trinacriabob

Great news! Just 3 days ago ... On November 26, 2008, the QE2 (Queen Elizabeth 2) arrived to Dubai to become a centerpiece hotel at the entrance to Palm Jumeirah, the palm shaped development in Dubai's harbor. We lapsed into a serious global recession shortly thereafter and the ship remained idle. The ship went into disrepair. It was moved around a few times. A British consortium wanted to buy her back and dock her on the Thames. The Chinese were said to be interested in her for scrap. Well, out of the blue, we learn that the QE2 has survived. It has in fact become a hotel, all of the tacky things they wanted to do with it, including removing the trademark Cunard funnel, did not materialize, and the interiors are very tasteful, blending aspects of both the ship and a hotel. The ship looks a little strange without its lifeboats. The Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA, also a floating hotel, retained hers. The ship will stay in the harbor at Port Rashid, near the cruise terminal. It was not moved to Port Jumeirah. The ship's history is long and she sailed for some 40 years, if you count sea trials. It officially left Southampton on May 2, 1969, arrived in New York on May 7, 1969, and then "retired" in Dubai on November 26, 2008, so that's almost 40 years in actual commercial service. That's impressive. In people years, that's like living to be over 100! This is great news. Fans of the QE2 are relieved that the ship lives on! I first saw the ship in the port of Los Angeles when it arrived to dock for its first annual world cruise.

I was reminded of the transition from hood ornament to hood medallion by this. Mine had the hood ornament, which I didn't mind. In 1995, they also shelved the very horizontal "ravine" dash for this one, which wasn't all that bad. The big bucket seats on the GS were especially comfortable.

NOT a nice looking vehicle but I do love me some hood ornament ... on the right car. Or, if not a hood ornament, a hood medallion. I wonder if hood ornaments will come back into vogue.

Goodyear has gotten worse. They came with the 90s Regal coupe. They went quite a ways ... over 60,000 miles. And this was on a 15" wheel. This time around, the OEM tires on the LaCrosse were the Goodyear Integritys. I squeezed every last mile out of them and they only made it to 46,000 miles. They sure looked meaty when they were brand new. Let's see what these Michelins do. If I can get 70K out of 90K, I'll be happy. The third time around, I usually go with the secondary product Costco carries and some a little bit of coin. That would be Bridgestone. When I did this with the last car, the Bridgestones were just about as good as the Michelins that preceded them. Currently, Bridgestone's smooth riding tire is called something like Turanza/Serenity. There is one with an asymmetrical tread pattern and one with a normal tread pattern. Depending on how my current Michelins fare, I will either get Michelins or Bridgestones the next time around. Who doesn't want the $70 special they flip over to every other month (alternating between Michelin/Bridgestone)?

I also wish a person could just get a power seat on a Cruze without a bunch of other crap they don't want. In the Focus, you can. Right, automatics with many gears feel very seamless these days. I was stunned with the smooth operation of a 6 speed automatic in a Hyundai Accent. I'm sure CVTs will get better but, when you step into one, they rev up and then sort of adjust to the driving speed you're looking for. With the newer automatics, it takes really hammering into pedal to feel the shift point. Otherwise, you don't feel them. I'm fine with 6 speeds. I don't need or want 8, 9, or 10 of them.

On the Malibu and Cruze, I see a lot of basket weaving up front in the grilles. The latest Hyundai Sonata is playing with these egg crate grille motifs on various trim levels. CVT ... it will be interesting to see how it plays out. It's supposed to be a simple concept. However, with Nissan, they don't repair them when they fail, and they have. They just do an R & R. I began to like CVT for the gas mileage but I then returned to liking the feel of driving a vehicle with a step gear transmission. The new Cruze with the 1.4L T and 6 speed automatic is a wonderful little car to scoot around in. As for the Malibu, I just wish they'd tweak the rear roofline a minor amount and deal with that kink in the moulding out by the C-pillar. As for the Cruze, can they just put a damn leather wrapped steering wheel and shift knob handle in their LT version? One shouldn't have to go to a Premier to get that and also have to accept the leather seats that go with that. I like cloth seats with a leather wrapped wheel. As for the Spark, I like that they have been featuring a defined bumper strip up front for at least a few years. Something defined and substantial needs to somehow sit at the very front of the grille and not just ornate, shiny plastic bits. With the Sonic bowing out, that might take away the only GM car to offer manual windows in its base model, unless the Spark does as well. (I believe they are available on the Nissan Versa, the base Ford Focus, and the base Ford Fiesta.) A friend of mine has the base 2016 Silverado with 2 WD and it has manual windows. I was stunned to see that. Not many cars to choose from these days ... sigh ...

