Doesn't surprise me one bit. If he didn't already know you, he'd be thinking a Vista Cruiser was the name of some spaceship in a video game!

 

Hi everyone.

Finally found me a diesel vehicle. A 90 Suburban. Not a bad looking rig. Now I have to set up my still to make my own fuel. Can't wait to start driving it, but that will take a few days. I don't have an opportunity to get to the insurance place and the tag office for a few days. That's okay, I like looking at it. My POS neighbor will probably call the yard ****'s since it's sitting there without a license plate. I think I have 30 days, bring them on.

If I wanted to ogle someone all day it would definitely be Liz Brewer. I still laugh that she was offended with the girl who wanted to wear her bra as a top. For someone to listen to or hang out with, Dolly Parton. She has the sweetest voice and I could listen to her all day tell stories of her growing up and being in show business.

Cold and a little rainy here. Haven't heard what it's supposed to be the rest of the week. Haven't done much moving this week. Big surprise there.

Jamesbo didn't you say you got your VC from California?

Okay shopping then whatever. Going to bed early so I can get up for work. I should have a 2 day week every week. And get paid for 40 of course.

 

Mike, Yes, I bought it from a guy that restored facel Vegas

Ringo Starr is the only person I've ever heard of that owned one

 

Mike - Congrats on the new vehicle purchase, I know you've been looking for a long time! Give us some pics please!

 

 

Good evening guys,

Hectic day today. First a dental visit for my wife this morning, her oral surgery, bone grafts, and implant sockets are all healing as intended. Her next visit in February will be to screw the implant posts into the sockets, followed by another 2-month healing process.

After the dental visit we made trips to the UPS store to make 2 returns and mail some Christmas presents. Then on to Harbor Freight to buy a present for a man, to be exchanged at a Christmas Eve party at my daughter's house. Finally, on to Walmart to feel the real Christmas shopping pain. This was about 1:30 in the afternoon, and the store packed. What was worse was many of the shelves were bare of basic items we needed, WTH???

Hope everyone had a great day!

 

The best time to shop WalMart is 2:00am - 4:00am.

 

Norm - That sure looks tasty! I don't doubt you a bit about 0200 - 0400 being the best time to shop at Walmart, but it would add an additional pain factor. I'm usually up by about 0530, maybe that would be almost as good???

 

I forgot to cut up & add tomatoes - doh. I love tomatoes with shrimps & pasta. Honestly, I've never been to WalMart @ 0530 I don't believe. I generally take a long nap on the evening I plan to head to WalMart. I've pulled off the 0200 - 0400 several (numerous) times - it's a dead ringer. No zombies shopping in the store, fast check-out, all the personnel are stocking all of the shelves. It's a wonderful thing.

 

Norm - Glad that works well for you. It is once in a Blue Moon that I ever take a nap, and when I do (unintentionally), I usually feel worse than before I took the nap. If I did take a nap, and then went to Walmart at 0200, I'd have to stay up when I got home, I could never go back to sleep, just wouldn't happen.

 

Mike, I've got a 50 gallon copper cooker hidden away. I was going to use it as an object d'art. But I doubt I ever will.

 

Heading norte [to make sure the millennium closed the garage door]

 

There is never a good time to shop at Walmart. I almost got in a fight once in there, because a couple of idiots got indignant over my wife moving their shopping cart out of the middle of the aisle so that I could get past it with ours. I avoid that dump as much as possible.

 

It appears my windshield cowling retainer clips were hung up in Colorado via USPS. They were supposed to be here Monday they're now scheduled for delivery today. Oh well, I'm in no big hurry I'll see them when I see them.

I spent a couple hours on the golf range today working on my swing which paid off quite well. As is always the case, it comes down to the fundamentals of a good golf swing. I generally add to my issues thinking I'm doing everything correctly which obviously is not the case. I swing too fast (lack tempo), throw the club outside to inside (resulting in a ridiculous fade & loss of distance), far too much arm movement (chicken wings), lack of body (torso) weight control, I don't swing 'through' the ball (to finish the swing) and my back swing is out of control. Aside from those few issues - I have a perfect golf swing.

