Cars and Coffee, July 2013

I think we're in the summer doldrums.  It wasn't that hot yesterday morning, but it was uncomfortably muggy, the kind of muggy that makes you just wanna stay inside.  Still there were some diehard car aficionados like me who ventured out to see and be seen.  Some highlights:

The British contingent was rather skimpy this month.  I did see a few that turned my head, though, like this Aston Martin Vantage in the right color.  (That would be British Racing Green.)

Ditto for this modern-but-old-looking Morgan.

But what happened here?  This is a right-hand-drive Morgan with a back seat (why?) and this ridiculous looking tarp canopy.  And that color!  *gasp*

Not to worry, however, as this nice Jaguar E-Type saved the day for Her Majesty's Empire....

....with an able assist from his E-Type Coupe chum.  (Leave it to the Brits to re-define "hatchback".)

The Germans were present and in fine fettle, showing off this classic 30's era BMW 327 (?).

Kudos to whoever restored it.

And at the other extreme....

....was this little BMW Isetta 1300.  These little micro-cars are turning up more at shows here.  Wonder where they've been before now?  This one was a 3-wheeler and was actually tagged as a "Classic Motorcycle".

It adds a whole 'nuther dimension to the term "Spartan", doesn't it?  Love the little gear shift sticking out the side panel.  Haha!

How about a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of BMW Z-8's?

Raise your hand if you've ever seen one of these?  (I haven't.)

It's a 1986 Renault (French) Alpine.

And for something American I offer you this very nice Ford Model A (?).  This one was blue.  I thought Henry Ford said "You can have any color you want as long as it's black"? Maybe not the original color?

  
Or you could have this V-10 Dodge Viper in Wallflower Green.  "It'll pass everything but a gas station."

Bazinga!  Fiat 500 Abarth.  Nice wheels.

But my personal favorite of the day was one of the aforementioned BMW Z-8's....

It's hard to believe this is a 13-year-old design!

Think it will ever depreciate enough for me to afford it?  (Short answer:  NO!)

Back home later I tried to tell Luke about everything I'd seen, but he didn't seem too interested.  I guess he isn't a "car guy".

Enjoy the rest of your day.  ;)

S

The greatest invention of all time

What is the greatest invention of all time?  I suppose that depends on where you are and your circumstances.

If you go back far enough it might be the wheel.  Think about it....without wheels we'd probably still be walking.  No carts, wagons, stage coaches, cars, nothing.  We'd spend our lives just dragging stuff around.

Maybe the bow and arrow, and later gunpowder?  Then you could defeat those pesky 'ol Huns trying to storm your castle without having to ruin you nails in hand-to-hand combat.

The telegraph / telephone?  Then you could communicate with friends or do business with people hundreds of miles away.  The common man began to understand there was a big wide world out there.

The harnessing of electricity?  Then we could see and do things after dark.

Oh....these were huge!....trains and automobiles.  Where they were originally rich man's toys, Corny Vanderbilt and Henry Ford put us all on wheels.  Now we could work and play and make stuff for people far away from where we lived.  Until then most people grew up, married and raised families, worked and eventually died within maybe 25 miles of where they were born.  Easy transportation opened up commerce, created jobs, and raised the living standards of the masses.

The airplane?  A personal favorite of mine, it did the same as the automobile, but over longer distances.

Personal computers and the internet?  Now we had the knowledge of the world at our fingertips.  

And of course there are probably regional favorites, too.  I'm sure If you live in the Mid-East you're probably still amazed by toilet paper.  And judging by the way they like to throw them, rocks.  

NOTE:  This is NOT me, although the resemblance is striking.

But for me, a guy who grew up in the South and has become increasingly intolerant of heat, my personal favorite invention of all time is air conditioning.

Definitely, air conditioning.  ;)

What say you?

S

My career as an America's Cup sailor

Growing up near land-locked Dallas I was always impressed by what I didn't have....the ocean, and in particular sailing ships. They were just so foreign to anything I ever saw here.  All we have near me are lakes, which are usually packed with drunken redneck boaters doing stupid things....nothing I want any part of.  

In my yout I always looked forward to watching the America's Cup races on ABC's Wide World of Sports.  The America's Cup was the most prestigious event in sailing, and the boats were sleek racing yachts crewed by intrepid sailors hanging on for dear life.  To me they were the most beautiful, exotic things in the world.

One summer around this time we were invited to go with our friends Ingrid and Bill to Galveston Island where Ingrid's aunt and uncle had a beach house.  Best of all, they also had a sailboat, and I was determined to launch my America's Cup racing career in that little boat.  It wasn't much, but it was a start....a little tiny thing that was just big enough for two people.

