trinacriabob

I had to get a rental car for a couple of days to see some sights near but not in Lisbon, Portugal. For others, public transit such as the Metro worked well … or even better. Overseas, you want to land on deals that wrap all the insurance coverages into the deal and this was one such package – and one you want in a European capital. Surprisingly, the traffic wasn’t all that, bad but the roads outside the belt roads aren’t as clear and neither is Google Maps. To that end, I ordered something with an automatic transmission. The invoice said I’d be getting a Toyota Corolla Hybrid or similar. That’s what I was given. I don’t know how they manage over there with cars the size of Mercedes. I had to do some maneuvering to get the car around other cars and the concrete pillars in the rental agency parking garage. The Corolla is large enough to make for a comfortable ride an American can live with, but didn’t fit everywhere I needed it to. The best thing about the Corolla Hybrid is its predictability and ease of getting used to it, including setting it all up with one’s portable devices before taking off. The car is (virtually) identical to the one sold in the U.S. and Canada. As you pull out of the airport and to explore, the feeling is familiar. That means that the ride and handling are controlled, and even pleasant. I first sampled this on the highway ring road that passes by Lisbon’s airport and which funnel onto and over their grand suspension bridge since I was staying on the south shore. Before I did that, I went on some side roads to see a lookout point which was difficult to find and was one of the strangest places you might ever see function as a lookout point … an abandoned reinforced concrete hotel-restaurant covered in graffiti, but it was teeming with locals and visitors alike. On the city’s two-lane roads with some imperfections, the ride and handling weren’t as serene, but certainly good enough. As with its gasoline powered version, it’s a reliable and pleasant vehicle, but not an exciting one. Upon arriving at the hotel, checking in, and writing down the information about the car that would be parked there, the hotel front desk employee told me he had one and that it has been very reliable. I’m not surprised. The build quality is good. It’s not as substantial as a Camry, but the assembly appears to be every bit as good. I’m referring to how door panels materials meet, how the seat upholstery is laid out, and also the look of some parts that appear to be stitched. Fortunately, the dashboard is more user friendly than that of the Camry and lacks that annoying diagonal where the console meets the cubby for electronic devices below the infotainment and climate control panels. The powertrain gets mostly good marks from me. The engine is up to the task, picking up briskly enough from a light and even good enough for mid-speed and high-speed passes. Since the locals drive faster and more rowdily than I do, I only needed to put the car through that task on a few two-lane roads. The engine is hushed enough, but not so much when the throttle is opened up. Unlike the geared automatic transmission in the Camry, which is a long standing and refined unit, the Corolla goes utilizes a CVT. It’s better than others and certainly better than the one I first drove, such as in a Nissan Altima of the mid-2010s, where the spooling out and hunting were common. Not so with the CVT on today’s Corolla. Ride and handling are one thing. Noise is another. On today’s more expensive cars, all three tend to be thoroughly addressed. With the Corolla Hybrid, the wind noise and tire thum at highway speeds were acceptable, but more audible than that of larger Toyotas such as Camry and Avalon. This model was a 5-door hatchback, so it’s much like a sedan with an expanded and squared off back. I’d be lying if I said this is an attractive vehicle. The front has the typical Toyota vocabulary which many have come to dislike over the years. The sculpting and chunkiness of the side view isn’t the most harmonious and the rear view is utilitarian. While the graphics and controls on the dashboard are easy to use, the hybrid graphics can be a mixed bag. They are more informative than those of the simpler green ones on the Honda Accord Hybrid, in that they show how the power is being made, stored, and transferred. However, they can also come off as busy as you try to understand and conceptualize what’s going on. The seating was comfortable and most vantage points provide decent visibility. The car’s interior was also roomy and the cargo area, which is covered, also had sufficient trunk space which could be expanded by folding down the rear 60-40 seats. The fuel economy was good. I was a little spoiled and surprised by the mileage of the more refined and larger Honda Accord Hybrid. In all fairness, it could have been that the Honda Accord Hybrid was driven on South Florida interstates, turnpikes, and large wide boulevards with signaled intersections spaced far apart. With this car, it was on a more go-go and smaller European highways, two lane roads where conditions varied, and small and not so well-kept streets in Lisbon and small towns near it. We all know the Toyota Corolla is a reliable vehicle that approaches heirloom status. However, in deciding between its positive attributes and the few things I didn’t like about it, and which other people may weigh differently, that personal weighing is how the decision to purchase one might go. Either way, it would never be a mistake to buy a Toyota Corolla Hybrid. - - - - - PHOTOS FORTHCOMING

