Amazing people

There will be no pictures with this post, but we
will post a link to an article with them. This is
one of those stories that lifts your spirits,
breaks your heart, and causes your eyes to leak.

This story is about a lady who wanted to marry her
best friend and all the people who helped to make
that happen. Jared and Brittney Ross Brewer were
married on Valentine’s Day and had a big wedding
bash and reception on February 27th with 200 guests.

The bride was radiant at the reception in a white
gown, albeit she was in a wheelchair. The pictures
in the article recorded the happy event, and a short
time later the bride was dead.

A year before she was diagnosed with cervical
cancer and her doctors didn’t give a rosy
prognosis. Family and friends started a fund to
help with her medical expenses and her colleagues
at work gave all their sick days to her so she
could get paid. So many did so she would be able
to get paid for a year and half if needed!

They were going to get married in August until she
got news the cancer spread to her liver. Then they
planned to get married on February 27th, but the
doctors didn’t think she’d live that long so the
date was moved to Valentine’s Day. Jared is 31,
Brittney was 29.

Our sincere condolences to the family and friends.
Comments are always welcome.

Future cars

Since we haven’t talked cars in a few hours it is
time to share some videos of concept cars. A few
may even make it to production while others are too
far out into the future to predict. You can make
your own decisions.

If the 2016 Chevy Malibu SS looks anything like
the concept, we’re sold.

Another car that hope looks as good as the concept
version is Buick Grand National GNX.

Not a car, but have you heard that Ford is going
back to building bicycles? Here in the United
States the bicycles will be powered by the pedals
and a 200w electric motor.

A little farther into the future, Apple is saying
it will release the ICAR by 2020. Rumors have been
all over the map from it being a driver-less vehicle
to getting a rebate for a cell phone contract. Time
will tell.

What do think our cars will look like by 2030? We
don’t pretend to know, this but this video contains
some concepts that may just make the cut.

And what about tires? In 20 years, Hankook thinks
our tires could look something like this. These
look so wild they may just work!

You should now be prepared to buy a car, or a
bicycle, in the future. Don’t thank us, we’re more
than happy to share.
Comments are always welcome.

Pig charging

Have you ever eaten a large pizza, drank a can of
Coke, and then laid down and went to sleep? Well
I can tell you from experience that may cause
weird dreams.

After eating said pizza, drinking said coke, and
falling asleep I dreamt I woke up with an urge to
rush to WalMart and buy a pig charger. The pig was
acting a little sluggish so I figured the battery
was low.

I had no problems back in the automotive
department. When told I needed a pig charger the
clerk just asked how big my pig was. 100 pounds I
answered and the clerk recommended a charger he
thought was up to the job. He also warned not to
charge the pig longer than 2 hours or the pig’s
eyes would glow in the dark.

The problem started when I got to the register to
pay for my purchase. It was then I realized that I
had left the house in sweat pants, a tee shirt and
house slippers. When I reached into the pocket of
the pants I pulled out cash that had chocolate
pudding on it.

The cashier refused to take money covered in
chocolate pudding! I argued it was still money to
no avail and left without my pig charger but with
my pudding covered cash.

Is there a moral to this story? Well I guess it
would be that if eat pizza and drink coke before
you go to bed, put your money in your other pocket.
Oh yeah, and if you mention the dream to your wife
she might think you’re crazy.
Comments are always welcome.

Some Navy news

We failed to mention that yesterday was the 100th
birthday of the USNR or United States Navy Reserve.
From its first day until 2005 the USNR was known
as the United States Naval Reserve and has been
deployed to fight in WWI, WWII, the Korean War,
the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, Operation
Enduring Freedom, the Iraq War, and Operation Iraqi
Freedom. The USNR is around 109,000 strong today.

Since we’re late with that one we’ll mention the
upcoming Navy Weeks soon to start around our
country. In case you don’t know, Navy Weeks are an
outreach of equipment and personnel to a area that
doesn’t usually have a Navy presence to bring the
Navy closer to the people it protects.

The first Navy Week this year is April 27-May 3 in
Shreveport, Louisiana and the last is October 26-
November 1 in Atlanta, Georgia. Here on the west
coast of Illinois and the east coast of Iowa, the
Quad Cities Navy Week will be May 4-10 and will
coincide with the Quad-Cities Air Show.

To see what’s scheduled for the Quad Cities, go to
Navy Outreach, or you can get schedules for different
cities.

