trinacriabob

I am not a big impulse buyer at all. Yesterday, I was at Costco around lunch to have my tires rotated and balanced. I've done fairly well with these so far ... 60,000 miles and more to go. I had a "Cafe' 150" dog and drink for lunch. I got samples (dark chocolate pretzels) from walking around! The "Costco lunch" will return. (Y'all get vaccinated, now.) I wandered over into the clothing. I saw these jeans by Izod for $14.99. I can always use a pair to run errands and for casual wear where labels don't matter. I picked them up and, since they stretch some, they obviously were not cotton. They also have some poly, rayon, and spandex in the mix. The lady working the area wrinkled her nose when I said, "When 87F and muggy in New Orleans?" I guess not, but they would be fine in 67F in Minneapolis. Plus, they're something to wear when you roll out of bed and run errands on the weekend. Costco clothing is one of the few places I may break my impulse purchase rule. I once bought a dark green Gerry down jacket for a kick ass price.

A little late with this one, too. Spotted on South Padre Island toward the end of February. Someone's last-gen LaCrosse with Midwest plates (a "Winter Texan!"), the Sapphire condo tower (the tallest here, yes, but the density is low compared to Miami Beach), and a beautiful day. Looking south along SPI Beach. I believe the Sapphire is the last structure way down at the end. As long as you're here when it's not crowded, and the weather is still good, South Padre Island is wonderfully relaxing.

@oldshurst442 You are preaching to the choir. *LOL* Throwing the U.S. and Canada into the same bucket (North America), Montreal is considered the 2nd best gastronomic city in North America after New York City. Considering its much lower population and density, that speaks volumes about Montreal's excellence in its culinary offereings. I dream of the place constantly - the beauty, the architecture, the culture, the food, the global mindset, and locals who have been very hospitable to me. Chalk it up to 3 years of French in high school. I fought with my dad back then because he wanted me to take Latin. I asked him if he wanted slam dunk As from me in French ... or teeth pulling Bs from me in Latin. Case closed.

Happy Mother's Day - to the mothers in your lives, whether in your immediate family, extended family, or among friends and neighbors. Or to the mothers in your memories. For some, it's easy to be a mother (from the biological sense) ... they almost lack restraint! For others, it has proven to be difficult to achieve. Regardless, being a good mother is hard work. Enjoy this day.

I am not sure about this one. I am warming up to the front end ... some. I liked the previous and more "classic" Buick front end on this car more. Isn't it great how the word "troll" has become entrenched in our vocabulary? So, here we have "lot trolling," which is certainly less invasive than "realtor trolling." I doubt if kids today even know what a "looky-loo" is! The first is unmistakably '75. Without a few clues, the second is either '76 or '77. So cool that Buick pulled off this colonnade that looked good with either the upright Parthenon grilled or the canted back slatted one we see in the sportier model shown. And which you once owned and some cats took refuge in the engine bay to shield themselves from the elements! You can't make stuff like that up. Here's where I have a problem. I don't like that oversized touch screen panel occupying too large of a portion of the dash. With the last Envision, I liked the center area being anchored at the right by an old school chronometer - a la Chrysler 300 - while still having a large enough touch screen area for a lot of features. That one looked good. Concisely stated. Right. It doesn't have to be symmetrical, but it can be what they term "asymmetrically symmetrical." This isn't.

Why hello, darling ... Thought I'd wake you guys up on a Saturday morning.

I will go to Buca di Beppo and then swear that I won't return. And then I get a coupon for 20% off in some coupon packet. That was the case today for lunch. Their food is FAR being from good Italian food. It's caked with this bad and heavy tomato sauce. All the dishes going to adjacent tables looked the same. I just vowed I won't be going back. But then there's the expression, "never say never."

Homes are sparse now, too. It's ridiculous. Things were sort of "normal" around 2017. Now, and even with a (recent) pandemic, certain strata of homes at certain prices are flying off the market.

Saw this at a BBD between Seattle and Tacoma several years ago, so not suitable for a more recent spotting thread. To each their own, but this was/is fairly scary to me.

Thank you for posting this. Aside from the content of the article, the attached photo is a humble but beautiful shrine, too. When in Greece, which I've been to, and Bulgaria, which I'd like to see, I know I will be interested in visiting their places of worship. Edit: I've seen one too many photos of the baked goods and desserts in Bulgaria, and that's only making me salivate more.

