Portable jack & impact wrench combo

'Better' is in the mug of the beholder, so I hesitate to say what 'better' is.

But bitter is what's in your mug at Starbucks, if you just get straight coffee. Which is probably why much of their profit is made on all that other crap they put into coffee to keep you from tasting the coffee. I don't know what a Cinnamon Dolce Latte or a Caramel Cocoa Cluster Frappuccino are, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.

I do know that starting with beans from other sources, it's a lot easier to end up with coffee that isn't bitter. Not easy, but easier. Brewing a decent cup, after all, like nailing a double-clutched downshift, is a skill that takes some work to hone.

In the Bay area and environs, Peet's is a reliable source for better than bitter beans. I happen to like their Major Dickason's blend. Mechanic Tony thinks I'm an infidel and will brew nothing other than Philz. He buys the stuff in quantity and is said to store it in Auburn's abandoned gold mines.

Being an increasingly hipster landscape, Sacramento is suppporting a growing number of local, small-batch roasters. Competition is tough. Folks vote with their Aeropresses and Hario pour over kettles. The surviving start-ups are proving that there is something better than bitter, that people can taste the difference, and will pay for it.

I don't know how things are in Peoria, Stan. I hope you can find better beans than what the Big Green Machine offers. If not, there's yet another reason to head on out here.

We've got pretty good fish tacos, too.

When I was working, we used to have these Italian Expresso/Cappucino machines (Olympia, I think) that could do 2 cups at once.  Beautiful copper and brass machines that had grinders for the beans, then tampers for the basket, then milk reservoirs and foamers  - it was all really involved and could take quite a while for the novice to produce a decent cup.  Some of them never got the knack.   For a long time after they arrived, it was hilarious to sit off to the side and watch a bunch of computer engineers trying to figure out how the hell it worked so they could produce a cup of anything.  (Real engineers don't read instructions).  Lots of frustrating re-trys and lost cups, overflowed cups, half-filled cups, cups with nothing in them but steam - you name it and the 20-something Micro-kids would just get more and more frustrated.

And then Hannah, the 57-year-old microcode writer from Tel-Aviv would wander over and Wham-Bam.....Beans were ground, tamped, enfused, shot with foamy milk and she was gone with a wink......All in about a minute.  Those left standing around had to wind their jaws up off the floor.

You know Gordon you did not spell her name correctly     it is Chan-nah  

Café Turquie was the first expresso she probably drank and so knew what todo...

(read with an Israeli accent)  

Sacto Mitch posted:

 Being an increasingly hipster landscape, Sacramento is suppporting a growing number of local, small-batch roasters. Competition is tough. Folks vote with their Aeropresses and Hario pour over kettles. The surviving start-ups are proving that there is something better than bitter, that people can taste the difference, and will pay for it.

I don't know how things are in Peoria, Stan. I hope you can find better beans than what the Big Green Machine offers. If not, there's yet another reason to head on out here.

We've got pretty good fish tacos, too.

I'll tell you how things are in "P"-town: pretty much like everywhere else (Sacramento included). We're a bunch of hicks feeling insecure about living in "nowhere", and trying desperately to prove we can be cool too. 

We've got the ubiquitous SB, and a few local roasters. The biggest independent dog in town is a place called 30/30, which is run by some guys my kids' age. They're the resident coffee-aficionados, the kind of hipster idiots who wear their girlfriend's pants and "blonde-roast" exotic beans from places nobody's ever heard of. None of them have been anywhere besides Chicago and (maybe) NYC with a tour group from the community college, but they refuse to dark roast coffee because "we won't ruin a bean like that". They're desperate to try to impress... somebody (each other?) with their urbane disdain for plebes like me who like some "smoky" going on in a cup. The preferred brew at 30/30 is some fruity light-roast blend, with hints of nutmeg and clove. It's $4 garbage in my opinion, and it's my four bucks.

I can't get a cup of anything resembling coffee there for any amount of money. I've tried presses, espresso presses, quad-shot espressos, and presses with half the water. The problem isn't the beans or the process-- it's the roast. It isn't dark enough. I could put a pinch of ground beans between my cheek and gum and suck on it and it wouldn't taste like coffee that been roasted long enough.