 

Wow, all those issues and still consistently shooting in the low 80's! When you get all those fixed you should regularly be in the low 60's, at which time I would like to volunteer to be your caddy on the Hooter's Tour!

 

Chris - Unfortunately, I believe the NGA-Hooters Golf Tour ceased to operate after either 2011 or 2013, I believe.

 

Hi everyone.

Finished early at work, and we had a catered in lunch. Up until last year, the vendors would bring in lunch around Thanksgiving and Christmas. That started up again today, how nice. We also got out a bit early and I was home before 230.

Nice out right now, but cold. Rain is coming for the weekend, when I need to move a bunch of stuff. Wouldn't you know it. Eh, we won't melt.

Called my insurance guy this afternoon and got him paid off, now tomorrow I'll go get the new Suburban registered. I'll get a couple pictures tomorrow, if it isn't raining.

Jamesbo I don't have to cook anything. Alls I'll be doing is keeping used motor oil in a big can and letting it settle out. But if you have a recipe to go along with that object d'art...

Okay have a good evening everyone.

 

Just because the NGA canceled theirs doesn't mean we can't go on our own tour of Hooters establishments Nationwide!

 

Good morning guys,

Very warm here, 51° at 0730, with very dense fog. It's supposed to burn off and be sunny by 1000, with a projected high of 70°. Then a cold front is coming in overnight and by Saturday evening at 2200 it's supposed to be 32°. Back on the Midwest weather roller-coaster.

Got a call from my youngest daughter yesterday evening, the daughter that I'm helping coach my grandson's basketball team. She had to stay home from work yesterday to care for Gabe, who either has the flu or some kind of stomach bug, and wanted to let me know she might not be at our practice tonight if he is not feeling better today. I hope he is feeling better and well enough to play by Saturday afternoon when we will have 2 games back to back, which will be tough enough anyway because we only have 9 boys when we're at full strength.

Other than the basketball practice and games, I have no other big plans for the weekend. It will be nice just being able to relax without a sick dog to nurse or worry about.
Hope everyone has a great day and weekend!

 

Hi everyone.

Did pretty well this morning. Out by 11. I decided to forego the Awful house, just felt like getting home to see Tiger. Not a very nice day out, misty and overcast and cold.

Plans for today are to go get the new Suburban registered. Also take a few things over to the house and get ready for my help that's coming tomorrow.

Not much else. Hope everyone has a good start to the weekend.

 

We apparently have big tornado chance tonight.

My plant built the last Sequoia SUV it will make today, lined off at about 1pm. We will now demo the Sequoia only areas and make ready for the new vehicles coming into the plant. The Sequoia 21 is done and will return as a 22 model sometime next year in the Texas plant, where it will have had a major model change and a new powertrain and will be, effectively, a totally new vehicle.

I took many pictures and one of the VIN in case I ever see for sale 'The Last V8 That Princeton Made.' I'm getting tired of all these weenies that think a turbo smaller engine can replace the torque of a bigger engine in terms of the needs that a truck fulfills. We're going to be weenied to death by these people some day.

 

The weenies have never had to use a real truck to engage in real truck work. Phuq 'em.

 

Got the Suburban registered and put some fuel in it. I made the big mistake of saying "something" to chatty Kathy the tag office woman. She went on at length about Gone With The Wind and her personal favorite North And South. I've never seen North And South and haven't seen GWTW in decades. Had no clue what she was talking about. Somewhere in there she brought up her son who is a power lifter and at 27 already has back trouble. Then at the end, I tried to sneak in a couple changes I wanted made to the title. For one, it says it's a truck and the Suburban has always been a station wagon. For two, under body style it said conv Subrb. So I said to her, it's not a truck it's a station wagon, and it's not a convertible, it's a station wagon. She rattled on with what sounded like random words strung together and I said, that's okay I'll live with it. Oy.

