Random Thoughts Thread

[daves87rs]

11 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

I went on it.  And went off it.  It keeps people in high school type dynamics.  No bueno.

- - - - -

In it's heyday:

It went out with a bang ... literally ... what a send off ...

When they do show you their marquee, it says "No Vacancy."  Duh.

There was a lot of fire once the implosion got started.  The Kingdome stadium was imploded -  the only one I've actually seen - but you only saw the flares and some smoke when it got started; nothing like this.

The Dunes went down to make room for the Bellagio.

Yeah, doesn’t help everyone is freaking out and has a theory..growing tired of the crazy quickly..

Mostly on it for family- we can facebook call together.  I also get to talk to car friends too... 🙂 

[daves87rs]

Also bummed out....

Was showering this morning and heard knocking on my door- my neighbor’s mom popped my Cobalt parked out in the street. Was driving her husbands F150 and simply got too close dropping off her lawn mower for her daughter to mow. 

I was a little worried, as she. Slightly moved it in the street. She ended up scratching the drivers side right fender, tire and wheel cover. Looks like the bumper/fascia took the brunt of the impact and cracked and broke. I took it for a quick test drive, and it looks like everything else is okay with the Balt. I know for sure it will need a new front fascia. Might be able to buff out some of the stratches....

I know my neighbors parents, as I talk to them sometimes when they stop to see their daughter. She seemed quite upset that it happened. We exchanged some info, but she would like it to go through her insurance, which she will call on Monday. So it sounds like the Balt has a date with a body shop. All I really want is a nice shiny painted fascia back on the front- as the car is 14 years old, and in beater status. (Mind you, and well cared for beater)

Just sucks after I just detailed the poor car... 😞 Counting my blessings that the damage was not much worse......

[trinacriabob]

I read that the Burning Man festival held in the Nevada desert has been cancelled.  My heart aches ... NOT.

[balthazar]

[daves87rs]

Happy Easter Everyone!

Please stay safe and enjoy!!

[Robert Hall]

We cooked a good meal for Easter brunch--- some country ham, biscuits, gravy, scalloped potatoes.   Tasty...now in a food coma.  60 and breezy outside. 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Robert Hall

[daves87rs]

8 hours ago, Robert Hall said:

We cooked a good meal for Easter brunch--- some country ham, biscuits, gravy, scalloped potatoes.   Tasty...now in a food coma.  60 and breezy outside. 

Yep, had the same things.... 🙂 

About 57 now, and going to get windy soon......

[balthazar]

Wife made a turkey, stuffing, gravy, spaghetti squash. Low key, mid-day. FaceTimed with my sister & her daughters. Worked in shop cleaning /organizing about 6 hours. Took a 1.5-mile ride to drop a project off at my buddy's house. He's gone no where, has some low risk factors but is very paranoid. We stayed at least 8 feet apart, but was nice to talk for a half hour. Rain supposed to start here in the 2AM hour, go at least 12 hours. Just when it was finally nice & dry outside.

[David]

Spent Saturday working on getting the garden area ready for planting, planted two fig trees in the yard for the wife, Sunday, hosed off the pollen and drove over to my son's house to help him tap and mud his garage. He has a detailed plan on how he wants to set his new garage up. Then came home to a family dinner of Candied spiral cut ham, Green Bean casserole with crunchy onions on top, Buttery mashed potatoes and fresh dropped biscuits with strawberry compote, fresh cut strawberries and whip cream on top. Kids went home, wife and I crashed to watch "The Blacklist" awesome series on Netflix. We are in season 4.

[trinacriabob]

One thing is probably going to change when it comes to buildings.  My local post office is newer, but not that new - maybe late 80s or early 90s.

You have  to grip the metal door handles to get in.  You can exit by leaning on the doors. 

In the future, I see more of those entry doors for big public and commercial buildings where a sensor or some other contraption will cause the door to open and close. 

Also, I see more translucent partitions in cashier-customer situations.

And, we will have to get accustomed to bowing to greet people, like the Japanese do.

[balthazar]

3 hours ago, dfelt said:

...my son's house to help him tap and mud his garage. He has a detailed plan on how he wants to set his new garage up.

pics, please.

[David]

29 minutes ago, balthazar said:

pics, please.

as he is learning, taping went fast, but mudding takes time. About 75% done over the weekend.

[balthazar]

Don't have to tell me how long spacklin' takes.
I'm a Spackle Master, 33rd degree at this point.

