SCORE!......and car pics, too.

Grandson Parker scored twice yesterday.  Once was on the field where he scored his first soccer goal.  The other was on the sideline where he romanced this little girl:

Looks like Parker is a player!  

He loves baseball, but so far has shown no interest at all in soccer.  (At one point during the game he just walked off the field to go to the bathroom!)  Later we watched as he literally escorted this young lady to the sideline and set them both up a chair.  They were inseparable the rest of the game.  Did I mention he's THREE!  (I'm with him.  Gimme a choice between soccer or the ladies....I'd take the ladies every time, too.)

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Oklahoma spanked my Red Raiders pretty hard yesterday, 41-20.  Bummer.  :( 

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I understand Cranky Old Man and maybe a few others are going through withdrawal because I missed Cars and Coffee yesterday and have no new photos to offer.  Always aiming to please, I've gone into my old car photo archive and can share these from past events:

A really sweet classic Maserati 3500....

....and it's contemporary, a MGA.

As long as we're doing sports cars, how about a Triumph TR-6?  Nice, huh?

My weekend Rolls Royce.  *dream on*  "It doesn't cost any more to go first class.  You just can't afford to go quite as often."

While much maligned, this is one of the few BMW's I like....a Z4M Coupe.

Here's the other....a Z8.

A "quirky" Citroen 2CV.  (Think French VW Beetle....a post-war "people's car".)

Another oddity I'd love to own....a Volvo P1800.  (Remember The Avengers?)

An achingly beautiful Alfa Romeo 8C.

A 1968 (?) Camaro SS....in my yoot it was what every 17-year-old boy in America wanted, except for a 17-year-old girl, that is.  ;)

OK, that's enough for now.  I've gotta save a few for later.  Hope you're all having a good weekend.

S

To go or not to go? That is the question.

No, I'm not talking about bathroom habits.  I'm talking about the monthly Cars and Coffee event, which is this morning.  It's 51 degrees, windy, and there's a 40% chance of rain.  I doubt too many rich dudes will be taking their gorgeous, expensive, sometimes rare exotic cars out of their temperature / humidity controlled garages just so a bunch of unwashed slugs such as myself can stare at them and drool.  

But what if I'm wrong?  What if someone brings their Pagani or Koenigsegg or Brutus Maxximus and I miss seeing it?  I'll never forgive myself!  (Too dramatic?)

OK....here's what I've probably, perhaps decided:  I'm gonna forgo Cars and Coffee and just hang around mi casa until time for my grandson's kiddie soccer game.  Then K and I are going to the Cottonwood Arts Festival, which is one of the very best around.  Can't miss that!  Then on to REI as they've pressed my hot button by enticing me in with a 20% off coupon.  (Their marketing guy is evil, EVIL!)

After that it's on to Market Street for K to buy her baking stuff (some kind of cookie bake-off at work next week), and me to get my weekend football food.

All of this has to be carefully coordinated so that I can be back home in front of the TV by 2:30 in order to see Texas Tech play Oklahoma.  It might be a good game, or it might be a blowout.  Who knows.  But I'm gonna watch it, whichever.

If I see anything cool to photograph I'll do that and share with you later.  If not....it's been nice visiting with you this morning.  ;)

S

I'm SO gonna regret this one....

This is probably gonna get me skewered, but I'm gonna say it anyway....

I can think back to when I was young and doctors routinely recommended kids have their tonsils removed if they had more than a couple of sore throats.  Sore throat?  Snip, snip, there ya go. All fixed.  Then for some reason that treatment faded from popularity.  

Later, when my children were young, a couple of bouts with an ear ache would surely result in "tubes" inserted in the kid's ear(s).  Then, as quickly as that procedure gained favor, it faded.

Now we have dentists sending us junk mail and advertising on TV and radio telling us about all sorts of awful things that are churning in our mouth right this second, but fortunately, using their revolutionary new laser gun or whatever, they can cure it.   Praise God!

