's even worse when the error is pointed out to me by the carmaker, as one of my recent errors was. Ouch.

One of the best things about writing for dot-coms is that errors are easily fixed. It doesn't alleviate the embarrassment; but it does mean that, if caught in time, most readers will never be aware of the initial foul up. Unlike print media where the error remains for eternity, only mildly mitigated by a correction in the next issue, online mistakes can be erased. It's still not fun to go hat in hand to an editor bearing the evidence that you are an idiot. Not to mention, it's wasting time that shouldn't have been wasted.

I hate covering the same ground twice.

In that vein, here's a bit of advice: Don't turn 65 if you can avoid it. Here endith the lesson for the day.

Sprinkled within my parade of personal and business trips the past six weeks – and there have been a bunch of them – were all-too-brief periods at home during which I was faced with addressing all the nonsense involved in turning 65, which I will officially do this Sunday. Gasp!

My dad died at age 52 and my mother at 55. Those who know me are aware that I always believed I'd be dead by age 60. Had I known what a pain in the ass it would be to turn 65, I might have worked harder to make that age-60 end date a reality.

At the top of the turning-65-BS-hit list is making the transition from Obamacare to Medicare. I didn't want to participate in Obamacare to begin with. In fact, I didn't its first year, opting instead to pay the $95-or-so fine – and yes my civics-challenged friends it's a fine and not a tax – rather than be just another leech on the butt cheek of society. However, when that fine grew to more than my piddly income dictated I would have to pay in premiums, sadly, I capitulated.

Because I did the math and decided the best way to maximize my Social Security benefits over the long haul was to begin accepting payments at age 62, I didn't have the choice as to exactly which month Medicare would kick in. Without wading too far into the weeds, anyone not already accepting SS benefits at age 65, has a four or five month window in which to sign up for Medicare. Those already accepting SS benefits when they turn 65 are automatically signed up for Parts A & B in their birthday month.

See, you've learned something else today.

Once I was aware that that the Feds were going to enroll me in Medicare this month, I had to take some action. I had a small three-day window the end of July to meet with an independent insurance agent to discuss my Medicare options. There is a lot to digest in this arena.

I met with Marvin Carter of the Carter Agency in Mauldin, SC on the Thursday morning of July 21^st. Marvin gave me the basic 411 on my options using an automotive metaphor. Yes, he dumbed it down for me. He sent me home with a hearty handshake and an armload of research materials.

I occupied myself through most of Friday pouring through my Medicare homework and considering my options. Having come to a decision, mid afternoon I called Marvin. I had already discussed with him my jammed-up schedule that had me flying out to a Nissan program on Sunday that was backed against a personal trip to see my family in New Mexico that carried me through the end of the month. He volunteered his wife Bonnie to come in on Saturday morning to meet with me and sign all the paperwork.

The issue was an appointment with Doc Budelmann, scheduled five months earlier that was to take place on August 19^th. I wanted to have all my ducks in a row, so to speak, so there weren't any insurance issues in paying for that visit.

Sometimes I make myself laugh.

Then began my quest to cancel my Obamacare policy. What a shit show. I won't bore you with the details of this fool's errand, but it required nearly two weeks to finally determine the agency responsible for processing my cancellation request. Any sane person would think that it's the insurance provider carrying your policy, right? Wrong. Nope. You've got to go the Obamacare exchange. Because it's government, and that this government agency has to sift through the layers and finally notify the insurance provider, my Obamacare policy remains in effect until August 30^th.

“So what?” you ask. So what, indeed.

My gut told me to postpone my doctor's appointment until September when all of this would be resolved, but I pressed ahead anyway. Arriving at the doctor's office, my shiny, new Humana Medicare Advantage card in hand, I explained to the doctor's assistant that I was changing insurance providers. After clicking away on her laptop for a while, she reported that both insurance providers were listed as my primary insurance and I needed to choose between them. Despite having to fork over a $15 copay with the Medicare insurance – office visits were free with my Obamacare policy – I opted for Medicare.

Once I got into see the doc, we agreed I would have a couple of tests Medicare requires, as well as a couple of immunizations that Medicare pays for in full. As I cooled my heels waiting to get into the in-house lab to have blood drawn, the doc's assistant tracked me down to double check on my insurance-provider decision. Totally confused, I hemmed and hawed for a few seconds. She said I could have the weekend to think about it. I was to call her on Monday.