Europe is supposedly the model for what backwater nobodies like us are aspiring to. I'll say it until somebody listens-- European coffee is roasted about 2x as long as the hipster swill in Peoria or Chicago or Charlotte. It's because people there LIKE COFFEE.

I search the world over for real Italian or French-roast coffee, which is almost always significantly darker than espresso-roast, which is still stronger than 99% of the snooty-hipster coffee out there. If I crack the bag, and it smells like a camp-fire, I'm getting close. Once stuff settles down, I'll end up roasting my own. You wouldn't like it.

I like my espresso machine, but I'm not a snob. I'll happily drink a press, a pour-over, or percolated coffee if it's strong enough-- but I'll not pretend to enjoy coffee that tastes like tea.

Your fish tacos, however, are all that.

I like ice cold Diet Mt. Dew!!

Geez Stan, sorry if I caught you before your morning cuppa. Or maybe your evening cuppa.

Thing is, I like dark and smoky, too. What I don't like are subtle overtones of paint thinner in the back of my throat. You can have one without the other - just not at Starbucks. So, when I'm there, I get their 'medium' roast and call it a fair compromise.

I think I've found that different beans need different brewing. And a lot of things I thought were so much hogwash do affect how coffee ends up tasting. Like how fine you grind, how much you use per cup, how hot the water is, and how fast you pour. (When exactly did drip coffee become 'pour-over', anyway?)

I have a routine down for the beans I use most often, but I have to fiddle with that for different beans.

The hipsters and their exotic, floral blends are, well, just being hipsters. But I mention their presence just as evidence that enough people are now paying attention to support a new industry that's challenging what Big Green tells us coffee must be.

And coffee does mean two different things here and in Europe. I happen to like them both, but they're for different situations - like wine and port, or beer and Scotch.

I hope you find your beans eventually. It could be that a lifetime of 800-mile top-down days on the interstate without a catalytic converter is now affecting your tastebuds. I hope not.

But still, I sense you'll never enthuse over the mango, orange marmalade, and vanilla subtleties of Panama Don Pepe Catuai 2000, offered here at one of our trendiest beaneries.

I'm really glad I never developed a taste for coffee- it sounds way  too complicated! I'm with you, Robert; the odd Mountain Dew just hits the spot. Now if only our M.D. had all the caffeine yours does....

Sacto Mitch posted:

 Geez Stan, sorry if I caught you before your morning cuppa. Or maybe your evening cuppa.

Thing is, I like dark and smoky, too. What I don't like are subtle overtones of paint thinner in the back of my throat. You can have one without the other - just not at Starbucks.

I'm all ears, Mitch. What do you recommend? It's increasingly clear I can't get what I want here.

... and you're 100% correct-- I'm sure I don't have the cultured palate required to mine out the difference between Guatemalan and Honduran beans. It's the same thing with wine, which is to say the subtleties are wasted on me. My taste-buds, like most preferences I have, are given to bold flavors.

So, back to Starbucks: I can't begin to do their medium roast (Pikes?). For me, it's the worst of what they have to offer-- bland, acidic, with zero flavor. I don't mind their espresso roast, or their french roast, although it's very, very inconsistent. I just live with the bitterness inherent in most of the dark-roasts because of that big, smoky flavor I can sometimes (but not always) get. Sumatra is the worst of them (to me), as it's a dark roast that's been stripped of the smokiness. 

I'm also not sure what you mean when you say that "coffee does mean two different things here and in Europe." Again, I'm not that subtle. I like coffee the way they make it there. It's really, really tough to get that here.

I'm serious-- I'd love to hear your recommendations regarding a very bold, very dark, very smoky arabica bean.

Mitch wrote (and Stan corroborated): "And coffee does mean two different things here and in Europe."  

I've found that it's more like coffee is much better almost anywhere outside of America (Russia is a glaring exception - they seem to love to drink swill.)  Europe, the Far East, SE Asia, Africa, Central and South America (especially) and the Caribbean - all have different nuances in their "regular" coffee, all are good in their own ways and most of the time they just brew up "coffee" - not some exotic, flavor-enriched stuff roasted in Oak barrel chips or something, just good coffee.  I've never put anything in mine, always black no sugar, so you become attuned to some of the differences that aren't covered by sugar or milk flavors and here in the States I've found it hard to beat the coffee in Oregon.  Doesn't much matter where you get it, it's almost always really good and shops are every where (and not SBs).  

