trinacriabob

I have been thinking about IKEA's Christmas smorgasbord lately. Damn pandemic had to ruin things. I have a feeling it may return this holiday season. For about $12,99, all I can say is "bring it on."

Also, had to mention to @oldshurst442 that you've done some things that impress me, and probably others: you've been very active in raising 2 teenage children, you have a business, neither of which I have done, and, while bilingualism is common in Quebec, and in Canada, you probably speak three languages: English, French, and Greek ... each being on different roots.

@oldshurst442 Thank you for the kind words. Is it okay if I laugh about part of the post? I own being a real nerd when it comes to certain topics. For one, I am fascinated by geography and always have been. One life shaping event was moving back (and forth) to Europe 2 times with my parents before I was a teenager. That involved crossing the Atlantic on the few ships that were still doing that voyage and even crossing America on Amtrak from the West Coast to the NYC suburbs, where we stayed with relatives for a few days before boarding for the sailing. So, by the time you are 8 years old, and you can study maps, I was able to trace the ocean crossing - seeing the ports we stopped in as well as the Azores, which you sail through - as well as the train trip across the U.S. Every place looked different. So did the people. But, mostly, the scale was staggering, when you compare it to going from L.A. to Las Vegas, or even N.Y. to Miami. My dad also contributed to this. Before being allowed to come to the U.S., he moved to Australia, as did others from Mediterranean countries. Australia was sort of open at the time and he got in. He stayed 3 years. He did not like it. He also took the ship to and from Australia. That trip is 3x as along as crossing the Atlantic. You go through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and then cross the Indian Ocean along South Asia and then down to Australia. I heard about all this and saw photos from these journeys. I'm glad he didn't like Australia! I much preferred growing up in the U.S. Cars and planes were such an evolving "art form" when growing up. Both had a lot of personality and kitsch that's lacking today. Yes, there was less worry about the environment, sustainability, and global warming. So, ignoring that, cars were going for new styling frontiers, crazier interiors, and bigger engines. And I loved following all that, and even sketching it up at times. The same was true for planes. We lived about 6 miles from the international airport and I would ride my bike there, just to be at the airport and look at all the planes and even the different airport buildings. The 747 kept getting updated and better. The L.A. Times would always have big ads for the different airlines and their gimmicks, including a Hawaiian styled lounge in the coach section from the West Coast to Honolulu on certain Continental 747s! How cool is that? I would tear out some of these newspaper ads and keep them. You were very likely to fly from L.A. and S.F. to N.Y. or Chicago on 747s. In fact, it was fun to look at their schedules and find those odd trips where the transcontinental trip had another leg on it so, just maybe, you could fly on a jumbo jet somewhere close, like to San Francisco for 45 minutes. But kids and teens couldn't take trips like that, unless you convinced your parents to go, too. The above is absolutely hilarious by today's standards but, when you're a kid, you took it for granted. This is on a Continental 747 ... in "coach." Today, losing this many coach seats to a "lounge" would never pencil and you'd be attracting the bar flies. But, maybe that would be better than having people on planes being hostile to flight attendants and each other. We didn't hear much about that when I was a kid. The above is American Airline's rendition of the 747 coach lounge. This is nuts, including facing sideways and backwards. That lady looks like Jill St. John. The above is upstairs in first class, again on a Continental 747 ... another kitsch laugh riot. "Those were the days" because I don't think that, despite so much progress, QOL is much better in the last decade or so. @Robert Hall also has interesting stories and I like hearing about the compare-contrast between living in the Desert Southwest and the Rocky Mountain states, especially since both have pipelines of people going to and from California. And, along with many others, how people originally from the Eastern Time Zone headed the call to "go West" and what that was like. Stories about immigration and transplantation fascinate me. I'm all ears for those.

It's obviously a B777. However, I don't know where that might be, with the mountain backdrop so close. That part looks nice. I know that the backdrop is way north of YVR (Vancouver Intnl.), so it's not YVR and I'm at a loss. Aeroflot has been kicked out of SkyTeam. (Act like a "team player" and you get to stay in.)