[David]

1 hour ago, balthazar said:

Don't have to tell me how long spacklin' takes.
I'm a Spackle Master, 33rd degree at this point.

Funny point is as you and everyone know, I being 6'6" tall can with no problem Handle the ceiling. I did not realize, my 5'8" son is about 6 inches shy from getting up to the ceiling so I had to come along behind him and mud the top 6 inches or so down since he could not. At least I did not have to bend over as he did all the low stuff.  

FYI, the wall that you see him with the Hot water tank, from the water tank down to the end is going to be one massive floor to ceiling shoe rack. My son loves his shoes and matching them with his outfits. Never seen a guy with so many shoes. Will post updated pics once we are finished mudding and painted, then once the shoe wall is built. 2nd phase is a overhead storage system at the end of the garage along with his work bench and tool storage system.

[David]

Beach wins versus 2 fords and a Tractor:

https://www.thedrive.com/news/32989/not-one-not-two-but-three-vehicles-beached-trying-to-recover-sunken-police-cruiser

This is just stupid that during a pandemic, teens feel the need to go to the beach and then a police officer makes the mistake of going on the wet sand and gets stuck and then more to follow of the 3 stooges show. 🙄

Very cool 300 car barn find filled with everyone's dream car just about even a Ford Pinto. LOL

https://www.thedrive.com/news/32985/this-enormous-300-car-barn-find-has-everything-from-classic-muscle-to-rare-supercars

 

[oldshurst442]

On 3/25/2020 at 6:20 PM, balthazar said:

Baltimore, '41 :

 These cars are not practising social distancing. Im calling the cops!

[David]

19 minutes ago, oldshurst442 said:

 These cars are not practising social distancing. Im calling the cops!

This was accepted Herd Mentality of the 40's.  

[trinacriabob]

Just an FYI - if you're "shopping" for airfares months after the curve has theoretically flattened, the domestic legacy carriers' fares aren't what they can be, meaning lower.  I am sure that they need the revenue and might be anticipating that people will cram all their air travel into this window of time when the weather is still decent.  

[daves87rs]

Hoping that fares do drop a little more....

[balthazar]

Cleaning thru mountains of paper, came across some notes I took about 7 years ago.
I was orchestrating a warehouse move for the DOT; we ran a 26-ft moving truck twice a day for 7 days, moving contents of 1 warehouse to another. While waiting one day out in the parking lot, I circled a mercedes benz 560SL. It had airbags and that EXCITING!! ribbed plastic cladding; I would guess it was a late '80s but daimler is too lazy to bother changing the styling for years, so without a data plate, who knows.

My notes read as follows:
• black plastic rear view mirror with Pinto-esque dimmer button
• black rubber-ringed sideview mirrors
• black plastic door handles
• black plastic grille bars [both the door handles and grille bars had sun-faded to that tiger-striped, sparkly grey color]
• very cheap matte black plastic bumper fillers/extensions
• black plastic A/C vents
• Pinto-esque open-topped console [no lidded compartment], covered with a wood-look vinyl sticker
• more cheesy 'wood' vinyl stickers around the radio
• very exposed/obvious seat belt bolts & brackets
• exposed foam rubber gaskets around the taillights
• exposed rubber trunk gasket (lower corners)
• exposed screws on metal pieces below headlights
• seats were ironing-board flat, so were the door panels, with no detailing or design whatsoever

The very notion that this was in any way a luxury car is a laugh riot. It was built cheap & sloppy, it screamed cheap & sloppy from front to back. mercedes was perpetrating 1940's construction levels on 1980s consumers. It's embarrassing. People who bought these should've thrown their money out the window instead.

I have 1 pic from my old computer of this car; this sort of thing was supposed to be engineered past in the pre-war era :

Edited April 14, 2020 by balthazar

[daves87rs]

2 hours ago, balthazar said:

Cleaning thru mountains of paper, came across some notes I took about 7 years ago.
I was orchestrating a warehouse move for the DOT; we ran a 26-ft moving truck twice a day for 7 days, moving contents of 1 warehouse to another. While waiting one day out in the parking lot, I circled a mercedes benz 560SL. It had airbags and that EXCITING!! ribbed plastic cladding; I would guess it was a late '80s but daimler is too lazy to bother changing the styling for years, so without a data plate, who knows.