I once looked up their address on the back of a leaflet from Costco, and their address has been smack in the middle of Long Island and, on one publication, somewhere in SC. But then, Hyundais are produced in Alabama. So, I don't know how French they are anymore. Much like Cunard is a lot less English, in a way, for not standing on its own and being a part of Carnival Lines.

I have never had a bad experience with either United or Delta. Delta used to be outstanding but has become less so over the years. In terms of alliances, United's Star Alliance is the best, followed by Delta's SkyTeam, and then American's One World. One World has both British and Iberia. I dislike both of them. As far as American carriers go, I'd have to say Alaska and Southwest have been the best and I've been flying on them for about 20 years. As far as international carriers go, my nod goes to both Air France and Alitalia, and they are both in SkyTeam. The former has never been arrogant, as the French are reputed to be, and the latter has really been getting their act more together. Good food in steerage on both Air France and Alitalia. Just tonight, I was discussing with someone how I never like to cross an ocean on an American carrier. It's not exciting to me. I want to be on a foreign one from the get go. I have to bite my tongue here. That would be very scary but I'm thinking the plane might not have wanted to go to Sacramento.

I also went with Defenders after the OEMs wore out on the current sled. The OEMs wore out too quickly compared to those on the last car ... the Regal. Tread life that comes nowhere close to 90,000 miles is what the personal reviewers were complaining about. Let's see how mine do. Past sets of Michelin have made good on their longevity. They came so close to the stated tread life that I didn't even mess with the minor proration remnant and, generally speaking, I'm cheap. In my mind, Michelin has always been the gold standard for American tires. I hope that they haven't stopped carrying that torch.

What was really nice was a whitewall that I once bought that had a very thin white stripe. I think it was one of the Michelin replacements. It was the best of both worlds, looks wise. I recall that it was durable. I had a set on the Regal coupe that I had before the LaCrosse. Sadly, even though Consumer Reports touts the Michelin Defender, the personal reviews of them on other sites are far from stellar. I am now at the point that I am more open to other tire brands. I do want to see that some people have had good experiences with them before buying, though. As far as plane seats go, I usually end up in the very back of the aircraft on Southwest because of my boarding sequence number. I go right to the penultimate window seat and pick a side of the aircraft depending on what I might want to look at when taking off or landing.

It was really weird to learn about yesterday's Southwest flight 1380 (NY-La Guardia to Dallas - Love Field) that made an emergency landing at PHL when it lost one engine and after my being on a Southwest Boeing 737 flight about 1 hour earlier yesterday and sitting by the window. I try to sit by a window almost all the time. A couple of men apparently had to pull the one passenger, who later died, back into the cabin. She was at a window that had shattered by the engine's failure. It's sad that the lady passed away, but it sounded like she was in serious condition after such rapid decompression. It's also amazing how some people rise to the call of duty when there's a tragedy and try to help out. The photos of the engine and how charred it was are eye opening. Passengers said that the plane operated satisfactorily after the loss of the engine and that the pilot did a great job of bringing the plane to the tarmac safely.

That's interesting ... Dobermans and German Shepherds .... at the same time? If so, I wonder how they interacted. And how they interacted with a Miniature Schnauzer ... I've only had one dog and it was an Australian Shepherd ... in my teens and twenties. A grammar school friend's family had two of them in their back yard and I decided that was the kind of dog I'd push for. Ours was a female and about 35 pounds. Males typically weigh about 50 to 65 pounds. I think 30 to 40 pounds is the ideal size for a dog. I held her on the ride home for over 30 minutes from the people's house where we purchased her, so I'm the person she bonded with. Australian Shepherds are consistently ranked at the top for intelligence and she definitely delivered on that. I now feel I will compare every possible dog option to that dog. My soft spot for Australian Shepherds and Border Collies continues. They have now engineered "minis" of these two breeds. It's starting to get sort of weird. Many popular and more recent breeds have been engineered, so to speak.

I think Steven King is really the only well known alum of the University of Maine (main Orono campus). What makes the area look more northeastern is the presence of evergreens. Going east along I-90 toward New York state and New England, there will be even more of them.

Check out those hip roofed brick ranches out back! Those sorts of houses can be seen here and there around Seattle and Portland, and they have always caught my attention because they look much more "eastern" for the setting. I was expecting a small dog. Cute. That looks like at least 30 pounds worth of dog!

There are some real characters riding public transit trains. And they often seem to talk to me. Why so? I look somewhat conservative. It just happened on a train ride some 30 minutes ago. Mostly, it's funny but, at times, it can be annoying.