What did I do to my car today? A lot. Today was the day for the new Michelins! They are the latest Defender 2 design, branded a specific way for Costco. With the current sale, the package deal for everything was a nice thing to have in these inflationary times. Instead of going "Cafe 1.50," I went "Cafe 2.69," because I had a slice of pepperoni pizza and a soft drink while I waited. "Costco lunch" pickings were slim. I started out with that. As I got near the place, I drove the car around a couple more miles and pulled it up to the tire department when the tire life was at exactly 72,000 miles. OCD much, eh? The guy told me I still had about 4 mms on the middle treads, but clearly not at the shoulders. Still, that's impressive. I then went to get them aligned at a small shop I happened upon a year ago and really like, and then went for a belated birthday dinner for and with a friend. Between brand new tires, and their being balanced and aligned, the car drove as if it had less than 50,000 miles and reminded me of the incredibly quiet motoring on smooth asphalt between Portland and Seattle during the car's "early years."

Love that Iberia A340-600. Look at those engines and the open thrust reversers. The only A340-600 I've flown on was operated by Iberia ... it was a Chicago O'Hare to Madrid flight, connecting onward to BLQ from there. The 300s I've been on were from Lufthansa and Iberia. It left on time and got in a little early ... a lot of them do going eastbound since they pick up a good tail wind from the jet stream. It was still fairly dark upon landing in Madrid. Iberia and Aerolineas Argentinas were under the same umbrella at one time, with both having what they called the "arcoiris" livery going over the top of the fuselages, but with different colors based on each country's flag. On AR, I flew on their 747-200 from Miami to Argentina and back. Half empty in each direction and oh so comfortable with armrests up and laying down horizontally to sleep. This was the livery before the very last one. Nice. I like the white one above, but this very last one, below, is kind of interesting. Here it is in Auckland, New Zealand! Some early Airbus 340s had those unusual thrust reversers that stuck out, like on this one.

I was hunting around for Airbus 340 vids. How I miss this plane. Back in its heyday, if I got on an Airbus 340, I was sort of steamed I didn't get onto a Boeing 747. Now, I wish I had ridden on more of them. This video is sort of long, but very educational. For one, it pointed out that the Airbus 330 (twin) and Airbus 340 (quad) were developed at the same time and share a lot of parts ... both are 2-4-2. The 340 (quad) fell out of favor, while the 330 (twin) keeps spawning new variants, the latest of which is the -900 neo. They made 4 of the Airbus 340 - 200, 300, 500, and 600. One saw a lot of 300s and then a lot of 600s. I've flown on both. The 300 "looks" better. Yes, it was the current time's answer to the very dated Boeing 707 and its skinny engines. The 600 roars and those big engines get that disproportionately long fuselage (longer than a 747, IIRC) to rotate fairly quickly. Just great! A cool 300 version, flown by Swiss and obviously in Swiss airspace. Did I mention that I miss this plane?

I couldn't photograph it, but I saw a near perfect silver Saturn Aura sedan today. I don't see those often. I'm guessing they were possibly on the same platform as the Grand Am and Alero, but they did a nice job with this car. Toward the end, Saturn was making some nicer looking cars, quite a step up from the spartan jellybean products they initially rolled out. Some dog/car sightings ... all this afternoon: 1. I went to the AAA to load up a travel card and a little black lab puppy was hanging his head out of the car window near where I had parked and was wagging up a storm. 2. I was sitting there getting coffee and, looking at the drive through, a guy driving out of it with one of those whipped coffee drinks let his dog in the passenger seat take the first big lick out of all that whipped garbage on those drinks ... don't give your dog sweets. 3. I saw an upline SUV from which a German Shepherd had hoisted himself up via the console and was sticking his head out of it. They are all goofy critters.

Saw this at a supermarket. It's a Porsche. Don't know which model. The area is okay, hence the owner left it uncovered. Wish those burgundy interiors will become more prevalent. September, yes, but prior to the official start of autumn.

Saw this. Reminded me of so many rentals - for a great price and with great gas mileage - that I will probably never again see from behind the wheel of a small domestic vehicle. Also, there were a handful or so of goofy enamel colors (pistachio, bright green, purple, dark yellow, etc.) that were offered on the Fiesta in its final years. I'm not so sure I saw them on the final Focuses. I enjoyed my Fiesta rentals, minus one circa 2016 or 2017 to Vancouver, Canada where the automatic transmission was doing just what they wrote it would.

This is an elegant livery. No doubt. The white has helped so many 747s look better, just look at those who ultimately went that route - Air Canada, Air France, Pan Am, TWA, Aerolineas Argentinas, etc. when they had them in their fleets. I don't think Trump comes up with livery designs. Maybe somehow he hired or gave it to came up with it. I'm not a fan of the robin egg blue on Air Force One, except that we now know that livery. I do like the one above, provided that's (dark) blue and NOT black. The raked wing design on this aircraft is a thing of beauty.

