trinacriabob

Interesting day, this 25th of April! It's a holiday in Italy, as in Festa della Liberazione - that means they liberated themselves from Mussolini ... either in 1945 or 1946 Then, I thought a little bit more and something else popped into my head: it might also be a holiday in Portugal ... this is the day that they got rid of dictator Antonio Salazar ... in 1974. It's almost impossible to forget that if you've been there because they renamed their large harbor suspension bridge from Ponte Salazar to Ponte 25 de Abril. A high functioning democracy is a beautiful thing. Cheers everyone!

This one weirds me out. Everywhere I go, I meet Germans! In grad school ... on vacation ... on this ship. I now have a new German friend who lives in the greater Houston area. I don't have any signs on my head! They're friendlier to me than Italians.

About a week at sea after departing the Atlantic Seaboard and on schedule to dock in the Azores tomorrow. I've always been curious about these islands. I'm looking forward to this ... a lush, volcanic archipelago 900 miles from the coast of Portugal. You could definitely hang out by the pool at the beginning of the voyage. Now, it's cool and comfortable, so no one is out by the pools, unless it's the one that's covered by the dome. I'm hoping that pool weather will come back once we enter the Mediterranean. There are a lot of nice people aboard, but a few oddballls stand out. I do not include myself in that latter group.

What I was really going to say: If you celebrate it, Happy Easter. If not, enjoy the weekend.

I was referring more to the demographics. I was driving around the Stone Mountain suburb of Atlanta, which a few people have tried to push toward a comeback, given that it has a little bohemian village at its center, and it hasn't worked. Some of the junior sized McMansions look nice, but there are metal doors over the front doors. Some of them also look neglected and they're not that old. It might have been redneck at some point, hence the gun toting, but this is clearly a majority African-American neighborhood at this point and has been for a while.

If you drive around an area and the houses look nice, but they all seem to have wrought iron or metal doors in front of their front doors, it's probably best to move along and keep looking.

Based on what I last read, today is the first day of operation for Sound Transit's new light rail line connecting Seattle to the East Side, meaning Bellevue and Redmond, home of Microsoft. It's going to cross on the I-90 floating bridge across Lake Washington. I'll eventually get to the area and take a ride on it. Something like this was a long time coming and needed. When I lived on the East Side and would go out of town via the airport, I would to take the miserable 340 (?) bus connecting Bellevue to SEA Airport. It was a milk train and would go through Renton, which I had nicknamed "rent to own." I lived diagonally across the metro area from the airport. I'm glad that Line 2 is finally here.

When people talk about electric vehicles and how they might fare for others, the other person's context needs to come into view. Last summer, I was driving through a beachside town on the Adriatic coast in Central Italy. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, so I had to pull over and take a photo This is evidently an electrified Fiat. I don't know what this person's parking situation is, but it looks like they've got it parked on a narrow apron, are blocking the sidewalk, and the electricity is being borrowed from somewhere inside the house through a long cord. Unless a person in Italy has a detached home that has a garage or is in a condo tower that has garages at its base, they may not have a real tidy solution for electrifying the car while it's parked and they aren't doing something else or are sleeping. A person could be in the exact same situation in the United States and Canada. If you've got an EV and have a garage or carport, you can charge it as needed nightly if there are outlets available. A friend of mine who lives in a Southern California suburb and has an 1,800 square foot house with a two car garage has 2 Teslas being charged while parked in the garage. The same could be true in a personal garage somewhere in Europe. But without the garage situation established and a vehicle yet to be decided on ... and if it looks anything like the above photo ... I don't expect to be buying an electric car this next time.

I couldn't believe this. Why was the truck even moving into an active runway or taxiway? This is very sad and they gave some background on the two pilots who lost their lives, both of whom were fairly young and had their lives ahead of them.

I know. When I was talking about USC, I then went over to Mossimo and Lori Loughlin. They participated in the bribed admissions snafu at USC for their daughters and did time. I rechecked and those two are separated instead of divorced. As for Bezos and his arm candy, only time will tell what that will look like.

USC grad and I believe a SoCal upbringing. USC was once not that hard to get into. I'm not commenting on her intellectual abilities (she's not a rocket scientist, that's for sure), just the statistics. Admission percentages for freshmen at the best public universities in America have dropped like a lead balloon. I don't know if I'd want to go to a school where Mossimo* and Lori Loughlin* had to swindle the system to get their daughters in. It's also in a somewhat dangerous neighborhood. What it does is beg the question as to who and what she is thinking about when she's got her thighs wrapped around his waist. I'm just calling a spade a spade. * I just did a wiki on them. They got divorced last year.

What I was really going to say: Just based on what is being fed to me on my phone and the photos they pose for, it doesn't look like Jeff Bezos is too happy with this trophy wife he bagged. Once you study her more, it looks like most of her existence is about being a poseur. I'm not so sure I like her.