Calling, I left a message on her voicemail that I would stick with Medicare. Thinking all was right with the world, I went my merry way. Later that day, I received a call from her that the insurance clerk at the office reported that she couldn't file the insurance-claim request with both insurance companies still designating themselves as my primary insurance. I had to go to my Obamacare provider and get them to designate themselves as my secondary insurer.

Knowing the carrier would just pass me off to the government, I called the Obamacare agency. A 15-minute phone call produced virtually no results. Although the person with whom I spoke was very accommodating, the long and short of it is that they could make themselves the secondary insurer, but it would require about two weeks. Let's see, it's August 23^rd and the policy was already scheduled to officially cancel on the 30^th....carry the one.... So what good would that do me?

Calling back the doc's office I explained the time issue and offered that if the insurance clerk simply waited until September 1^st to file the claim, there (fingers crossed) shouldn't be an issue. Three days later I haven't heard anything more about it. I have no clue if the problem is solved. If not, round three.

Did I mention I hate covering the same ground twice. I really hate it a third time!

A July I Barely Remember, But Then I'm Old

I'm not the kind of guy who whines about the little things. Well, as a rule I'm not. Of course as the number of years in the rearview mirror continue piling up as those in the future dwindle, things that were relatively insignificant in my thirties are now front-page news in my sixties. Even minor setbacks are viewed through my short-timer's filter.

Yep, there's something about mortality slapping one in the face that makes those little things we used to claim not sweating now cause a flood of perspiration. I just don't believe I have the time to bounce back. I'd probably write more about this, but I can't remember why I started complaining about age in the first place. Forgetting things is one of the “little things” I didn't used to sweat, but now see as evidence that I'm doing some sort of slip-sliding into senility.

I have no clue why I detoured into that pseudo rant on aging other than I'm currently overcome with all the horse hockey involved with turning 65, which I will do the end of this month. It's just extra stuff I must address at at time when I am swamped with other things – most of which I'd much rather be doing.

As only the third Clanging Bell I've written in the past 45 days or so, I have a lot to catch up on. So, without further ado.....

Away roughly 26 days during July, I have fallen woefully behind not only in creating these blog posts, but in writing car reviews for GreenvilleInsider, as well as writing other entries for what was just a year ago, my main focus. That was before Autotrader really cranked up my assignments, Bankrate found me again for some of its automotive and I embarked on my latest Internet endeavor: just3things.com.

Nothing like sunset in The Keys.

First, let's talk travels. I was in The Keys twice, three times if you count the three days I spent with Honda for the media launch of the 2017 Accord Hybrid in Napa Valley in the middle of my first Keys visit. In actual days spent in this wonderful island-like setting, it was about 10 give or take half a day.

Honda Accord Hybrid.

I made that second Keys trip because, well, see paragraph 2 above. I don't go much of anywhere any more that I don't shoot at least one video for just3things. (Yes, there is a lot of gratuitous plugging of just3things in this post.) I had two videos in mind for the Keys visit. I even had made an appointment to shoot one of them at the Sea Turtle Hospital in Marathon. As I was getting ready to head to that interview, I gathered my gear and prepared to check the batteries in my camera and wireless mic.

I should preface this anecdote by telling you that I had already called home to one of my Greenville friends to go to my house, find the lens for my Sony still camera and overnight it to me. Yep. I forgot it. Well, I didn't forget it, exactly. I keep all my cameras and accessories in black padded, drawstring bags. I have a total of maybe seven of them. I threw what I thought was the lens to my camera into my carry-on backpack. It turned out to be my still camera's mic and flash instead. My lens arrived on day 2 of my Keys stay.

Capt. Tim grilling up some burgers on his boat.

So, I'm putting together my gear for the Sea Turtle shoot when I discover that I don't have my video camera. Rather than bringing the video camera, I packed the long zoom lens for my still camera. They are in the same size bag and are approximately the same size. I had judiciously separated the bags I wanted to bring from the ones I didn't want. I must have diverted my attention from that task to some other packing issue. When I returned to pack camera gear, I scooped up all the stuff I wanted to leave at home and tossed it in my backpack. I couldn't shoot a single video.