It looked something like this.

I bought a book on sailing and learned all there was to know on the subject, or so I thought.  In my mind I could "reach" and "tack" and "run", all those nautical things I would need to know during The Big Race. 

After a few days lying in the dirt on the beach I broached the subject to Ingrid:  "Why don't we take your uncle's little sailboat out?  I know how to sail."

Always game in a sort of wonderfully ditsy way, Ingrid and I lowered our racer into the water and pushed it out a ways, then I raised the mainsail and we were off!  Down the canal, into the marina, then out into the open bay we flew.

I was doing nicely until I realized we were getting uncomfortably far from land.  Time to turn back. That's when I realized sailing into the wind was a lot easier said than done.  I tried to act cool, but Ingrid and I both soon knew it was time to start paddling.

After what seemed like forever we finally made it back inside the protected bay where the wind changed on me again.  I don't care which way I turned the rudder, my boat was going where it wanted to go, my input be damned.

And where it wanted to go was straight into a covered boat stall on the far side of the marina.  Somehow by the Grace of God I "sailed" straight into the only one vacant.  The relatively soft impact with the dock threw me out of the boat....into water about 4 feet deep!  It was a humiliating waist-deep walk back across the marina pulling that little boat with Ingrid still perched on top.

That day I learned a valuable lesson:   It's a very short walk from being a Hero to a Zero.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today I was reading about the Louis Vuitton Challenge Cup currently underway in San Francisco to determine the next America's Cup challenger.  Now their boats are huge catamarans and they're flying through the air about as much as they're skimming over the water.  Just amazing!

I'm still impressed!  Maybe in my next life.  *sigh*

Happy Independence Day everyone.  ;)

S

Viva Egypt!

The news is full of reports and photos from Egypt showing huge crowds protesting against President Mohammad Morsi, and they keep referring to Egypt as one of America's "key allies".  Now I don't profess to be a Mid-East expert, but I have no idea what Egypt has done to deserve the designation of "key ally".  Anybody help me out?

True, we always seem to have a couple billion of those pesky 'ole Greenbacks littering the Washington landscape and every year Egypt sends a delegation over to Hoover 'em up for us.  And they're not taking pot-shots at Israel, so I guess that's good. 

And they do allow us to send busloads of tourists to see their really old rock piles....that's pretty cool.  But otherwise....?

Here's an idea that might calm them down:  Why don't they buy some paint and spruce the place up?  Have you ever seen a more blah looking landscape?  If I lived in Cairo I'd be protesting in the streets, too.  How depressing!  Makes you want to grab a Molotov cocktail and burn something up, doesn't it?

But back on today's theme....what does Egypt have to offer that makes them a critical American ally?  Isn't Egyptian cotton supposed to be the best in the world?  So without their cotton we wouldn't have 1200-thread-count sheets?  Is that their contribution to world peace and prosperity? 

*Ding!*  I get it now!  I hope they can work things out, 'cause the world needs their fancy sheets, you know.  

Meanwhile, here's hoping you have a safe and happy July 4th.  :)

S

"Rode hard and put away wet"

Last night K and I babysat two of our wonderful grand-kidlettes while the parents took some "kicker" dance lessons.  My only advice to my daughter and SIL:  They should limit those kids to decaf ONLY.

After a full 15 rounds....er....3 hours, I think an impartial judge would have called it a "draw".  K actually stood her ground....I was behind the curve all night.  Hers liked to play baseball and basketball, so they pitched and batted and shot baskets all evening.  Mine liked to point and grunt and wet herself, and I soon realized I've lost my proficiency in speaking "point and grunt", but the diaper thing I nailed!  Fortunately I learned she liked my iPhone, which saved me.  

The important thing is nobody got hurt.  Yes, I'm fine, thank you for asking.  (Seriously, they're great kids! ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The weatherguesser this morning noted the West is having one of its hottest summers on record, and the East is having one of its wettest summers ever.  I wonder what the summer holds for Texas?

This morning here in Dallas we're within one degree of setting a record low temperature for this date.  Do I dare hope?

S

"Texas Dream Cruise" car show

Yesterday's intense heat and humidity didn't keep me or about a thousand other people away from a new car show in town, the Texas Dream Cruise.  They did a great job of advance publicity and had a good turnout of interesting cars, but otherwise they were obvious amateurs....ex: no marque organization, and worst of all, no vendors selling water.  (Or if they were there they were stuck off in some corner where nobody could find them.)  Luckily I took my own.  The Frisco FD was there hauling people like crazy on their little golf cart/ambulance rigs.  They'll figure it out.

