Weather station says 65F and 99RH, but that could be from yesterday. I really have to climb up there and change the batteries. It’s supposed to be warm and wet though, so it is possible.
Christmas and the end of the year are coming up quickly. Presents are piling up in secret places. Music is everywhere. Lots of folks with their lights out. And Houston is getting warmer! It’s a weird weird world.
n
This keeps popping up and just ticks me off.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-geoengineering/scientists-weigh-up-stratospheric-sunlight-barrier-to-curb-warming-idUSKCN1NS005
The answer to a question which may or may not exist, and which, in any case, can hardly be defined?
It’s the modern equivalent of bleeding a patient because you don’t have a clue what’s wrong with him.
*****
Just had to get that off my chest, and, as my cousin pointed out, “Our taxes dollars at work”.
jim~
“But we have to do SOMETHING or we’re all gonna die!!11!!111111eleventy!!11!”
Yep, we all die. Every single one of us. Not everyone truly lives though, and the AGW crowd wants us alive but not living. Crammed into urban cores where the marginal cost of providing our gruel and entertainment is reduced to the absolute minimum. Pacified into a stupor by drugs and media, but easily aroused when a lumbering beast is needed to coerce some other group. Herded, farmed, milked.
n
Speak for yourself.
As someone mentioned yesterday, I like the idea of orbital sunshades…under my control. As the old saying goes, I don’t care who makes the laws so long as I control the oxygen supply. This would be almost as good.
Crammed into urban cores where the marginal cost of providing our gruel and entertainment is reduced to the absolute minimum.
Or banished to “tiny houses” out in the sticks, where the urban core is accessible only via public transportation or toll roads. Watch Portland — if they get permission to toll the Interstate miles around the city, every major metro will want to do the same thing.
Business where I currently work is a boomin’. One manager recently said that everyone’s time was committed to approved toll road projects through 2020, and more roads are being planned.
Like it or not folks, “the earth” (Gaia for all you consciousness expanding, yoga and transformational types) is a self-correcting system. The more “man” (or any lifeform) tries to mess with it the more “the earth” rebels and makes changes just where we don’t want and usually in a radical manner.
As the supposed highest life form we do have a responsibility, but too many are self-serving and your neighbors be damned.
KISS and be responsible.
Reflect on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLiWFUDJ95I
27º and cloudy. Supposed to get a little more snow, and then melt tomorrow. Bah!
Yesterday I managed to get through 3 tasks without exploding or using expletives out loud. Two of them were tasks brought about because people explicitly bypassed IT because it was “too much bother”.
Today, one of the co-presidents sent a text – wifi not working and a big-deal client was in the room. They were working around it, but wants it fixed.
I dented the wall with my head-pounding. These are the same people that nixed the wifi project in the past (repeatedly) because it costs too much. Gaah! So it looks like the partial I’ve been trying to sneak through is going to actually go through. Maybe. The PO hasn’t been cut yet, though. We’ll see.
Would it be so bad if we rolled back the clock?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaAF_3WMJGM
Too bad you cannot be sure where your Craftsman’s tool is made these days.
Blame Alexa and my Wife (she asked for it), Alexa is shuffling through songs by Toby Keith.
Now why on earth would we like to control the entry of people like this??
“Hundreds of migrants begin to ‘self-deport’ back to Central America as TB, chicken pox and lice become endemic at squalid Tijuana sports complex with only 35 portable toilets and nine showers – sheltering 6,000 people”
Name your kid something stupid, then get upset when people think it’s stupid-
“Southwest Airlines agent mocked five-year-old epileptic girl called Abcde for her unique name and posted a picture of her boarding pass on Facebook”
WTF does the kid being epileptic have to do with anything? It’s just a cynical ploy to manipulate the reader.
n
n
“REVEALED: MS-13 gang member deported from America in 2006 is arrested at California border after joining the caravan from Honduras
Jose Villalobos-Jobel was arrested on Saturday by U.S. Border Patrol agents in California after he admitted being an active member of the MS-13 gang
The 29-year-old confessed to the agents he joined a migrant caravan in Honduras because of the safety it afforded him as he sought asylum in the U.S.
