trinacriabob

Greetings from Houston!

I didn't know I had this on my computer. I thought I'd share it. They're all models of the retired QE2. The order is actually bottom up instead of top down: 1. As inaugurated, with an open passenger space or sun deck up top behind the mast. 2. Still wearing its wartime gray, given that the ship was dispatched to the Falklands for the short-lived 1982 war between the UK and Argentina over the islands; also, the open passenger space or sun deck became the first block of 2-story penthouse suites, right behind the bridge. 3. Returned to its true Cunard scheme, with the black hull, but now additional 2-story penthouse suites have been placed behind the initial ones and practically extending to the funnel; also, the funnel is a lot thicker since the ship was converted to run on diesel-electric power during a major overhaul. This ship didn't get older ... it got better, and it hardly looked like a 39 year-old vessel at the end of its service life. They didn't have to max out the cabins for sharp pencils in that day, so this is 963 feet (longer than 3 football fields) of ocean liner with sleek yacht-like looks. This ship was born beautiful. If life ever takes me to Dubai, I will stay in the harborside hotel into which this ship was converted.

Very cool that Pizza Bank continues. When the Seattle Link train finally crosses the lake, I may visit, ride on it, and might check their pizza, which was top notch, as was Pegasus's on the waterfront in Alki. - - - - - I am thoroughly disgusted. Google Maps plans to relabel the Gulf of Mexico. Much like Chicago's Sears Tower is still the Sears Tower to me and like Houston's Transco Tower is still the Transco Tower to me, the Gulf of Mexico will continue to be the Gulf of Mexico to me since this is about elitism and imperialism. A certain individual cannot contain his hatred for that country. Mexico may not be on my bucket list, but why take away this name, as if they gain that much from it to begin with? I believe it was once the Gulf of New Spain, which would be okay since it's the gulf for many Spains, in a way.

Q: What is a Bellevue housewife's favorite position? A: Facing Bellevue Square - - - - - Dick's in Wallingford, hardly a vegetarian hot spot, is sitting in a neighborhood that is chock full of Subaru wagons, driven by homely ladies with short gray hair who put "keep your laws off my body" bumper stickers on them and who seemed to work in admin. positions at UW. Not a stereotype ... a reality ... one that I repeatedly saw on the campus and when I would cross I-5 into adjacent Wallingford. I once took an out-of-town guest around the city and we even drove around a few streets in Wallingford so I could point out the ridiculously disproportionate number of Subaru wagons parked on driveways and next to the curbs. All in good fun. I never ate at Dick's because I rarely eat hamburgers, but I loved Pizza Bank in Kirkland and Orexi Greek in Bellevue.

In looking at the houses, it could have been. Any idea on which neighborhoods? (That scene looks like L.A., with the vegetation suggestive of a drier climate.) The car? That grille and stacked headlamps! I very much miss seeing those cars on the road.

Happy Sunday. Greetings from (a) Malibu. Hilarious ... that we had cars like that!

I wrote the above because, based on Musk's behaviors, such as saluting as if a fascist and other right-wing postures, there is some movement for folks to get rid of their Teslas and this wave is called "Tesla shame." I don't like the long list of "(insert word) shame," but I do like this one!

Just say no ... . . . ... to TESLA

I'm coming back to this thread and post above after having written it a year ago. I didn't see a thread on the new Camry. I parked next to one of these units today. Everything above pretty much stands. The way I noticed it is that it said Toyota and that the rear sail panel looked "acceptable" ... it didn't shout old Caprice or Impala coupe. The front lamps are nicer but what's below them is not. The stupid diagonal in the console is gone! Everything looks more normal in the front of the cabin, even though there are a lot of horizontal slats everywhere. Looking back, I really liked that Honda Accord hybrid I was assigned as a rental unit at a South Florida airport and which I reviewed. If Honda did a good job with it, I'm sure Toyota will, too.