So, I went back to the Keys to pick up the videos I missed on the first run. 

Me partaking of the Bee Experience at the Carmel Valley Ranch resort on the Nissan event.

In between my Keys visits, I went to Carmel, Calif. for a Nissan media intro of its 2017 Armada, Pathfinder and Titan. A fun, action-packed trip, it yielded four videos and three Autotrader assignments. It was three days well spent.

I had to red-eye back from the airport in San Jose, Calif. to Atlanta. Arriving in Atlanta at 5:30 a.m., I sprang for the $29 for a day pass to Delta's Sky Club. I needed a comfortable chair, as well as some free food and drink. Oh, and the free WiFi didn't hurt either. I hung out watching a few episodes of NCIS that I am currently binge watching and drinking decaf coffee with Bailey's. About 11:30, I boarded a flight for Albuquerque for my brother-in-law's 80^th birthday celebration. I arrived there on Wednesday July 27^th and flew home on Monday August 1^st.

I had a day and a half at home, during which I wrote an assignment for Autotrader, petted the cat and took stock of what a wreck my house was. I hadn't mowed the dirt in five or six weeks, but there had been so little rain, even the weeds that comprise the 80 percent of my lawn that does have something actually growing on it hadn't grown.

On August 3^rd, I headed back to the Keys for five more glorious days. Had I a crystal ball, I would have realized a couple of days before this trip that the flying part of it would be an exercise in self control. The night before I was to leave, I mis-set my alarm. For my 6:30 a.m. flight I needed to be up by 4:00 and in my car by 5:00. Please see paragraph 2 above.

I went to bed concentrating on my 5 a.m. departure and set my alarm for, um, 5 a.m. I have a little fat built into my departure times. I skipped my shower and was in my car by 5:15. It's a 10- to 15-min slog to the airport. I always park in the economy lot, but to find a space and then schlep up the hill to the terminal is usually about 20 min. Instead I parked in the close-up parking garage. I managed to check my bag, pass through security and arrive at my gate just as boarding began. I somehow made my flight!

I landed in West Palm Beach around noon on Wednesday. Nissan had a new 370 Z roadster waiting for me. I had time to grab some lunch before my appointment with the Highland Beach Sea Turtle Rangers. I shot that video and was on the road to The Keys by 5:30. Despite slugging my way through Ft. Lauderdale and Miami rush-hour traffic. I was in Islamorada by 8:30. My first stop was Hog Heaven to have a couple of beers with my buddy Capt. Tim. 

Yucking it up at the Islamorada Brewing Company

 I was on the road to Key West by 8:30 the next morning to shoot a just3things video with the Dolphin Whisperer. I met Captain Victoria while on a Keys Tourism press junket four or so years ago. I was there for AAA. The six of us on the event spent an afternoon on her boat. It was a magical experience. I really didn't have a hope she would remember me as I made preparations to contact her. My first step was to go to her Dancing Dolphin Spirits Tours Website. To my surprise, the first sentence on the home page mentioned me by name. Wow, who woulda thunk it?

I was back in Islamorada by 3 p.m. I shot standups for that interview and another I had shot of the Mazda CX-9 a few weeks earlier in San Francisco. I shot that piece before I had a wireless mic that makes a huge difference in audio quality. The audio for the interview itself wasn't terrible, but I was forced to shoot the standups on a street corner in downtown San Francisco. The audio was horrendous.

Here's all you need to know about spending some time in The Keys: It's an ideal spot to drink, boat and relax. I devoted a lot of time to all three.

My trip home, however, was somewhat challenging. First, I forgot (see paragraph 2 above) that I had booked my flights home on Tuesday rather than Monday as I usually do when returning from Florida. Had I not been so harried with all my travels and other concerns, I would have realized Delta hadn't contacted me to check in for my 7:35 a.m. 24 hours earlier. I showed up at the West Palm airport at about 6:15 a.m. on Monday to discover my flight wasn't until the next morning. It didn't really matter, that was the morning Delta's entire computer system crashed stranding passengers, planes and crews all over the place.

I headed back to the friends where I was staying, carried my bags back into the house and did a little work. I made the 10:45 a.m. showing of the latest Star Trek movie in 3D. This was the best exhibition of 3D that I've ever experienced.