Stan's corroboration was: "I'm sure I don't have the cultured palate required to mine out the difference between Guatemalan and Honduran beans."  You don't need a cultured palate - I lived in what's now known as the Northern Triangle between el Salvador/Guatemala/Honduras and that's where I learned to drink coffee (I was 17-18 at the time).  You drive all morning and finally get to some little lunch counter in San Miguelito, ask for their light soup and a coffee and then take a sip of the coffee.  WOW!  Is that GREAT!  Makes their watery chicken soup seem very tame by comparison.  It's slightly thick, slightly sweet, not over-roasted, no hints of Papaya or Mango or Kumquat, just really good coffee that sits on your tongue and speaks to you like a good friend.  You don't need a cultured palate, you just have to like good coffee.  Get some Yaucono from Puerto Rico - better if you find beans, but their vacuum-packed ground is really, really good (Don't get the packets at Walmart - it's Brazilian).  Might be tough to find it right now after the Hurricane, but I see it's On-line.  Brew it up like expresso, sit back and enjoy it black around 10am and think of the beautiful, turquoise water of la Playa de los Tres Hermanos (the beach of the three brothers) near Mayaguez, PR.  You won't be sorry. 

From "Portable Jack & Impact wrench combo" to "Jacked up on Coffee for the biggest Impact".

That's pretty close. LOL

This is why I spend most of my time on this site, than any other.

Is it for our witty, urbane, colloquial jocularity?  

(I kinda sound like "Father Mulcahy" from MASH there, don't I?)

Ever had a proper brew of Kona Coffee?

And this to cap off a warm summer night, "espresso chocolate cookie crumble"...

 

It's the cats meow of ice cream!

Mmmmmmmmmmm.............  

Drizzle with Kuluha

Kona coffee - YES!   Awesome stuff!   They served it at the Mauna Lani resort when we stayed there on the Big Island.  Got to see the Ironman competition, too!

I'm also hooked on "Peanut Toffee Buzzz" Cliff Bars when I ride my bike - they have crushed expresso beans in them (hence, the "Buzzz") and give you a nice energy jolt later in the day.

You guys are reinforcing my observations regarding the American palate and coffee. 

I carry a jack that looks like an assault weapon, and use coffee grounds on my  interior carpet to absorb the smell of campfire smoke and bacon (well, maybe not the bacon smell). 

I'm with Stan, he just about told my life experience with coffee.  Never really paid much attention to it until touring Europe: France, Spain and mostly Italy.  That changed everything.  Don't mind Starbucks, and prefer the darker roasts.  Have spent many years using Gevalia as bean supplier, as some of their special roasts are spectacular. And expensive.  Full disclosure here, and a special note to Gordon whose constitution might object to a double shot espresso, or dopio. One can drink and enjoy coffee, as I do, decaffeinated.  Starbucks will produce a double decaf espresso, and generally, it tastes just fine.  i prefer mine "marked" with milk foam or machiato. Decaff Choices are more limited when it comes to shopping, but generally, the various beans and roasts can be had decaf.  One reason for using Gevalia is that they seem to understand this.  They produce a very good decaf espresso roast. And I am bewildered and appalled at the "candy in a cup" stuff that passes for a coffee experience these days at coffee bars.  Eeee-yuk.

And another bastardization of the coffee experience we Americans have invented: the drive-thru espresso hut.  I mean really?? Europeans, particularly the Italians, adore their espresso, and do not take a lot of time to down one, typically, that's true. But almost universally an Italian would never think of doing so without taking a proper minute or two to enjoy it with a friend, or a newspaper.  I went out one morning from our small pensione room one day to a tavern around the corner to fetch a couple of cups, and a pastry  to bring back to the room for breakfast.  Through very bad Italian, and sign language, I made my desires known to the baristo, and he looked at me like I was a three legged chicken.  No, signori, we do not do take-out.  You want your coffee, you get it in a ceramaic cup with saucer, suitable to the brew, and you sit and enjoy it here.

All just FWIW.

Then there's A "Cuban" coffee that I once had while in Florida, very tasty!

I probably won't be much help, Stan, in your quest for that dark and smoky bean.