My notes read as follows:
• black plastic rear view mirror with Pinto-esque dimmer button
• black rubber-ringed sideview mirrors
• black plastic door handles
• black plastic grille bars [both the door handles and grille bars had sun-faded to that tiger-striped, sparkly grey color]
• very cheap matte black plastic bumper fillers/extensions
• black plastic A/C vents
• Pinto-esque open-topped console [no lidded compartment], covered with a wood-look vinyl sticker
• more cheesy 'wood' vinyl stickers around the radio
• very exposed/obvious seat belt bolts & brackets
• exposed foam rubber gaskets around the taillights
• exposed rubber trunk gasket (lower corners)
• exposed screws on metal pieces below headlights
• seats were ironing-board flat, so were the door panels, with no detailing or design whatsoever

The very notion that this was in any way a luxury car is a laugh riot. It was built cheap & sloppy, it screamed cheap & sloppy from front to back. mercedes was perpetrating 1940's construction levels on 1980s consumers. It's embarrassing. People who bought these should've thrown their money out the window instead.

I have 1 pic from my old computer of this car; this sort of thing was supposed to be engineered past in the pre-war era :

Haven’t seen one in a while......

[David]

15 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

Just an FYI - if you're "shopping" for airfares months after the curve has theoretically flattened, the domestic legacy carriers' fares aren't what they can be, meaning lower.  I am sure that they need the revenue and might be anticipating that people will cram all their air travel into this window of time when the weather is still decent.  

Friend finally flew back from Chicago to San Francisco as he had just before the lock down, went to visit his family in Chicago for 2 weeks that ended up being 2 months as this was early to mid February. 

Jose told me that you had a full flight crew and no one in first class, but a total of 3 people in coach on the flight. 3 stewardesses for 3 people. each was spread out across the flight and the stewardesses also had to sit in the coach section for take off and landing to balance the plane for the 6 of them. He said it was the weirdest flight ever, but service was amazing.  

Flight cost was still normal prices, so they might be moving freight as the plane took a while to fill up the belly with the freight but clearly no real discounts yet. I doubt there will be as once travel starts up, I doubt there will be much. 

Heard from many companies that are doing decent in sales with no travel and even my company has informed the global sales staff that future travel will be very restricted since we clearly are not needing the face to face like we used too. Only face to face is the engineers who are going on site to data centers to fix hardware.

This is the start of a major transition in how we do business and interact with others.

[David]

WOW, this Hellcat frame repair is a Joke.

https://www.facebook.com/5ee5c20c-b32e-4f72-bea1-cff42c471f62

https://www.thedrive.com/news/33006/this-sketchy-dodge-hellcat-frame-job-is-the-most-dangerous-repair-of-2020-so-far

[riviera74]

2 hours ago, dfelt said:

WOW, this Hellcat frame repair is a Joke.

https://www.facebook.com/5ee5c20c-b32e-4f72-bea1-cff42c471f62

https://www.thedrive.com/news/33006/this-sketchy-dodge-hellcat-frame-job-is-the-most-dangerous-repair-of-2020-so-far

You call that a repair?  More like a total (too costly to repair) if the insurance company does a proper inspection of the vehicle.

[trinacriabob]

On 4/14/2020 at 12:47 PM, dfelt said:

Friend finally flew back from Chicago to San Francisco as he had just before the lock down, went to visit his family in Chicago for 2 weeks that ended up being 2 months as this was early to mid February. 

Jose told me that you had a full flight crew and no one in first class, but a total of 3 people in coach on the flight. 3 stewardesses for 3 people. each was spread out across the flight and the stewardesses also had to sit in the coach section for take off and landing to balance the plane for the 6 of them. He said it was the weirdest flight ever, but service was amazing.  

Flight cost was still normal prices, so they might be moving freight as the plane took a while to fill up the belly with the freight but clearly no real discounts yet. I doubt there will be as once travel starts up, I doubt there will be much. 

Heard from many companies that are doing decent in sales with no travel and even my company has informed the global sales staff that future travel will be very restricted since we clearly are not needing the face to face like we used too. Only face to face is the engineers who are going on site to data centers to fix hardware.

This is the start of a major transition in how we do business and interact with others.

Just as a distraction ... I once wondered how many gallons (or liters) of fuel it took to get a fully booked 747 from somewhere on the East Coast to one of the major gateways in Europe (like LHR, FRA, or CDG) and it was almost pointless to calculate that sort of thing.  If first and business class are somewhat full, they more than take care of the cost of the fuel.  The low priced seats in the back, upwards of 325 of them in economy, would pay for other operating costs, overhead, and profit.  Cargo would do the same.  That's one possible way to look at it.

