Satty

Yeah, biking and kayaking when its sprinkling is one thing. Hell, I've bike about 20 miles in a downpour. Not my brightest moment, but I digress. Thunderstorms, especially of the magnitude we've been getting lately, are not something I want to play with. The one that came through Tuesday was pretty epic. It appears as if everything has passed, it go a little overcast for a bit, but nothing came down, time to hit the lake.

I have a new dilemma today. Didn't skip work (hooray for working 4 days a week!) but the forecast is calling for "isolated thunderstorms" but the radar shows the bulk of the storm well north except for one small cluster thats either going to dissipate or go right over where I'll be kayaking.

I know one person who was home-schooled. Dumb as a box of rocks, couldn't get her G.E.D. because she hadn't learned anything more than basic math and English skills. So yeah, there probably ought to be some sort of standard for the people who home school children.

Its not even a new Tundra, its a first generation extended cab. It showed up about a month ago, unmarked. This week they finally got the big, orange light bar put on top (which I never saw used on the Astro) and big ass "SECURITY" graphics all over the side. Considering it spends 75% of the day parked, and the other 25% patrolling the parking lot, occasionally jump starting cars for employees, I would have thought they would go cheap and get something like an old Escort wagon.

Soon enough, Americans are going to be so desperate for work, they'll be standing outside Home Depot undercutting the wage demands of illegal immigrants, who will then return to Mexico because they cant compete with desperate Americans.

I bought a generator after a huge ice storm that left me powerless for almost 2 weeks right about the time I bought the house. Haven't had a power outage longer than half an hour since then.

I sat in my cubicle and stared at my phone for 45 minutes. Then I grabbed my cell, called the switchboard and asked to be transferred to myself just to make sure everything was working properly. I then admired the recently tricked out Tundra that has replaced the Astro as our security vehicle.

Well, if the tailgate were taller, it would be that much more difficult to get into the in-bed trunk thingy with the tailgate down. If they lowered the bed rails, the bed shallower and that much less useful. Probably more of a utility compromise than a money comprise. Not that it would actually be cheaper. Not that suggesting its a money thing makes any sense anyways, cause if they wanted to save money on the tailgate, they wouldn't have done the double-hinged act.

I've never seen a Civic DX. They only exist so Honda can say the Civic starts at just over $15,000 and maybe pick up a few sales in areas that dont get extremely hot. We've seen the results of the economy, new car sales tanked across the board. People are probably keeping what they have or buying used.

How many Civic does Honda sell? How many of those are radio-less, AC-less DX models?

Ohhh, under 100k miles? That one might be on the original engine and transmission!

I used to keep weather.com as my home page. Probably ought to go back to that.

Have you ever ridden in or driven one of thoe Sebrings? I used my parent's '96 LXI as a daily driver for almost a year, and I can tell you that no price is too low. Someone would have to pay me to take one of those worthless $h!boxes. Anyone who buys one with real money is a fool.

f@#king rain. I wanted to go kayaking, but NOOOOOO we've got thunderstorms which I would have known if I had checked the weather at any point during the day.

For $35k, I'd take a G37 over a Camaro coupe. Convertible is a different story, but the SS vert will be well over $35k.

Go into any of the forums, or click "View New Posts" and there will be a little folder on the left, either blue or red (depending on how many replies there are to the topic) that is a solid color. Before website maintenance, there would be a small white marker in the lower right corner of said folder if you had posted in that thread.

Looking at some of the pics, I really hope that of this doesn't make it into production as a stand alone model, the S2000 takes on some of the styling cues. Not too big a fan of the taillights, but otherwise, I like.

Now that the rambling is out of the way, is this a preview of what the next S2000 might look like?

We had some flooding around here a few months ago. I saw a Focus dangerously close to the edge of a bridge over a high river. A group of kids in a Wrangler tried going through some rushing water, only to discover it was a pretty bad idea.

Until something else breaks and runs up another $1000 bill. High mileage=increased liklihood of problems. Its why most people dont keep cars when the miles start piling up. Repairs and maintenance add up, its cheaper to make payments on a car with a warranty than keep a car that paid off and have it nickel and dime you to death.

Just saying, this is taking GM forever.

By the time the Camaro hits streets, Dodge may have a nuclear powered, flying Challenger that weighs 2700 pounds.

AWOL?

