I was thinking

I was thinking.

That's my best answer to the inquiry of what have I done all day.

I love to see oats in cookies

My body is still above the grass therefore I blog (apologies to Descartes).

A better twist to that idea would be "I'm retired therefore I think". Relaxed time and thinking mix together well for me. Unlike some other activities I don't sweat while thinking.

Is he thinking about wearing clothes?

Odometer watching

Who brought that up? Would odometer spotting sound better? 

I’m not referring to detection of a tampered odometer. No, I know of people who enjoy watching the numbers roll to one with many zeros. I guess every 10,000 miles provide those watchers a brief thrill. Years ago the mechanical odometers did a slow roll over but I suspect there is not a car on the market with those older types of odometers.

Now I get a good feeling from knowing our vehicle is still running well after 10’s of thousands of miles. The mileage reading is an important indicator for preventive maintenance. I'm not a odometer spotter. My focus is more on the fuel gauge.

Next on this thought train (or train of thought?) is an old song that reminds me of thoughts fluttering through my mind. I enjoy thoughts that float for awhile instead of rushing down a vortex. Sometimes thoughts echo softly in the distance through the canyons of my mind (slight rewrite of song lyric below).

Elusive butterfly on my shirt

Do butterflies remember being caterpillars?

no car seats in your pink Cadillac

Honey I just wonder what you do there in the back of your pink Cadillac.

crush velvet seats - No way would anyone want to mess those up with car seats!

we saw this in a parking lot this summer

Oh, I'm sorry I forgot to tell you what I'm talking about. Too busy listening to the song, "Pink Cadillac" by Bruce Springsteen. A favorite song of mine, this song was included on a list of songs over on the Tribut Apparel site (they did not sponsor my post. Actually I seldom check out their email.). Their recent email featured "Pink Cadillac" so that was enough to get me to browse over. If you are interested the song list is at this web page.


Another song on their list of 15 car-themed songs is "Low Rider" by War. I always thought cruising around town in a low rider would be a blast.

There are a few songs on their list that I had never heard. Well if you have not heard "Pink Cadillac", enjoy the clip below.

 

are those moments still magic

Maybe not, but being able to recall how magical those moments were to experience brings a twinkle of magic.

My mind recalled my shooting-the-shit time today (one of many actually). When old shit gets really old it can stop smelling bad. Sometimes it will refresh a faded memory.

How many of you remember when cruising didn’t involve a ship?  (unfortunately tickets might be involved and nobody wanted those)

from Lucasfilm site

If my grandkids wanted to know about cruising, I would sit down and watch George Lucas’s American Graffiti movie with them. Back before food courts at an indoor mall, there were local hang-out restaurants. Some were diners and some were drive-ins with car-hops. Cruising on summer nights between hang-outs was a regular part of the dating game.

Wow, I remember the regular circuit into town and then back out. Nobody worried much about gas prices, maybe running out of cigarettes. Yeah cruising back when the gas was cheap and the windows were rolled down by hand. Shooting-the-shit and hanging out, I would have never thought a movie about it would become one of the most profitable films of the modern era.

my style of cruise ship back in the late 60's early 70's

Nice wheels you have there!

Pearl’s post today (titled "We Sometimes Went Days Without Taking Our Own Picture" ) and this memorable song I found on youtube got me remembering. Can you dig it?

kind of a frrrrag

An old fart like me might remember "Kind of a Drag" by The Buckinghams.  The song had nothing to do with drag racing but drag racing was very popular back then.  Funny cars, top fuelers, nitro - look it up kids.  

My brother and his friends got into drag racing. His friends got into the actual racing even more than him. He won a trophy with the first car he owned. If you don't know anything about racing, one thing you should know it's expensive among other things.

A couple of times my brother and his friends were nice enough to let me tag along to the drag strip (maybe our parents forced him, I don't know). The nearest drag strip was near the small town of Oswego.

(was that too long of an intro??) Well it's time for fragments as in Friday Fragments. You don't need to race your engine for Mrs. 4444's Friday Fragments. The only fuel you need is fuel to post your fragments.

