thanks for the update Charley!!!!

Now... to find the streaming...

Watching the NCAA college football playoffs.

So sad about the incident in New Orleans last night. How tragic. Sniff.

Happy New Year!!!

Sorry I haven't been around much... just busy with the holidays!

Hope all are well and all the best for a great 2025!!!

Sunny and 70!!

Back in October, I got laid off when my company got sold... oh, well... but I did get a 12 week severance and will get a pay check un mid-January! But I need to really start the job hunt.

Vote for Trump... this is a bandwagon I cannot get on board with. I don't speak much politics online, for any number of reasons... but Trump is becoming a dangerous man. If he keeps half the promises he is making, and enacts Project 2025, the US will rival North Korea or the Taliban for being backwards. Those policies would suck us back to 1920... or worse.

Is Harris the perfect candidate? Hell no. There hasn't ever been a perfect candidate. They all have strengths and weaknesses. In general, I do like her message, but some of her policies do exceed my centrist approach to things. At the same time, her policies must be approved, same with Trump... it's just that Trump is a really poor diplomat and that worries me on a global scale.

Yes, things ARE more expensive, but the interesting reality is that inflation is down. But I think that some companies are using it as an excuse to raise prices. I will be curious when earnings are reported.

And the IRS is not going away, neither is the Social Security or Medicare... these programs are so vital to the way our people live now. Their loss would crash our economy. I cannot image how it would go... Think of all the boomers hitting retirement age? Ouch. Tommy would be in deep trouble, if not for the nursery business.

IRS? Well, it could be simplified, but the system is a check/balance of things... it's how the FBI burned Al Capone!!!

The bottom line is this: Modern life IS complicated. Government and economies are complicated. As time has progressed and populations grow, everything becomes exponentially more complicated. As these things become more complicated, they take on a life of their own and become so complex that they are no longer understood by the general population. This is sad, because it means something is failing us... our educational system isn't teaching it or our population doesn't give a big enough shit to actually pay attention to it. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

All I do ask is for people to vote. That vote matters... and it gives you the right to bitch when things fall apart. Apathy isn't the answer.

Just 4 months to Christmas!

A bit of a heat wave here in SoCal... That means the sun index is 10, the wind is zero, but the air temp is about 82... however, that still bakes ya.

Been quiet here. Just working away.

Hope all is great!!!

Not going down the politics rabbit hole...

But... observations...

Dr Ruth
Shannon Doherty
Richard Simmons
Shelly Duval
... all died

And an attempt was made on Trump.

What message is being sent?

If the AOC continues to select TF for the 24 Hours of Lemans, then PM needs to bolster their engineering skills...

Thanks for sharing Charley!!!!

Hi gang!!!

I still haven't figured out why they didn't invite Pratt-Miller... I guess they have won too many times...

Tommy... low energy? painful joints? time is a bitch, dude... sorry...

Good afternoon!

Finally had a few minutes to kill...

The eclipse was about 50% here. I didn't have time to head outside and check, and I didn't have a filter or glasses to check it out.

Warm here today, up in the mid-70s! Sadly, it bottoms out tomorrow... back to more normal low 60s... sigh...

Sigh... Monday Monday...

not much more to add.

I feel your pain... the electric car is a neat idea, but the infrastructure isn't ready for it.

I feel the system should be going after 2-stroke lawncare equipment... weed eaters, blowers, even chainsaws and such. For the average home owner, the new battery stuff is up to the job. And might even work for the average gardener.

This leaves gas stuff for tree trimmers and those that REALLY need it. I would not cry to lose that stench when the gardeners are using their blowers and weed eaters.

In due time, lawn mowers can be targeted. There is even enough tech there to make that viable.

At the same time, leave my gas appliances alone.

In short, our grid cannot support all of this electrification. Thanks to WWII, much of Western Europe and Japan are much more modern and can handle the loads.

Here in SoCal, we have supply issues when this stuff would be needed the most. 4PM to 9PM are the peak hours of electric consumption. Add in all the newly ordained electric ranges, dryers and heaters, that peak consumption is now a year round problem and not just a peak summer problem.

Charging cars over night is logical... but that is with the current volume. It has fail written all over it.

Also, battery recycling is a mess...

Lets toss in another tech. Synthetic gas. Aramco, Shell and others are using carbon from the atmosphere and trash, plus hydrogen from various sources, to create gasoline. It does work but it is still expensive. About $40 a litre right now. But, think of it this way... it creates a carbon negative footprint. To provide enough gas, it would require an inventory, say, 90-days. That, on a global level, would be a lot of free carbon that is currently in the air, to be stored in liquid form and then recycled into gas again. A closed loop, so to speak. The impact could be nuts.