Astute. I don't think I would have been an American citizen as a child according to the current school of thought. Wait. Maybe they'll cherrypick and give Europeans a pass and give kids of parents from those s-hole country a thumbs down. It seems that things run on favoritism rather than on fairness.

Had I known you, I would have bought that 260 from you! Quietest domestic V8 I have ever heard when the exhaust is newer ... as in amazing. Also, being a debored 350 meant bigger cooling jackets within. I'm going to say your 307 was Olds and not Chevrolet, and maybe from a so-equipped Cadillac hearse. The small block fit should be interchangeable. Beautiful table. That must give you both satisfaction and relaxation from this hobby.

Tesla owners have become sort of cultish. They are very into their cars. One friend has one and was into showing me what it can do, including pin me back into my seat under hard acceleration. What's amazing is that a lot of rich West Coast liberals opt for them. You'd think they'd make a statement and avoid anything with Elon's mark on it. Here's hoping that other EV choices become popular. - - - - - Yep, your '78 with a 260 V8. I remember. And buyers had to spring even more for one of those over a '77. The most glaring example would have been the drastic drop from the big fendered '77 Monte Carlo to the anemic and cartoonish looking downsized '78. Cheap rat-tat-tat pods on the dash, a non descript bench seat, a base V6, and, drum roll, an unreliable Turbo 200 transmission. A couple of years later, they all brought out more engines. Two people I knew had a '79 Regal ... one had Pontiac's newer 4.3 liter (265) V8 and one had this tiny 3.2 Buick V6, which was only 196 cubic inches ... we're talking old Ford Maverick sized powerplants. All of these cars got considerably more attractive with the 1981 refresh, but they were on borrowed time. I loved my '84 Supreme Brougham coupe and won't easily forget the trip from an East Bay suburb up to Portland through the Napa Valley and meth lab plagued Lake County right above it.

Happy Monday ... may someone steal a Happy Meal for you ...

A lot of interesting factoids ... The number of plants producing the mid-1960s Impala were numerous, including 2 in SoCal (Van Nuys and South Gate) and 2 in Canada (Oshawa and St.-Therese). Imagine that ... working on the line with a Francophone in a herringbone cap who breaks out a baguette for his snack break. Then, other plants: up in Detroit, Atlanta, St. Louis, and the Arlington TX (Dallas) plant that made a lot of Cutlasses. Engines were varied: 230 in line 6 (not the 250 yet), V8s like 283, 327, and a 409 that gave way to the 396. I notice the absence of the 307 at this point. The great 350 came a few years later. - - - - - As far as Cutlass going from 1976 to 1977, they did a few stupid things, yet may have sold even more of them: - the waterfall grille up front got busier, thus uglier - they got rid of the spherical vents on the right side of the dash and made them rectangular as well - they went from a more traditional burgundy (for that type of color choice) interior to a red interior (called firethorn) and it was obnoxious - they slimmed down the bucket seats in the Salon coupe quite a bit - drum roll: the loss leader base engine went from an inherently balanced 250 in line 6 in an uncrowded engine bay to an "odd firing" 231 V6 (in its last year as "odd firing") and the area in the back of the engine bay around the engine itself was crowded. They should have left that one alone. No one should have had a nicely equipped Brougham model with an engine that had a faint shudder at idle. - and, of course, they raised the price a fair bit

Interesting bit of trivia. I couldn't believe the numbers, but, with the arrival of foreign imports coming later, it could be conceivable. In the 1965 model year, they sold 1,074,925 Chevrolet Impalas. That's far more than the 514,000 Oldsmobile Cutlass sales in 1976. I thought this was the peak. They report that 632,000 were produced in model year 1977.