First, I'm no expert. I've found a few beans I like and have figured out how to brew them to my liking. But my knowledge pretty much ends there. I mention the local Panama Don Pepe Catuai 2000 as an example of nonsense up with which I shall not put. If roasters have to offer and promote such stuff in order to turn a profit, I guess there's no harm in it, as long as they keep pumping out the less assuming (and cheaper) blends that I want.

And two, it sounds like your palate is a bit more hardened than mine. Do you snack on pop rivets at work? Your dark and smoky would probably smoke me out. Which is okay. As someone once said, it's a big tent. That's why they make chocolate and vanilla. That's why they make 10-40 weight and 20-50 weight.

In Italy and in other parts of Europe, if you order 'coffee' in a restaurant, they bring a little, tiny cup filled with this rich, dense, distillation of coffee that we call 'espresso'. It comes out of a machine, made under very high pressure, to suck every last bit of the coffeeness out of the beans. It's fantastic stuff. For a long time, it was pretty much all they did with coffee beans in Italy. They had absolutely no time for fussy little filters and pouring over and whatever. At home, they used 'moka' pots - the poor man's espresso machine. Less pressure, less intense flavor, but still more concentrated than what we drink.

Then, all of these pesky American tourists started showing up and whining about the tiny cup and this terrible, strong stuff they couldn't drink. It was nothing at all like Instant Maxwell House.

Rather than shoo the Americans away (and lose all of those orders for pizza), the Italians got smart. They started mixing espresso with equal parts of water, putting it in a bigger cup, and calling the result Coffee 'Americano', just to make sure that no Italians would make the mistake of ordering it.

If you look American and order just 'coffee', the waiter will scowl a little and ask, "Do you mean Americano?". They're pretty tired of wasting a perfectly good cup of the real stuff and then having to make a second trip back to the table to bring the brown water these stupid tourists drink.

Me? I can go either way. I like espresso and I like what we call coffee. They're two different things - like beer and Scotch. One you sip slowly and savor a drop at a time, when time and circumstance permit. The other is for the rest of the time.

I think Europeans may have been more baffled by our insistence on cupholders in our cars than they were by our seatbelts. For them, drinking good coffee is something you make room for in your day. You stop, you sit, you chat. You keep a critical eye on whoever else is sitting in the piazza.

Drinking coffee isn't something you do in the fast lane on the autostrada.

For me, this speaks worlds about what they consider to be dining well - and driving well, too.

I've got an espresso machine, which I use almost exclusively now. I get an amazing creme with the double-wall cup, so the tamp isn't so important. It's not a double-boiler machine, but the dairy foam is not so important to me. My wife is another matter altogether. I am required to make a breva (cappuccino made with half-and-half) using Guatemalan Antigua beans. I do it because I love her.

I have no use for "Americano" coffee. If I don't want espresso, I'll do a French press, but that's not the usual. The idea of dumping water on espresso because it's "too bold" also proves my contention-- that most people don't really like coffee.

I suppose what I'm getting at is that it's a uniquely American phenomenon to under-roast coffee and to be snobby about it. I contend that if the average Italian barista were to make an espresso, cappuccino, or latte for the gauge-earringed, metrosexual in his girlfriend's capri-pants down at 30/30, the hipster would spew the swill as soon as it hit his pierced tongue. Too bitter. Too strong. Over-roasted. That seems very, very strange to me. 

We're over here minding our own business brewing Folgers and chicory for a couple hundred years. Then some guys from Seattle go to Italy, love the coffee, love the vibe, and come back with an idea. They open a shop and try to get that Italian cafe vibe going here. Before you know it there's a shop in Mason City, IL (population: 2500). I get all that, because the Italian vibe is good-- but at the heart of it, it's the coffee that's the thing.

What I don't understand is why those same shops started jacking with the roast, making it taste less and less like European coffee, roasting it for shorter and shorter periods of time, until "blonde roast" was a thing. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since the coffee most Americans grew up drinking was weak and bland in the extreme. Perhaps it isn't people's tastes that have changed, perhaps "fancy coffee" changed to fit people's existing (dis)taste for coffee. What HAS changed is that now people can (and do) get snobby about weak coffee.

We've reached a point when guys effusing about fruity undertones (and such nonsense) are being touted as "coffee aficionados". The pour-overs they are touting look (and taste) like tea. This is "real coffee" to the self-appointed arbiters of taste. Meanwhile every philosophy major with an ironic beard in Nowhere, IL is looking down his pierced nose at me for wanting coffee exactly like they roast in in freaking Italy-- but I don't know what's good because I'm a fat old guy in a work-shirt driving a white van with a ladder on the top. My white goatee is not ironic.