Villalobos-Jobel was deported from the United States to Honduras in 2006 ”
and this refreshingly honest article–
“Police hunt female assassin who stepped off motorbike and EXECUTED five young men at a wedding anniversary party for one of the victims in Mexico before disappearing
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A female commando gunned down five young men at a wedding anniversary street party for one of the victims in Mexico
The shocking execution took place in Minatitlan, Veracruz on Monday evening”
–snip–
“Veracruz, a state whose coastal border runs along the Gulf of Mexico, is rife with drug cartels who fight violent wars on the streets.
Jalisco New Generation Cartel and Los Zetas are the two dominant gangs in the area, known for torturing each other, beheadings and mass executions.
In 2011 police discovered two trucks full of 35 bodies parked beneath an underpass near a shopping mall, just a twenty minute drive from where this incident took place.
The authorities have discovered secret mass graves in recent years in the violent state.”
Such lovely people, I certainly want them in MY neighborhood, and in school with my kids.
n
Would it be so bad if we rolled back the clock?
Absent government meddling, manufactured items did get better up until 10 years ago when energy prices started to climb and sphincters got puckered at the EPA. Suddenly, new regs went in on all kinds of items which have done nothing but hurt quality as compliance costs were buried in wholesale prices.
I’d rather not roll back the clock on cars beyond 15 years. As I mentioned the other day, go back about 45 years or so, and you are in the era during which Brock Yates coined the term “sh*tbox”. Sadly, the “Big 3” deserved to get their butts kicked by Toyota and Honda in the 70s and 80s.
Ever driven a 78 Ford Fairmont, designed to fall apart at 60,000 miles? The much-lauded “K-Car” which lasted about the same length of time? 77 Olds Cutlass with rust problems in *Florida* at 20,000 miles. I have. All three at various times. Return to that era? No thanks.
FLASHLIGHT ALERT!!!
Lol, maybe you guys can save me bit of time.
I’m doing some macro-macro-photography and using a slow shutter and an LED FLASHLIGHT on another tripod at low angle to provide contrast. That’s the only light source, and an old but decent camera. I could spend an hour futzing around but…
Offhand, does anyone know the temperature K° of these darn things?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X0QFZ06?tag=ttgnet-20
@SteveF, if you’ll send me your address, I’ll be happy to send you a sub-orbital sunshade… Works for me!
https://tinyurl.com/yd2vh4bd
Would it be so bad if we rolled back the clock?
I will add my cousin’s 1968 Mercedes sedan, purchased new, which was on its third cylinder head before 100k miles. He also had it painted when it was less than five years old. He took good care of all his cars, and bought this one so he could have a car to keep “forever.” Well, almost.
Added: Each of those cylinder heads cost about as much, including labor, as a popular car. The Mercedes cost about as much as three popular cars. He could afford it, but that is no excuse.
@Greg, @JimB
I regret selling my 1973 VW Squareback. It was a logical sand rational decision at the time. It’s an inappropriate vehicle for winter driving in Alaska and I didn’t have the financial resources to maintain the automatic transmission.
However – I miss the time I used to spend on it doing the valves and oil changes and tune ups and I don’t remember what else. I miss how cool it looked. I miss it’s amazing gas mileage. I miss the smiles and looks it used to get. It was a pretty cool car. And easy to work on if you didn’t mind bashing your knuckles and getting dirty. 25 years erases a lot of inconvenient truths about an old car. I confess I wouldn’t want to crash in one. I do like my airbags. And crumple zones.
I drive a soulless and safe modern vehicle now. My head is turned by the looks of the Mini Coopers however the maintenance and repair on them is rumored to be horrific. My husband is trying to persuade me that a Subaru is nearly as stylish and more affordable. Bah.
Why do modern cars lack style and soul? Why has the joy been sucked out of most of them? Or am I just old?