Good on the Firebird Formula 400! My favorite F-bird years were 1975 and 1976. I liked the new wrap-around rear windows and their grilles. I liked the whole darn car! I think that if it was Mach anything, it could have been either a 302 V8 ... or maybe a V6. Not sure if they would have had 4s. Vegas only had 4s. And I believe they were 140 c.i. as well. We had the No Va gaffe ... I wonder if anyone could have come up with a jingle that paralleled the idea of M&Ms "melts in your mouth, not in your hands" campaign for the Vega's engine's inability to stave off heat.

When you didn't know any better, you might have thought these were cool, or cute. I'm just talking about the basic small fastback, as opposed to the notchback. Then, when you learned how "reliable" (cough) they were with some of their engines, like the "ping up a storm" 140 c.i. 4 cylinder, you might not have liked them as much. I could hardly see Sean Connery and Jill St. John outrunning and outsmarting the authorities in Las Vegas in one of these - even if in the most potent Mach model.

Haha. As soon as I saw the front grille slats on the YouTube cover, I knew it was an 1984. I'm a little partial to the mid-'70s for sentimental value and, mostly, liked that GM cars then did not have CCC (Computer Command Control), so not much at all in the way of sensors and electronics to control the engine ignition system. The downsized intermediates were actually more attractive, especially with the 1981 reskinning! Their only down sides were that their widths did not allow for the really interesting sculpted dashboards of the mid-'70s and, for those who wanted them, (stock) engines with displacements of 350 c.i. and above. That said, the most comfortable car I've ever owned was also a 1984 (don't know if I'm repeating myself) Cutlass Supreme coupe. And really comfortable because it was the Brougham model. With a measly but reliable 3.8 liter (carbureted) V6, I referred to it as "The Little Cutlass that Could." Here's a scan of a photo taken of it in NorCal. I miss this car.

Too funny. I was not expecting this news. Thought that this graphic might only show Bill, which would have been "drier" in its humor.

Bingo. It all comes down to it being enclosed. Put me at the top of a skyscraper. As long as it has a railing or it's glassed in. I loved visiting the CN Tower in Toronto. I've been 3 times - first in 1996. Being over 100 stories above Toronto and the lakefront is remarkable. I'm easily up there for over 1 to 2 hours. I might agree with your parents if it's a real edgy and substandard road. My parents got wigged out by CA-1. Driving south on CA-1 - a good road - between Monterey and San Simeon is not the place a driver should get overly confident. (Unless it's a chase scene from "Basic Instinct" or something.)

Random thought: a blast from the past ... A Challenger seen in a parking lot in a small town in the hot and dusty Central Valley of California while on a late 2013 road trip from Portland to SoCal and back up.

Getting groceries this first weekend of May, I decided that the funkiness of this Oldsmobile grille might be suitable for a spotting post. Historically known for more elaborate grilles, this grille, with what look like two small semicircular air scoops, was featured on some full-size 88s (the jelly bean greenhouse ones, and this one had alloy wheels, too). This design vocabulary also found its way onto the grilles of an Olds Bravada or two. I always notice it because these vehicles aren't too common, and neither are Oldsmobiles that look like this.

I am happy to say that I've had both injections. As soon as it was announced that it would open up, I jumped on 2 retail pharmacy websites and, lo and behold, found an appointment just 2 days away at a location about 1:15 from me. I was ecstatic. I was given Pfizer. Surprisingly, those same retail pharmacies around me were giving Moderna, but this store was giving Pfizer. I was happy about getting Pfizer. Some friends have had some transient side effects from the Moderna. From what I've heard, Pfizer is the one mostly dispensed at hospitals while Moderna is more likely to be dispensed at retail pharmacies. The only side effect both times was a dull headache for about a day or so after the injections. Ibuprofen took care of that. It's very sad to me that this has become politicized. A friend of mine is trained as a nurse and she did not want it. This didn't surprise me because the mindset in her household is very Christian (not the more denominational kinds) and very Republican. The response to the vaccine seems to be "packaged" with predictable beliefs and attitudes that lend themselves to stereotyping, and the pollsters' numbers prove that. I'll STOP right there with the politics. With the amount of effort thrown at this, and with pharmaceutical horsepower so advanced compared to decades ago, I was waiting for this. I knew there are risks involved. And, if they detect some issues, they'll probably find new pills to fix the old problems and correct the vaccine formulation. If we need boosters, I'm ok with that, too. I see this as a money printing press for Big Pharma, but it is what it is. I can deal with having it rolled in with the flu shot ... or as two separate annual episodes. I will do what it takes to TRAVEL. That said: R-O-A-D T-R-I-P !!!

