#salvage

People look for concrete to salvage in a building in Gaza ~ Gaza (2015) by Tomas Munita for The New York Times — Documenting the aftermath of conflict.

.hope that tumblr will crop this normally. I believe in lolzvage supremacy ^_^ @joshschmitstinsteinirl

Two numbers decide the economics of a written-off vehicle: what you pay the customer, and what you recover on the salvage. Both run on valuation data that's usually a bit generic, a bit stale, and disconnected from the actual car. Each gap is small. Multiply by every total loss and it's real margin. https://intellibooksinsurance.blogspot.com/2026/07/total-loss-and-salvage-valuation-data.html

Thank you Ten Speed Press for providing me this book for review consideration via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

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Dean's really annoyed. Someone unhooked the mower from the back of the Kubota — even though it's clear they didn't need to hook a different implement up. Probably they just dropped it to maneuver the tractor more easily around the barn — without a near eight-foot extension swaying around at the back. But now Dean's got hours of mowing ahead of him which he wanted to start as soon as possible and it's gonna take him ages to just get the dang mower back on. The issue is that it's PTO shaft likes to stick — someone must have added way too much grease to it at some point and it tends to form a suction within the nested shafts. Which makes it a bitch to pull it free enough to hook onto the drive shaft on the tractor. Dean grumbles to himself while he backs the tractor up and aligns the sway arms of the three-point hitch. He grumbles as he jams the pins through the hitch and the holes on the mower. He leaves the top link undone; the PTO will be easier to connect that way. And he grumbles while he bends down to grab the plastic shield around the PTO shaft and starts to pull. Predictably, nothing happens. Dean strains for a few moments more before doing what he knew he'd have to do in the first place. he hooks his thighs around either side of the plastic shield. Then he reaches his arms up to the rollover bar on the tractor and gets a firm grip. With all the might of his torso and his squeezed thighs he clenches and tries to pull the shaft free. Just as he's about to give up and reset his grip, it works. The suction inside releases and Dean stumbles forward against the back of the tractor with a surprised, but satisfied huff. But that's only half the hard part. The other issue is that the collar on the end of the PTO shaft has a sticky ball bearing and you have to hold back on it with all your might while at the same time pressing it forward to connect it to the drive shaft on the tractor. Dean sighs and picks up the end of the shaft from where it's fallen out from between his legs. He aligns the grooves on the drive shaft and PTO and pulls back on the collar. He tries to push it forward but it's an awkward angle and he just can't make it work with just his arm strength. So he repeats the position from before — thighs hugging tight around the PTO shaft — and he gets a good grip on the collar again. This time he can maintain his grip pulling back so the ball bearing stays loose while simultaneously pushing with his thighs so the shaft lengthens and clicks onto the tractor. Dean grunts at the effort and the way it pulls his muscles in the opposite direction. And he has to rock himself back and forth a few times to really get it right. The black plastic of the shield presses into the meat of his thighs. And his back is hunched over as his arms reach close to the drive shaft. Finally, after way too long and way too much effort, he feels the ball bearing click into the drive shaft groove and he releases the whole mess with an exhausted sigh. Dean throws his head back up in relief. And meets Cas' eyes across the top of the giant, rear tractor tire. Cas clears his throat a little and shifts on his feet. Oh god. How long had he been standing there? Suddenly the whole ordeal reshapes itself in Dean's eyes and he realizes how incredibly suggestive he must have looked with his thighs clamped together and his back bent down and his body rocking back and forth as he tried to force the stubborn parts to connect. Sure, he knows he was just bent to have a good grip on the collar and just keeping the PTO shaft between his legs so he could push with his thighs and only gyrating back and forth with the effort of the whole thing. But to someone who didn't know what he was doing — who was approaching from the side of the tractor — it must — it must have looked like — oh god. "I — I wasn't fucking the tractor," Dean says.

Any thoughts?