If I see my VW again it will be hard to resist buying it back. It’s been 15 years since the last sighting so probably safe.
http://twogeeksandadog.com/wp-content/Abbys/VW_01.html
jim~,
Ray will probably agree with this, but might have better advice. White LEDs are essentially blue emitters that excite phosphors. Think fluorescent lights. Their spectrum is extremely uneven, and nowhere close to that of a black body radiator. They also can vary hugely from sample to sample. That said, I have been able to get good looking results with several digital cameras by simply using their internal white balance adjust abilities. Just illuminate a white card with the light source and use the camera’s WB setting function. Some even have predefined modes for fluorescent lighting, and these modes can be modified manually if desired. I would start there. You could also shoot raw and correct with software, but I don’t think you are planning this. Your results can be pleasing, but not likely accurate, but that is relative. If you are using film (remember film?) there are filters, but I have had poor results unless I did a LOT of testing. Good luck.
Depends on the FLASHLIGHT and what LED’s were used. Cheap FLASHLIGHTs are all over the spectrum from blue to cat piss yellow.
That is my understanding. The light you see is really the glow of the phosphorescent material and not of the LED.
Will get you close but you really want a 50% grey card.
It is for cheap lights, the $1.00 specials you can find at cash registers at the local mini-mart. High quality, think SureFire, are really quite close to each other and the difference in color temperature between lights is difficult to discern with the naked eye. You also get even color with no blue fringing.
Try what you have, avoid color rings, and as JIMB stated, offset the color issue using the white balance on your camera. Of just photograph on daylight setting, take the images using raw format, and white balance them in post processing. And do you really need accurate color, or just close, or artistic. There are no rules.
Also be aware that some lights will flicker if they have multiple levels. The LED is pulsed at low levels to give an apparent lower level of light. Cheap flashlights just use current limiting resistors. With a long exposure this should not be an issue.
I threatened to do the testing when Bob used to tout the cheap lights from ebay…
I don’t have time today, but if you have a technical reason worth about an hour of messing around, I can shoot mine with my colorimeter….
YOUR results are gonna be different from mine, due to “binning” effects on the manufacture, and them using whatever LED was available at the time however.
n
added- I looked at mine thru a hobby spectrometer, and for as blue as it looks, there was nice uniform color from 550 to 650nm (green thru red) with a bump of blue at 425-450 with NOTHING from 450 to 500. Not anywhere as spiky as I thought, or as florescent lamps.
added – my $5 duracel light has the same spectrum, and my pelican 1920 has less red, and blue is much more narrowly centered on 450, but the gap between blue and green is there, and more pronounced.
@Ray and @Nick, well said, and totally correct. One small point, I do use a 50% grey card, but have occasionally forgotten it and improvised with a piece of white paper. I was surprised how well it worked. I also sometimes include the grey card in a test shot, and then use the software to correct to a known quantity. That might be difficult with a macro shot. BTW, @jim~ what kind of lens are you using for “macro-macro-photography”? Inquiring minds want to know. Curiosity never dies. I used to do real-close photography with a reversed 8mm movie camera lens epoxied to a body cap, back when that was a thing-to-doTM. What a pain! The working distance was so close that I used two incandescent penlight bulbs fastened to the lens. They had little condensing lenses that really worked. Their color temperature was, uh, “incandescent,” which worked pretty well with Ektachrome Type B, especially if I pushed the voltage a bit.
@Jenny,
You are not just old. Modern cars ARE different. Better and worse. Some definitely are soulless, but some are great. The latter come at a price, and not just dollars. Bear with me while I try to exceed this site’s limit on posting size. (I’m on a real keyboard instead of my phone.)
A dear friend, who passed about three years ago, had a 1970 Squareback that I maintained from when I move here in 1972 through 1998 when she sold it. For perspective, I have had direct experience with four Beetles: 59, 62, 65, and 70. The 65 was the only new car I have ever purchased. I have liked every car I have owned, except one, but that is a whole other story (it was NOT a VW.)
Beetles and Squarebacks, as you probably know, share the same basic engine, although both the 1970 and 1973 SBs had electronic fuel injection. The SBs were also upscale cars that were noticeably quieter and rode better than the Beetles. They also had the optional modern auto trans, unlike the Auto Stick optional in some Beetles. That transmission made the car very nice, IMO.
