Cars and Coffee, April 2012

This morning bright and early I met friends Neil, Frank, Ron, Ken, and Cal at our monthly Cars and Coffee event.  This thing just gets bigger and better every month!  In my opinion they've outgrown the BMW (west) parking lot where they've been holding it for the past year.  I expect them to have to move it somewhere else soon.  Nice problem to have!  OK, on to today's highlights....

While nothing exotic, this pre-bloated-bumper-era MGB impressed me, and it's for sale...$8,500. *checking piggy bank*

A slick BMW 3.0 CSi

I must give credit to the BMW folks for their sense of humor.

This Z3M was brought by a lady.  I'm not sure which drew the bigger crowd....her....or her car?

My first look at the new Subaru BRZ.  It's a modestly priced sports car ($30K) being built both for itself and for Toyota, who will market it as a Scion.  Only 11,000 were allocated for Texas, and they were ALL pre-sold.

The rarest car there?  No doubt this 30's vintage Packard.  I'd never seen one in the flesh before today.

The detail of the original car was legendary, and this restoration certainly upholds Packard's lofty reputation.

These were two one-off's that drew large crowds, but I wasn't that impressed.  Underneath they're just Corvettes.  I think I could have found something better to spend my money on.

A new McLaren MP4-12C.  *2 thumbs up*

Remember drive-in movies?  Remember the FUN we used to have at drive-in movies?  I'm just not sure this would be the car to have said fun in.  *wink* 

My Grand Prize Winner for the day....this Alfa Romeo Spider.  It was PERFECT, except it didn't have my name on the registration.   :(

After saying goodbye to the guys I came home and picked up K and we had lunch at In-n-Out Burger.  Mmmmmm.....

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And just a short update on Luke....

 

He came through a helluva lot better than I would have.  He's ready to run and jump.  It's hard to hold him back.  

That was my day.  How was yours?  :)

S

Poor Luke....

This morning K is taking her dog Luke to the vet's to have him....er....you know.  Ouch!  I can't even bring myself to say it.  He's a little over 6-months old and he's starting to strut his stuff, lifting his leg to pee, etc.  They say you need to have this done before his full hormones kick in and he starts humping everything he can catch, marking his territory, and such. Actually that would be kinda funny, watching Luke, a tiny little Yorkie, trying to climb on a Great Dane.  Haha!

 K and I had our weekly "date night" last night instead of tonight as usual so we can stay home and take care of the poor little dude.  K made me laugh when she said she first thought having a dog neutered was just giving him a canine vasectomy.  Umm....no my dear, it's a LOT more invasive than that.  I wonder if dogs have enough sense to hold a grudge?  If so, he's not gonna want to have much to do with K for a while.  

Hope we all have a better day than Luke will.  :)

S

"Do ya' feel lucky....punk?"

I'm a big Clint Eastwood fan, and that was one of my favorite lines from the Dirty Harry series.  Hearing it now, though, I'm wondering if he was just taunting me to buy lottery tickets.  Yeah, while I'm out today I'll probably stop and buy a few tickets.  Lucky?  I dunno.  At least until the drawing tonight I can dream, right?  :)

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Speaking of "take the money and run", that seems to be what the land developer is doing with the subdivision where I've been building for the past several years.  I can't say I'm surprised.  In fact, I've been expecting it.  Because of the crippled economy his property sales have been few and far between.  Let's face it....people aren't exactly waiting in line to plunk down $150K-$300K for a lot.  Now he's caved, telling me he's agreed to sell almost all the remaining lots (at a reduced price, of course) to a builder who will go in with a "value" line of homes.  

For me it's either cut all sorts of corners, throw quality out the window, and go toe-to-toe with him, or move along.  That's no choice.  I suppose I'll just limp along a while longer doing small remodel jobs and hope one of my doctor connections will come through, deciding now is the time to build something newer / bigger / better.  (They'll pay for quality.)  I've always said "things happen for a reason".  I guess I'll put that to a test.

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The first local Arts Fest of the year is this weekend.  Looks like Luke (K's puppy) is going out in public.  Hope he behaves himself.  Have a good weekend, everyone.  

S

She's created a MONSTER!

Remember the horror movie where the little kid turns into a monster, his eyes glowing in the dark, etc?  Was that The Omen?  Anyway, that's what K's little dog has turned into.  He got a haircut yesterday for the first time and I don't think he liked it, and he's taking it out on ME!

I think she should have named him Damien.  Every night this week he hasn't slept well.  He wakes up at 3 am and whines, so K gets up with him and tries to calm him back down.  Consequently she's had no where near enough sleep all week.  By last night she was just dragging.  I told her I would take dog duty on Friday night / Saturday morning so she could sleep in.

Sure enough at 3:15 the little bastard starts whining.  I took him into the den and put him on his round dog bed while I tried to go back to sleep on the couch.  (NOTE:  I'm 6 feet tall, but the couch is only about 5' 6" between the arms on the ends.  How do those big-ape basketball players sleep at night?)  I tried lying on my side (which women can't do BTW because they don't have a kick-stand :) with my legs all bent up, but that was NOT conducive to sleep.

And it didn't matter anyway because all Damien...er...Luke wanted to do was scratch at the bedroom door and whine for K.  Well guess what K?  You wanted to "bond" with YOUR dog?  You got your wish!  I tried picking him up to keep him away from the bedroom door so K could sleep, but trying to hold him is like trying to hold a 5 pound glob of jello during an earthquake!  Finally I gave up and took him back to K and said, "I tried...he's yours", and then I went back to the couch so he could sleep IN MY BED.  

Then this morning we heard the loudspeakers blaring and the crowd cheering because our neighborhood is hosting yet another 5K / 10K / Fun Run.  I'm pretty sure Luke had something to do with that event, too, just to spite me.  I'm surprised there wasn't a banner stretched across the street that said, "WAKE UP, SCOTT.  NO SLEEP TODAY FOR YOU".  If you ever want to pull off a bank heist, do it the same morning they're having a 5K in Plano, TX because all the cops are there blocking off streets, setting up barricades, acting as crowd control, etc.  Nobody's watching the banks.  You could be in New Mexico before they could send a cop to the crime scene. 

I think I might have to re-visit my childhood and take a nap today.  Which might not be a bad idea as it's supposed to rain all day anyway.

Later, friends.

S

PS...Yeah, yeah, I know.  He's cute.  :)