Koda is this the last Sequoia ever until the next generation comes out, or are they still being made at other plants? I never understood why an automaker gives the same name to a car that's completely different than the car it replaced. I know that gave us 38 years of the Cutlass, which is cool, but if they want to grab people's attention, I would think looking at a 20 year old name wouldn't impart an updated vehicle. Says the guy with a vehicle whose name is 86 years old.

So my friend is coming tomorrow to help me move stuff. To get ready, I need to move the cars around so I can get the Uhaul into the driveway, get some small things out of the way of the big things, and go get some money so I can give it to him. If we get everything moved that I want I was going to give him a buck fifty. That's about what he'd make on overtime for 4 hours.

Also read that Al Unser, Sr. died recently. One of the prizes he got for winning the 70 Indy 500 was Pace Car #1. Don't know how long he had it, or where it went afterward. Seems I read once it was a "barn find" and all messed up and was restored.

Okay still work to do. Have a good evening everyone.

 

Here 30-miles south of StL we also have a Tornado watch in effect until 2300, along with a high threat of Quarter to golf ball size hail.

I also hate to see truck engines downsized from V8's to Turbo V6's, it sucks!

 

Suburban, what Suburban, are you sure you bought a Surburban???

 

Not the most likely time of year for tornadoes to develop, or even hail for that matter - but, I know it does happen occasionally. Batten down the hatches.

 

Mike - The NPS (Buffalo National River, AR) gave me a 4x4 Suburban to use for three years during my research tenure (1981-1983) - NPS green, of course. It received some heavy duty usage.

 

In the auto industry, there are major model changes and minor model changes. The most minor of minor model changes is to simply change the vin to be the next year's model, and change the owner's manual by one year to be the next year. I believe the 2019 Sequoia was that type of change. A familiar one for us is how the 72 Cutlass is extremely similar to the 71, often times a matter of black paint on something previously silver. We typically have a decently big minor in the middle of a major cycle, like every 7 years, by upgrading the powertrain. For instance, the current Highlander is a major model of 2020, but the powertrain is from 2017, and the previous major model change was 2014.

A major model change is a completely new vehicle. It may use the same powertrain as previous, but it's a new car. For instance, a 1973 Cutlass is a major model change from a 72, yet uses the same engine. I know it's a different body, and I think the chassis is all different, too.

The Sequoia is a Tundra derivative dating from 07. The Tundra has had a major model, and is a new vehicle, and so the Sequoia will follow suit. The reason the names are kept the same is for recognition. You know the "big pickup sized SUV from Toyota" is a Sequoia, so it's kept that way to keep things straight, even though it's a new vehicle. Another one, the Venza now is a rebadged Toyota Harrier from Japan, it is not the Camry Wagon it was ten years ago. But, it serves the same role and spot, so the name came back.

Storms at 10 and 2 here.

 

Mike, at least the chatty lady at the DMV was friendly. Usually they seem to be all grouchy, nice when some personality shows thru... My side of family,(sister, brother, and their kids, my step mom) are coming here for Rogers Christmas today. Will be fun. Next Saturday is our (wife and I ,our kids, grandkids) Christmas at youngest son's place and then on the 22nd we are having a neighborhood Christmas get together with friends up here at our place at 7PM. Tis the season.... Bought some front panels to repair rust on truck hood from AMD- American Metal Direct- never ordered from them before hope it all good.. Today it has warmed up and is rainy, Snow has mostly melted.

 

Yikes. Tornadoes ripped a path last night.

 

Norm - It got pretty hairy here last night and we were right in the middle of it, with multiple tornadoes going both North and South of us. A strong tornado destroyed an Amazon facility in Edwardsville, IL a little northeast of StL, killing 2 workers there. There was an EF-3 south of me near Fredericktown, and tornadoes on the ground in St. Mary's and Farmington, also south. I ride through these southern locations frequently when I'm out on the motorcycle. I tried to get a few pictures off News Outlets but they wouldn't let me pull their pics. There are several areas without power.

Here at my house just very strong gusts of wind and heavy rain for about 1/2-hour. I did not see/hear any hail. We lost power for about 10-minutes. I haven't been out yet to walk around the house and look for any potential roof or siding damage.