The SB fuel injection worked well, but it suffered from leaks from the many poor quality hoses in the system. Some of these could be replaced easily… some not so easily. We shade tree mechanics found ways to replace the injector hoses instead of buying new injector assemblies, but those really should have been all metal. This was a major weakness and cause of a few fires.
I never had a gasoline heater in any of my Beetles, and don’t know if they could be had in SBs, but those could heat a small garage! Definitely required in AK. I lived in Iowa for a time with my 65, and know about poor heater performance, except on the highway, when it could curl your hair.
I have sold a few cars, and have seen a few after. I don’t ever recommend buying one back, for about 10^10 reasons. They are never the same. You made a wise decision. That said, if you find something ELSE that looks good, and the price is right, blow some mad money and have fun. I sometimes wish I had done that a couple times over the years. I am always looking for a nice car, but live in a small town where the choices are limited. Hating dealers adds limitations. Telling lots of friends to keep an eye out for a sweet car subtracts limitations. Several of us have been known to make offers waaay ahead of the current owner’s plan to sell. Some of us have benefited. Some current owners have been surprised. Be creative.
Another thought: if you can afford it, have a somewhat modern, soulless car for the majority of daily driving, and have a hanger queen for occasional fun. Or maybe, I recall folks in the northern climes have “winter” cars that take the weather punishment, and “summer” cars that are saved for good times. I live where it is mostly summer and dry, so I am spoiled. Having a good garage to keep cars and work on them is a real bonus.
Rambling on: as you found out, you can maintain just about everything on an air cooled VW with simple tools and a dose of patience. Don’t try that on a modern car, although they don’t really need much other than oil changes and payments for the first few years of their life. After that… try not to keep them near their old age. Don’t ask how I know.
One thing about air cooled VWs, they are different when it comes to the inevitable time to refresh an engine. Not better or worse, just different. I was a bit shocked to find that out when I decided to sell my 70 Beetle. The engine was tired, and I considered doing something about that. The price to refresh an engine was actually about 1.5x that of a popular V8. The interior was also really tired, and that would have cost a lot more. After pondering for about a millisecond, I decided to sell. Never regretted that decision. Oh, the new owner gave it to his son for college, and he drove it for some more years without any major work. Bugs just keep on going, but they do it more slowly.
I joke that I might some day have another air cooled VW, but probably not, unless it is a Karmann Ghia. Looove those, although at 6′-3″ I am a little cramped in them. Still…
I used to joke that the VWs always ran, but they always ran poorly. And the gasoline smell from the inevitable leaks… and the engine fires… ‘course you could swap an engine with a couple of bolts and a floor jack too.
LOL @Nick re Volkswagens…
I gave up on cars after totaling my beloved 2001 Prelude SH last year. 16 years and 40K miles… I’d never buy a new car. Like Jenny said, they’re soulless. There’s an LOL (Little old Lady) upstairs with a pristine old Corolla stick circa 1990 or so, and she knows I have my eye on it. THAT’S what I want! I should help her re-write her will…
Appreciate the feedback about the LED FLASHLIGHT. Saved me some time. I’ll just play with an 18% Grey Card (how come mine isn’t 50%?) and adjust the white balance manually. It’s an old Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 but I like it. The macro setup is a hoot and a jerry-rig worthy of a good laugh — I’ll post pictures later.
Would it be so bad if we rolled back the clock?
I will add my cousin’s 1968 Mercedes sedan, purchased new, which was on its third cylinder head before 100k miles. He also had it painted when it was less than five years old. He took good care of all his cars, and bought this one so he could have a car to keep “forever.” Well, almost.
Huh, not so long ago. I had to replace the head gasket in the wife’s 2005 Honda Civic EX coupe a couple of years ago at 90K miles. The head only required resurfacing. The gasket would start leaking between cylinders when the engine got hot and, she hit the 7,000 rpm redline. Which, she likes to do using her 5 speed manual. That car will flat out fly when it gets moving.