And to think: I was going to say- 'don't bother saying 'vote them out' ; that's not accountability. Congress needs periodic performance reviews during terms, not just the possibility of not getting re-elected every 6 years (senators serve 2-yr terms). It's obviously not enough- the system's rotten. What good is a review? There are polls all the time, Congress knows people think they suck, didnt they have a 70% disapproval rating last week? Your only option, as a voter, is to vote them out or write them to bitch them out for not doing what their constituents want. Media choses content, and therefore conditions the public in a certain direction. But that direction is 'entertainment', not news & information.... you know; of significance. You CANNOT say the media hasn't played a major role here. Also, I do not agree with your assessment of America as a white-trash nation, either; like all sorts of sordid sh!t doesn't go on all over the 'civilized' world. Do you know how easy it is to access congressional voting records? Pretty dang easy, takes as much time as it takes to read about Angelina Jolie's twins or Lindsay Lohan's lesbian affairs. What do most Americans read? The crap. And that it their own fault. And yes, other places are just as bad, that doesn't make it right Democrat sound byte. Oil companies have stated it would take 1-2 years in areas where infrastructure is at least somewhat present, no more than 5 years where there's none and for the outer continental shelf. And since the oil companies are saying 1-2, where did Congress get the oft-quoted figure of "10 years" from, besides the ususal Brown Well of Information ? This is besides that fact- what does Congress think (hahah: I said "Congress think") energy prices are going to be in 2, 5 or 10 years ? What if drilling had been allowed instead of Clinton banning it -hmmmm- at least 8 years ago- we might still be paying $30/barrel. I said years, didn't attach a number. I'm not going to believe what any oil company says, or what Congress says, if I had to guess, I'd say it will come somewhere in between, 3-5 years, depending on circumstances. I also failed earlier to take into account global demand. Who is to say any oil we do get from the coasts wont go to China or India, leaving us with high prices Not that I'm against it, because I'm NOT, but how long will alternative energy take to 'get into our gas tanks' ???? Funny how we never hear an estimate there. There is zero infrastructure for most of the alternative suggestions- and only 10 years would be an amazingly short timepsan for any alternative to 'save us'. Still, as a supporter, I say: damned straight - start now, and meanwhile fire up the reactors! But at the same time, drill now, too. Yes, alternatives will take time to get to the masses, but in the long run, we'll all be better off. Look at it like this, the sooner we get off of oil completely, the sooner people who whine about global warming go away. By & large. these leases have either no recoverable oil, or not enough to provide a price reduction. The seemingly automatic assumption here is there's plenty of oil under all the lease sites. Well, who determined that- the government? Oil companies WANT to drill, if they have oil-rich leases but aren't drilling, what exactly would their motive be for not doing so? If your answer is profit- why pay the lease costs at all? But ask yourself why no new refineries have been permitted to be built since 1976- many analysts say that is the bottleneck to supply, not drilling; existing refineries are running at 98% capacity. If profit were the primary goal, why not dial that back? I haven't delved into the existing leases in the Gulf, but what I have heard is that they do have a significant amount of recoverable oil. And that was on Fox, but I'll have to look into it further. And big oil has had friends in high places for a long time, so your guess is as good as mine when it comes to no new refineries. Maybe its a personnel problem, net enough qualified people to build, operate and run them. Maybe its a myriad of regulations. Maybe its an attempt to keep supply down. There's no givens with any of the alternatives, either. Just heard a piece on the proposed wind farms, in order to be the power grid source, they obviously need fossil fuel back-ups, for those times the wind isn't blowing. Ooops. How often are they going to run in high demand and/or no wind situations?? That's not an alternative, that's a NEW DEMAND for fossil fuels. Still, the threat of a Gulf storm causes the price of oil to move higher. you don't think actual drilling would get it to move lower?? All sources of power have the potential for problems. Coal is reliable, but it requires a vast transport network. Natural gas is the same way. Solar and wind both run at the whim of Mother Nature. Nuclear has a slight meltdown risk, and a huge waste storage problem. And the prices have many factors, speculators will look at how long it will take, and the possibility of increased demand globally. Do both. Drilling for oil only delays the inevitable, eventually oil is going to quit being a viable option, I'd rather see the country prepared for that day Technology today is far safer than years ago (notice not a drop of oil spilled during Katrina?), plus directional drilling and outer continental shelf rigs greatly reduces.... ahem... "aesthetic disasters". The potential is always there for a large spill. Captains of large ships aren't, historically, perfect, I dont want to see what would happen when a Carnival cruise ship hits a rig. Oil rigs visible from the coast would be an eyesore, possibly hurting local economies that rely on tourism.

Its ok to resurrect threads now that searching doesn't crash the site.