Random things

It has been a while since I’ve done a post on the thought of day.
Since it has been a long time I might even throw in a few puns. If
you haven’t had your daily groan lately these might help.

A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it
was a weapon of math disruption.

Don’t join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!

When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion

The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium
at large.

The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned
veteran.

I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

Too bad the people who really know how to run the country spend all
their time working on old cars.

“GUN CONTROL”: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her own pantyhose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.

The economy is so bad Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading
higher than GM.

The economy is so bad Motel Six won’t leave the light on anymore.

The economy is so bad Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen,

And finally………………

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…
It’s about learning to dance in the rain.
Comments are always welcome.

It’s a what?

These are some neat little vehicles. They are called street
legal bumper cars. That seemed like a goofy name until I tried
to come up with one on my own. Personal motorized devices and
single seat transportation pods just didn’t sound right.

After a little research I found out they go back to at least
a couple of decades ago. That was when a collector bought a
bumper car off a Long Beach amusement park that was closing.
The collector was going to have the bumper car restored and
put it in his living room as a conversation piece. When he
found out the cost it went on the back burner until a tinkerer
wandered in for a look. With a “you know what would be cool?”
attitude the tinkerer bought the bumper car, took it home,
and $50,000 later the first one was on the road.

The guy started with a Harley engine for power but it shook too
bad so he changed to a Honda 750 and the rest is history. Now some
are also powered by Yamaha and Kawasaki engines. These things
would have to get great mileage and have a cool factor off the
scale. They are popular in southern California but may not be so
well suited for our local climate.

The kicker is the claim that these things could go 160 mph! Now
that would be some ride. For some more pictures you can go
here.
Comments are always welcome.

Not a rant

Usually I do a rant on Thursday but I just don’t have much to
gripe about so this will be a different post. It will involve
two stories from the FBI and two local topics. You may call
this post whatever revs your mill.

It has been a little over a year since hackers pulled off a big
high-tech heist of 2,100 ATMs which netted the crooks over $9
million in cash. If some computer hackers in their 20s can hack
into the system and steal this much money it makes me wonder if
there is a protected computer anywhere. For the FBI story on it
go here.

The FBI is looking for relatives of Civil Rights Victims after
a lengthy investigation. There are 36 victims that the agency
would like to locate relatives to update the family on the
status of the case and perhaps get more information. For this
story go here.

I was wondering about the free parking experiment going on in
our downtown. The cost is expected to be between $225,000 and
$275,000 and I’m told that there is sufficient monies in the
parking fund to cover the cost. I’m also told that the City
Council will revisit the topic before the next fiscal year.
A pilot program will probably be set up and as I expected a
summer trial may be needed to know the full impact.

The Blackhawk Hotel seems to be a hot topic of late. It
appears the contractors want a loan of almost $2 million. To
be honest I haven’t been following this so I don’t know any
particulars. If time permits I may look into it but I do have
some general thoughts. If the building is structurally sound
I have no problem with restoring it. I don’t know if a study
was done to see if the cost is going to worth the effort so
I’ll leave that up to those who do know.

That is a few of the things going on that I may or may not
know about. There is certainly a lot more going on than just
these few things. If you have something stuck in your craw
feel free to let us know.
Comments are always welcome.

Different strokes

While cruisin’ the internet I’ve come accross some pretty neat
stuff. This stuff is not for everybody, but if you’re a car nut
it may just be a change of pace on a rainy day.

If you remember the old CARtoons magazine and miss the wild
cartoons that were in each issue there is help. If you go to
creekrat and look around
I think you’ll find something to scratch your itch.

If you’re sitting around waiting for the snail mail to bring
your Mallory calalog you’re in luck. Mallory now has their new
online catalogs
up and running. I know I’ll be checking them out.

Perhaps you’d like to try The RPM Lounge which is touted as the premier social network for
motorsports enthusiasts. I’ll look into this one better myself.

Roll & Pleats
is the destination for you if you really need some automotive old
school. If you click on “Contents of issue #32 you can scope out
the 1962 Autorama among other neat things.

Now that we’ve cruised the net we might want a t-shirt. If so
Hot Rod Thug appearal
might have what you need. Prices don’t seem bad and as an extra
incentive they sell mexican blankets too!

Since it is getting to be that time of the year I’ll finish
with a video of a Christmas song. If you are not Christian or
do not like Christmas music don’t listen to the video. If you
want to hear it go here.

Comments are always welcome.

It doesn’t make sense

I’ve noticed a few things lately so why not comment on them?
In the news the other day was a story about a cat that had
the H1N1 flu, otherwise know as the swine flu. We were assured
our pork was safe because pigs don’t cause the swine flu and
can’t get it. So if a cat can get it why isn’t it called the
feline flu? I think that would much more realistic.

The figures on the swine flu also have me confused. The CDC
assures us the H1N1 flu isn’t as bad as the regular flu but we
are bombarded by the media with death tolls due to the flu on
an almost daily basis. Well to me if kills you it is a pretty
serious illness.

And am I the only one who has a problem with our president
not sending more troops to Afghanistan? In a speech to troops
stationed here he said he didn’t want to put them in harms way.
I have to wonder how our troops in Afghanistan feel about his
decision.

Then we have our prisons. At a time when a lot of prisons
are letting inmates out early to save money someone comes up
with idea to send terrorist prisoners to the same prisons in
the same cash strapped states. Some of these states don’t have
a death penalty so does this means these same prisons will be
a terrorist target until the inmate dies?