It's Oscar De La Hoya, whose boxing skills took an East L.A. boy out of East L.A.

Good morning ...

Wondering when the new Boeing 747-8i is to make its debut as Air Force One. Doing some reminiscing and found a photo of Varig Brasil's jumbo. Brazil's flag carrier hasn't operated in a long time, but they were definitely THE Brazilian airline, even with nonstops from LAX to GRU (Sao Paulo), and maybe even Rio. Here's their 747-300 approaching the south runway at LAX: Here's their very last livery, with the jumbo flying in front of Sugarloaf Mountain and Rio's beaches on approach to GIG (Rio de Janeiro International)

I ignored the cars. They're not my style. However, I like and am getting used to the new skyline of Lower Manhattan. Sooner than later, I want to go to the observatory at the top. I've gone to the upper level of the previous WTC twice - in 1984 and 1996. I've never been to the Empire State Building, but I've walked past it. The WTC site has a much nicer position, with views of the harbor, other boroughs, and more of the bridges. Also, downtown Manhattan can be really cool on an off-peak Sunday because it was surprisingly quiet. I've actually parked my Cutlass on or near Wall Street for free, walked to Battery Park, and boarded the Staten Island ferry, which is a great adventure in and of itself. It was also a relief from being at the house of my eccentric but brilliant NYU schooled chemist uncle, where the lodging was free. I've always found that NYers are goofier, funnier, more direct, and friendlier than one might think. OTOH, Chicagoans are defensive about their city and area to the point of coming across as insecure. You can have the Windy City. I got my hands on a National Geographic when I was a kid, and saw how all the boroughs are laid out, on islands, with water all around, and with topography and knew this city and metro area were a gem. Four out of five of NYC's boroughs are on islands. Only the Bronx is attached to the very bottom part of New York state.

It didn't used to be, but today is always a difficult day. Never forget.

Rest in peace, Queen Elizabeth II ... it would have been nice to see both the Queen and Prince Philip become centenarians. Like most Americans, I do not follow the royals, but one good memory of the Queen would be her christening of the QE2 some 55 years ago, in 1967. The superstructure would need to be completed and outfitted after the launch of the hull. The ship - the famed QE2 - was finished and first sailed to NYC in 1969. They haven't been sliding them into the water for decades. They build them in dry dock and then "add water." Also, the champagne bottle HAS TO break. It would be bad luck if it didn't, they say. There wasn't all the technology we have today, but, in many regards, these were probably simpler and better times.

You got them all, and you got them in ascending order, by division! There we go: unified grille on Chevy and Buick, split grille on Pontiac and Olds I doubt that these were anything but reliable ... you can probably get an in-line 6 in all of the base models ... maybe even a "3 on the tree" (lol) but I hope people wouldn't have done that! I liked the curved and mirror-imaged taillamps on LeMans coupes that had the finned back lites, say around '67. A good many of those seemed to have 326 motors.

@David The price point is also a little high. Or it can go there quickly.

I just saw this photo. I had completely forgotten that they made these and couldn't even generate an image of it in my head if told about it. Cutlasses couple sales far exceeded sedan sales in several of its generational designs. However, it's not totally ugly. They did the best they could with it.

Put French onion dip in front of me and I become dangerous.

Good photo, but I don't know what I think about this car. I only know one person who has a Stinger. It is the first year model and it appears to be working out fine.

Good ... a September thread is up and running. Seen on the 1st of the month while driving through a borderline industrial / residential area. I couldn't believe it. I had to turn back! 1980 was a good stepping stone from the oversized headlamp 1978-1979 models to the 1981 shovel nose refresh, which sounds like a negative but was definitely successful. Except for the windshield, the aftermarket exhaust, and those too wide whitewalls, this Cutlass Supreme Brougham coupe is in great shape. I wondered which engine it had, but I wasn't about to go knocking on doors to find out. Seeing this view from off in the distance is what got me to drive around again. If anything, this 1980-only treatment really connected this smaller model to the highly successful 1976 model with quad rectangular lamps and twin waterfall grilles.

I almost forgot about this one. It was really obnoxious and stereotypical, but hilarious. (In this live rendition, he involves the audience) This guy's fame turned on a dime, and he got rich off this one song skyrocketing.

Yes, I have had the Elantra and Forte as rentals several times. I believe I've had an Optima once. When it comes to Hyundai and Kia, I almost like their Accent and Rio, respectively, more. They're like personal go karts. Sadly, those have gone from 6 speed automatics to CVTs. I've had rentals with both types of transmissions.