I used to joke that the VWs always ran, but they always ran poorly. And the gasoline smell from the inevitable leaks… and the engine fires… ‘course you could swap an engine with a couple of bolts and a floor jack too.
The problem these days is finding a place to do the work. In Florida, after I moved out of my parents’ house, I either lived in an apartment or an HOA where working on a vehicle in your garage/driveway was verboten. I haven’t changed the oil in a car since the 80s.
I won’t flog the expired equine any more talking about the alcoholic pervert REMFs from Mac Dill who ran our HOA outside Tampa. Those of you unfamiliar with how bad things get with the associations in the state can go skim the news page at ccfj.net.
I was threatened with physical violence over *sod*. God only knows what the Colonel Bat (Crazy) Guano types would have done if I violated the “No vehicle maintenance” clause on the deed restrictions. Maybe I would have got the snake torture one neighbor supposedly conducted on Gitmo prisoners as her day job, flying home to suburbia every weekend — trust me, they can’t turn it off.
(No generals or I would have used the Jack D. Ripper reference from the movie.)
Oops, thought 50% sounded wrong. My Eastman Kodak one is 18% and about fifty years old. Maybe the newfangled ones are different.
“Internet traffic set to explode over the next five years”
https://betanews.com/2018/11/27/internet-traffic-five-years/
“This rather startling prediction comes from network infrastructure specialist Cisco which reckons that by 2022, 60 percent of the global population will be internet users. More than 28 billion devices and connections will be online, and video will make up 82 percent of all IP traffic.”
@jim~, My first digital camera was a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10. Yup, read that carefully. That was the original. I still have it, but have not turned it on for a few years. It will always have a special place in my heart. Loved that camera. Within its limitations, it produced spectacular pictures, and was very easy to operate. My later cameras, while much more sophisticated, can take a lot more effort to get everything right. I find it tempting to just run everything on manual, but it is much better to learn to work with the auto stuff.
I’m old fashioned: I started taking pictures in the late 1950s (I must have been about negative ten years old,) and did quite a bit of BW darkroom work for a couple of jobs as a photographer. Eventually quit the darkroom stuff, and promised to keep my hands dry from then on. Digital is wonderful in ways we could not have imagined. BTW, I saw a precursor to digital cameras. It was a three pixel sensor that was developed into one of the first image trackers. Three pixels, you read that correctly!
LOL, my grey card is probably 30 yo, too.
I could have taken pictures with my grand-dad’s Leica II. Still a damn nice camera but I only have a 35 mm Summaron lens and would need to get the film developed, etc.
Funny story about that… When I inherited it I had it tuned up, shutter speed adjusted (max is 1/500). Still works like a charm. Had a IIIF, too, but the beam splitter mirror was shot. So I wrote Leica letter and asked if they had the specs on the mirror.
Within weeks I got the enclosed:
https://tinyurl.com/yd7ds8h5
I made a jig for cutting multiple mirrors and got my hands on a 33% mirror from an optical lab, but the camera got ripped off at Heathrow along with a beautiful 55mm 2.8f Voigtlander lens before I could get someone to replace it. Still ticks me off…. Never flying through Heathrow again.
*THREE* pixels? What a hoot.
That’s right. Don’t give up. Condition is everything, and cars that age are usually pretty cheap unless they have a following. You could probably pay double the going price and make her happy. Do respect her, though, and tell her your motives. If she is honest, she will honor your wishes. I have learned the hard way that it is much better to be patient and pay a little more for a nice specimen than to get a cheaper one and fix it up. There are great bargains out there, but they are seldom advertised.
Great story. I used to do things like that, and did get some cooperation, but a copy of a Leitz drawing is just incredible. There are still some good folks out there.
I fear that. I tell my friends who are not car nuts that I would rather lose a brand new one before I get attached to it. After 16 years and only 40k miles, it must have hurt a lot to lose it. I forgot if you ever mentioned where you live, but most locales have ways to find nice older cars. Maybe you could find another. It wouldn’t be the same, but might still be worthwhile. Another thought would be to read up on that family and see if there are any similar models that might appeal to you. Yeah, you probably already know that.