Now, if only politicians, environmentalists and corporations and come together and create a rational solution and stop this all or nothing crap, we might get some progress.

I am planning on a return next year!!!

Tommy - I hope Sue is all better soon!!! Send her our love and best wishes!!!

We are getting rained on again... not heavy... YET.

Otherwise, back to work and the Daytona 500!

howdy!

Hope all is well!

Got an email from Sebring yesterday... the Corvette Corral is sold out. As an aside, the Corral at the Long Beach GP has been cancelled! And they already sold tix for it! They are keeping the parking lot, but no hospitality tent. GM is claiming budget cuts. I think it's a bad idea.

We are between rain storms out here!

Been busy... work, took a road trip to Denver, and got snowed on!

Hi guys!!!

It's been a while... been busy... been sick... returning to normal, finally.

SoCal has been a bit damp and a lot windy. Also rather cool for SoCal.

Rain is the word for today... supposedly, lots of rain... but so far, the storm has been a real wuss...

Getting ready for the holiday's!

Happy Monday!

the funny thing... with prices going up, they haven't had a huge impact here in SoCal... sure, some have, but in general, not that bad.

Then again, our house value has DOUBLED in 12 years.

29th?? Jeez... time traveling!

Been kinda busy... my mobile phone died last week... ATT replaced super fast!

Helped a friend with lighting issues on his old S-10 pickup...

work... life...

the yellow is back! And it's the right yellow! the yellow like colour they had been using was more of a pissy green.

2024 will be interesting...

Howdy all!

It's that time again where two people argue to the death over their own interpretations of liberty... Happy election day!

Been quiet-ish here. My brother, his wife and their dogs had to evacuate their house due to a forest/brush fire. They live here in SoCal now, out in the Temecula area, marginally more accurate, east of Temecula. Their house is ok, and they are home now.

Rather busy... and multi-tasking during a meeting!

Interesting...

Working stiff here... been busy.

Last Monday was my birthday, so what do I get? A $1400 plumbers bill! There was a chunk of sewer pipe that was as just a mess. It had to be replaced.

Great car. Great race car! A reflection on a lot of dedicated hard work. Well deserved!!

It's been hot here! 90 or so. stuffy as hell!

otherwise, just chugging along and not doing anything stupid with ladders!

Hope all goes well with Tommy and Tee's great grand daughter. Stressful stuff...

Been nice around here. Unusually cool, actually. Summer normally ramps up around here in September/October before a fall in November. It's all about 6 weeks early!

Lovely track! Must watch! Thanks for sharing!

thanks so much for sharing!!! Awesome pics.

Glad attendance was ok. I had heard some comments that attendance was down this year.

Hope you all are doing GREAT!!!!!

hey guys! Been busy...

The Escalade is in the shop... the AC condenser has a leak. I don't do AC.

And Jordan is leaving... sad...

Monday morning... well, almost!

And we are still here. The hurricane at this hour is almost over us. It passed with 10 miles.

We got quite a lot of rain and that's it. Little or no wind, no flooding for us. Oopsie - the rain has just picked up!

The deserts got much more rain, and due to their dry existence, much more flooding. They are called 'arroyos'. These are dry river beds that become messy when hit by lots of water. They have been hit much harder than we have.

Oh, and to top it all off? An earthquake in Ojai! 5.1 or so, about 70 miles north of us.

All in all, I suspect we got about 1.5" of rain.

I am not getting dragged into this political discussion... or whatever this is.

This is one of the most significant days in our family's history... today, in 1977, my Dad died. He was 55.

He died of a massive stroke and heart attack, caused by kidney failure, caused by kidney disease, caused by an injury sustained in the military way back in 1953... We knew he was sick, but not that sick.

well.... I get busy and the discussions turn strangely homicidal...

just been busy! Building a new computer for the Mrs... work... and stuff in general.

Back in Jan 2022, I bought 4 new Bilstein shocks for my C6. I finally got around to installing them last month.

Surprise! The bottom mounting shaft was wrong. It was too short that the 2 holes did not align to the lower control arm!

I reached out to the Tire Rack and they kicked ASS. My contact there, Jenn, reached out to Bilstein, and after a couple of emails and some pictures, validated a fitment issue.