Twice this past week we went into the city. The first trip was on a school bus full of kids. Our granddaughter's class had a field day at the zoo. Funny expression "having a field day". We had a great time. I was reminded the hard way that riding at the back of a school bus is totally different experience for your lower back than the front of the bus.  For some reason my wife wanted me to stand next to this picture hanging in the ape house.

On the second trip I played tour guide for my older sister and her new daughter-in-law.  It was an easy tour guide gig since the new daughter-in-law (I always get confused about this stuff - she would be my niece-in-law?) had never been to Chicago.  So when I got my facts mixed-up she never noticed.  My driving got a little mixed-up at one point.  Before I had travel too far, I noticed I was going the wrong way on a one-way street, oops.  

We were very limited on time so it was mostly a driving tour.  Drove the lake front, parks, museums, with a little walking.  I took them to one of my favorite parks, Oz park.  We finished up having a great pizza down in the loop.

my wife took this shot - the thinking ape

Born under an Apple logo sign. Been online since I began to crawl. If it wasn’t for iTunes you know I wouldn’t hear any songs at all.  (do you think I could sell that tagline to Apple?).

Oh the Buckinghams had another hit titled

 "Don't You Care".

Leave a comment or don't you care?.

flashback fragments

recipe for fragmints (thanks Keetha for a post title that gave me this idea)

• Mix many types of thoughts together.
• Let sit for a few minutes.
• Scoop out the funnier ones that rise to the top.
• Feed the bottom stuff to your dog.
• Sprinkle minty leaves on top.
• Bake in your favorite word processor.

Post your fragmints and link it to Mrs. 4444’s blog to share with the FF party.

When I search back into old blog posts, I generate flashbacks. If I’m looking at an old FF post then I have flashback fragments.

Is it possible to combine flashback, flashdance and a flash mob?

I found the above digital online card at a social site recently (probably G+). We have a few teachers in the family and I know there are teachers that follow the blog. So this one is for you. Wishing all the teachers a wonderful school year.

()()proofreading provided by C. F. Eyecare()()

Still a work in progress, but I’m very close to having perfected my sleeping. Yes I’ve had restless nights when some event in my life caused it. (Are you still awake? Good, because I want you to read the blog and comment. Don’t start getting sleepy.) I stumbled on an article about brain waves blocking noises in the night. Now I’m wondering if those same brain waves block my hearing my wife’s earth-shattering gentle reminders to get off my ass and do something.

I bet the sleep study was fun to perform. The researchers altered the noise levels over a three-night period; the first night was quiet and the second and third nights were noisy. Basically, they kept turning up the volume until they woke the person up.

How fun would that be?

“Hey it’s my turn to hit the horn!”
“Holy Sh--, did you see that one jump?”

I got off my ass and did something the other day when the most important item in the kitchen went dead, the microwave. Here's the whole story.

I was warned that our children might write a book about our family life, titled “Vacuum The Grass”.

Yes my wife once told one of the kids to "vacuum the grass". Both of us have mistakenly uttered wrong words with a passion at times. Usually it gets a laugh but depending on the mood at the time one of us might not be ready for the laugh.

I'm certain any parent of a gaggle of kids has experienced calling the wrong name out for a child. Most kids jump at the chance to correct you. Often they start before you get the whole wrong child’s name out. Our daughter told us once that she figured she was really in big trouble when her name was replaced with the dog’s name. I have no idea what the dog thought. (but the dog did have a human type name)

Lastly, while searching through old posts I rediscovered this clip I found back in 2006. If you ever have plans to push a car into Chicago river from a high building, then watch this first.

I’ll take test ride for $50

Sounds like I’m playing jeopardy. ( if you like, you can play the theme song below)

No jeopardy game (jeopardy can be just driving down the highway right?) for me. Toyota (oh they are loaning me a new car for a year for this post - yeah right. you believe that, then send $20 with your name on it and I'll send you even more lies)
--- that was such a long parenthetical remark I forgot what I writing.

Oh yeah, Toyota invited to test drive a car recently. If I did the test drive within some specified time frame during July they would give me a $50 gift debit card.

my Camry test drive did NOT include

the lake drive

I took them up on their offer. I just received (spent part already, hole in the pocket is still smoking) the card. I was harassed They followed up with a few salesperson phone calls afterwards but the calls just went to voicemail.