My travel day on Tuesday still suffered from the Delta snafu. Arriving at West Palm's airport at 6 a.m., expecting to be faced with long lines and mass confusion, I stepped into the Sky Priority line at the ticket counter. It was manned by my buddy Tony, who was a Skycap at the time I was flying out of West Palm four or five times a month with video crews. He would check the flight manifests of all the flights on his shift looking for regulars. When we pulled up to the curb, he would step away from whomever he was helping and come help us. His tips put a serious dent in my expense account. 

Tony did what he could to get me back to Greenville, but by the time I landed in Atlanta four hours behind schedule, the flight he backed me up on was canceled. I spent nearly six hours in Atlanta trying to get home. I finally scored a standby spot on what was probably the last flight home that night. What a circus. My euphoria at actually getting home was soon dampened when I paid for my airport parking. Remember when I had to park in the garage because I mis-set my alarm. I was hit with a $98 parking tab rather than the $24 I would have paid for parking in the economy lot. Are you kidding me? That was a very expensive goof up.

The following day Delta sent an e-mail notifying me that it was depositing a $200 voucher good toward a ticket into my account. The day after that, it notified me that it was depositing 20,000 miles into my Sky Miles account. I purchased my round-trip ticket to West Palm for 19,000 miles. So, I walked away with the $200 voucher and an extra 1,000 miles. I thought I was doing pretty well until I spoke with a colleague who scored a $1,000 voucher for less of a wait than I had.

Oh well....I'll probably forget all about it anyway.

And as far as just3things.com goes, the Website developer who is working on it has fallen mute on where we stand. Accessible, it currently has very little content. I am the one tasked with adding content, but can't do it until the developer sends me the instructions. So, it's just sitting there.

I leave tomorrow for a Kia event in Virginia. At least, I think it's tomorrow. Maybe I should double check.

When Is a Vacation Not Really a Vacation?

Just another brilliant Keys sunset..

I'm not the kind of guy who grumbles about either vacationing or partying, but my current run of vacation days is beginning to take its toll.

I'm sitting in my sister's kitchen in Los Lunas, NM with my laptop squeezed into a small section of the table, as she is utilizing some of the table in crafting my brother-in-law's birthday cake. I'm not particularly creative when not spread out in my own office with the use of the twin monitors there to write, or edit photos and videos. For the record, I simply don't like to work on the road.

I have been in pseudo-vacation mode since I stepped on my flight for West Palm Beach on July 6^th. It it now July 31^st and I don't return home until tomorrow, Aug 1^st. Granted, that's a long time when you are a freelancer who makes money only when he is actually producing something. There are no paid holidays nor vacations. Work I miss while goofing off is simply work lost forever. Money I will not make nor ever recover.

I was home for four days between my stay in the Keys and heading to New Mexico for my brother-in-law's 80^th birthday. My Autotrader editor was kind enough to allow me to do several assignments before I left and to cram three more into that little stint at home. During my New Mexico stay, I did have to knock out a couple of assignments. Getting my head around them took a little doing, but I finished and submitted them.

2017 Honda Accord Hybrid.

In the middle of my time in the Keys, I drove up to Ft. Lauderdale, caught a flight and flew to San Francisco to cover the media first drive of the 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid in Napa for Autotrader. That two-night, three-day bite out of my Keys vacation hurt, but it did inspire me to book tickets to go back down for the first weekend in August.

Before heading to New Mexico, I made a little detour to Monterey, Calif for a Nissan three-day media event for the 2017 versions of the Armada, Titan and Pathfinder. Historically, such trips didn't involve me doing much more than showing up, eating and drinking my fair share, and then driving whatever vehicle or vehicles were featured. Now that I am consistently collecting content for my video project, I have to actually work on these events. 

Getting the 411 on the 2017 Nissan Titan.

While neck deep in all of this, I have also been working with my Website developer on the just3thingsvideo.com Website. He assures me it will be ready for me to add content before Aug 1^st. I'll only have a day and a half at home before heading back to South Florida. As of now, I don't have anything deadlining that I need to do in that 36-hour period, but never say, never. That may provide a little time to add some content to j3tvideo, but maybe not.

Of course, I click over the 65-year mark in August. That entails addressing all manner of issues. For the most part, I have Social Security all squared away; although, I do still have an issue there that I will need to eventually handle. I did meet with an independent insurance agent to help me navigate Medicare. Glad to say that's resolved, at least for the time being.