Other dates and cities are May 25-31 in Rhode
Island, June 1-7 in Rockford, Illinois, July 13-19
in Cheyenne, Wyoming, July 20-26 in Fargo, North
Dakota, August 10-14 in Indianapolis, Indiana,
August 17-23 in Kansas City Missouri, August 24-30
in Detroit, Michigan, September 7-13 in Salt Lake
City, Utah, and September 21-27 in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma.

Now I’m hungry for some green eggs and ham. Just
remember: NAVY stands for Never Again Volunteer
Yourself.
Comments are always welcome.

I would have sworn

During our recent getaway cruise I had a belief I
held for many years dashed upon the rocks and
shattered like a wineglass thrown at the mantle.

Here in the midwest the winter can be brutal and
anyone who works outside knows they need gear to
stave off frostbite. Layers work best and said
layers are topped off with a good work coat.

Most would agree that Carhartt jackets are the gold
standard. Since my old Walls Zero Zone jacket was
pushing 20 years of use a trip to the farm supply
store seemed to be in order to rectify the problem.

We found a Carhartt jacket I liked and figured it
had to warm because the price was $154.99. I was
all set to retire my old jacket but decided to
check the inside tag to ensure it was the right
size. And that is when things changed.

Right on the tag proudly displayed for all to see
were the words ‘Made in Mexico’! What? The go to
apparal for the American workforce is made in
Mexico? I had always assumed these things were made
here.

Then I checked my Walls jacket. You guessed it,
‘Made in China’! Huh. So we started foraging to
find a work jacket made in America at an American
farm supply store.

We found a heavy Berne brand that looked up to the
task but found it was ‘Made in Bangladesh’! Really?
A nice lady who worked at the store appeared and
asked if we needed any help. When I asked if the
store any work jackets made in America she looked
at me as if I had said I’m looking for a jacket
that would allow me to thaw my nuts before June!

I left the store a disillusioned old redneck with
wife in tow. I knew we didn’t make TVs, cell
phones, cameras, or shoes but we have to make
something.

Is there a work jacket still made in America? At
this point all I’ll say is I don’t know, but I’m
not going back to that particular store again.
Comments are always welcome.

Helpful hints and oddballs

Although we are supposed to get more snow, with
freezing rain, tonight we think of summer. Since we
have central air at our place keeping cool isn’t a
problem in the summer months.

But if you don’t, or you are looking for a cheap
way to cool your garage, here is a video that will
show you how to make an air conditioner for $8. It
may not be the fanciest but it will cool you off.

Are you looking for a new car but don’t know which
models come with a manual transmission? there may
be more choices than you think. The people at
OPPOSITELOCK can help with that.

What if a car could be made that didn’t need
refueling for 100 years? Believe it or not it may
be in our future. Powered by a radioactive metal
called Thorium, and just 8 grams of Thorium could
power the car for 100 years!

For something a little different, how about a 48
cylinder Kawasaki making noise?

Since we’re on a Kawasaki kick, how about a snow
blower powered by a Ninja 900cc engine? Seems like
it works.

We’ll end with some music. This one from 1965 and
one you probably haven’t heard in a while.

So now you know how to build an air conditioner,
get a new car with a stick, a little about the
possible future of our transportation, seen a few
different motorcycle engines, and heard an old
song. We need a pizza.
Comments are always welcome.

Offline

We didn’t do a post yesterday because we had no
internet access. It wasn’t a power outage or any
problem with our ISP, it was the wife telling me
we were going out of town and I needed to decide
where we were going.

So we piled in the car yesterday with temperatures
below zero to cruise I knew not where. After about
75 miles we reached our destination, I think, and
proceed to take in the local culture of the
northern most end of Iowa’s east coast.

Things went well, the wife found some sales, I
found a place that sold Philly cheese steak melts
with a boatload of fries, and we found a decent
motel room.

We awoke to a dusting of snow on the ground and
below zero temperatures to begin our homeward
journey. When I first got on the highway it looked
like this.

We proceed south on the road, topped a hill, and
descended into this.

It looked as if God had dropped his cotton ball
from the heavens and hit our car. Things did clear
up after 2 of the longest miles I’ve ever cruised.

But it paid off with the vista that awaited us
after things cleared up. The sky turned blue and
the surrounding trees looked like had all been
flocked for the holidays.

What made it a really great get away is that when
we got home there was no snow to shovel! I guess
you had to be there.
Comments are always welcome.