I actually had fun driving and learning about their hybrid Camry.  If the price of gas stays high I might consider it. One thing to consider is the replacement of the batteries (around $2000). Now I forget the warranty on the batteries but I think if I kept the car five+ years or so I would need to replace them. This is a good thing to know if you look at a used hybrid. (any of you with a hybrid experience - honk - or better yet leave a comment)

Oh here’s the jeopardy “think” song. I just included a typically length one but I found one version on youtube that goes on for A FULL HOUR! I would be banging my head on the wall before that finished.

a spark of a fragment

Now a spark of genius comes across better than sparky fragments but it's time to collect Friday Fragments.  Fragments don't need to be genius but they should be genuine. Go see Mrs. 4444's blog to learn more about Friday Fragments (FF).

no job but I have an app for that - 
Most of the panhandlers I come into contact with these days are over the phone calling themselves charities. Lisleman prediction - In a few years you’ll find panhandling apps used on the streets. Point your smartphone at the panhandler’s QR symbol and a donation will be made directly to their paypal account.

lions, tornadoes, and bears oh my - 
I took two of the grandkids on short excursion to a nearby college last weekend. They have a free, interesting small nature museum. The collection ranges from beetles to dinosaur bones and includes one huge polar bear.

My 4yr old granddaughter was scared by the these big teeth animals. As we left the museum, we all got a scare.  As we were walking over to an attached building we greeted by two very serious staff members telling us to evacuate to the basement tornado shelter. After a few quick cellphone calls home we did. Their prompt and planned response to the threat was good but after locating ourselves on the basement floor I was disappointed that no one down there knew what was going on above ground. Of course, deep in the building I had lost cellphone coverage so I was unable to check myself. After 20 minutes or so I decided we would get to the ground floor and see if it was clear and safe. It was. No tornado had touched down in the area.

price for a spark - 
Not only was the total cost of spark plug replacement in our Camry surprising high, but also surprising was the type of spark plug used. The engine is now purring with fresh Laser Iridium spark plugs. (BTW the labor is the prime cost factor)

Having the knowledge of the world accessible via my keyboard queries, I went researching this sparky plug. First off, the laser part of the description just means the parts are laser welded. There are no lasers firing off in my engine.

But the metal Iridium part connects my spark plugs to the dinosaurs. A quick wikipedia read will teach you that Iridium is very rare. Much rarer that gold or silver. Iridium is relatively common in meteorites and that fact connects my spark plug to dinosaurs.

The Alvarez impact hypothesis claims that the dinosaurs extinction was the result of a huge asteroid impact 65 million years ago. The sedimentary layers containing a high concentration of Iridium discovered around the world forms the basis of this idea. So the Iridium in my spark plugs may have arrived here on the rock that blasted the atmosphere and wiped out those monstrous reptiles. 

One last spark fragment - (from the “Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys”) 
... 
The percentage you're paying is too high priced 
While you're living beyond all your means 
And the man in the suit has just bought a new car 
From the profit he's made on your dreams 
But today you just read that the man was shot dead 
By a gun that didn't make any noise 
But it wasn't the bullet that laid him to rest was 
The low spark of high-heeled boys 
... 

Here’s a link to that 11 minute plus song on youtube.

(proofreading provided by C. F. Eyecare)

fun recall

no no not a memory recall (but that can be fun too) 

I’m talking about our car being recalled. 

I wasn’t too excited getting this notice. Who is? As I often do, I procrastinated. I finally called the local Toyota dealership and was I surprised by getting a very precise appointment, 11:15. I’m use to a “bring it in the morning or afternoon” type of time precision. I asked about getting a ride home. They came back with a much better idea. I was getting a loaner. 

Our recalled Toyota is over 6 years old so driving around in new car for free was appealing. Now I was motivated to have the car serviced. 

I arrived at their recently rebuild mega car store and was impressed by very efficient processing.  In a matter of 10-15 minutes they pulled-up a new Camry for me to drive.

But not more than a half of mile down the road I had a problem. My ass was burning.