Oh Jenny, I looked at your site with the picture of the Squareback. I think I can see it smiling because your hand is on it. Nice reunion.
As someone mentioned yesterday, I like the idea of orbital sunshades…under my control. As the old saying goes, I don’t care who makes the laws so long as I control the oxygen supply. This would be almost as good.
I’m not a big fan of putting aerosols in the upper atmosphere, easy to get in and hard to get out.
The Earth is warming, we know this to be a fact. The warming has been going on for tens of thousands of years. I maintain that the warming is natural and not man-made but that is not relative to this discussion.
I do like space umbrellas even though they are somewhat expensive. However, the cost of entering space is being driven radically down by SpaceX and others. And space umbrellas could be easily designed to vary their coverage and even destroy themselves if needful. I would like to see protection against screwing up and freezing the Earth, the effects of a couple degrees C of heating is minor compared to a couple of degrees C of cooling.
BTW, space umbrellas could be known under another name, solar power satellites. We have yet to prove this technology in a large way but it should work.
@Greg Norton
You can’t fight in here. This is the war room!
@JimB
She’s really a lovely little old Lady, and I’m a gentleman. I respect her privacy, but we’re both rather odd birds. I love her car, but won’t press the issue. I ought to very discretely inquire again. Her son washes it every few months, but she doesn’t drive any more.
@Jenny
I can best the memories of your ’68 VW. I had a ’64 BMW 1800 once. Lovely thing. But nostalgia is a waste of time.
But sometimes it feels good!
BTW, space umbrellas could be known under another name, solar power satellites. We have yet to prove this technology in a large way but it should work.
Dr. Pournelle frequently wrote about the feasibility of solar power satellites being studied as far back as 50 years ago. The only technical obstacle to deployment of a system, then and now, was on demand access to low earth orbit for the cost of fuel.
Someone will have to solve the SSTO problem or, at the very least, develop a two stage system with rapid turnaround time. My guess is that Blue Origin is attempting to do the latter with New Glenn.
Still, I’m old enough to remember DC-X and the astonishing video which promised that SSTO would work as Dr. Pournelle described. It wasn’t that long ago, and, as Jerry always stated, a “dark age” isn’t about forgetting how to do something as much as forgetting that something could get done once upon a time.
NASA blew up DC-X, but the video is still out there. The key is to build three, but Dr. Pournelle and Max Graham only received money for one small prototype.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv9n9Casp1o
Four Macs and a flight computer from an F-14 (?) ran the whole thing.
NOT GUILTY
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/11/not-guilty-verdict-for-marine-who-shot-at-armed-invader-breaking-into-his-home/
Anyone else remember this case? It was so screwed up it sounded like it HAD to be a scam of some sort. NOPE. And a not guilty verdict…
n
You can’t fight in here. This is the war room!
“… jet exhaust frying chickens in the barnyard.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxLe8MWdWe0
George C. Scott’s character is the picture of sanity compared to some of my FL neighbors. This guy is one of the Pentagon’s Korea experts who fled the country with the military’s help after he tried and failed to frame me for the aggravated stalking charge for which he was eventually arrested.
https://www.bustedmugshots.com/florida/brandon/glen-nagy/2147862
The county sealed the records at the Pentagon’s request after bribing his victim to drop all charges, but thank God for private mug shot services.
@jim~, I will tell this true story to illustrate: I once saw a good looking Norton Commando parked on a side patio. I must have driven by a dozen times over several months before it was no longer there. I can only speculate that someone else might have bought it. It could have been mine, but I’ll never know. Variations of this story are common. Do something. You will find a polite way if you really want it. End of lecture.
@Jenny in re Plum Pudding
https://tinyurl.com/yaoyr9um
Been there, do it every year. Yorkshire Pudding and roast beast, too.
The trick to suet is getting a butcher to get you some “leaf lard” and either have him grind it or do it yourself. Then render it, slowly, and filter through cheesecloth.
I just recently discovered that it doesn’t keep too well in the refrigerator aftera few months. Best when frozen. I cube it up into 8 oz lumps. Mixed half and half with butter it makes the best pie crust, ever.