https://www.parents.com/thmb/RgYGlsEF-Kqz4rDMg6rQasXAFv8=/750x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/shutterstock_1181843914-05f12562128a4fb59f8d0d9d77175a60.jpg Happy Labor Day, folks.

My real random thought for the day: Lately, I've been wondering how people get a job tagging great white sharks. And what the length of employment at such a job would be.

It doesn't look like it has "talk to text" per the specs I saw at Best Buy. How is it even possible that that would be omitted? Or did I miss something?

There are a lot of musical artists where I mostly like one or two of their songs ... - - - - - For Sting, it would be this one: Many of the commenters say it is "smooth" and "elegant" and a stroke of "genius." That's why it's in my collection. - - - - - For Jackson Browne, it would be this one: Many comment about the great lyrics. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard it driving between Portland and Seattle (2 hours and 45 minutes) at weird hours at the beginnings and ends of weekends. It was in my collection at that time - it still is - and kept me safely awake, along with other songs.

Yes, I checked to see if it belonged to another romance language as well and it surprisingly along belongs to Romanian ... Italian - regina (queen) - pronounced just like "reh" and then the name "Gina" right after it; the people in Saskatchewan were clueless to adopt their pronunciation. French - reine Spanish - reina Portuguese - rainha *Romanian - regina*

Are Google Pixels good phones? I was at this juncture before and got some nods on the Google Pixel. Instead, I bought a Kyocera DuraForce. It's a Korean brand and it's really rugged since it's mostly aimed at the construction sector. It is starting to do some weird things every now and then. Other than that, it has been a phone I've really liked. My phone use is basic and doesn't need to be cutting edge. Any thoughts on Google Pixel (Android) phones? I'm not an early adopter and I don't want to spend a lot, so please keep that in mind if you have suggestions and comments.

I might like some of the other ones - maybe even more - but I won't vote for one if I didn't actually want to own the car because it was too expensive, not my brand, or not to my liking. I'll go with this one since I've loved many models of Firebird!

There was a window that was even open up to about 15 years ago where the Miami area was still relatively affordable. Maybe not Coral Gables and Coconut Grove, and certainly not Miami Beach, but many still safe enough parts of Miami proper. You might be sort of a token non-Hispanic white, but you could befriend your many Cuban neighbors. They'd love to feed you. That same window was sort of available in decent enough parts of Broward and Palm Beach Counties right above Miami-Dade. Maybe even east of I-95 in some cases (that means closer to the water). That window has also closed. Money leaving SoCal, NorCal, New England, and New York has shifted to other places and South Florida should have been no surprise. I knew some people growing up who were (still are) Cuban who moved to Miami shortly after finishing college. If they wanted a sizable Cuban community, the pocket sized ones on the West Coast would not have worked for them. Not only that, and I hate to say this, the chemistry between my Mexican-American friends, California's dominant Hispanic demographic, and my Cuban friends was non-existent. I'm not stating anything that's not already well known. It's not a hostile situation, but an uncomfortable aloof one. It was pointless to have them at a restaurant or at a party together. I think they locked in on the palatable South Florida prices prior to the big jump. I didn't ask them how much they paid for their dwellings, but they seem to have happily settled in!