 

[Robert Hall]

I miss the 747..largely out of service...I think BA flew their last one on the PHX<->LHR route in the last year...I took the BA 747s from PHX and DEN a few times back in the 00s, as well as 777s... loved flying on 747s.   I used to see the BA ones taking off out of PHX Sky Harbor on the evening flight while driving down the 10.. 

I also remember walking around at Honolulu airport and seeing the 747s in various liveries lined up..love that airport, the way it's laid out you get great views of the planes.

Edited April 15, 2020 by Robert Hall

[trinacriabob]

1 hour ago, Robert Hall said:

I miss the 747..largely out of service...I think BA flew their last one on the PHX<->LHR route in the last year...I took the BA 747s from PHX and DEN a few times back in the 00s, as well as 777s... loved flying on 747s.   I used to see the BA ones taking off out of PHX Sky Harbor on the evening flight while driving down the 10.. 

I also remember walking around at Honolulu airport and seeing the 747s in various liveries lined up..love that airport, the way it's laid out you get great views of the planes.

Have never been to Hawaii.  Yet.  I'll check out a HNL airport map.

British used the 747-400 between SEA and LHR in the evenings as well, in addition to the 747 service from PHX to LHR you mention.  It's easier to see planes doing their thing at PHX, which has come a long ways, than it is at SEA, where there's no planespotting area that I know of.

As for DEN, I know that Lufthansa used the 747-400 for non-stops to FRA.  It looks like Lufthansa will park their A380s, retire their remaining 747-400s (they've seen a lot of action), and probably use their 747-8i for nonstop long-haul that have the demand.  The newer 8i is one beautiful machine.

I've only flown on a 777 once.  Can't say I liked it all that much.  For passenger comfort, the 767 is better, with 2-3-2 in economy.  That could pencil out better and that's why everything with 2 aisles is at least 8 economy seats across now.

I vaguely recall that, from the initial roll to rotation, a 747-200 or -400 (?) consumes about 800 gallons of fuel.

Edited April 15, 2020 by trinacriabob

[oldshurst442]

I also miss the 747.  All my trips to Greece through-out the 70s,  '80s and '90s were with 747s.  Lufthansa and KLM. 3 trips to Greece in the 2000s were with Air Transat and they use ( I believe) the Airbus  A330-300 and I think it was this airplane I was in.  

Its a good plane. It flies nice.  But nothing like a 747.  And I believe the 747 cruised at a slightly higher speed than the A330. 

With the A330 going to Greece was like 9 hours and coming back is like 10 hours, but I swear I remember the 747 with Lufthansa (direct flight like with Air Transat because KLM was a stop-over at Amsterdam)  it was 8 going and 9 coming back home.  1 hour faster.  Unless the route  taken with Air Transat was a  longer arc...

 

 

 

[trinacriabob]

@oldshurst442  AirTransat flies a lot of A330s to cross the pond.  I think cruising speed advantage can be cancelled out by tail winds and head winds.  The last Alitalia flight from Rome to New York was 10 hours.  The pilot said it would be 1 hour longer because of strong head winds.  Normally, it's 9 to come back to the U.S. and 8 to go to Italy. I've also seen the eastbound trip be as short as 7:20 because of tail winds.

The 747 is just impressive to be in.  One of the things, though, is that there are 3 seats out on the sides.  That's more people to crawl over if you like windows.

If you sit way in the back and the 747 turns 180 degrees while taxiing, you get a good spin from it compared to those sitting in the middle, near the fulcrum.

With reference to Greece, I've seen Olympic's Airbus 340 going to Athens at JFK parked at the gate across the way.  The 340 is probably my favorite Airbus product.

[trinacriabob]

Olympic Airways (Greek carrier no longer flying to North America) A340-300 - nice livery

Aerolineas Argentinas A340-300 - Argentina has had some great liveries for their fleet

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by trinacriabob

[daves87rs]

All this talk about flying....and I have never flown before in my 40+ years of life.

Sucks, as I was going to take my first flight in a few months before this all happened.....

[David]

8 hours ago, riviera74 said:

You call that a repair?  More like a total (too costly to repair) if the insurance company does a proper inspection of the vehicle.

But the replacement part is only $600 dollars. This was just a blow off repair, but I wonder how bad the rest of the auto was crashed and just as cheaply repaired. I agree with you that it was probably a totaled Hellcat repaired on the cheap and an attempt to sell high.