We've been inching our way out of that past Recession with a capital R for about 8 years now. The business cycle is fairly predictable. A recession is forecast for 2019 +/-. The personal income tax rates haven't been tinkered with all that much. They're more streamlined than anything. I haven't seen a "bottom line" number on how much more or less will be coming in. Also, there's the corporate tax rate and, if there's less inflow from that for a prolonged period of time, that's not too good, either. The other thing that is sort of weird is the increasing prices of homes ... and the markets that got real hot a dozen years ago have gotten real hot again, as well as a few additional markets. Some things that could bolster this is more foreign money coming in to buy said properties (via a bigger global economy) or people who have cashed in on riding the crest of the wave of the uptick in the market, AND investing in large quantities. Those people can always buy whatever they like in terms of housing because "if you have to ask the price ..." Adding: I was going to mention that people watching can be interesting. Do you people watch / watch people?

Saw a 1972 boat tail Riv on Thursday. The owner told me it had the 455 V8. (I don't recall anything else ever powering those Rivs.) He also told me he didn't break 10 mpg. Funny that half of that displacement would power the car 20 years later ... meh, 231 c.i. (3800) is close enough to 227.5 ... And, as I was talking to this dude, a truck loaded with cars went wizzing by on the freeway. Of the handful of cars on it, one was a much "cherrier" boat tail Riv in a light metallic blue with a white vinyl top. With those odds, one probably should have bought a lottery ticket that day.

This. I grew up around L.A. A lot of kids were up to no good. I don't need a locking gas cap. However, I want a remotely operated fuel filler door. The Hyundai Accent has the tiny lever on the floor, right to the left of the front seat, along with the rear trunk release tab. It's more nicely placed on the Charger. It's low on the door, near the map pockets, and slightly rearward. So, no "cap" is fine. However, locking "door" is required ... for me.

Regarding the lot impression of the Regal, I have now gotten to sit in one. And my verdict is NO. I just did this the other day. I looked to my rear. I thought I was in the wagon for a second. No, it was the sportback. Check out the thickness of the rear pillar. It was over the top, with a thick pillar and a roof line that comes down very low. I always ask myself, "Would I like driving this sled (insert name of car) around in rush hour traffic in Manhattan?" As for the trunk, it's huge. And becomes more so when you fold down the seat. There is also the new dash. It's a wash with me. I liked the previous one just fine. This new one is more horizontal and shares its styling cues with the bigger LaCrosse. However, for being a smaller car, the console is, again, too high. The car also does not have a remote fuel door release, yet a Hyundai Accent does! What's the problem here? I have no doubt the road manners will be great - refined, supple, sporty, etc. However, this isn't the car for me. Buick has gotten farther and farther away from what suits my automotive needs.

I anxiously await being able to look at, and sit in, a 2019 Ford Focus and the next-gen Dodge Charger.

If someone wants to see a great foreign flick (bittersweet comedy/drama) about the Greek islands, check out "Mediterraneo." It is of 1993+/- vintage. It may have won Best Foreign film in its year. I recall that it was subtitled, being a product of Italy. It sure has some kinky and strange subplots, but remains firmly PG. I've seen it more than once. However, it was the funniest the first time around. Like singer Sade' says, "It's never as good as the first time." That casts a broad net!

Q: How many Californians does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: One to do it and nine to SHARE in the experience.

Do you sing in the shower or elsewhere in your abode? Do certain places remind you of certain songs? When in Pensacola, I always think (never fails) of Jimmy Buffett's song "Creola," (great, smooth flowing Jimmy Buffett song obviously about the South) and I might sing it in my hotel room. Not loud or anything, but sing it nonetheless. What's weird is when the housekeeper hears you and you know she has.

I always need a gyro. Regarding copious amounts of alcohol, I'm thinking this could be to the left side or right side, per the map, of the Irish Sea. Or it could be near the North Sea. If it's on the right side of the Irish Sea, per the map, most of the jokes I hear are about bad teeth. Joke ... Q: You go to an airplane manufacturer's delivery area. How do you know which aircraft was built for the Italians? A: It has hair under its wings.

My opinion of Greece has not changed. I have been there and liked it. I would have liked to spend more time in Athens. Athens does not have a beach. The city is about 10 to 15 miles inland from Glyfada and other coastal towns near the old international airport. Since I last went, the Metro into the new international airport has been completed, so it's just one line into the center of Athens. Like most people who do Greece and a few islands, those islands were of the Cyclades chain (think dry, sparsely vegetated, and windmills). I want to see Adriatic Greece, meaning Corfu (Kerkyra), Zakynthos, et. al. Zakynthos: Speaking of the islands, many have more than one name. The residents of Lesbos/Lesvos got testy once when they were being referred to as Lesbians. There was nothing incorrect about that. However, they are also known as the island of Mytilini (sp.). They could just as easily be Mytilinians. I don't know many Polish jokes and I only remember one. Q: How does a Polish guy take a shower? A: He pees against the wind. There are a lot more Italian jokes floating around out there. Bring them on!