@JimB
I once found a Mitsubishi Tredia(?) with some overdrive thingamabob. Drove by it for months while it got dirtier and dirtier. Finally bought it for $600 and it was a sweet little thing; weird, but sweet. Low miles, worked great. Tires cost me half again as much.
More to the story, but I’m not inclined to tell. Let’s just say it wasn’t worth spending $700 to ship it from SF to Ohio for a friend only to find out he wanted something “nice” and not useful.
Ya, my eyes are peeled, but I’m in no hurry to own an expensive car again. I like city life, and they’re not too practical compared to buses and taxis. And Uber! Boy, Seattle sure figured out how to tax that in a hurry.
I’m fighting my install of a video doorbell. It’s the last thing I need to get paid for this (long overdue) project.
Turns out, the doorbell is PoE 802.3af MODE A ONLY. Every reference I’ve found online says “PDs are designed to accept both modes and adjust themselves accordingly”. This is not true in this case. Finding an injector that works in MODE A is difficult. Mode A is usually used by endpoint devices (switches) and Mode B used by injectors. I went to the store today specifically to buy a correct injector, but despite the store’s search engine offering this model as a match, it isn’t. So one more wasted trip to the customer, and another trip to the store in my future.
It’s always the little things that trip you up.
n
@JimB
Really enjoyed what you wrote about VWs. My Squareback was an automatic. I had forgotten about the electronic fuel injection. I did have a friend who had a Karmann Ghia catch fire so regularly that it stopped getting exciting. Getting them to pass California’s Smog was fun. I had a mechanic who would do something fiendish with a screwdriver while the tape was running until he had the requisite “proof” that my Squareback was clean enough for California. I’m sure that’s a hanging offense today. Then it was a DMV employee who recommended him. The cost for the extra service was a six pack.
There’s a gorgeous red Squareback in town. I’d love to own it. It’s in beautiful condition. Anything that pretty would absolutely demand the garage be cleared of half the detritus so my keen ride could have appropriate shelter. Plus gotta have a place to do those oil changes. And valve jobs. And just plain tinkering.
I suspect I’ll eventually wind up with a daily driver and a fun car. Winter driving is no joke and Anchorage drivers are truly dreadful. They can’t merge, red is a suggestion, blocking intersections a moral imperative, and zero lane discipline. The first snow of the year brings 80 – 120 ditch divers and crashes. It’s the rare vehicle that isn’t dented.
Also @JimB
Nice reunion.
Thanks. (wiping tear) Damn I loved that car.
@jim
64 BMW 1800 once. Lovely thing
Whuf! Indeed sir, indeed! I bet that was a joy. Nostalgia surely is a waste of time, still, as JimB mentioned, it feels good. It does no harm to call back memories of old friends with fondness. No getting maudlin. I promise.
Oh – and mom e-mailed tonight that she found lard and is working on plum pudding. Woo hoo! Heh – she made goose fat cookies one year but did not know to render the fat first. Oh gawd I can still taste the meaty chocolately horror.
@Nick
joke that the VWs always ran
My Squareback ran well until leaded fuel was removed from the market. It didn’t like the additives much. I tinkered with it pretty often, because I liked cars and I could, and was only it’s third owner. 1st owner was a mechanic in San Francisco who sold it to a nurse around 1989 to pay for a semester of college for his kids college. The nurse sold it to me a year later when she moved to Guam.
@Greg
haven’t changed the oil in a car since the 80s
In the 70s and 80s in Northern California, when we changed oil we saved it for Mr. Bennett. He used it to spray the long gravel driveway he and his farming neighbors shared twice a year. Kept the dust down. Worked really well. Never had any pot holes. Or weeds.
