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Yeah, I feel your pain on a personal level. I would wake up with maddening cramps in both calfs just by doing the "I just woke up" stretch. Holy hell! A s*** way to start the day. Get it taken care of, whatever it is. Mine has been that plus crazy nerve pain.

I have zero issue with this lol. Love Steve Martin! Shoulder, four years ago, actually and currently staring at a hip replacement in the near future (have to deal with the nerve issues in the back first). We won't talk about knees though as my right knee may decide to join in on the pain party, thirty years after damn near tearing it during my very last game of pickup football lol. I have virtually no real cartilage left there since that incident and have been predicting rain with it since 1992.

@David Not fun screwing up your knee. Hope you have a speedy recovery. Hopefully no surgery will be involved but either way, I see lots of physiotherapy in your near future. I had reconstructive knee surgery myself a little more than a decade ago (years of hockey and skiing abuse) only to tell you that I feel your pain literally and figuratively speaking. I think that @surreal1272 went through the same as well. We could be called the 3 Amigos I guess. You could be Chevy Chase because you are the tallest one and I could be Martin Short as I am the shortest one. And @surreal1272 could be Steve Martin because well...he would be the remaining 3rd Amigo. Regarding the upcoming Zora. No...I wouldnt be buying one even if I had the money. 1. Not my type of car. 2. My expectations of life has changed DRASTICALLY the last 24 hours. I would have never bought 100 000 dollar cars in the first place before certain knowledge of certain events that I learned about the last 24 hours, but even moreso now. Although I sooooooo want Chevrolet to release a Corvette like that sometime soon! I have seen myself think in the negative the last month or two. Part of that I think is simple old age cynicism as I get closer to 50. Philosophical realities that older, wiser (hopefully) people experience as they age and see how crappy human nature can be as the naive younger self grows older. On top of that, I also have seen myself wanting to re-live some of my youthful frustrations that I have endured. I am not in a dark place. Im fine even though these last words typed seem like such a downer. Life for me and my family is just GREAT! We are all doing great. Health and love to which I wish everyone here the same as I and my family are!

Two interesting stories for today: https://cleantechnica.com/2023/02/26/us-auto-industry-down-3-million-sales-19-since-2019/ QUOTE: “Fun fact. The overall auto industry has on average declined 1.18% y/y since 2015. In this span, BEVs have grown on average 57.67% y/y while ICE sales declined 2.51% y/y. Total ICE production in 2022 was just 74 million … a level last seen in 2007! With BEVs really capturing the market now it seems clear we are well past ‘peak ICE’ which happened in 2017 at 96.5 million cars.” Compared to 2021, things change up a bit. Tesla still saw strong growth — just not as much of course (37%). Cadillac was up decently (14%). And a few other brands were up moderately — GMC was up 7%, Chevrolet was up 6%, and Mercedes was up 6%. Chevrolet (80,000+) and GMC (35,000+) were up the most in volume terms aside from Tesla (~139,000). Looking at the suffering brands, Honda lost the most volume-wise year over year (down a whopping 428,021), followed by Nissan (-236,355), Toyota (-178,032), Ram (-102,137), and Jeep (-94,097). In terms of a percentage drop, Fiat is still on the bottom of the pile. (Is Fiat going to survive in the USA?) Buick (-42%), Acura (-35%), Honda (-33%), and Alfa Romeo (-30%) also saw a significant drop in sales year over year. OUCH on the sales front. The car folks like @ccap41 @oldshurst442 @surreal1272 @Robert Hall @Drew Dowdell @riviera74 should enjoy this story. [VIDEO] 2025 Corvette Zora: Would You Buy One? - Corvette: Sales, News & Lifestyle (corvetteblogger.com)

Ahhhh bummer, bud! Hopefully nothing actually tore and "just" physical therapy can get you moving again. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery. I'd think you'd have MORE time sitting in front of a computer/phone now, haha.

The Firebird pic went away from this website, I found it again so I could re-post it. Its a beautiful picture. Beautiful scene. Beautiful car. But just in case it goes away again, I will find another convertible Firebird to post to compensate and for us to enjoy another beautiful car that is the 1st gen Firebird.

Went to the Cleveland Auto Show today, did some car spotting. Was fun. Liked the C8s…they had an orange Z06, gray e-Ray and a silver convertible. The ‘24 Mustang Dark Horse looked good. Sat in the Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve..very nice interior. With the center console, felt tighter than my '14 GC. I like the interior materials, though the piano black on the center console would be covered in fingerprints easily. Sat in the Cadillac Lyriq--very striking design. I like it..bigger than it looks in photos. Sat in the CT5 and CT4, very nice. The CT5 C-pillar has grown on me, though the new Civic has the same C-pillar trim. The BMW XM was ghastly in person. The auto show was dull overall compared to past years, too many huge ugly trucks and boring CUVs…

And it’s stupid that manufacturers, not just Nissan, do stuff like this. Lincoln dropped AWD in the Nautilus for the final 2 years of production. Chrysler/Dodge dropped AWD in V8 Models of the LX cars after 2015. GM dropped AWD in the diesel Equinox/Terrain for its final years. Doing that doesn’t increase sales.

these little cars get good spa ratings with the smaller motors but in real world they struggle to get that mpg at 75 mpg on the interstate if the car is underpowered. A car like the Encore GX with just a bit more boost for those top end speeds like the 1.5 liter from the Terrain is likely to get same or better mpg on the highway and probably not any less in normal city driving either. Once the weight of the vehicle increases and the drag increases like it does with CUV's vs sedans, that has a bigger impact on fuel economy than anything. There were times I pulled 54 mpg over a 25 or 50 mile stretch in my 1.5 turbo Malibu in optimal conditions. But that was a sedan, low and aerodynamic with front drive only. The 1.5 was the best combo for high mpg on that car. On an all wheel drive, tall chunky crossover like the Encore, you see that the highway mpg is most often only a few mpg more than the city. The tiny 3 cylinder is working too hard at higher speeds to push that less aerodynamic, drag ridden ridden vehicle with that little displacement. In the real world a 1.5 would get the same mpg I bet. If less, maybe 1 mpg only.