Housekeeping: Sites Down, Trucks Up

Many thanks to all the people who messaged me about my site being down today. It's as simple as this. I've been using the Franklin Planner since 1994, but a few months ago I decided to try something else. Why not change with the times? Well, I'll give you one reason: because you don't remember to renew your domains.
To make matters worse, my registrar account was linked to one of the expired domains... so I couldn't reset my password and log in from the road. Big oof, as the kids say.
Anyway, we are back up now and I'll be more careful in the future, I suppose. Thanks for your patience. Oh -- and there's a reason I was out of pocket all day and not able to easily go home to fix the problem. You can see the reason in the photo above.
Having put about 260 miles on my new F-250 Platinum today, I have to say that I am tremendously pleased with my decision. Skipping the PowerStroke and choosing the "Godzilla" 7.3 instead saved me seven thousand dollars and all the maintenance issues of a modern diesel. The mileage won't be the same, of course. A PowerStroke can achieve 21mpg on the roll and 14mpg while towing. The 7.3 looks like a 15mpg truck on the freeway and it will likely be much less while towing. The diesel is probably cheaper to own in the long run, right up to the point where you have to take the cab off for a major service. Also, the GMC 2500 Duramax press loaner I had last week went a long way towards confirming my decision to "go gas". Twice it decided that it was experiencing mysterious diesel emissions issues and that it would only be able to go 65mph until those mysterious issues were resolved at a dealer. Both times the problem went away after a couple of restarts but I have no idea why it happened or why it didn't continue. Given that the Duramax is now considered the most reliable diesel/transmission combination for 2022, I was simply not charmed by this behavior.

Obviously this thing wasn't cheap, but if you compare it to, say, a same-priced Mercedes GLS450 SUV, it does almost everything better while promising to be significantly less hassle in the long run. I wanted the best seats (because I am usually in some sort of pain, particularly after racing a car or riding a bike) and the LED headlamps (because I no longer have keen night vision) so that meant I had to get a Platinum or Limited. The Limited would have been my choice but the diesel is mandatory. So "Platty" it is.
Brief aside: Configuring a modern Ford truck is the closest thing you can get to the Chevrolet full-size ordering experience pre-1988. There are seven trim levels, with at two major sub-levels in XLT, Lariat, and King Ranch, for a total of ten different basic configurations. It's surprisingly easy to make a Lariat cost as much as a Platinum, but you don't get all the stuff. The same is true for a King Ranch Luxury, which can cost more than the equivalent Platinum and have the same monochrome scheme.
Oh, plus there are Tremors, which are a completely different ballgame, so really you have 14 base configurations, not all of which are available in all body styles. Could Ford do this with all its cars and trucks? Sure they could. But their heart isn't in it. Why isn't there a Maverick Platinum, the way there's a Canyon Denali? We could talk about this all night.
Anyway, here's "Commodus" -- the white-and-polished-aluminum emperor of the Midwestern road, hard-working and dissolute in equal measure. Expect to hear more about him in the near future. Thank you for your readership, your comments, and your patience.