Happy Sunday ... ... trying to "enjoy" my last day under the sort of democracy I've come to know and understand over a few decades *sigh*

I do remember the composite lamps. Ditto for '87 MC and Cutlass Supreme, at the very least. From '85 on, for a few years, power for these Chevy full-sizes could be had from a TBI 4.3 Vortec V6, which proved to be indestructible in Astro vans. After having gotten a crappy 5.0 V8 in a "toy" Camaro, a 5.0 is not to my liking unless Olds is the manufacturer ... where the debored engine's quality is comparable to that of the Rocket 350 V8. As for burgundy, the uptown interiors in that color on the last of the notchback Caprice-Impala sedans is something to behold, if malaise sort of excites you ... rather than give you malaise. Cloth version Leather version I appreciate bigger and boxier bucket seats from the last-gen MC and the Buick Verano, but I love what's up above.

More Italy than Amtrak. Amtrak is just slow. Regular seats are fairly priced. Little rooms with berths are ridiculously priced.

And I've got a good list of what can be wrong with it, too. Some is funny and some is sort of sad.

This cherry one is in "cherry" condition, it seems. There are some 45 photos. It's somewhere in Massachusetts. What a boulevardier. What a beauty. https://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/caprice/1995/vin/1G1BL52W1SR117012/?radius=6000 It seems like people are taking to these Caprice Classics posthumously, given the prices on cleaner ones with lower miles. This is a base model, given the upholstery, and 200 hp indicates the 4.3 L V8, which is enough to pull this car around and, in 4th gear, return very good highway mileage.

Amtrak is an interesting beast. I have taken the Coast Starlight once, from Sacramento to Portland. You sleep on it, in your seat, and the Siskiyou Pass is slow going and I believe you can see Shasta. Even the cheap seats are extremely roomy. I have taken the Pacific Surfliner once, from L.A. Union Station to San Diego. It's funny that several subway lines meet at L.A. Union and, even during rush hour, it doesn't feel crowded ... because it's L.A. and not NYC. I have taken the Cascades once from Portland to Seattle. The price was right, the route is clean and green, and the train cars are not as tall and only 1 level. I have taken the train from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa. I don't remember the route's name. It is said to often run late. It did. Lauderdale is next to Metrorail. A real helpful Cuban guy checked you in and a sassy Black guy was the conductor. The people were the trippiest of any train ride I've been on. A little edgier and it could have had some Jerry Springer value. When we were kids, my parents would take us cross-country on the Amtrak Santa Fe to Chicago, followed by another train to New York. The only part I remembered was the eerieness of the Petrified Forest under thunderstorm skies and all the small bodies of water in Missouri. I was told that there would be water moccasins in there. We'd allow for 3 to 4 days in the New York area with relatives as a buffer before sailing from the city to Italy. It was done in reverse if coming the other way. My parents were a little weird this way. (The apple didn't fall far from the tree.) Two segments on TWA or Pan Am 747s would have shaved a lot of time off this trip! The U.S. is way behind in good train service. California High Speed Rail is way behind schedule. They are still working on the Merced-Fresno-Bakersfield segment. The Republicans hate the plan. It's always better to build these projects sooner than later. If anything, this project could further growth in California's interior since its coveted coastal metro areas are not feasible options for most people anymore. Having people trampling along the route and in those inland areas makes for a "multiplier effect." Don't get me started on topics like this.

Amen. Some people are pieces of work. It's not like when you're in school and in your 20s when people have far fewer ulterior motives and less of that convoluted baggage that it could still be considered workable.

Thank you. Makes sense in a way. But for 20 to 30 minutes? Yikes. Mirrored walls at the sides are much more useful. I've found them handy. I'll glance at them every now and then.

Random thought and pet peeve: Why the f*** do they position ellipticals so you're staring right into a ceiling height wall of mirrors? For 20 to 30 minutes? I wouldn't have wanted that when I was 20 or 30. It's obnoxious. I've seen the glass or mirrors be located behind the ellipticals or treadmills. Maybe they worry that someone getting off them might move too far back and hit the mirrored wall. That's the only thing I can think of. There is a lot of crappy design and layout of exercise facilities.

The LaX would have been 17 today. I was trying to have fun with it and eke out a 20 year old car. With so many 2002 to 2004 Aleros on the road, for example, and in great shape, that tells me it was feasible. I've moved on, but the memories are fond.