I could go on but don’t want to be accused of ranting on
Monday. This isn’t a rant its my opinion on how some things
are going.
Comments are always welcome.

Odds and ends

We just recieved the latest issue of Hot Rod magazine and thought it had a few interesting things in it to comment about. First is the report on the Cash for Clunkers program. I thought it was a silly program began for no other reason than to artificially inflate the sales numbers for the automakers. Most people said that as long as it left antiques alone it was alright. Well now it comes out that some pretty desireable rides also got clunked. I won’t mention them all here, but some were-

1 Buick Grand National GNX
1,007 Chevy Camaros
131 Chevy Corvettes
209 Chevy El Caminos
24 Ford Lightning trucks
1,611 Ford Mustangs
107 Ford Taurus SHOs
3,060 Ford Thunderbirds
571 Pontiac Trans-Ams and Firebirds (including 1 20th Anniversary car.)

Now that seems like a whole lot of collector/potential collector cars, some of which had one-off engines, that are gone from the market. If anyone can explain to me how this program helped anyone but the automakers I would appreciate it.

Another article that got my attention was the Drag Week article. On the cover of the magazine in inch high letters is “1,000 HP+ 25 MPG”. The car in question is a 79′ Mustang that had a average et of 9.37 for the quarter mile running a turbo four-banger. In the Drag Week article is a diesel-powered 94′ Mustang that had an average et of 10.08 in the quarter and got 38 mpg. Wow! Big speed and big mpg, what a deal.
Comments are always welcome.

Cars in the bible

Sometimes having an imagination can be a curse. A friend sent me the following bit of wisdom that got me going-

Cars existed way back in the time of the bible. It is written in scripture.The bible clearly states, that Moses had a ROD, and his brother Aaron had a ROD too. God must have had one also because David in the 23rd Psalm says “Thy ROD comforts me”.

People assume that WWJD stands for “What would Jesus do?”. I think they stand for What would Jesus drive? One theory is that Jesus would tool around in an old Plymouth, because the bible says his father drove Adam and Eve out of the garden in a Fury. Later in Psalm 83:15 David tells us that the almighty clearly owns a Pontiac and a Geo. The passage urges the Lord to “pursue your enemies with a Tempest, and terrify them with your Storm. Perhaps God favors Dodge pick-up trucks, because Moses followers are warned “not to go up a mountain until the Ram’s horn sounds a long blast”. Some scholars believe that Jesus drove a Honda, but didn’t like to talk about it. In the gospel of John, Christ tells the people “For I did not speak of my own Accord.”
__________________________________________

I wonder if they had cruises back then?
Comments are always welcome.

A couple of things

Yesterday was the last day of my little experiment and once again I got through the day with 3 cigarettes. Now I can lay out a plan and start the process. I have noticed that even after that short time I feel more congested than normal. After today I’ll go back to posting
about something else.

Today is the third friday the 13th this year. Rumor is Henry Ford wouldn’t do business on a friday the 13th. Since three times is the most often something like this can happen in year this will be our last one until at least next year.

I’m not overly concerned, it’s just another day. I’m not superstitious unless you think the fact that I won’t drive my ‘48 without a St. Christopher medal hung on the mirror. I think that is just common sense because I’ll take all the help I can get when in traffic.
Comments are always welcome.

Weak rant

The Veteran’s Day parade had tons of people lining the street this year. Lincoln School had kids on both sides of the street and there were a lot of flags also. We just wished the parade itself were longer.

Day four of my little experiment went off without a hitch. Once again I only had 3 smokes all day but thats still better than a pack. The son stopped by and we had a nice long talk and shared a pizza then I recieved a phone call from someone I hadn’t seen in ten years. I honestly thought he was either in prison or dead so it was good to hear from him.

Then we have the rampage at Fort Hood. I can’t believe all the dancing around the facts. Why are all the politicians afraid of the term
terrorist? The games of “pass the buck” and “lay the blame” began almost before the gunshots stopped echoing. The public will never know the truth anyway on this one.

Now we’ve told that unemployment over 10% is a good sign. This administration has done something for me also. It has weaned me off the little bit of TV I used to watch. Since a Presidential news conference is a daily event I stopped turning the set on and listen to the radio instead.
Comments are always welcome

Veteran’s Day

Today is Veteran’s Day. A day in which we pay homage to those who
have protected our freedom and do so today. I’d like to say thank
you to all veterans and will take time to remember the ones who
have died since last year. The list just gets longer. We’ll be at
the parade today at our regular spot so if you go to the parade
and happen to be in the 200 block of West 3rd look us up. I’ll be
the tall skinny fidgety one with no fingernails.

Day three of my test went resonably well. Even with all that went
on I managed to get by with only three cigarettes. Not my target
but a whole lot better than an entire pack. I’m dedicated to end
the experiment near my goal. Once I get through this ordeal I’ll
start weaning myself off the habit.

I’d also like to thank everyone who has given helpful hints and
different cures. All have been taken seriously and depending on
how cold turkey works I have some things to fall back on.

Yesterday was a day full of glitches but we managed to get through
it anyway. Our son called with all the problems associated with a
blowout on his Chevy. Then mom called about the hassles involved
with her having a Doctor’s appointment. Later I found out a good
friend had a stroke at 41. That seems awfully young to be courting
those kinds of problems. Hang in there Golden Boy.
Comments are always welcome.