I have getting a Seiko on my bucket list. I had one and I loved it. It was a toned down design with a gold (not real gold) face and a dark brown leather band. As I scrambled to leave the hotel to get to the airport in Italy, I realized when I got home that I left it at the hotel. I haven't done much of that in my life. I'm more careful than that. I currently have a Timex Expedition. It has the dark face that lights up in blue. I also have a leather strap on it. The metallic ones pinch hairs and that's annoying. This Timex is over 10 years old and performs faultlessly. It's very tasteful looking nonetheless. I got it at "Wally World." The price was a steal. They don't sell them for those prices anymore. The new Seiko is still on my bucket list. It's that they have a zillion designs, and they vary by merchant, and it has been hard to make up my mind.

I'm at Costco right now getting the wheel torque and safety check that you should get after the rotation. I'm late; who's going to be at Costco after 25 miles? As for Cafe 1.50, they have done away with the sauerkraut for your hot dogs and, as for the pizza, they have done away with the supreme variety and are down to 2 flavors. If this is what's needed to control costs and keep this "perk," then I can roll with that.

Happy Sunday ... https://tenor.com/bWwDk.gif ... and "good times ..."

Oh, yes. I will not be owning one. I learned that firsthand! And, even though I don't like these two characters, it has nothing to do with them.

This thing is a piece of work. Almost weird enough to have taken the Griswolds from Chicago to (closed) Wally World. It's also kind of sinister looking when viewed from the front. Too bad the decal was gone from atop the air cleaner housing. It would have said "Oldsmobile Rocket 455." The instrument panel is a hoot, mostly for that centralized speedo that wraps around inside a square bezel, a big empty spot above the climate control panel, no gauges, and a few red idiot lights on. The "avocado" interior is also a big time warp and they may have made "avocado" kitchen appliances at about that time.

My initial random thought: So, you try not to be a cheapskate and start accepting that tipping levels have moved up from 15% to 18% and upwards. I went somewhere for lunch today, the server was very good, and I left a tip between 18% and 20%. (I always round them to get to a total in whole dollars or half dollars ... possible indicator of OCD, not sure.) I then head to the parking lot behind the restaurant and see that server on a smoke break. I then wished I had left a little less than what I left because I feel like I just funded at least half of the cost of his pack of cigarettes.

Major cities and progressive (or more with it) companies and businesses in red states have more recycling options. That's true. It's just frustrating when you're at a hotel or a coffeehouse and you have to throw your plastic and paper stuff into the car and then wait to find some place you can recycle it. I tend to have a small collection of this stuff sitting on the floor in the passenger side footwell until I find such a place. Correct as to the exceptions to the rule. I could see Austin recycling in general. It's "good luck" when you cross Florida, Texas, and some Midwestern states and you pull into a rest area and a good many of these rest areas do not have recycling options. A rare few do.

What? People don't believe in stereotyping ... or even profiling? When you are in a blue state, you can usually find places to deposit recyclables fairly easily. The more progressive they are, the easier it will be. When you are in a red state, good luck with that.

How does a person know when brakes are glazed over with both discs and drums? That last F-bird I spotted had rear drums. I put up a photo or two. I couldn't believe that that one Pontiac LeMans basic coupe my dad had with an inline 6 cylinder and no air conditioning had drum brakes all the way around. That car never gave an ounce of trouble but braking during any wet weather, especially after long dry spells out West, was a little hazardous. I sometimes wondered if those cars that had front drum brakes could be converted to front disc brakes.

Last night, August 18, seen before heading in to Texas de Brazil. Love those pop-up headlamps, when they're working. I liked this Firebird much better than the Camaro in the same span of years. It's a Formula. However, I don't know which V8 would have gone into it.