“Officer I couldn’t slow down. My ass is on fire and I don’t know how to turn it off.”

had the seats been marked like this, I would have known

Now that would be a very creative excuse but probably would backfire so I pulled into a parking lot and searched for the heated seat control. I found it and as I cooled, I explored the dashboard controls in the safety of a parking spot. I found this baby was loaded with:

• Bluetooth handsfree phone calling 
• GPS 
• Backup camera 
• hot/cold ass control 
• BSM (figured out what it was later) 
• Satellite radio 
• sunroof (converts to a moon roof at night)

Cruising the highways with free satellite comedy channels is not bad. Later, I checked out the hands free phone by calling my sister. 

We did some comparisons with her new ride bought this year.  It turned out to a most fortunate timely call for me. You need a little background to appreciate the embarrassment she prevented. Some would call it OCD, but I like to consider it an intense method to avoid repeating forgetful incidents I have had in the past. For example, forgetting to lock a door. 

An unfamiliar new feature of this XLE model was it’s keyless system. No key turning required to start. Just push the start button with gear shift in park and foot on the brake. Oh, you do need the key fob inside the car but you could leave it in your pocket. 

My sister explained that she was spoiled by her car’s system because she didn’t need to dig for her keys when returning to her parked car. She just gets near the door and pushes a button on the door to unlock. She asked me to check if my loaner ride did the same. So I stepped outside to check. I locked door, shut it and lifted the handle. It opened. Puzzled I repeated the steps with the same result. After the second time, I tried the back door. It stayed locked. 

I started to laugh. Still on the phone, I told her it was a good thing we had this discussion because of my checking a locked door habit. Anytime I park and lock my car, I always check the door by lifting the handle. It reassures me that I locked the door. On my loaner ride this would have resulted in an embarrassing scene. Picture a man standing next to a park car repeatedly locking, shutting, opening his door. I might have been there for hours.

(proofreading provided by C. F. Eyecare)

I knew it

I just noticed the first car I bought new on a recent list. My very first car was a used one. But in late 1973 the decision was made to get a car with new tires (my relationship with flat tires was getting too intimate) and new everything else. I believed an engine would last longer than tires. I was wrong. I brought a Vega.

This car model has now made the top 10 worst American cars. 

We put our limited funds into a 1974 Vega station-wagon purchase. The engine durability of that car just sucked. Checking the oil was almost as often as checking the gas. I still like the body shape and handling of the car. During one pre-dawn drive in San Antonio I pushed it over 100 mph, so at least I got one or two thrills out of it.

The Vega description in the list gave me a little laugh - “a car built with contempt for its buyers”. Oh I can laugh about it now. 

John Lennon and Paul McCartney expressed it well: “Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles.”

In hindsight I would have been better off buying a bulldog.

another circus 

order now and get

 a $49,000 Aspen watch included with your order for  

no addition cost

What?

More like my price range

 

I just saw this story about a car deal on the business channel.

I'm nowhere near and mostly likely will never be near joining in the "1%" as the occupy people would call it.  But it's occasionally interesting to see what they are wasting their money on.  

The car is Danish.  That makes it unique already and maybe you would like a $49,000 watch.  Can you spare $1.8 million?  I don't know if that includes shipping and handling but it might.  Your car (oh it's called the Zenvo) comes with a crew of "flying doctors" that deliver the car and are on call for any necessary maintenance. 

The sad news is sales are not doing too well (IMHO).  They have only sold 3 cars in US.  Tough times.  If any of the A Few Clowns Short followers buys one of these - please email me.  We need to talk.

story link

 

another circus 

does the F stand for Ferrari

I always thought FBI stood for Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Maybe one of the agents thought the F stood for Ferrari as in Ferrari F50 which goes for about $750,000.

Back in 2003, a F50 was stolen from Pennsylvania car dealer. An insurance company paid the claim. In 2008, the FBI finds the car and the thief. During the investigation the FBI needed to store the vehicle.

(do they only come in red?)

The insurance company wanted the car back but it somehow it had been in a little accident. Insurance company had a tough time getting documents from the FBI but finally got the document that explained how two agents took the car out for a spin. Really, it probably needed to be run to clean out any buildup after being in storage all the time. The FBI agent ended up examining a tree up close.

The insurance company is suing the FBI.

Link to story

Mr. Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

photo from Jan C. Gabriel web site

Mr. Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! was Jan C Gabriel and he died on Sunday, 01/10/10.  As his web site puts it,

"Jan Gabriel crossed the Finish Line of Life late Sunday..."