I also have a small pension from my almost eight-year stint at The Boca Raton News that is being administered by McClatchy Publishing. It purchased Knight-Ridder's pension liability when it bought most of the KR's assets. They thought I was dead – not kidding here – when I contacted them six months ago regarding some income records I need for my unresolved issue with Social Security. I received the paperwork for my pension from them just before leaving for my Nissan/NM trip. I must take care of that during my short home stay.

Part of the collateral damage from my nearly month-long absence from home is my ever-expanding waistline. I'm sure Doc Budelmann isn't going to be happy with me when I waddle into his office for my scheduled appointment in mid August. I've only managed to visit the gym three times in as many weeks. In the meantime, I've been eating and drinking like they award gold medals for it. I fully expect a stern talking to that will include some finger wagging when I next see the doc.

This is only my second Clanging Bell post in a month and, other than updating the Greenville Drive's monthly home schedule, I haven't hit a lick on GreenvilleInsider during that same period. I also have five assignments from Bankrate piled up in my to-do box. Ugh.

The bottom line is that I'm busier now than I have been in years. Not complaining, mind you; but I haven't quite been able to relax much during my 30-day goof-off period. The price of success, I guess.

Successfully Doing Nothing in the Florida Keys

Dinner at the OV (Oceanview) our first night in the Keys.

I'm not the kind of guy who vacations halfheartedly. I'm in the Florida Keys – Islamorada to be exact – and I'm totally focused on doing nothing. Despite using valuable tanning and beer-drinking time to knock out this half-assed blog post, my mind simply is not in creativity mode.

This is my third year to spend a week – give or take a couple of days – with friends who rent a condo for a month on the beach in Islamorada. My liver doesn't look forward to this annual getaway with the same enthusiasm I do, but sacrifices must be made. Right? Right!

The trip was off to a rocky start when I arrived in Delray Beach at the front end of this trip and discovered I had left the lens to my Sony camera on the side table in my kitchen in Greenville. I have all manner of still-camera and video camera gear in neoprene pouches of various sizes. I didn't double check the pouch I tossed into my backpack, believing it contained the lens, but instead, held a small mic and flash that I rarely use.

Sunset at Lorelei on our second evening.

Last year my still camera stopped working on the first day of the Keys portion of the trip and I had to buy a replacement. I was never happier to have Amazon Prime. But, I was again faced with going into a multi-day Keys stay with only my cell-phone camera. Not acceptable.

After quickly investigating and rejecting the idea of renting a lens, I also looked at used ones on eBay. Nope. I just spent more than $500 on a long zoom, that I intentionally left at home, for this camera on eBay, and I'm not interested in spending a pile of cash on a lens I already have.

Although I'm not keen on involving other people in rescuing me when I goof up, my back was to the wall. I picked up my cell and called my pal Natalie. Her family lives five minutes from me and I knew it wouldn't be too big a deal to go to my house and retrieve it, but then I would have to ask her to overnight it to me. In short, you can thank her for the sunset photos I've been posting on Facebook.

Captain Tim grilling burgers for lunch on his boat.

Unlike previous years, we don't have a boat on this trip – at least not so far. The trailer hitch on my friends' Hummer was destroyed in a freak rear-end accident last week and won't be fixed until sometime this week. No hitch, no Hummer, no Hummer, no boat.

We have other friends who rent a place nearby for the same month. They, happily, do have their boat with them. We've been hitching rides on their boat. This year they also brought a float that's positively huge. It even has a soaker pool. Nice.

The Cadillac of floats.

Motivated by Facebook posts containing references or photos of Corona and Miller Lite beer cans, my craft-beer friends have been unloading on me as if the photos caught me clubbing a baby seal. To them I say, Get a Grip. I'm a when-in-Rome sort of guy. I'm not belly up to a bar somewhere sipping on two or three craft beers, I'm hanging on a boat or poolside slamming back a dozen beers. I can quaff a dozen Coronas over eight hours, but no way can I do that with a peanut-butter stout.

In M.E.A.T. with pals having one of the rare craft beers on this trip.