My car has a DIC (driver information center) with 7 buttons. All of them had lost illumination except for 1. They stopped making the part. I called a dealership and they told me of a couple of dealerships in the U.S. that had one. I contacted one and the parts guy gave me a really good price, probably to clear it, and kept it aside until receipt of a money order for the part and a minimal amount of postage. When having another service, I had the technician slim jim the panel away from the dash because I didn't want to break it. It was dangling there before I decided to finally insert the piece for which it was hard to remove the harness. Last night, before heading into a Brazilian steakhouse to pig out, I decided to finally install it and push the bezel back into the dash. After leaving the steakhouse, I cranked over the ignition and all 7 DIC lights were on, a sight that I hadn't seen in a few years.

Yes. Two 307s. Production was closer to each other than I thought. Chevy from 1968 to 1973. Olds from 1980 to 1990. That's a distance of 7 years! Because we shifted from thinking in cubic inches to thinking in liters, I always think of the former as the Chevy 307 V8 and the latter as the Olds 5.0 L V8. Both engines are derivatives - the 307 was hewn from the 327 (to use the same crankshaft) and the Olds 5.0 is an interpolation between the famed Rocket 350 and the 260 - the 260 was accomplished simply by a smaller bore diameter than that of the 350. - - - - - I liked listening to Jacques Cousteau speak. One time he was doing a show on manatees and mentioned that manatees eat water hyacinths in his great French accent. As for John Denver, I looked up his bio. I vaguely remember that something happened to him. Sadly, it did. His light went out after only 53 years. May he R.I.P.

I recall you mentioning it here and how you weren't exactly kind to it (lol) but, for me, there's a sentimental attachment to the 260. It's a dumb story. The other thing is that I have to "process" the 307 as the Olds Rocket 5.0 L V8 because the 307 was an "old school" Chevy small block V8 slotted in between the 283 and the 327. The funny thing is that, when the 260 V8 was released, the base engine in the Cutlass Supreme and the Omega - coupes and sedans - was Chevy's in-line 250 6 cylinder. Only the Salon - not even the Brougham - started out with the 260 V8. Eventually, my parents picked up a lightly used Omega (sharing the Nova-Ventura-Skylark chassis) with the 260 V8, so we also had one as an extra car for the dog and more utilitarian tasks. One of my friends called it the "priest's car," because it was plainly equipped and looked like it would be seen next to a rectory or the nuns' residence. My dad said, "Tell your friend I ain't no priest," (albeit in Italian). Our neighbors got close to 150,000 miles of mostly city driving in SoCal on the large Olds Cutlass Supreme coupe with a 260 V8. They were paired to a THM 350 transmission. Then, when they went over to the smaller '78s and beyond, they paired the 260 V8, and the other engines that were available, to the smaller and unreliable THM 200 ... and transmission failure was common. I was handed down an '84 Supreme Brougham coupe with the 3.8 V6 - and that crappy transmission - and it failed at 129,000 miles. It was not maintained, with the transmission fluid looking light brown instead of pink. I then took it in to get the transmission redone and this cool Portuguese guy owned the shop. He gave me a price for the new transmission. I asked if I could have a THM 350 put in instead and he seemed amenable to that, since the length of the casing was exactly the same. He only charged me $100 to $150 more and it was worth its weight in gold (well, not really). I guess the moral of the story is that when you pair a smaller engine (3.8 V6 or 260 V8) to a larger transmission, the transmission snoozes with the lower torque being pushed through and it's a win-win for the powertrain. At least it appears that way.

3 more distinct volumes, please ... wishful thinking

The random thought I actually had and one that should resonate with the IT folks we have on the forum: When on a merchant's website buying or ordering something and it gets to the payment field, I much prefer the screens where, as you type in the information, the credit card immediately has asterisks all the way across except for the last 4 numbers. Now, if they can't do that, I do like, as a minimum, when the asterisks quickly show up as you type in the CVV code so it is not visible. Is this too much to ask? I don't think it is.

Haha. And here I drooled over a nicely but not too equipped Brougham coupe with the smaller 260 Rocket V8, for which '82 was coincidentally the last year Olds made it. They had it from '75 to '82. It was the quietest of all the Rocket V8 engines, based on what I've (actually) heard.