Now, for the cars....

There seem to be a lot of British classics in North Texas, which suits me just fine.  This MGA was especially nice.

My kind of Christmas ornaments!

While it's not British Racing Green, this TR6 works just fine for me.  Except for the Gubment Baby Buggy Bumpers.

This Austin Healey Bug Eye Sprite wasn't the most authentically restored, but it definitely had the sweetest sounding engine.  And the owner of this fixed up this one....

....an early MGB for his daughter.  Lucky girl!  (Or is it an early MG Midget?)

A Jaguar XKE Coupe.  Doesn't it look like that hood just goes on forever?  And it's not a camera angle trick.  It really does.

The Italians had a substantial presence, too.  Here's a nice Fiat 124, complete with that gubment mandated locomotive-cattle-catcher front bumper hanging out there.  Ugh!

This Alfa Romeo Giulia GT makes all the area shows, but I'm impressed enough with it I'll offer it to you once again.

While conventional wisdom says Ferrari's should be red, I must admit sometimes they look good in Screaming Yellow, too.

Of course I found a Fiat 500.  ;)

A Fiat X19....with that darn bumper again!

How about something weird and wacky?

I love these little oddball micro cars.  This is an absolutely showroom perfect BMW Isetta 300.

Yep, that's all there is.

0 to 60 in....umm....NEVER!

How cool is this Ford Woody?

And it gets better....

There were lots of hot rods there, too.  This was probably my favorite.

Yikes!  Somebody paid money for this kit?  *gag*

Here's something you don't see every day, complete with matching fuzzy dice.  Exactly what color would you call that?  

"My udder car is a '57 Cheevy!"  :)

A Chevrolet Corvair, the car that made Ralph Nader famous after he wrote "Unsafe At Any Speed".  This one looks unsafe sitting still.

This is about the closest I could find to my first cool car, a '71 Camaro.  I believe this is an RS, where mine was an SS.  It was fast....

....but not as fast as this Sebring Daytona.  And finally....

....whatever happened to the "thrill of the chase"?  *wink*

Next Saturday....Cars and Coffee.  ;)

S

My wife and her gadgets

My wife, the lovely and talented K, is addicted to gadgets.   

Marketing courses at business schools all across the land teach how to appeal to people with her mentality.  They're studying her like psychologists study rats in a maze.  

"What classes you taking this semester, Bill?"  

"Oh, you know, the usual....B law 314, statistics 421, management 330, and Advanced Kelly 4540."

I have periodic garage sales just to get the gadgets she "couldn't live without" out of the house to make room for the next batch of gadgets I know she'll be bringing home soon.

She has waffle makers, panini makers, tea makers, mixers, food processors, crock pots, a "Magic Bullet" blender, some kind of big fancy blender, a mandolin, multiple coffee makers that were "to die for" last week, but this week are just not cool anymore.

These garage sales often come back to bite me in the ass when she sees an advertisement for a gizmo that she once had, then I sold, and now she wants again.  She's gone full circle....she's become a serial same-gadget buyer.  

I tolerate all those kitcheny things because, honestly, I eat very well.  And besides, they're not very expensive....$40 here, $60 there....they're not breaking the bank.

Kelly's vision of Heaven

Her electronic gadgets are a whole 'nuther matter, however.  Those little electronic bastards cost a fortune!  Here are the ones she's had that I can remember:

HP laptop

HP NetBook

iMac (mine now)

MacBook

Nintendo Wii

Kindle, generation 1

Kindle, generation 2

Kindle Paperwhite

Kindle Fire

Google Nexxus

Samsung Galaxy S2

iPod Shuffle

iPod Nano

iPad, generation 1

iPad Mini

iPhone 3

iPhone 3S

iPhone 5

There are probably more, but my brain is too shell-shocked to remember them all.

Today she saw on Facebook that one of her friends accidentally washed his iPod Nano, so she said she was going to sell him her old one.  I can see what's coming next:  She bought it for $160 a month ago, now she'll sell it used for $80, and a month from now Apple will unveil a "new, improved version in 10 striking new colors", and of course she'll just have to have one for the pre-order super-sweet "better hurry 'cause they won't last long at this price" of $180. 

Publicly Apple will say the higher price is due to "raw material price increases", but among themselves they'll just giggle and call it the "Kelly premium".

I'm considering an intervention.  (Who am I kidding.  I don't have a chance in hell of pulling it off.  :)

S