I understand the aversion to excessive technology etc, but pick your battles. Electronic parking brakes are proving to be more reliable than cable operated stuff here in the land of road salt caused rust. the cable, the linkage, and the pivots are all subject to rust which make them stick or break, so they don’t brake. electronic have a motor that does the work, and it’s less susceptible to corrosion from road salt. that might not be an issue where you are, given less salting, but automotive tech is generally improving, with the occasional really bad idea (and really bad implementation of good ones). This is why cars now have spark plug replacement intervals greater than the car replacement interval of a few decades ago.
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As I said, we live on a hill. Every journey from home begins with a hill start. Which with electronic handbrakes needs three separate feet to perform cleanly.
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The car I had in America featured something I’d never seen before: a handbrake applied by pushing a small foot pedal, but released by pulling a plastic flap which was down around the point where the steering column met the dash.
Also a plastic flap down around the point where the steering column met the dash: the lever for opening the bonnet.
(My belief is that the car was basically designed as an automatic, so the “emergency brake” wasn’t used in the same way as a handbrake. I just happened to have the manual version. Still, the most exciting hill starts I’ve ever done!)
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I drove my father in law car a few times and it had that feature as well. It was an old Mercedes, and every time it took me a few moments to remember where was the lever to release the handbrake.
I must say, having more space in the drink holder between seats area was nice.
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Also not only does our pretty old (2009) Mercedes have that little pedal + lever on the left side of the driver combo… it has a hill start mode that automatically supports starting the car without us needing to manipulate the handbrake. I am really a bad driver but I can easily get out of our driveway backwards even though it is tilted. (Also in addition to the needless „hill“ of the driveway, we live on a hill with bad street parking making roads „one lane“ so I regularly need that feature to get home.
Weirdly, drink holders are not a thing here. Well, maybe they are now but we won‘t find out until our car breaks down. Which is hopefully a few years in the future.
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We had a very fun visit from my cousin.
Turns out he has the same mix of tension/migraine headaches I have… we’re both left handed and he claims it has to do with that. I already know that some of my migraines are triggered from my neck/back and so it is not totally unbelievable that a world that more often than not optimized for the majority group, which on this particular attribute is right-handed, we may have a bit more trouble in a lot of unseen places. In any case, I learned some stuff and maybe it’ll help.
We don’t talk enoughis also what I learned–neither of us likes phonecalls much and we live at opposite ends of the country–and lots of other things. Very little sleep this week-end and lots of talk to catch up. We have similar interests but very different jobs and social environments.
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Just had a call from my GP, apparently I was due at an appointment an hour ago. Panic set in as I wondered whether I’d messed something up even though I’d had digital confirmation of my actual appointment for later in the week.
I think the receptionist could tell from my tone of voice that I had no knowledge of the appointment this morning. Fun way to start my day!
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we had a '65 200D when I was a kid. It had a foot operated emergency brake. I don’t remember if it was also foot released, or if it had a release lever, as I never drove it. the 77 240D that replaced it (also a manual, which they didn’t actually sell in the US. You could get one, but only if the dealer knew how to order one from Stuttgart.) also had a foot operated emergency brake. I drove that one, but forget how it was released. I think it was push to release, which could be hard if someone strong had put it on when parking.
this is a common USian arrangement, because americans use the parking brake when parking, not when driving. At a Land-Rover club social event, I remember a UKian ex-pat telling the story about how he’d failed his US driving test because he used the handbrake when starting, which prompted a Candian to say he’d failed his UK test because he hadn’t used the handbrake. I’d forgotten about this when I mentioned the electronic parking brake, but I’d be amazed if the car didn’t also have a hill assist mode. It’s just software in a modern car, they already have the sensors to detect it, and the ability to apply the brake w/o the human pressing the pedal. Also, of course, hill starts can be done without needing the parking brake in anything with a reasonable clutch.
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The local wargame group held a yard sale on Sunday, and I bought a table for $20 to try and trim my collection.
70 games left my home. Less than 20 returned… and I donated all of those yesterday, plus a bunch of “How to Draw Manga” books that I haven’t touched in 15 years.
My games still do not fit on my gaming shelves. Closer, but still 20-30 big ones away from being able to fit everything on the shelves.
My books still do not fit on my bookshelves. Maybe 30-40 more books.
Argh.
But! But. Steps in the right direction.
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COVID booster appointment for household cancelled at the last moment, no reason given. Bad enough that our government wants us dead so woouldn’t provide the ones it bought and left rotting in warehouses.
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Which for some reason … multiple jumps through the vast emptiness in my brain … reminded me to check hotels in Essen for October. Prices are 3 times as high during SPIEL as usual. Very ouch.