I don't begrudge anybody's taste in coffee. If a guy wants tea-colored coffee that tastes like nutmeg (to him), then I say, "knock yourself out". I can make coffee I enjoy at home, and do so way more often than a man with my blood pressure should. What I can't get (apparently) is the same good (Italian) coffee in any shop I've tried. Intelligentsia comes close, but they're in Chicago.

So... I just roll with it. I like the coffee from the break-room at the supermarket as much as I do the free-range organic stuff from the snobby shops. I'll pull a cup off the cooked down Bunn at the supply house if it's a cold day. I'd love a nice, smoky cappuccino about mid-afternoon, but I'm not going to get that unless I do it myself. I like sitting in a coffee shop with my wife on a cold afternoon, but the $12 freight for coffee I don't drink seems a bit harsh.

Pity, that. I like coffee. I wish other people (especially coffee-snobs) did as well.

OK, we got the coffee thing nailed down pretty tight.  Thanks Stan.  And isn't Stanistan sorta kinda close to Italy?  That would explain a lot.

Where alcohol is concerned we have Skol! Loch Heim! Prost!! Cheers!! and etc.  What about a toast for coffee?  Maybe, "Here's mud in your eye!!"

Wow, this has gone round!

Mitch at the top of Page 2 here nailed it! I'll take my coffee WITHOUT paint thinner please!. Which is what I started this whole anti-SB tangent about.

Stan, I'm looking forward to some nice dark espresso served up by you when we stop there someday in the near future.

I know a restaurant where they make espresso so smooth and dark and flavorful and not bitter and in no need of anything at all in it. Delicious.

This thread reminds me of the twists and turns of the homebrew and craft beer scene. Ever increasing hops alphas have turned beer into a challenge to get the most bitter possible. Why? More is better? Sometimes it's not. 

My first taste of real coffee was in Paris in 86, and I came back always remembering that cup  Today, I drink Expresso when I can but my wife doesn't like it so we get by with our own brew dark to our taste and always black so we can taste it.  

El Frazoo posted:

isn't Stanistan sorta kinda close to Italy? 

Negative.

The nearest Italian is on another planet.

The ethnic makeup of Stanistan's male population is 3/4 German, and 1/4 Serb-- a heritage of people that have strong opinions about way more than they should.

The ethnic makeup of Stanistan's female population is less clear, although 50% of the blood is also Germanic. Strong opinions often emanate from this population as well.

I am fortunate in that my local circle friends includes the owner of an Italian restaurant and his father, who I knew first.  Lou, the father, was born in Venice and emigrated when he was 6 or 7.  He grew up in New York and sounds like a mafioso, which I like to kid him about.  Both he and Michael, the son, are car nuts and participate in Cars and Coffee and our track day events (Lou once owned a Lamborghini Espada and Michael has a race-prepared Fiat X1/9).  We’ve developed the tradition of an “after party” after C&C at Michael's restaurant.  Lou opens it for us and our little group gathers around the bar, talks cars, and enjoys real Italian espresso made by a real Italian using a real Italian espresso machine.  We also gather there for F1 races like the Australian GP this Sunday.  I have now been properly educated (and spoiled) in real coffee.  Starbucks ain’t nuthin’!  Ooo, this reminds me that I need to buy a bag of beans from Michael for my espresso machine at work.  It’s not as good as when Lou makes it, but it’ll do.

Anyway, if you’re ever in the Charleston area check out Bacco in Mount Pleasant.  Tell ‘em I sent you.

So "Fix a Flat" it is!

Eight o clock, French Roast. Used to grind at home but it's just noisy. Brewed in a drip machine that the previous owner of my moms condo left there. That was 19 years ago. Works good. 

Yeah, Kona is better. At 4x the price. Why bother?

I have to admit, I used to be a lot like Stan in that I would take whatever coffee I could get and wasn't too fussy about it, even though I always remembered, vaguely, that the stuff I had in Honduras seemed to be better.  Maybe just a kid's memory, but it nagged me.

Then I changed companies, we were doing pretty well, we were an Engineering-driven place and, because Engineers need to be hyper all the time with a 140 heart rate even at lunch, we rewarded ourselves with push-button expresso/cappuccino machines.  Those things can even make Folger's taste a little better.

