N's car sold for twice what she expected. She put it up on craigslist and the first offer hit eighteen minutes later. Something like twenty people emailed her in the next couple of hours.
My coworker has a Honda Insight. He said cars like his are selling for $15K -- only a thousand or so less than when he bought it new, seven years ago.
We've all noticed a *lot* more people riding bikes, especially people without helmets, on '80's bikes, all awkward with their knees out. Exciting times... I need to get my recumbent finished.

We're trying to get the old house ready to sell. It needs a lick of paint and an atom bomb dropped on the garage. The big question is: make it look all pretty or just expect that the people who buy it are going to demolish it and put up an apartment complex? I'd say that's not unlikely, given the way things are going hereabouts -- the weirdest psychology I've ever seen. If houses are selling, well, build apartment buildings and make a profit! If houses aren't selling, well, buy them cheap and build apartment buildings and make a profit! There's something wrong with that equation, and I'm glad I'm on the selling side rather than the buying side.

Work had a graceful layoff. Fritz won't be glad to hear this, but they terminated 130 positions (out of roughly 10,000) and in most cases took the people whose jobs were gone and found them new ones in the company. We now have a digital designer, which is sort of odd, given that we're, y'know, The Analog Company. But hey. I just thought it was surprisingly civilized -- they said he can work where he currently does for as long as he wants, but if he wants to start working where we are, they'd be happy.
Still, the storm clouds are never good to see.

I think, as I've said before, we are living in the tail end of what we'll look back upon as a golden age of sorts, one where Stuff was almost free. Kirk bought a tripod for $6 the other day -- full-size, with every adjustment you can think of. I bought a USB hub for $10. In neither case are the *materials* that cheap. We both know this is part of the US selling itself to another country, trading money for cheap stuff, no differently than one company doing a gradual leveraged buyout of another. For the people involved, it's very nice until the buyout is complete and the changes start happening.

Car's broken still/again. Needs to go to the shop, because I don't have either the experience or documentation to even begin to diagnose the problem. I bet they'll say the head needs replacing, but I sure hope not. Urk.