I see 747's every day still as clearly Boeing is still bringing in parts for new plan production and of course, UPS and FedEx use the 747 for freight out of Pain Field north of my house.

[balthazar]

From the 'What's Old is New Again' Department : I learned that Pontiac offered adjustable pedals in the mid '70s ~

[daves87rs]

2 hours ago, balthazar said:

From the 'What's Old is New Again' Department : I learned that Pontiac offered adjustable pedals in the mid '70s ~

Wonder if they were the first GM division to get it?

[ocnblu]

[balthazar]

9 hours ago, daves87rs said:

Wonder if they were the first GM division to get it?

Don’t know- only learned about it yesterday. Divisions were still doing the lion’s share of their own engineering in the ‘70s.

[Robert Hall]

Must have been a pretty rare option, never heard of that feature on other marques until maybe the late 90s...seem to recall Ford putting it in some SUVs (Navigator?)... 

[balthazar]

1 hour ago, Robert Hall said:

Must have been a pretty rare option, never heard of that feature on other marques until maybe the late 90s...

Pontiac was a huge innovator in the late '50s into the '70s.
- - - - -
Tenneessee, 1937 :

[ocnblu]

[balthazar]

You ever post stuff in that thread, blu?
You know I do- that's me ^ top of page 488.

[trinacriabob]

20 hours ago, daves87rs said:

All this talk about flying....and I have never flown before in my 40+ years of life.

Sucks, as I was going to take my first flight in a few months before this all happened.....

It'll happen for you.  It will either be (1) wow, (2) that was okay, or (3) you won't like it.  Most people are in the first 2 groups.  A small group, such as my parents, would have been in the last group.  I'm definitely in the first group - wow.

[David]

1 hour ago, ocnblu said:

Too Funny, 23 1/2 hr service.   Guess they gotta get 30 min of sleep daily.

[daves87rs]

And we have snow coming....why????

[ocnblu]

4 hours ago, daves87rs said:

And we have snow coming....why????

Ask Al Gore, he's a climate scientist.

10 hours ago, balthazar said:

You ever post stuff in that thread, blu?
You know I do- that's me ^ top of page 488.

What you mean, compadre?  Which thread, I went to page 488 in here and it was Ford v. Ferrari at the top of 488.  Confoozed, I be.

9 hours ago, dfelt said:

gotta get 30 min of sleep daily.

That's about how much I'm getting lately

[balthazar]

3 hours ago, ocnblu said:

What you mean, compadre?  Which thread, I went to page 488 in here and it was Ford v. Ferrari at the top of 488.  Confoozed, I be.

Wondering where you saw it- it popped up in a small FB page like 2 days ago, never saw it before so I started spreadin it around. 
You need to watch the HAMB ‘vintage pics of days gone by thread. Very busy, very cool images.

[oldshurst442]

8 hours ago, daves87rs said:

And we have snow coming....why????

 

3 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Ask Al Gore, he's a climate scientist.

Or we could ask Donald J. Tump...he's also a climate scientist. A more recent one at that. He's got more current information to work with...

He's also a pandemic specialist. An economist connoisseur and lets not forget, an all time athletic great.

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by oldshurst442

[Robert Hall]

8 hours ago, daves87rs said:

And we have snow coming....why????

Had a bit here Wednesday night and light flurries yesterday, more coming today.  Unusual to see April snow in Ohio, can't recall the last time I've seen that.   Had a bit of ice on it, fell at the end of the driveway on my arse yesterday morning when rolling out the wheely bins.

[David]

16 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

Had a bit here Wednesday night and light flurries yesterday, more coming today.  Unusual to see April snow in Ohio, can't recall the last time I've seen that.   Had a bit of ice on it, fell at the end of the driveway on my arse yesterday morning when rolling out the wheely bins.

Hope your bum is not bruised, was 70 yesterday and sunny here in Seattle and freakin hot. 😥

[Robert Hall]

1 minute ago, dfelt said:

Hope your bum is not bruised, was 70 yesterday and sunny here in Seattle and freakin hot. 😥

A bit sore all over, twisted my back..have bruises on my right knuckles because I was holding the recycle bin handle and pulled it down on me as I fell..  and of course a couple hours later the ice had melted.

[David]

Wonderful NOT, incompetent leadership strikes again in that the EPA has removed the laws covering regulation of lead and other harmful emissions that can affect our kids and our health all for the all mighty dollar.

https://electrek.co/2020/04/16/epa-kills-mercury-pollution-rule-putting-pregnant-women-minorities-at-risk/#more-130668