Ace-Garageguy

I REALLY like seeing posts like this because most people seem to forget these were all NEW cars at one point, entirely reliable and drivable on long trips in their time period, and that IF returned to as-new condition by competent mechanics, they're STILL reliable and usable transportation.

The "art" buying community seems to me to be the ultimate expression of the mindless-rebleater gene, and/or the desperate attention-seeking and trying-to-be-cool-at-any-cost mind viruses. "Representational art bad" (though to do it really well takes tons of talent and highly honed skills), "interpretational or expressionist art (of any flavor that can't be understood by the common man, inspiring loads of self-important critical gibberish in praise of it) good", because it brings equity into the equation, where any talentless hack can be a great artiste...with no skill whatsoever. 🚽 PS: And everyone is afraid to point out that the emperor has no clothes. https://www.bookbrowse.com/expressions/detail/index.cfm/expression_number/605/the-emperor-has-no-clothes

In my experience, most everything Chinese can be found as cheap going through feePay as buying from some Chinese site. It only takes a little effort...and I'm STILL having to use feePay much as I hate them because a lot of what I need simply is not available from American suppliers, and when it IS, it's just marked-up Chinese stuff anyway. I DO like feePay's and PayPal's buyer protection schemes, so if what I get is substandard garbage or just never arrives, I get my money back.

Having always had interesting "old" cars as a matter of choice, I've driven them all over the place. Longest trip was here to AZ in a Geo Metro convertible. Kinda slow on the long climb up to Albuquerque. A round-trip to Texas and back in a '74 Fiat X1/9, later the same trip in a '74 Malibu wagon, then back in a '63 Olds. Up to the Outer Banks in a '69 Fury with a girlfriend, all over the Southeast in a rubber-bumper MG Midget with another girlfriend, etc. Multiple trips to Chattanooga and north Ga. in my '86 XJ6, multiple trips to Savannah and Florida in a '72 Gran Torino, to Sebring for the 1970 12-hour in my '62 Bug before it got the Porsche engine, and lots of 100 milers in my first Porsche, a '58 356 A coupe. Etc. While most of 'em weren't old enough to be "classics" at the time, they all were well past the age when "normal" people would have wanted...or trusted...them. Never had AAA or an issue with any of 'em other than having to replace the fuel pump in the Fury. Took a couple of days to get it from the "mainland", an hour to put it in. Oops...and some minor machine work I did in an actual blacksmith's shop in Texas on the Fiat. Almost forgot.

Study after study indicate that humans are not particularly good at "multitasking", contrary to popular opinion, so the intrusion of smartphones into the driving environment is likely the primary cause. Almost without fail, when I see somebody driving erratically or missing turn arrows or failing to yield etc., a look at the driver reveals his/her attention is focused down at something in the car and not what's going on around it.

Saltwater Taffy ran a little business under the boardwalk down at the beach.

Yup.

What people pay for Pollocks is a load of boll....

Les is there with more. Oh wait...this isn't the word game.

Roundabouts are becoming popular over here with "traffic engineers", and lotsa drivers seem to have no clue how to negotiate one.

Nope.

"Off with their heads!!" must be almost as much fun to say as "put 'em through the wood chipper!!"

"Allowed" is not the same as "aloud", but you'd never know it by reading some of the AI-generated closed-captioning.

Cool. One thing I've really missed living in the "sunny South" is snow. We typically get one or two snowfalls every year, sometimes a little more, sometimes less. Place I'm moving to in AZ is high desert and also usually gets one good snow every year that melts pretty quick, but the mountains just a few miles away stay white for most of the winter and have a lodge/restaurant/rental cottages/snow hiking. Just takes 4WD or chains to get there.

Beautiful work. Really fine.

Recipes I've seen for deep-fried turkeys say not to stuff the bird. That's all I got. Jalapenos might be an entirely different story, but I have no clue. EDIT: I did come across a reference to inserting jalap slices into slits in the skin, but no specifics.

Kinda friendamine came by the shop where I'm finishing up the DeLorean. He's a younger guy, the best regular employee the shop had, but he left when they failed to financially appreciate his ability and conscientiousness...all the while whining about not being able to get good mechanics. Well fellas, the good ones don't work cheap forever. He went to work for a big-name custom car shop here, but got burned out there too for much the same reason. Now he's working at Lockheed doing F-35 assembly, good pay, great benefits, on track to move up and get his A&P license too. Smart kid, interesting to talk to, and it was good seeing him.

I didn't "retire" until I hit 67, and was shortly afterwards approached by two companies that needed somebody with my skills. I've been working close to full time ever since, but on my own schedule, on long-term custom projects. If I had it to do over again, I would have said "no" and walked away, as the last two projects have turned into nightmares of re-doing work previously done by incompetent chimps...and I include the designers of the DeLorean electrical system and some well paid "name" shops in that category. I'm trapped into seeing both of them through to completion by my own sense of duty, but it's getting tougher every day, in part due to health issues I never expected. Once I'm done with these two, I'm done with customer work forever, and plan to live out my days building my OWN stuff...good Lord willing.

"Maker" has been adopted as an inflated-ego self-important term used by folks who tinker with physical stuff.

Yup, I'll often use "day old coffee", a trick I learned from none other than Carroll Shelby. Coarse cornmeal for thickening too, with an extra flavor note. Far as chocolate goes, I sometimes use semi-sweet or dark "morsels"...and eat more straight from the bag.

Out the door and down to the shop to install the highly modded Delco fuel pump in the DeLorean tank is where I'm headed.

Roads may someday become less congested as everyone works from home, because there's nothing you can't do with a phone app.

"Curtain wall" is a term used for a type of construction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtain_wall_(architecture)#:~:text=A curtain wall is an,the building from the elements.

Commercials that actively insult their customer base would seem to me to not be the best way to sell a product, but what do I know?

Went by the "train lady's" stall at the closest antique mall Thursday to see if she'd restocked since last time I cleaned her out of all the cool stuff, and yup, new additions. 20 unboxed, assembled HO scale boxcars from the period I'll be modeling from makers like Athearn, Roundhouse, Walthers and others, excellent condition, most already converted to Kadee couplers and riding on high-end sprung trucks with metal wheels: $3 each. All of 'em in era-appropriate fallen-flag liveries that will really add interest to a freight yard full of mineral-brown or red-oxide or black rolling stock. Unfortunately, the sticky price tags were applied over many of the car markings, and getting them off with minimal damage took some doing, but as they'll get weathered anyway, no biggie. Also snagged 4 boxed kits from Roundhouse, Branchline, and Athearn, including a rotary snowplow. $5 each. EDIT: New versions of these boxcars and kits, if you can even find the classic liveries, sell for around $40 each in the hobby shop or online, so $3 a pop is quite a deal. Finally, an early AHM powered GE "U-boat" locomotive and a nice boxed Athearn dummy Fairbanks Morse "Train Master" loco, $15 each. The GE U25C sold for $16.95 new when it was introduced in 1965, and was up to about $40 by the late 1970s. Asking prices these days run around $40 online, including shipping. It still runs (both trucks powered) but needs the standard old locomotive servicing like cleaning and lubrication. Only downside to the old AHM locos is the one-piece stamped steel handrails that are a little toylike, but not hard to upgrade. The deep wheel flanges (limiting operation to code-100 rail or taller) common to European-built HO locos back then are also an issue, but my lathe will make quick work of that when she's torn down for servicing. Asking prices for the Train Master dummy are in the $50 range on feePay, including shipping. Not a bad haul, very cost-effective.