There was a nice write-up about him in today's Chicago Tribune.

I didn't know Jan but he lived and worked in the area.  What I did know and remember is his voice.  His commercials about smoking US 30 drag strip were the type that stuck in your head.  His life was covered by this segment on WTTW Chicago Tonight program (very interesting piece that shows a connection to Sally Struthers).

In addition to the radio ads, I heard him at Santa Fe speedway but didn't know it at the time.  His voice will live on for sometime.

I first made the connection of the radio ad to Jan while researching a post I did last year.  To save you the bother of finding that post about drag racing and Mr. Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

here it is again.

Hot Rod Gang (1958)

I missed this exciting movie. I wonder what woman that graphic artist used as a model. Her curves look dangerous.

I do remember listening to the Beach Boys and their "Little Deuce Coupe".

I get rubber in ALL four gears. I wish.

My big brother had a hot 69 Camaro that I was lucky to drive a few times. That car could burn some rubber. Maybe I was more practical or just broke, but I had a used Pontiac Tempest and later a Vega (big mistake).

My brother and his friends got into drag racings. His friends got into the actual racing even more than him. He did drag race the car before the Camaro and won a trophy. If you don't anything about racing, one thing you should know it's expensive among other things.

A couple of times my brother and his friends were nice enough to let me tag along to the drag strip (maybe our parents forced him, I don't know). The nearest drag strip was near the small town of Oswego.

Here in the middle of soybeans and corn fields the roar of nytro powered funny cars was deafening. I thought the cool part was walking around the pits. There were some amazing machines being pushed to their limits.

Racing down this drag strip was open to anyone who paid the fee. I don't know the amount but it was reasonable. Back in the sixties they didn't even require you to wear a helmet. No special seat belts. When I recently asked my brother about it, he didn't recall even using his seat belt.

I don't know if the drag strips of today are as accessible. If you know, please share in a comment below.

I found that movie poster picture on blog/podcast site that I found when I looking up info on IKO IKO song.

Matt-the-cat does a Friday Night Cat Fight podcast that covers mostly classic rock songs.

Here's a clip of the US 30 Drag Strip commercial heard on the radio often in Chicagoland. US 30 was in northern Indiana.

short ride long history

My wife decided she would take a day off and drag me down offer me a trip to Springfield IL. the other day.

It was a great trip.  I was surprised by how interesting and high tech the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (opened 2005) was.  I would include more pictures but as you might expect, photography is limited within the museum.  Basically you can take pictures in the large rotunda type lobby.

When we entered this large lobby area, guides greeted and told us about the various parts of the museum.  The guide suggested we start in the "Ghosts of the Library" theater.  I was not expecting much.  Probably just a short movie about Lincoln.  Surprise - This presentation is amazing.  It uses a system called Holavision that make images, animated characters and objects magically float, as the live actor interacts with them.  (later I learned the only other place in the US using this technology is Knott’s Berry Farm)  At the very moving patriotic end of the show the actor dissolves slowly into thin air.

The walk through Lincoln's life includes various details about his successes, failures, dating, politics, and family life.
One thing that was clear - political attacks didn't start with Fox news.  There a section full of political cartoons of him and his wife.

Of course we know he had enemies.

The last stop on the museum walk was the recreated lying in state scene from Lincoln's last stop of his funeral trip.  I felt like I had gone to a funeral and was almost in tears.

If you are traveling through central Illinois leave time for a short stop at the Route 66 museum in Pontiac IL.

Route 66 started in Chicago and ended in California.  Within Illinois the original road is mostly gone but I-55 generally follows it's old path.  I age myself by saying I had ridden down the original highway many times growing up.

The reason I thought of stopping at the Pontiac IL museum was a story about this artist/hippie that has roamed Route 66 for many years.

Bob Waldmire says his 1972 Volkswagen van has been up and down Route 66 "more times than I can count." The van will go to the Route 66 Alliance museum in Tulsa, where it will be on permanent display. Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register

It's a sad story.  You see, Bob is dying of cancer and has been saying goodbye to his fans and followers for sometime now.

