Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Another Yankee day...

It's cold and windy, and the sun is scheduled to set sometime around lunch.

Plus, if all goes according to plan, at the end of the day I will be driving something practical and roomy and slow instead of the zooty Kraut roadster I've piloted for the last seven years. If I make a passenger throw up with this thing, it'll be from body roll over urban potholes, not from pressing their face against the side glass with G-forces in the Appalachian foothills.

The temperature is expected to rise to a balmy 42, but with the thirty-knot gusts blowing from Mordor to the northwest, it'll be hard to tell apart from the high twenties it was this morning.

Bleh.

Solar spectrum lamps and Vitamin D, you say?

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's the contrast between the sweltering humid summer and the blistering cold winter that makes Yankees the hardiest Americans. Plus, if the two nice days of the year come on a weekend, we have a picnic!

Anonymous said...

So what dullsmobile are you getting?

Tam said...

I'm probably going to use the '07 Magnum they have (clean-it-out-with-a-hose fleet car with the base V6) as a stalking horse to get into one of the two Pacificas at which I'm looking.

Less said...

It's the contrast between the sweltering humid summer and the blistering cold winter that makes Yankees the hardiest Americans.

It's winter? Hell, I'm not even wearing a jacket these days!?

Honestly, tho, it's not the cold that gets me or the early sunsets, but rather the pale gray skies that linger for most of winter around Chitown (I think it happens because of the lake...)

Anonymous said...

It's no fun being an adult!

Anonymous said...

"It's winter?"

Not yet, it isn't.

Tam said...

Rickn8or,

If I wanted to be an adult, I'd've had kids. ;)

Anonymous said...

Hey, just because I'm an adult doesn't mean I can't still be immature. In fact, I've made it an art form.

NotClauswitz said...

The only American sedan I'd consider would be a Crown Vic with the police pursuit package suspension. You can practically off-road them - in fact that's a general FAQ question in off-road riding forums: "What's the best off-road vehicle for jumps?" Answer: a rental car! The POS we rented in Cabo had definitely been frame-stretched by off-roading, it went around corners like a slinky, and when you hit the brakes the front (disc) stopped first and the rear (drums) caught up with a bang, so watch those closely.

An evil CrownVic ex-pesially in BLACKHAWK! all-black, with black windows and wheels - a mordor-mobile for black rifles.

Anonymous said...

If I wanted to be an adult, I'd've had kids. ;)

Tam as a mommy...wow, those kids would have had a WONDERFUL childhood...

theirritablearchitect said...

"If I wanted to be an adult, I'd've had kids."

Quit reminding me of my impending doom. I'm quite Type A enough as is.

Anonymous said...

Pity about the six-banger. The magnum can actually be a reasonably fun ride if you get it with the hemi, though it's probably more damning to admit I learned this because my mother got one. Still not a sporty little roadster, but much less expectation that it comes pre-loaded with Griswolds.

And if you're serious about a full spectrum lamp, drop me an email. There's one sitting in my garage that hasn't even been taken out of its original packaging after my mother-in-law decided that people living in a state where folks still try dancing just to get a few clouds to muster up a drizzle needed more sunshine.

Anonymous said...

Tam, I sent you some sunshine from out this way, did you receive it?

Can't do much about the Vit D.



Malamute

Anonymous said...

Hey Dirtcrasr, once apon a time, when folks still kept dinosaurs for housepets, Billy Moore and I were out zooming the back roads with Eddie Quinn in his old Chevy pick-up.
Hey, we were almost old enough for our drivers licences, we needed some practice, right?
And we thought we'ed be invisible. An hour after dark, just turn off the lights, and a pick-up in dark gray primer was in warp drive, untouchable by puny mortals, right?
Wrong. Coming out of Higgy's Hot Dog Stand in beautiful downtown Higganum, Officer Piekarsz of the Connecticut State Police took a look at us and decided to get close enough for another look.
Off we went like a scalded cat, with Piekarsz in close pursuit. Funny thing, a six-banger with three on the tree can seem really peppy until you've got a Crown Vicky on your tail.
Off into Cockaponsett State Forest we went, and up one of the little dirt tracks that ran up to Eddie's Grandmother's little cabin in the woods. Not that we thought we'ed make it, but putting the fateful moment a few seconds further away seemed like the best idea going.
Suddenly, very suddenly, the Crown Vicky stopped. We scooched around the bend, parked, then sneaked back to see what had happened.
Score, one Crown Vicky high-centered and minus an oil pan. Now, any sensible kids would have been overjoyed at their successful escape, and let it alone.
But some little asshole (I think it might have been me) had to start jeering, and the other two buttheads of course joined in.
Ticking off Bull Piekarsz was not a bright thing to do, and some of the words and promises exchanges at about 50 yards convinced us we had better head for the barn real quick.
We got back to Eddie's place and wisely told the truth about what had happened to old Nellie, Eddie's Grandmother, who thought it was a hoot.
She had us drive the truck way back down into the swamp (did I mention it hadn't been registered in 12 or 15 years?), and when the boys in blue came calling, she said "Oh, that old thing"? "Eddie gave it to Butch, his Brother-In-Law down in Hamden, months ago".
She then said we had been there all evening, watching television.
Nellie was one seriously cool old lady. She was the only woman I ever met who chewed tobacco, swore like a longshoreman, and could shoot a .22 almost as well as my own Grandmother.
Anyway, the next day the truck was on it's way to Hamden, and Eddie was back on the school bus with the rest of us losers.
The moral of the story is, Crown Vickys are great machines to play Roadwarrior in, but pick-ups have lots more ground clearance.
"It went around corners like a slinky". God that's beautiful, and reminiscent of a few POS's I've been stuck with way back when. Can I steal the line?

NotClauswitz said...

What a beautiful Grandma-ma Eddie had! Yep a Vicky is no pickup, it needs a lift-kit for starters! No kids so no adult here - but mere cars just hold no interest anymore. Neither does Cabo. And don't ever buy a used Fleet vehicle from Vegas, it's ALL off-road country out there, I knew a guy who jumped his rental every time business took him to town.

Home on the Range said...

I'm gonna miss the zooty roadster though.

Brian J. said...

Peh. At these southern latitudes, they don't even have a winter. They have the green season and the brown season.

Anonymous said...

DirtCrashr--

The best thing about a Crown Vic is that if you wear sunglasses and scowl a lot, you can pull up behind people on the interstate and they'll get out of your way!

At least that's what GF's dad said. The only thing spoiling the effect was GF's sweet-looking-old-lady-barely-showing-over-the-dash mom who could nonetheless arrange the English language in ways that I'd never heard in 21 years of Naval Service.

Roberta X said...

...I just wish Tam would buy a Crown Vic. But if one is going practical, a modern estate car -- "station wagon" -- is the way to go. (Me, I am lusting after a very very old Chev pickup truck that's been mildly "hotrodded" with a modern smallblock V8 -- but it would be one more toy in my fleet and my MGB would have to go to make room).

Roomie, you have noticed there's Vitramin D in the cabinet over the fridge, right? I take 'em, days when I can't get outdoors in sunlight. Feel free to partake.