Yes, I understand there are still real instances where tonsils need to be removed, ears need tubes inserted, and teeth need special treatment, but they are probably rare occurrences and not a one-size-fits-all fix.

This is the one I expect will get me skewered:

Grief counseling.  It seems the news regularly reports horrible traffic accidents where kids were driving wild and crazy, or sadly, drinking, and they crash resulting in multiple fatalities.  Immediately a team of "grief counselors" is dispatched to the kid's school in case any of the kid's classmates need help coping.

How did we or our parents or our kids survive without grief counselors?  (Isn't that what ministers do?)  Yes, I've had friends die suddenly or in some tragic accident, and somehow I accepted it, attended their funeral, celebrated their life, and moved on.

What does a grief counselor say?  "I'm sorry your friend is gone.  Sometimes bad things happen to good people.  We don't know why.  They just do."  If they died doing something dumb (and all bullet-proof kids inevitably do dumb things), remind them this is what can happen.  Learn from their friend.  Life goes on.

I've never been to see a "grief counselor", and I might be totally wrong here, but it just seems to me like university psychology departments have invented a whole new speciality and reason to exist.  I mean, let's be honest....there are only so many burgers psychology majors can flip.

I wonder if this is just another in a long line of "treatment's" we're being sold?

S

My two bits.....

The first Presidential Debate is in the can.  Time to compare notes:

IMO, Mitt Romney came across as cool, collected, and very well prepared.  It was like he knew the questions before they were asked, which of course he didn't.  Kudos.  He was aggressive, didn't have any odd mannerisms, didn't twitch, sigh, roll his eyes, etc.  He addressed his remarks towards the President.

IMO, President Obama seemed to have been caught flat-footed and often fumbled with how to respond to Romney's jabs.  He was definitely on the defensive.  He didn't seem to be as well prepared.  He looked down or nervously towards someone (Michelle?) in the audience.  He had way too many long pauses and "Ahhhh's".

But the curve ball I noticed most was, who REALLY is Mitt Romney?  I've said for months he was making a BIG mistake by pandering to ultra-right-wing Tea Party conservatives.  He had their votes automatically by default.  It will be the moderates who will be the deciding factor in this election. THEY are the ones he has to win over.

Tonight he talked straight to those moderates.  Very smart politics....but very much at odds with what he's been saying before now.  Example?  He said he would give everyone a tax deduction basket with a specific dollar amount cap.  Taxpayers could fill it with anything they wanted from a list of possible choices UP TO THAT DOLLAR AMOUNT.  He specifically said the wealthy would top off their deduction basket early, and that's it.  They would lose almost all of their current deductions.  There's no way in hell the Tea Party would have smiled on that idea! 

In other words they (the rich) would see their taxes go WAY up.  That is NOT what he's been saying for the last year.  If he had offered that before now Obama would have jumped all over it enthusiastically!

Another example?  In his closing remarks he said as Massachusetts's governor he worked well with a legislature made up 80% by Democrats.  As President he would sit down with Democrats in Congress and find common ground with them for the good of the American people.

That is definitely NOT what he's been intimating to the Tea Party crowd.  If he really felt that way, why would he choose Paul Ryan as his running mate?  Ryan, along with congressional Republican Young Gun leaders like Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy, have been notoriously uncompromising.  They are the main reason this Congress is gridlocked.  It's "their way or the highway".  I'm sure Paul Ryan cringed when he heard his potential boss say he would sit and sing Kum-ba-yah with the Democrats.

So was the Mitt Romney that I saw tonight, the moderate, the REAL Mitt Romney, or was tonight's Mitt Romney just a poser?

It's gonna be an interesting finish.

That's my two bits.

S

Lookin' for dirt

No, I haven't become a political consultant, although come to think of it, that sounds like a pretty simple job.  I mean, how hard could it be to find "dirt" on a politician?