Inside the Route 66 museum we saw a mural of his and learned that he grew up in Springfield IL.   The Disney/Pixar movie “Cars,” (a favorite of mine) includes Fillmore, the VW hippie van modeled after Bob.  Bob has done murals up and down the "mother road".

A STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER article.
A Chicago Tribune article (includes a video about Bob).

A link about the Lincoln museum

solar info link

what a drag

Hot Rod Gang (1958)

I missed this exciting movie. I wonder what woman that graphic artist used as a model. Her curves look dangerous.

I do remember listening to the Beach Boys and their "Little Deuce Coupe".

I get rubber in ALL four gears. I wish.

My big brother had a hot 69 Camaro that I was lucky to drive a few times. That car could burn some rubber. Maybe I was more practical or just broke, but I had a used Pontiac Tempest and later a Vega (big mistake).

My brother and his friends got into drag racings. His friends got into the actual racing even more than him. He did drag race the car before the Camaro and won a trophy. If you don't anything about racing, one thing you should know it's expensive among other things.

A couple of times my brother and his friends were nice enough to let me tag along to the drag strip (maybe our parents forced him, I don't know). The nearest drag strip was near the small town of Oswego.

Here in the middle of soybeans and corn fields the roar of nytro powered funny cars was deafening. I thought the cool part was walking around the pits. There were some amazing machines being pushed to their limits.

Racing down this drag strip was open to anyone who paid the fee. I don't know the amount but it was reasonable. Back in the sixties they didn't even require you to wear a helmet. No special seat belts. When I recently asked my brother about it, he didn't recall even using his seat belt.

I don't know if the drag strips of today are as accessible. If you know, please share in a comment below.

I found that movie poster picture on blog/podcast site that I found when I looking up info on IKO IKO song.

Matt-the-cat does a Friday Night Cat Fight podcast that covers mostly classic rock songs.

Here's a clip of the US 30 Drag Strip commercial heard on the radio often in Chicagoland. US 30 was in northern Indiana.

change position for a different view

You get a different view by changing position.



NASCAR effect
Just back from a short road trip to North Carolina. We noticed an annoying driving trait after reaching Kentucky, riding your bumper.

At one point I was in the middle of three lanes with little traffic and one completely open lane on my left. Following close behind me was another car. I pull over into the other lane and let it pass. I thought it was odd since they had another lane to go around. Many times in various places I have experienced aggressive drivers getting a car to move over but typically there is no open lane.

Later in Tennessee, there were two trucks driving as if there were connected. Since they were similar looking, I'll assume they were both with the same company. It appeared that they tried to change lanes in unison. Riding a bumper is not the same as following someone. You don't need to draft other cars on the interstate.

Then I thought the NASCAR connection - that's it. These drivers watch too much NASCAR and are suffering from the NASCAR effect.



Preschooler insight

I discovered during this trip that wise advice can come from unexpected sources. My wife and I tend to "disagree" (the nicer word for it) on too many small things. We had decided to take the grandkids to this small town for some walking and sightseeing. We were not familiar with the area, but found a parking spot in a small city park.

Since neither of us could see any signs prohibiting our parking there, I parked and proceeded to get the stroller setup, unload the grandkids and start our walk.

Well, my wife was not comfortable with the location and decided the car must be moved. She got back into the car and took off to find a better parking place. I started a small rant to my daughter about this unnecessary delay of our walk. My 3+ grandson picked up on my tone of voice and asked what was bothering me. I explained that Grandma thinks we need to move the car, etc. He then unknowingly gave me some advice by telling me, "that's no big deal".

He was right.

So do you have any examples of this? Please share in the comments.

Share a smile

new meaning to tune your car

I heard about this on NPR. It's unusual.

Apparently Honda created this stretch of road in California that plays the William Tell overture when a Honda drives on it at 55mph. Now the video clip above sounds like music but I couldn't recognize the song.

The more recent story of this is that the piece of road was paved over. The NEIGHBORS complained. You know just when you crank up those tunes some neighbor has to complain. Come to think of it - that same tune over and over again with each car - this is not a great idea.

However in checking this out, I found another clip about Korea doing this for highway safety (see below). Well maybe in the right place, but the weather (snow?) would probably mess it up.

Really I'm happy if one the traffic is moving and two the pot holes are fixed.