One year ago today: October 18, 2019, somebody might call.
Five years ago today: October 18, 2015, the cost of plinking.
Nine years ago today: October 18, 2011, other questionable habits.
Random years ago today: October 18, 2007, early e-book trials.
This is a real car, a Cadillac El Dorado. It’s a real boat, half the size of a bus, but gas was 15 cents a gallon and people could actually sit comfortably in back seats, which had a serious number of uses. Elon Musk might be flying spaceships to Mars by 2024 that have more legroom than the plastic jokes they call cars nowadays. Becca and I were at the Muscle Car Museum in Punta Gorda. She wanted to see old Cougars, but turns out to be a GM show only. On the way over, we stopped at iHop and I had the stuffed French toast, you gotta try it. Unless you are on a diet, then you cheat like I did. Hint, instead of two pieces, you can get one piece and substitute egg, sausage, and spuds. And another hint, save the French toast for “desert”.
Not us, there was more walking involved than we cared for. I’ll go through the hundreds of pictures taken and get you the best. The paint jobs are sometimes not authentic in that they have a slight acrylic look, I’m just sayin’. Tucked behind a feature row of Corvettes was my dream car, the El Camino. There were four or five that made my eyes water. They are a two-seater sedan with a pickup truck cargo bed in back, the manufacturers called it a try. They quit making them just as I could afford one, around 1987.
The best years were the models from the 1970s, with the 1978 best for me. After that they began to fiddle with the design and the 454 cubic inch motor became unavailable. Horsepower kept dropping and just after I graduated again in the 80s, they moved production to Mexico and by then had resorted to all manner of gizmos to squeeze power out of smaller engines and finally seem to have decided the thing could no longer meet pollution standards and still haul a load of pigs to market. That was original concept of such a car. You could haul pigs in the week and still drive it to church on Sundays.
Lemon Rock, Ireland.
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The museum is inconveniently moved to an old shopping mall south of town. We drove back into town, stopping at a few Thrifts. Let me pause for a moment here. Make no mistake about the significance of having somebody you can hang out with when you are older. This is some serious advice because you’ll have all kinds of friends when you are young and pretty. I’ve already told you how I have nobody to hang with because everybody my own age is either flat broke all the time or hangs out a country clubs that I can’t afford.
[Author's note - this bird cage pic should be a gif, but something went wrong. It will have to wait until I return To Alpha 1 to fix things.]
She calls them second-hand stores, we stopped at a Goodwill. That place has changed. Prices are triple what they were just a few years ago. It’s $2.99 for used DVDs. She was all over the place, still not sure if I really like shopping (I do) or am I just being nice. We have similar taste in movies, books, and knickknacks. She drove us to another place she likes, also pricey, but everything in the store was one-of-a-kind.
Like this birdcage, which I quickly dubbed The Kremlin. It’s for finch-like hopping birds, as parrots would eat the wood. This was more for decoration, wielding a $600 price tag. They had several items made of wood that I studied for a few minutes. I could make a few of them, which got me thinking. Then we went to the waterfront, where they had live music which was pretty excellent. Two guitar players and a dude on the steel drums. Tight music and even tighter harmonies, the only shade was the two beach canopies and they were packed. The steel drum player was uncannily perfect on every note, there’s a story there for sure. You don’t show up in Punta Gorda packing that kind of talent without a reason.
By this time, we’re tired of walking, so we sat down near the Peace River and watched the boats for a bit. She and some friends had bought two of the park benches, dedicated to loved ones who’d passed on. They have memorial plaques. But be careful if you want to buy one, because some are cheaper than others. The reason is electric lines. What you thought was a bargain will soon be covered with bird poop. Alaine called, she’d seen my car in the driveway. On Sundays she volunteers so she missed out on this excellent day. Becca took the scenic route back. By this time, I wanted to head home as the last couple visits I wound up having to drive at night. Avoid that in Florida.
We looked at some Halloween decorations, strange how that custom has become so played-up in recent years. Ah, just another sales event. Some people don’t look freaky enough with only facial tattoos. I headed back taking the creek road and somebody tootled their horn. I looked and wondered if it was Alaine heading home. I stopped, but if it was, she didn’t turn around. I waited a few minutes, then headed on. Traffic is back to pre-covid levels, so I took the side roads through Ona, noticing the Limestone Country Club was open. With one patron. But I had a premonition to just get home, arriving here at 6:00PM
Good call getting here when I did. I got an emergency call. Check with me later, this could be a major upset. Music plans are on hold.
ADDENDUM
Trivia. The average Holiday Inn creates 90 dumpsters full of garbage per day. A long conversation with Elliott again, concerning the advantages of small-scale guitar necks. He felt that the full size versions of both guitar and bass (which I call war clubs) contributed to better sound. I say no, in the electronic age, the sound is independent of the woodwork, so play what sounds good and is comfortable. I think I made a convert. The sound is magnetic, so a set of strings made from an alloy that reacts better with the pickups makes more difference than instrument weight. There are such strings, you know.
What’s all the furor over social media about interfering with the election. Society must have sunk to a new low for that to be possible. Gee, I’m voting communist because of something I read on the Internet. It would seem a lot of people really are that gullible. Facebook has hired “fact-checkers” but who checks on the checkers? They say it is to combat “coordinated inauthentic behavior”. But, but, I thought they were pro-Left. That’s another curious situation, they have a term “left-leaning”. There is no leaning, if you are a leftist, it is totally left. There is no middle ground left in this country. To me, Facebook is proof some people really don’t know when they are watching propaganda.