What was to be 10 uninterrupted days of intense Keys training now contains a 2-day jaunt to Napa for a Honda Accord Hybrid event. I wouldn't have made this detour on my own, but Autotrader asked me to cover it for them. As a freelancer, I never turn down an assignment if I can accommodate it in any way. So, on Tuesday evening I'll drive up to Ft. Lauderdale, spend the night in one of the airport hotels, fly to San Francisco on Wednesday morning, drive the Accord on Thursday, red-eye back to Ft Lauderdale Thursday night, and be back in Islamorada for lunch on Friday.

To be honest, my liver will be doing the happy dance over this beer intermission. So will my wallet.

Bay Watching the 2016 Mazda CX-9

I'm not the kind of guy who looks a gift horse in the mouth. (For you children out there, the term “looking a gift horse in the mouth” came from a time when horse buying and trading was as common among the public as the commerce in used cars is today. One element of the process for the potential horse buyer was to attempt to gauge the steed's health by inspecting its teeth and gums. Back then, it was considered bad form, when given a horse as a gift, to check its mouth.)

In any event, when Mazda invited me – well, not to put too fine a point on it, but Mazda didn't invite me; it invited Autotrader, and Autotrader sent me – to the media launch of its redesigned 2016 CX-9 three-row crossover in May, I refrained from bellyaching about my general dislike of San Francisco, where Mazda staged the event. I simply wasn't going to turn down the assignment because it was in a city I don't much like. In other words, I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Nope, I dawned my game face, researched craft breweries near the Hotel Vitale – the host accommodation for the event – on the Embarcadero, packed a bag, gritted my teeth and headed to the left coast. 

Hotel Vitale.

 Located on Mission Street, basically overlooking the Bay, the Hotel Vitale is well situated for tourists and sightseers. My craft-brewery search netted nearly a dozen beer makers or brew pubs within three miles of the hotel. Several didn't open until mid or late afternoon; I crossed those off my list. I settled on the 21^st Amendment Brewery that Mapquest pegged as just one mile – give or take a couple of blocks – from our lodging.

Uber is my go-to rental transportation when away from home. I'm a fan and have never been disappointed with its service. Using my trusty smartphone app, I checked on the estimated pick-up time and rate for my one-mile brewery excursion. I wasn't so put off by the estimated 10-minute arrival of a car – abnormally long for Uber – as I was by the $12 estimated fare. Are you kidding me? Really, $12 to be taken one mile! I could have probably talked one of the hotel's bellmen into piggybacking me there for $20.

I have a good buddy living in Northern California who complained to me of being similarly scammed by Uber one night in San Francisco, dinged by a comparatively outrageous rate, which he neglected to check before summoning the car. I just filed my experience away in the simply-another-reason-to-avoid-San Francisco folder in my head. Using my smartphone GPS, I set out walking to my destination. After spending nearly five hours scrunched into a plane seat, I needed to stretch my legs anyway. 

Parched from my mile-long stroll to the 21^st Amendment Brewery, I heaved myself onto a bar stool and ordered a refreshing Enjoy Porter. On my hike back, I took a small detour to grab a pint of Nitro Porter at the Thirsty Bear Brewery on Howard Street. Hmmm, this whole San Francisco thing isn't so bad after all, I thought. Two or three more beers and I would have penned a sloppy love note to the Chamber of Commerce.

Our immersion into all things CX-9 commenced at 8 a.m the next morning, when we departed the hotel to the product presentation and jump-off spot for the ride and drive. Mazda gave us our first exposure to its largest crossover with our airport pick up on day one. As I stretched out in the comfortable second-row seat during the 25-minute trip to our hotel, I was able to not only appreciate the excellent legroom, but also take in the upscale look and feel of the cabin in general. 

Mazda shoved the latest iteration of the CX-9 up market. Its top-of-the-heap Signature grade actually elbows its way into the near-luxury segment. There is an abundance of quality materials and craftsmanship throughout.

To sit through a Mazda new-product presentation, one must be prepared to digest and keep up with a variety of Japanese terms, like Kodo and and Jinba Ittai, describing Mazda's approach to designing and engineering its cars and crossovers. I won't clog up the works here with definitions and examples of these philosophies, needless to say, though, they seem quite central to what makes Mazda tick.