Then sales took off and we started hiring like crazy and a lot of the new engineers were from other countries.  They ALL complained about our weak "American Coffee" (they actually used words a bit different than that), especially the Israeli head of Engineering.  Next thing you know, we're getting fancy Expresso/Cappucino machines and people to manage them and coffee beans shipped in from the Middle East, Turkey, Trinidad/Tobago, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Brazil and some really cool beans from Africa and Madagascar (Those were the ones that left an iridescent rainbow residue floating on top of the coffee - probably a lot like Hippie Mushrooms).  

The foreign Engineers would get "Care Packages" from home with coffee beans they would share.  Then we started importing the better stuff in bulk.  I think one of the Admins became a coffee broker in the process (I think she's a multi-millionaire now), but we had some serious stuff brewing and it was pot-luck.....You never quite knew what you were going to get on a daily basis but it was usually great.  

In the end, I retired before the place killed me, the "Dot-Com Bubble" burst and a lot of those Engineering Perks went away (nice pun there, huh?).  They still have free coffee in Engineering (it's now part of Dell) but it's now spit out of a push-button "Melita" machine   that sounds like it's grinding beans fresh, but it's only the pump pushing water through grounds that have been in there since Pedro Martinez pitched for the Red Sox.  

I went back to visit a few years ago and was offered a cup by one of the oldies still there and he saw me wince on my first sip.  He took the cup from me and motioned to me to follow, down the hall, through a lab, through another lab, down another hall and into an old back room simply marked "Utility" on the door.  Inside sat a couple of nice couches from the old days, and one of the old, "Olympia" Expresso machines, copper and brass still gleaming, pre-heated water and ready to brew.  We tamped up our filters and made a couple of Expressos, sat on the couch and reminisced - About the Good Old Days.  I love that machine.......

MusbJim posted:

I carry a jack that looks like an assault weapon, and use coffee grounds on my  interior carpet to absorb the smell of campfire smoke and bacon (well, maybe not the bacon smell). 

Love the truck Jim

Yeah, and that 50-Cal on the back is good for hunting dinner.......

Helluva back-up light there, Jim!

Wow, I feel like I started a massive thread drift when I asked Danny what he drinks. Fun.

Michael McKelvey posted:

...Wow, I feel like I started a massive thread drift when I asked Danny what he drinks...

 You did.

I never got to thank you.

 

Gordon Nichols posted:

Yeah, and that 50-Cal on the back is good for hunting dinner.......

Helluva back-up light there, Jim!

The two smaller lights are for illuminating my campsite, the larger single (super bright) light is for tailgaters. 

" Love the truck, Jim" - @calmotion

Thanks Calmotion! Bought it new in '91 and have logged 300,000 miles on it. 

Is that the original paint on that baby?  

like the Nam campaign ribbon,have one on my truck too

MusbJim posted:

 

Gordon Nichols posted:

Yeah, and that 50-Cal on the back is good for hunting dinner.......

Helluva back-up light there, Jim!

The two smaller lights are for illuminating my campsite, the larger single (super bright) light is for tailgaters. 

" Love the truck, Jim" - @calmotion

Thanks Calmotion! Bought it new in '91 and have logged 300,000 miles on it. 

300,000 miles Jim, that's impressive as it would seem you are on Mr. Lucas's favorites list with that mileage. The electron whisperer for sure.

"Is that the original paint on that baby?" - @IaM-Ray

I bought the truck new in '91, and in the 25 years I owned it I kept it outside (couldn't fit in the garage because of my set-up). Even though I tried to keep it clean & waxed, the paint eventually oxidized to a point that it was a chalky white. I wasn't too concerned because I often drove on miles of rocky trails, through thick brush and narrow trails in wooded areas. For those narrow trail situations, I put risers (the cable between my front bumper and roof rack) to guide tree limbs and desert brush up and away from my windshield.

@MikelB amazingly those 300K  miles were relatively trouble-free. Because I went solo on a lot of my off-road excursions and in very remote locations, I rebuilt the engine at 185,000 miles (just because) and kept a very pro-active maintenance schedule to assure it's reliability. 

Jim, I remember the Discovery model being the tow queen of Toronto for many years. Happy you had good luck with that one.