We are supposed to have 2 basketball games this evening, back to back, from 1600 - 1800. This early I'm not sure if the overnight weather issues will effect the scheduled games or not???

I'll check in with you guys later, hope everyone has a great day!

 

It missed us in Evansville, same situation.

 

Memphis hit a record high of 80 yesterday So we knew it would be a rough night. Same situation as you guys All around us was bad. A nursing home got hit in blythesville ark. Trees down all over memphis. We got about 4” of rain A factory collapsed in Kentucky w employees inside

My company has a radio tower down in Kentucky.

Our emergency alerts on the phones worked perfectly. It went off for a new warning and about 30 seconds later the local news got the same alert over the EBS and announced it

The sirens and the new polygon area alerts are working way better than it used to here.

Everyone I know is fine except one buddy had the power ripped off his house.
but he has been re-siding the house and had been planning on getting the drop taken down temporarily to do some wood repair. He’s treating it like a benefit and is out doing the siding now. So he’s actually saved a service call fee

 

John and Matt - Glad you guys are OK! I just saw a bunch of drone footage over much of the city of Mayfield, KY where that Candle Factory collapsed. It looks like a very high percentage of the entire town, not just the Candle Factory, was leveled, just horrendous. Counting my lucky stars this morning!

 

Not looking good for the Amazon warehouse, many casulties expected. Windy and snowing here, but it will abate later this evening, and temps will be mild tomorrow. Out for a xmas dinner with friends this afternoon. Have a good one.

 

Hi everyone.

I didn't know there was to be bad weather up north. That's too bad about the Amazon place and the deaths. When I still lived up home years ago the news said once that there had been a tornado in Illinois in every month of the year. It was tornado season for us all year.

In the Greater Stockbridge Area we are experiencing overcast and a slight breeze. The sun poked its head out a couple times but only briefly.

My friend from work showed up at 8 and we got right to work. We took some small stuff over to the house in the Suburban, then picked up the Uhaul, then took two loads of big stuff to the house. After that he had to leave. I went to the Awful house for lunch and came back home and it echo's in here now. It's a little sad. I remember 16 years ago when this place was empty. I'll see it again soon. Well I'm all charged up now to keep going. Visual progress.

Chris maybe if I took my sawzall and cut the roof off, the title would then match the vehicle. Sheesh. The woman read through the list of body types and station wagon was not on the list. Odd. Greg I usually get the stupid ones who don't know which end is up. I dread going in with the Amphicar. That one always gets them. But I could go in with a Chevy. What is that? Who makes it? I'll have to look that one up. It never fails. Or I get, gee I'm not sure you can do that. Sigh.

Well I'm glad all you guys with the bad weather around you made out okay. Prayers for those who didn't. We are not immune to tornados here on the south side of Atlanta. I'd love to have a tornado room in the basement. I went to the Chrysler museum when it was still open and they had one of them community sirens. They said they couldn't start it on the ground because the air came out with such force it set the grass on fire. Not sure if it was a hemi or a 440, but the whole assembly was huge.

I hear the wind picking up now. We're going to get storms later, hope they aren't big ones. Gonna do some cleaning now that stuff is out of here and then take more stuff over.

Have a good afternoon everyone.

 

Mild Italian sausage + pesto + tomatoes over pasta.

 

 

Norm - Is that a Marie Callender's Chocolate Pie? If not, it looks just like them, my wife gets those quite often.

 

Norm that chocolate pie looks wonderful.

Didn't take anything else over today. It started raining and that was that. I did get a lot of cleaning done. I should have thought twice about taking both the couches over. Now I don't have anywhere to sit. Sit at the kitchen table or go to bed. Hm.

I can tell you I'm beat tonight. I told Tiger we could stay up late but I don't think it will be too late. He is very confused that his couches are gone and he has nowhere to sit but on the floor. Imagine, a dog sitting on the floor.

Thanks Koda for the explanation. I suppose you're right, name recognition. Now, if the name was on a car that wasn't doing well, that's probably a different story. Wonder if Chevy will ever name another car "Vega..."