Beyond the CX-9's well-designed and well-crafted cabin, here are three things you need to know: Mazda not only didn't replace the previous crossover's V6 with a newer V6, it abandoned the V6 entirely. With the CX-9 being the final product in its lineup to receive the full SKYACTIV treatment, Mazda went with a high-torque 2.5-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine. You won't hear much from Mazda about the engine's 250 horsepower, but its engineers are quick to bring up its 310 lb-ft of torque. Torque is what turns the wheels. Mazda wanted drivers to have a big reserve of power on call regardless of the engine's rpms. 

Second, opting for the i-Activ all-wheel drive system delivers, what CX-9 product folks describe as, almost intuitive performance. Using 27 different data channels already in play, the AWD anticipates front wheel spin -- instead of waiting for it to happen -- and transfers some power to the rear wheels before actually encountering any front-wheel slippage. Everything from the steering system to the windshield wipers are constantly mined for information indicating conditions are ripe for front-wheel slippage.

Third, the EPA recently recognized Mazda as the most fuel-efficient carmaker, and it doesn't even have a hybrid in its lineup. Again, this has much to do with its SKYACTIV technologies. In the CX-9, this translates into a government-estimated 22 mpg city, 28 mpg highway and 25 mpg in combined driving.

Pricing begins at $31,520 and creeps up through the trim levels to $44,015 for the top-of-the-line Signature trim.

I guess if you are going to spend three days in San Francisco, gliding around in the totally redesigned Mazda CX-9 isn't a bad way to do it. And, the beer was pretty good, too.

The Mazda CX-9: I'll Get Around to It, Eventually

Despite shooting video, I did manage to snap a photo or two on the Mazda CX-9 media launch.

I'm not the kind of guy to put off things indefinitely, but I am a slacker of the first order. There, I've said it. I have a stack of assorted stuff on the corner of my desk from the Mazda CX-9 media launch from which I returned on May 20, screaming at me to write up the event for Clanging Bell. Not to mention, the editor of MotorwayAmerica.com, that carries my auto-related Clanging Bell posts, has been hounding me as well. But I am totally unmotivated to set to work on it.

One issue is that I covered the event for Autotrader and wrote a “First Drive Review” on the CX-9 for it that posted a couple of weeks ago. This is going to feel a little like covering the same ground twice. I've also been fortunate the past 60 days to have had a ton of paying assignments. Unlike my personal-writing demands, I actually have set deadlines for most of my paying assignments, eliminating the luxury of procrastination. Simply put: They come first.

Add to the mix my weekly car review for my Website GreenvilleInsider.com that also posts to MyCarData.com, as well as some other places, and you have a perfect storm of writing demands that are swamping my meager creative vessel.

Then, of course, there is the video project I'm in the process of launching, to keep the boating/sea metaphor going. I am as excited about this project as anything I've undertaken in the past 15 or 20 years. I believe it has real legs.Consuming me in ways I didn't think were still possible, it is also making demands on my limited resources of time and money.

To date, I've probably shelled out around $1,500 for it, and have probably another $2,000 in expenses ahead of me. I am surprising myself with my degree of restraint in spending money on this project, but it won't take flight until I pony up at least another $1,500. In the meantime, I'm shooting and editing video. I've shot ten videos specifically for it and have edited half of those. I want 25 videos finished and in the can before going public. This will probably take me until summer's end.

My home renovation is at a standstill. A standstill!

I've always thought of myself as someone capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time, but I may well have overrated myself. Here's why I think that. I suddenly realized that since I began shooting video, my photography has seriouslyt lapsed. This was driven home to me after returning from the Topless in Miami event last month. It's an annual convertible competition hosted by the Southern Automotive Media Association (SAMA) in Key Biscayne, Florida. 

Some of the FCA crew at Topless in Miami: This is representative of the photos I took at the event. Where are the cars?

Lucky enough to attend, I spent most of a day driving convertibles, as well as vehicles with panoramic sunroofs – some quite expensive. I managed to shoot three videos during this event. It wasn't until I returned home and downloaded my photos that I realized the only photo documentation I had was of the evening social activities. I had not snapped one photo of the cars nor the event itself. What! I then went back to the past three carmaker events I attended during which I also shot video and discovered I had damn few photos of those, as well.

See what I mean by “consumed?”

I intend to get a blog post out on the CX-9 later this week, but I'm sure you've heard about that road to Hell.....