They refunded my original shocks and I ordered 2 new ones. They arrived about 10 days ago. Last Saturday, I opened them up and one was perfect, the other? IT WAS SHORT! Had the same exact problem my shocks had!

And it appeared it was a returned shock. The washers, bushings and top bolt were all fitted to the shock shaft, vs being in the bag.

I reached out to Jenn again... this time, she handled the replacement personally. She learned that the batch was the key, and a set of numbers stamped on the bottom of the shock. This afternoon, that final replacement arrived and it is right! LOVE IT! Yay!

I cannot praise Tire Rack enough. They took care of me 18 months after purchase. This is a master class in customer support. I have been a lifelong customer, and that will never change.

Later today, I will install... get as much done as my achy knee will let me...

I read that article yesterday... They should be locked up. Civil forfeiture my ass, modern highway robbery. They will, at some point, pick on the wrong sucker and will get seriously burned. Worst part? The Nebraska State Supreme Court backed it up!!! Damn.

If you didn't read it, do so. It's coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs.

As a side note, back in the 80s-90s, there was a stretch of interstate in Ohio that was seriously patrolled by a local PD. The Interstate ran through their town, but they didn't have any actual exits in their town, so they had to leave jurisdiction to get to their part of the Interstate. This was a small town that simply ran up huge traffic tickets. Always vague, things like weaving in lanes, no signal, tailgating, things like that. Well, they did this to an Ohio State Representative! That changed things. He got a serious fine, learned that this town of 1500 or so (don't remember the exact figure) had like 20 cops! All on the payroll created by these insane traffic violations. He had them shut down... basically, by changing the state law that restricted city police from patrolling the Interstates.

And my fave government gone rogue, even better than Führer Ron Desantis, do a google search on Bellflower, CA. They got shut down about 10 years ago now... city admin were getting paid $300k+, based on all sorts of graft and corruption. It was horrid.

I am already seeing ads on MotorTrend!

This is an event I would love to go to, but after talking to Gary (our English Corvette friend) at Sebring, I am a little tempered. He indicated that the Corral is off the beaten path and is kinda far. That and the sheer chaos of the place. But still...

Back in 2010, my then job had me going overseas. In 2009 and 2010, I had been to England, France, Holland, Germany and Italy. Got to visit the Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini museums, a soccer game at Old Trafford... My next stop was supposed to be a trip to Denmark in June. I had a plan! But that was blown by scheduling conflicts. Sad.

I am allergic to strawberries... thank God.

Today is the 20th year since my big brother, Roy, passed. He died of brain cancer... he was 52. He is missed. And he is loved. Roy was such a kind and caring fellow, of all people, he did not deserve this... Horrid disease.

on a brighter side, we bought a new car over the weekend. A super clean 2012 Cadillac Escalade ESV! It has 125k miles, but was a private livery. This means the owner drove people to and from LAX. This also means they had to keep up on maintenance and keep the truck clean. It has 125k on it, but it looks like half that. And thanks to a technical glitch, we got it for a song! They updated the Cargurus.com page with a corrected price, but it took too long to update, and thanks to that presenting on my phone, we got that price!

Drives super nice. Black on black. Still have the Suburban, and will for a bit. I am working on the Vette and will need my own vehicle until it's done - brakes, shocks, little things. But the shocks I ordered (Bilstein) were wrong... the bottom mounting pin is too short and the holes don't line up with the lower control arm. Drat. Just waiting on Tire Rack and Bilstein to get it sorted out.

That's it from here!

whew... been super busy. sorry for not being around much.

We are set for more rain this week... and rain in May is not normal. But my lawn looks like the back 9 at Augusta... and my rose bushes, amazing.

back to work!

We'll be there!!!

The corral rocks here. The parking is the BEST.

Parking in LB is a bitch anyway, but during race weekend... forget it. But, the corral is placed near the start-finish line, in the marina. The tent and parking area are fenced in and there are security guards at either entrance. It is super cool. About 100 Vettes or so.

My knee is still killing me, but I will get some pics.

A slightly belated Happy Easter everyone!!!

Next year... sniff...

great picture!

hm... wonder what the TV coverage will be this year?

Alas... I will be missing Sebring again...

Between COVID uncertainties and my knee, I passed. I am aiming for next year!!!

Super Bowl Sunday!!!

Thanks for the update, Charlie!

We are dark now, no coverage on USA until 0300 for us... I will have Peacock before Sebring! Not doing Sebring cause my knee is really killing me... grr...