Mossimo is the dude walking behind Lori. It's a manipulation of his name, Massimo, which is Max or Maximillian. USC has really come up. They've always had good medical, dental, and pharmacy schools. They are the biggest archi school in L.A. proper. The law school might be slightly behind UCLA's, and ditto for the MBA program. However, if you plan to make your living in SoCal, a USC sheepskin gets the foot in the door, so the rankings become sort of moot. All of their academic departments are good. UCLA pulls slightly ahead of it because it probably conducts more/better research. In the past, having a 3.5 in high school (when the upper limit was 4.0), an 85th percentile SAT, and a pulse would get most people in. They might have even relaxed that a little bit if coming in from a high school that has prestige, that they like, or that they have a relationship of sorts with ... or, to be realistic about it, for affirmative action purposes. It's a good thing that they opened the new train line that connects the USC campus to either DTLA or the beach at Santa Monica. Their alumni network is definitely the best in Southern California. Mossimo himself went there but didn't finish. I think Mossimo's dad was a USC grad. I didn't give a rat's ass about these people and then, when this scandal broke, learning about them was "slightly" interesting.

Every Mexican and Mexican-American I've told this one to nods, smiles, and/or laughs, so it passes the "ok" test ... Q: Why were there only 500 Mexicans at the Alamo? A: They only took 7 cars.

I knew her name and face but never watched that show, either. I also did not know that Mossimo - her husband - was a person. I thought it was an arbitrary label for "way cool" surfer apparel. If your kids can't get into USC on their own merits, they're not the sharpest tools in the shed. It's a good enough school, but it has only become really competitive to get admitted within the last decade or so. I know a lot of people who went there - it would have been commutable for me at the time, but in a crappy neighborhood - who were/are far from brain trusts. As for "Full House," I have never watched it, either. My having a problem - yawning - with all these TV shows that seem to take place in one or two rooms seemed to coincide with losing interest in my TV.

I am in awe of the craftsmanship ... most types of craftsmanship. In February, I was able to go through the MFAH (Museum of Fine Art Houston) on cheapskate day and, in the first building, you see the paintings and portraiture that look real and that were painted by the famous artists of centuries ago ... as well as furniture from those periods. Then, you go into other buildings with more recent and modern art, and you see things that involve craftsmanship, humor, and even technical savvy, such as lighting shows. The MFAH is a stellar museum. - - - - - This photo is from one of the mansions you can tour in Galveston, about 45 miles southeast of Houston and on the Gulf. And every room in the mansion has this caliber of woodwork.

Man, I had gotten tired of seeing THIS particular photo. We were inundated with it. I guess I got tired of how "chipper" she tried to appear given what was going on. She stopped looking so chipper as time went on. I hope that she doesn't write a book to tell us what she learned from the experience ... you know, to make herself look humble and sh!+.

I agree with this. Like I said: Exterior: Thin whitewall tires "Spirograph" wheel covers (these probably "disappeared" quickly because they looked sharp for being wheel covers), or the stock up-level alloy wheels for this car Body side moldings Sport mirrors, dual body colored Optional: landau top Interior: New seat belts instead of the budget black ones that come with it Optional: the upgraded interior, such as a 60-40 seat, that would be stock for this car (or for the MC, and would fit) Mechanical: Nothing. These engines have a 7 main bearing crankshaft. They should be able to deliver 250,000 to 300,000 miles if meticulous about maintenance. And they're less complicated than a V8, or vee-design. Except for the tires, which one would replace when worn, and the optional items, these fixes would cost less than $ 500. I wouldn't pay the $ 9,000 they are/were asking, but somebody probably stepped up to the plate for it.

Excellent!