Good to know, I just moved to the area and always want to know the car guys more than the profiteers

I’ve been to Blasius South in Stratford and bought from them. They’re still a franchise dealer so they don’t have a lot of older inventory, but compared to Blasius’ marque dealerships it’s their scratch-and-dent that are still too valuable for them to send to auction. Two HUGE benefits of theirs is 1) as a franchise dealer they can get loans from virtually any financial institution. A loan you get from Bank of America will have much better terms than a subprime loan. And 2) the cars they sell are ALL trade-ins, they’ve never been to auction. They might not be perfect, but for large dealers they only send duds across the block. They put their best trade-ins for certified pre-owned, second best is sell at the marque dealers (Blasius Chevy for instance), third is send them to Blasius South, fourth is to a wholesaler, and worst go to auction. So dealers who get their cars from auction get real turds. Blasius South has zero bought from auction.

They are essentially no-haggle and their closing fees are not unreasonable. Little high, but manageable.

Try to decide on your budget and how many years you want to finance across. You can use calculators online to make sure the payment is realistic. But be really careful comparing payments for a 4 year loan to a 6 year high-interest loan for a marginally nicer car. Decide your parameters and keep them the same across dealerships.

Good luck with your search

Look man I’m a defender / supporter of 2A stuff but people also need to remember that the only reason the Kyle Rittenhouse situation was life or death for him was because he brought the gun to a skateboard fight

Dang that’s a bummer

Deep fried. Such a time saver. I’m not even gonna thaw it out this year.

If you think FFC is too crowded overall (despite that Weston Easton Wilton are super sparse if you’re willing to make the drive), I would skip FV. Glastonbury might be worse, which has a lot more strips of well developed commercial property and attracts the corresponding traffic. So I guess that leaves Madison and Guilford. I’m across the way in Clinton and am very happy here. It is definitely a trade-off to be a half hour from the nearest Home Depot or big box store, but I accepted that trade to be in a quieter and less crowded town. You can’t have it both ways, but if you wanted to try, Glastonbury would be the place.

I really want to make a joke and say “well it probably won’t be DAILY” but don’t want to play up your fears.

You will probably raise more eyebrows than most other parts of the state but the most conservative parts of CT are more tolerant than the most liberal areas in many other parts of the country. And if there’s one thing New Englanders are good at, it’s keeping their mouths shut when they disapprove of something.

You’re not likely to encounter overt racism, but maybe the subtle “I’m not sure we should take him for a play date over there” type from time to time.

I do wish I could confidently tell you racism is dead.

Had no idea about the seaplanes. Learn something new every day.

"Have van. Will travel."

Just a guy in Clinton and not a professional. It would be fine if it was a turnkey house but this isn’t. I think the recent sale will hold it back. People have been wary of listings like that. I don’t see 5500 square feet in that listing. I wouldn’t trip over myself to get to that. Let them cut the price in a couple weeks.

By state law, OP would not be able to abate this themselves, and abatement of friable ACM is not cheap.

Buy a heavier coat

I had a stand-alone ducted heat pump in my last apartment and it was fine. It was an old unit which oddly heated very well but cooled very poorly (opposite issue of most heat pumps). I had ductless mini splits in the place before that and it was fine, aside from days in the single digits in a couple rooms which were basically floor to ceiling glass and needed space heaters overnight occasionally (the rooms faced South, so plenty of heat when the sun was up). Can’t blame that entirely on the heat pumps though.

The mini splits in particular do need maintenance, and their lifecycle is relatively short. 5-10 years sounds like forever but it blows by in a hurry. From an energy use standpoint, they are fantastic in summer and OK in winter. Spend more to get better units that work in lower temperatures because their efficiency falls off a cliff once they get within about 10-15* of their maximum low.

They’ve never had antique combination plates though. I am 99% sure both the antique and YOM plate exceptions are only for passenger vehicles.

I mean CT has really only had two plates - white on blue and the current gradient, aside from a fluke couple of years where it was blue on white apparently (no recollection of this). Retro antique plates won’t be a perfect copy of any of the white on blue because it will need to say antique. It’s just easier than a YOM plate, and is probably close enough for most people.

At least give us the retro for antique plates

If your kid is at Choate and got a 1430 he would make a great line cook. If he’s at Waterbury he’ll probably work for NASA. You’re using these metrics as an indication of… something… to prove some sort of point (probably), but it lacks any specificity for anyone to know if it’s actually good or bad.

If you just got the job then they might have a hard time finding proof of your income. Like, it wouldn’t be on a tax return and you might not have many (if any) stubs. Don’t let that stop you from applying. Worst they say is no. Otherwise I would try to call individual shelters and explain your situation. Call 211 back and give them a different income just so you get some info on what you would need to do with a different income. People who operate shelters genuinely want to help people but 211 is just going to read phone scripts. Take care of yourself, sorry to hear about your situation.

They used to have an outdoor track too. I only went once. Had a big bore .26 buggy. Was warming it up and setting the carb back in the nitro days, flipped it, throttle got stuck open wheels up. Boom. Expensive mistake.

There used to be an RC track in Wolcott quite a while ago but I think they’re just airsoft now

The joke wouldn’t be funny if it didn’t resonate with people. The problem you’re having is entirely of the Republican’s doing. I was registered as a republican but got tired of the constant dog whistling. Give it a shot, you might like it.

He’s probably right that there aren’t many 4/3’s on the market, but this seems like early 2022 pricing and not current market. You can just about get a 3/2.5 detached townhouse in usable condition for that.

Mystic is going to be much closer in feel to Ipswitch than Easthampton. Closest thing we have to Easthampton is probably Middletown. You could also look in Westville, which is a neighborhood of New Haven. But it’s very green and hilly and borders Woodbridge, which has 2 acre zoning and tons of open area… but housing costs are much lower because New Haven schools ain’t that great.

I just spent 2 years in Norwalk and loved it, but OP specifically wants out of the city and the worst traffic in the whole state is 7/15/95 right around Norwalk, and 7/84 in Danbury. Mystic is not cheap, Blackrock is getting up there too. ETA: not a whole lot of open space in Norwalk outside of Silvermine, Danbury has a little more.

Your friend is pointing you in the wrong direction too then. The average age in Mystic is older than Groton and Noank. You wanted similar ideas to Mystic but don’t actually want what Mystic offers. Which is fine, just makes it harder to match you to something. Look at Storrs (near Uconn) and around the Wesleyan campus which will be super liberal and artsy. Groton has a lot of open space and the sub base means they’re catering to 20-something’s. It’s not my vibe but I wouldn’t just write it off given what you’re looking for is a bit eclectic. The west Hartford side of new Britain might be good and has a lot of rentals. Or Newington. They’re more suburban but set up for renter and 20 something’s.