Just for "fun," I priced a GMC Acadia base model (Elevation) with only front wheel drive. I am surprised that most of the colors are extra charge. That's not good. I selected the standard Summit White. Interior colors are either black or gray. I selected gray. I didn't bother to add any flooring or cargo packages. You can always think about those later. Most of the power gizmos on the car come standard. The MSRP with freight was $45,595! Are they even discounting them at the dealer level? How much? Is GM giving any incentives? I'm guessing that the 2.5 L4 is the same one that we've known for years but has a turbo bolted onto it. It comes with an 8-speed automatic transmission. The landscape sure is different on so many levels.

Good morning ...

Thanks. I did not know that they were at a 4 cylinder. On a GM, 1.5 liters is 90 c.i., so they have to append a turbo to it. In looking at the Nissan Sentra, they use a 2.0 L4, for example ... 120 cubes is a displacement that has been standard lingo across many car brands for years. Once the Charger, which had been continuously revised to become such a nice car, left the fold, my interest in Stellantis it is all but gone.

Since I haven't yet decided which side of the pond and if I wanted to throw out a little bit more money and it didn't have to be a car, I could choose a GMC Acadia. Of the vehicles which were not sedans that I've rented, this one might be the most pleasing in terms of looks, comfort, and ride. I am almost sure I've reviewed it in the not too distant past. It has a slightly bigger engine ... since the number 1.5, as in liters, gives me heartburn.

If I've deleted some from the list, it's because they're not in my price point. No thank you to expensive German iron. I don't like spending a lot of money on cars. Some comments: I've rented the K4 and they work just fine, but it has a lot of nasty angles, especially the long tear drop tail lights and even the side of the greenhouse I do like the Toyota Camry ... at last they got it right The Honda Civic used to be an ugly duckling and now it's actually a decent looking car with a good amount of room. I had a rented Honda Accord in South Florida, which I reviewed here and, better yet, it was a hybrid. These Hyundais are not very attractive and the jellybean one (Sonata) looks cheap when you get up close to it. I like the Nissan Sentra. I can't believe I'm saying that. The Cadillac is the only one on this list that is a GM car ... and which I like. If not optioned up, the price point isn't that bad. The Charger is electric, so no. But hybrid is fine. But where this leaves me is that there isn't much choice at all for those wanting to redeem what they've accumulated on their GM Card. It wasn't like throwing money to the wind because you still make use of the credit card, but I would have not continued having a car card if I knew the market would be changing like this. I would have fared better with another airline card.

Three volumes gives you plenty more to work with artistically.

This one for me ... no spoiler, nice color, but the cladding was a bit much, though. I'm guessing it was designed from scratch and does not share the greenhouse of the previous model. Busy but interesting dashboard. This would have been a car bought second hand by a diner waitress in or near Redding, California that she would drive while holding her cigarette out the window.

What I was really going to say: I have NOTHING I would want to use a good chunk of change on my GM Card for. I know that a Boeing 797 will eventually come around, but I had no idea that sedans and coupes would disappear. Depressing.

I'm very limited with my Bonneville years. Liked '88 onward, but only '90 and '91 with the color block tail lamps. Then, anything 2000 until the curtain fell on the Bonne, in LE trim but with buckets/console and the base alloys. It would be a 3800, but sadly only Series II. I especially liked the last Bonneville ... and its unique rear tail lamp assembly. - - - - - I forgot ... how can I forget the '75 and '76 Grand Ville Brougham or Bonneville Brougham coupe with a landau roof and the typical Pontiac rally wheels of that era? 400 c.i. V8 and up, so no thanks to that.

Yes. And to think that that was done with very simple engines with four speed transaxles makes it even more impressive. Those 3400, 3500, and 3800 V6s what have been considered somewhat complex when compared to a 231 c.i. V6 with a two barrel carburetor, and even more complex compared to a 250 c.i. L6 with a one barrel carburetor that they put into some hefty GM cars coinciding with the arrival of the catalytic converter.

Fun people know how to laugh at themselves. Italians are funny people, they are great to poke fun at, and they can usually laugh at themselves. I forgot how funny this scene was. This whole movie was one of those timeless gems from happier times.

Great. At 65 under perfect conditions, I could see it getting 31 or 32. For me, it's a game I sometimes entertain myself with. I'm guessing this is at least 300 horsepower worth of V6. I'm still trying to figure out how mid-2000s Impala and Monte Carlos with 3.4 and 3.5 V6s easily got their 33 and 34 mpg ... and they did.

What is harder to park in historic city centers - your Jeep Grand Cherokee or your Cadillac? What kind of mileage is your Cadillac getting in near-perfect, long trip highway conditions?