Yea so I just bought a 2007 Nissan maxima specifically for work and it works great and is in good condition. I was driving home and in a parking lot drove over a curb I didn’t see. The car rides pretty low and grinder the frame for sure a bit but I don’t have the expertise to be able to recognize anything serious or if I need immediate repairs. There weren’t any lights and I tried my best to look behind the wheels and I couldn’t see anything but like I said I don’t know. Any advice would be appreciated! If this car breaks I’m stranded in a state 1700 miles from home.

Entirely accurate. Painfully accurate.

Some rough sleep disturbances last night, went down a rabbit hole researching for something else and came up with a ton of old pics of Altamonte/Altamonte Springs. Apparently it’s gone by both names.

None of these are mine. Cool to see, though.

Gonna open a window, brew up some sweet tea, and post up on my little patio on Sunday with Brittany by my side.

Brittany pic for tax.

This is the new Embassy Suites at Sunset Walk, just outside Disney.

This is called a condotel, which (I think?) is a relatively-new real estate product. They aren’t just hotel rooms, they’re individually owned, deeded condos inside a functioning hotel. You buy your unit, can use it yourself, and can put it into a rental-management program so it gets rented to tourists when you’re not using it. It’s real estate ownership, not a timeshare. The developer has marketed the project specifically around owners earning short-term rental income through the hotel operation. The entire place uses the same in-house rental management company, owners do not get to do VRBO or AirBnB.

A few years ago, the 514-square-foot studios were being offered around $303,000–$334,000. By 2023, the developer was advertising then-under-construction inventory generally as starting in the mid-$430Ks. These were likely the 1- and 2-bedroom units, but we’re still in the nearly half a million dollars territory for the neighboring units.

When I passed by last night?

CLOSEOUT SALE
PRICING FROM $199,900.

There’s currently a 501-square-foot unit listed at exactly $199,900, with $681/month in fees.

So a roughly $325,000 studio from the earlier pricing is now in the neighborhood of $200,000 asking. Word on the street is a family walked in and offered 180k cash and were entertained rather than laughed at. I do not know if the deal closed.

And here’s what makes the picture absolutely Florida-centric art:

Look behind the closeout sign!

Those are unfinished concrete columns on a brand new low-rise tower of these condotel units.

They’re advertising “ONLY A FEW REMAIN” and blowing out inventory while construction is still visibly occurring around the development. A separate condotel sales source has likewise described this as developer-closeout inventory while the overall project was being built out.

And these have an additional layer of risk that ordinary condos don’t. Part of what you’re theoretically buying here is the economic value of being attached to Embassy Suites by Hilton: The reservation ecosystem, recognizable flag, hotel services, tourist demand, etc.

That brand name isn’t the underlying real estate.

If the hotel ever loses or changes its flag, you still own your condo. But you may now own a condo in whatever the property becomes next, without the Hilton/Embassy name that was part of the original sales proposition.

Maybe it’s another major hotel flag or a known independent.

However, with the way 192 has “evolved” over the decades, it is just as likely to become Dave’s Guitarville Suites & Hotel Inn, featuring complimentary continental breakfast and live Skynyrd in the lobby Thursday through Sunday.

The point isn’t that these are necessarily terrible purchases at $199K. At a sufficiently destroyed price, they might actually become interesting. It’s that Florida is often a bellwether for speculative real estate because we build so aggressively into whatever the current investment thesis happens to be.

Tourism is booming? Build.

Short-term rentals are booming? Build more! *Kylo.GIF*

Investors are buying vacation properties? BUILD FASTER, DAMN THE TORPEDOES!

Market changes? CLOSEOUT SALE!

Meanwhile, in the background: Never stop building. We’ve still got a line of suckers out there.

You couldn’t stage a better photograph of our real-estate boom/bust cycle if you tried.

Hi, all. I’m 99% sold on joining the 300 family. Been researching for a couple of weeks, and today’s test drive pretty much sealed the deal.

However, I’m a bigger dude and in a few months I have a procedure coming up where I’ll have a port/drain on my right flank for up to a year.

I’ll need room around it to prevent pain/damage to the port.

I was looking over parts lists and assemblies and it looks like I could fairly easily remove the tall box part of the console? The aft most part, and just cap off the HVAC or route it under the seats. USBs would be easy to handle as well.

I just… want to see the car without it. Anyone have a pic? My Google-fu is failing me.

Always the case. Here, Target, and Publix.

Absolutely astonishing how OP doesn’t understand state laws decide quite a few things. Of course Publix is going to go the direction that makes them the most money unless legislated otherwise.

The comments are the usual “back in my day, when I made out my checks to George at Publix Market, the sweet little cashier didn’t look like a freak” schlock.

Life gets so serious so quickly.

Make sure to have some fun at my old home.

If you spent any real time downtown over the last 30+ years, especially around Orange and Church, there’s a decent chance you knew Milton. He was the guy in the motorized wheelchair selling roses and drinks, usually with a smile on his face.

What’s striking today is seeing how many people independently remember the same little things: buying roses from him before dates, getting him water, helping him adjust in his chair, stopping to talk, or just seeing him in the same familiar spot year after year.

Milton had cerebral palsy, but he was also a college-educated former journalist, a Sunday school teacher and a church deacon. Over the years, downtown Orlando repeatedly rallied around him when he needed help, and apparently he gave a lot of that love right back.

Cities change so gradually that sometimes you don’t realize someone has become part of the place until they’re gone. Milton was part of downtown Orlando.

Rest in peace, Milton.

Anyone got an insider in the Orlando area? Lord.

There’s not enough money they can pay me to turn my car into this.

Semoran Boulevard (SR 436)
Colonial Drive (SR 50)
Orange Blossom Trail (US 17/92/441)
Conway Road (SR 15)
Alafaya Trail (SR 434)

Note: it’s very likely other tech will supplant Flock and loophole their way back into this nonsense and worse.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/08/31/florida-orders-flock-cameras-off-of-state-roads/