In this case I'm looking for plain 'ol black dirt.  We're needing to raise the elevation of the lot that we're starting to build on and I need about 30 truckloads.  So far I'm about half way there.  To buy it and haul it would cost $150 or more a load, but I'm on the prowl for free dirt.  I've called all my pool company contacts, but they don't put in many pools this late in the year.

I'm not a very patient person.  I'm wanting to get this job rolling, but until I get more dirt, I'm stuck.  See why I don't want to be totally 100% retired?  I'd go nucking futs before lunch.

Hmmm....scotch for lunch.  Now there's an idea.  ;)

S

Those were the days my friend....

Remember the days when the airline industry was considered "glamorous"?  Pilots were almost worshiped by the public, cutting a most dashing image in their double-breasted uniforms.  And the flight attendants, or "stewardesses" as we called them back then, were so gorgeous they put movie stars and fashion models to shame. 

Even the food was good.  Of course, they were catering to a most discriminating customer back then, too.  Flying was expensive, and when you flew it was an "occasion" and you dressed in your Sunday finest.

As with everything, times have changed, and this time for the worse.  Now pilots are sniffed as they get on board looking for evidence of alcohol.  Flight attendants fly into their 60's and even their 70's, and customers routinely show up in gym shorts, T-shirts, and flip flops. (Git er done!)

Airline food ceased being edible years ago, and today on most flights ceases to even exist at all. They'll sell you a cold, hard sandwich at the gate, but the smart traveler buys their own and brings it on board with them. While our posteriors have gotten larger and we've grown taller, seat width and legroom has shrunk.  Today it's "coffee?", "tea?", "seat belt extender?"

I've even heard some of the lowest cost "low cost carriers" are considering bringing back pay toilets.  ("Hey buddy....can you spare a quarter?" takes on a whole new meaning.)  Even getting on the plane is an ordeal today, thanks to the TSA. 

Now it seems you're advised to bring your own tool kit on board with you, too.  That's so you can make sure your seat is properly bolted to the floor.   Apparently, on American Airlines at least, that's something you can't take for granted anymore as three of their planes had to make emergency landings yesterday after entire rows of occupied seats just flopped over.  (Labor strife / sabotage?)  

What's next?  How low can they go?

Just a thought:  If you see your pilot board wearing a parachute, de-plane and take the bus instead!

S

Talk about "mixed signals"!

I thought I understood where both parties stood on the state of our economy:  Both agreed job creation was #1.  Both were for lowering taxes, for the middle class at least, in order to spur consumer spending.  This would create demand, production, hiring, and eventually MORE tax revenue.  We would "grow" our economy out of the mess we're in.  Textbook simple.

But now I read that neither party is too keen on extending the Bush tax cuts set to expire January 1st.

"Independent analysts say that the expiration of the tax cut could shave as much as a percentage point off economic output in 2013, and cost the economy as many as one million jobs."  NYT, Oct. 1, 2012

Now we're being told that our economy can take the hit.  One hundred sixty million Americans would see their taxes go up an average of around $1,000 next year.  But....I thought....??

I understand why the whack-o ultra-right / Tea Party wants to stir the pot.  Their style since they got to Washington is to follow, ironically, the old Leninist credo, "Worse is Better".  The worse things get on their opponents watch, the more "the people" will demand their leadership (and I use the term leadership loosely).  But now the Democrats are throwing us under the bus, too?

We, you and I, the middle class, are being played for chumps this election year.  Where are our responsible REAL leaders?  Ronald Reagan, the darling of the Tea Party, I'm sure would be the first to slap down his party's Young Guns today.  

He and his responsible opponents across the aisle would be working night and day* to get our economy back on track, not sabotaging the entire country in order to make themselves look good.  Why do I think that?  Because that's exactly what they did.  They got RESULTS.  All we're getting today is SCREWED!

S

*BTW...Did you know the House of Representatives has been in session only three (3) days since August 1st?  Or that their salary is $174,000 a year?  Are ya feelin' the love?