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And I’ve booked… same hotel as last year. Not ideal (which would be in walking distance of a stop of U11 north of Hauptbahnhof where everyone gets in and next time I’ll just book a year in advance because I am ALWAYS going) but also pretty good via public transport and much cheaper than Essen central. At least now that we started doing part of the stay at the hotel there is no more tiptoing around with the friends we’ll likely also be visiting on Saturday 
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Most of the usual places weren’t available (and the Bredeney went from “no bookings at all this month” to “full up these days” in a few hours) so I’ve committed to paying through the nose for the Mintrops off the Ruettenscheid. At least I can stow the car in demonstrator parking until Sunday night.
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We’re back at the Best Western inside the Forum in Mülheim. It’s on top of the railway station and so there is almost no walking involved. There are restaurants in the area which is important, too. It has good breakfast and while we’ll have to change trains at Hauptbahnhof, I can deal with that. It is significantly cheaper than all other options especially considering that I can use up some accumulated bonusses on booking which I didn’t know I had. And they have free parking, too, which we know from last year.
All in all this means I can buy like 5 more games Or just save some money.
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Woah boy (or girl, or other), where do I begin? Been quite silent these last few weeks… Why? Read on. And strap in, it’s a wild ride.
So on 5 April, Maryse’s mum was hospitalized to try and rebound from an influenza that she’d gotten around the Holidays and that, combined with the mouth ulcers caused by her immune therapy treatments for pre-cancer cells and a sciatica, had left her bed-ridden and a good 60 pounds lighter (because she was barely able to eat due to the aforementioned mouth ulcers). While there, they found out her left lung was punctured. Not a big hole, but you don’t want it there. So they operated to install a drain. Week-end is uneventful, road to recovery is ahead, outlook is optimistic.
On the 8th, we get some stupendously good news about Maryse. Turns out that the radio-oncologist in Montreal who did her second TEP scan last year undersold just how GOOD her results were (likely to make sure we didn’t let our guard down). We thought the cancer was halted and that the bones had started healing, but we were only partially right. The cancer is indeed halted, but her bones are pretty much ALL HEALED. Which, BTW, is unheard of, especially not in 8 months. Over the moon, we were.
A few hours later, the other show drops and we learn that Maryse’s mum had been lying to us. Oh, the influenza was real, as were the treatments, but those pre-cancer treatments weren’t preventive at all. She had a lump near a kidney (that sciatica? yeah, no, that was the lump putting pressure on a nerve and causing pain) and the punctured lung may have been caused by a metastasis. Ouch. Still, though, it was ONE metastasis, hardly the end of the world, she was in the system, and now that we knew what we were fighting, we could actually fight. Determined and optimistic, were we.
On the 11th, she saw a specialist for the puncture, and the news was super good. No need to operate, just inject a medicine directly in the drain and it would heal it up in 24-48 hours. She was also gonna be taken in by the one of the best oncology centres in the country, the same one where Maryse is getting her treatments. The fight was gonna be long and hard, but it was gonna be okay. Just get some strength back into her, and let’s get started. Let’s go and all that.
On the 12th, she had a seizure. Fortunately, she was already in bed, so no fall. Fearing a stroke, they rushed her to a scan. Good news: No stroke. Bad news: cancer cells ALL OVER her brain, surprising EVERYONE. According to the doctors, from the quantity, it had been insidiously growing there for a long time, maybe even years (which in itself is BONKERS) until it caused a brain bleed. She was basically catatonic at that point and immediately moved to hospice/palliative care, as there was nothing else to be done. Even if she survived, she’d be essentlally a vegetable.
So she was moved to a private room (shout out here to the staff at the Gatineau hospital, who were absolute angels) and kept comfortable. She had moments of lucidity that were for the most part touching and beautiful and sad, but for the most part she slept. She never suffered. We also learned that even if we’d known earlier about the cancer, it would have changed nothing. Nobody knew about the brain, it was already too advanced by the time it was found out. Which was a massive relief to her and to Maryse’s dad, who had kept the secret for a long time at his wife’s request.
She eventually passed, peacefully and surrounded by her family, on 17th April, 2024, at 6:36 PM. She was 63. Funeral arrangements were finalized yesterday, it’s happening on 11 May.
So that’s where I’ve been. I try not to swear on these forums, as it doesn’t seem to be part of the culture here, but I hope you’ll allow me this one:
Fuck you, cancer, you absolute little shit.
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I am so sorry for your loss.
Cancer is a beast and 63 is no age to go. 
I hope you can find some solace that in the end she was able to go peacefully and that her family was able to be there with her.
Reminder to all: get your checkups.
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Thank you.There is indeed great relief in how she went, peacefully and surrounded by love.
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Hear hear and so say all of us!! Sorry to hear about all of this.
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My dad is back in the hospital. My mom had to take him to the ER as his oxygen stats are low. They’ve been there for five hours and are still waiting to get him out into a room. 
They think there is fluid on his lungs, which could be congestive heart failure. We will know more tomorrow, I assume.
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