In the late 80s I blew up the engine of my 1978 Honda Civic. I was curious if it could go 100 mph. The answer was yes, with patience. So I did it again. Then several more times. Then kaboom. I concocted some fool lie which I’m sure my dad saw right thru. He didn’t call me on it. We spent the summer pulling the engine and replacing it with a larger engine from an Accord. I could get to 100 more quickly with that one. Blew a seal or something the first week it was back on the road. Dad was able to fix it without yanking the engine. I got a verbal blistering and learned my lesson. It was worth blowing up the car and risking my neck to spend that time with my dad. It’s one of the few positive memories I have with him.
In the absence of sons, he treated his daughters like soft boys. I think we are better humans for it. We are all willing to tackle traditionally male tasks while rarely giving much thought to how anomalous our behavior may be to our peers. We were tom boys without being crass.
@Nick
It’s always the little things that trip you up.
Caltrops.
And for your entertainment. I walked past this guy and his fawning groupies twice a day when he blocked the sidewalk in front of City Hall. I’ve also sailed on a local lake in a boat the size described in the article. Whoa.
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2018/11/29/the-improbable-voyage-of-an-anchorage-man-who-tried-to-sail-to-china-to-see-his-wife-and-son/
I love old cars, and new cars, and medium age cars too. I have a great love for Honda’s. My second car was a 1986 Civic Si hatchback, which was the first Si in the US. Fabulous car, and a huge step up in quality and refinement from my first car – a 1974 Oldsmobile Omega.
I would not, however, want to drive that Civic daily now. generally speaking, I think new cars reached a great level of refinement a few years ago. I positively hate the “ipad stuck on the dash” look. Also, I don’t want a big ass touch screen – too tempting for distractions. Give my a dual DIN opening, that only houses the radio. Do not integrate hvac functions into the bloody radio! I also don’t want all the nanny electronics – lane watch, auto braking, etc. At least those can be turned off, for now.
My ATS is in the shop getting the the axle seals replaced (known issue with these cars.) They gave me a CT6 loaner car. It’s the premium luxury model. Holy crap. It’s big. It’s powerful (400HP and 400ft/lbs.) It has all wheel drive and every freaking bell and whistle you could imagine. Don’t get me wrong, it’s extremely nice, but I wouldn’t have it as my daily driver. Too big, and even though it has a sport mode, it’s still a big luxury car. If I had unlimited funds, I would definitely have one just to take long trips in, though.
If I were to ever spend almost 70K for a car, I’d get a Porsche Cayman, or a gently used 911 Carrera.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s extremely nice, but I wouldn’t have it as my daily driver. Too big, and even though it has a sport mode, it’s still a big luxury car. If I had unlimited funds, I would definitely have one just to take long trips in, though.
My wife’s Exploder is great on long trips, but, as a daily driver, we miss her 4Runner. The larger vehicle is impractical in many areas of Austin.
Contradiction in terms. Tough to find roads to give such a beast its head.
I have a friend that had an ’86. He drove it all year round – put studs on it in the winter. Rusted out a couple of times, but he had it welded & kept driving it. Said the drivetrain alone was worth $6000. I found that hard to believe. He went a bought a newer one because he was tired of working on the older one. Given the new one, he wanted to sell the old one. And he did. And got $16,000.
I got to drive his new one once. Wow. THAT was a fun car to drive. The un-fun part was getting in & out. It’s not built for large American drivers.
(edit: I left out the part about buying a new one.)
NOT GUILTY
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/11/not-guilty-verdict-for-marine-who-shot-at-armed-invader-breaking-into-his-home/
Anyone else remember this case? It was so screwed up it sounded like it HAD to be a scam of some sort. NOPE. And a not guilty verdict…
That is crazy on a stick. Something is really wrong there.
Or is this our future when the Stasi take over ?
If I were to ever spend almost 70K for a car, I’d get a Porsche Cayman, or a gently used 911 Carrera.
Tesla Model 3 with the optional dual tuned motors and the optional 310 mile battery (my cousin paid $69K). Fastest vehicle that I have ever been in. Zero to sixty mph in 3.5 seconds with four guys inside. Scary fast.
@lynn, yep, back when that story broke it was so F’d up that it seemed like there had to be a whole lotta something else we weren’t being told. but it looks like what they described, drunk detective arrives and gets the perp and victim swapped and then doubles down on it all…
n