trinacriabob

February 9th and its place in history ... I always give this one a thought when I look at the calendar. The good: Today is the day that the Boeing 747 first took to the sky in a smooth as butter departure from Paine Field in Everett, WA where it was assembled. This makes for one helluva "feel good" moment in time. - - - - - The bad: Today is the day that, 55 years ago, Los Angeles had its "famous" Sylmar earthquake. Clearly, this was the inspiration for the original version of the 1974 film "Earthquake." The Northridge earthquake took place on MLK Day in 1994 got more coverage because media improved. The latter quake seemingly did a lot more damage. Northridge sits in the middle of the San Fernando Valley while Sylmar sits at the top end of the San Fernando Valley, where Los Angeles really thins out and sits at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains foothills. The commonality is that in both quakes, at least one of the really long concrete overpasses connecting the freeways I-5 and CA 14 collapsed. Every time I've driven under it or next to it, I've remarked that that is one really long span (CA 14 terminating and feeding cars onto I-5 southbound into the Valley and L.A.) - - - - - 1971 high ramp collapses at I-5 and CA-14 1994 high ramp collapses at I-5 and CA-14 (same interchange) The Los Angeles area went 23 years between its 2 major earthquakes. San Francisco had its historic 1906 quake that turned the then younger city into rubble, not having one again until 1989 - the Loma Prieta earthquake. The most severe fault in the state (the San Andreas) goes through San Francisco, while it crosses where the mountains end and the Central Valley begin some 50 to 60 miles north of Los Angeles. When you grow up around this, you seemingly familiarize yourself with all these facts and figures.

Haha. Well, it's new compared to what the trailer is carrying. It goes to show how well I (don't) know my BMWs and other foreign cars.

Good morning: Sending Sicilian Saturday vibes your way. I dropped off a rental car to board my plane in the States while it was flurrying. That is the hydrofoil that goes to Malta. I think that - where I am standing - I am a hair south in latitude compared to Tunis, the capital of Tunisia! But this is still Europe ... sort of. Walking along the beach in a small town I spotted this - the new and the old.

On a more positive note, travel related stuff ... A historic milestone was achieved by Cunard Line within the last week. When she was built, Queen Mary 2 (QM2) was too big to transit the Panama Canal. The same was true for other supersized passenger ships. In the interim, new larger locks were engineered and put into service. https://travelweekly.com.au/queen-mary-2s-first-transit-through-panama-canal-on-way-to-australia/ I saw the QM2 enter San Francisco Bay in 2007 because I was living out West. It came in on a Sunday and I spent the weekend south of the city and near SFO. I went there in a rented 2007 Monte Carlo costing less than $25 a day and stayed at one of the cheap chain hotels near SFO costing about $50 a night, which was ridiculously cheap even then. The ship went around South America and sailed northward up the Pacific. As such, it's not a trip they would be making too often with the QM2. QM2 transited the Panama Canal for the first time just days ago. She is headed to Los Angeles AND San Francisco. To clarify the article's headline, Australia is just its next leg - this is the full world cruise. She was last in Los Angeles in 2006 when she saluted her namesake Queen Mary and last in San Francisco in 2007 and seeing the passage under the Golden Gate Bridge was unforgettable. These were the only visits to these ports. With the new Panama Canal locks, her visiting the North Pacific Ocean and its major ports is much more likely to be on future world voyages. In the Panama Canal transit, the nail biter was supposedly going under the Bridge of the Americas - the one with the curved top. I saw this YouTube with passengers cheering and motorists up above honking. I blame my parents for this! They took us across the Atlantic a time or two too many when we were kids and this fascination began.

I still like these "older" cars: I didn't like these when they first came out. The first time I saw one I was driving a rented 2013 or 14 previous fleet Impala westbound on I-10 on the Florida panhandle and one of these new ones was crossing me eastbound on I-10. I wasn't convinced. The front fascia looked too tame and the back was a little chunky. Of the latest Malibus, I like the Camaro-esque taillamp treatment on this one. Not long ago, one drove past me and it must have really been taken care of because the exhaust note was damn near perfect. That would have been coming from a 2.5 liter Ecotec 4 cylinder.

@G. David Felt This was quite a surprise. I was going to sit down and do this paring down to get more space. I periodically would click on "This PC" to see how much space was available ... not much. Last night and this morning, I checked and I had gotten back slightly over 40 GB! I looked at it more than once to see if it was real. I wonder if it was a timed process within the system. I guess I'm doing ok now.

When I need something to lift me up a little I watch this.