The History of Sports Cars...

…according to one.

#1 – 1964 MGB

I was in the Air Force, stationed at Lajes Field, the Azores Portugal. I was a medic, a public health specialist and had just turned 20. Some of us were offered a chance to fly on a C-130 to the Canary Islands for a 4-day period of “rest and recuperation”. I jumped at that and we were off! We spent virtually all our time in the city of Las Palmas on the Gran Canaria, the main island. It was, and probably still is, a beautiful cosmopolitan European city surrounded on three sides by ocean.

Four of us, buddies, were there and we were dazzled by the hospitality of the islanders as well as the beauty of the Spanish women there. We also had a chance to rent an MGB sports car. I was totally amazed at that car… so sleek, so low to the ground, so quick and nimble. With the top down, it was pure joy to ride and drive, especially at night in the city. It was totally big time to me… a hayseed out of small town North Dakota and Ohio. I would never forget it.

Fast-forward five years and I was in Riverside, California with my new, beautiful bride Julieann Marie. We were preparing to leave the Air Force as I was thinking Julieann and I could make a better life by other means. Then, I was promoted and we faced the prospect of a re-enlistment bonus that was over two grand! We were thinking that was big money and I had started night school for a degree so we figured we would ride that possibility a little more. I will never forget signing up and getting that cash (a fortune to us at the time). I took it all in bills to our apartment and tossed it on our bed. Julie and I just studied it, and laughed at it for a while then we put it in the bank.

At that time, Julie was also working full time so we had two incomes and a brand-new 1970 Cougar with a 351 Cleveland engine in it.

I was working in Intelligence (an oxymoron I know) at the time. One day at work one of my buddies said he was going to sell his MGB but had to rebuild the engine first so he could get a decent price for it. I was pretty naïve about those things so I just said, “Why don’t you sell it to me and I will take some leave (vacation) and rebuild it myself”? So he did… for something like $900. It was sometime around the first of the year, a pretty cool time even in Riverside but I would not put the top up. I just drove that puppy around with the heater on, top down and blew giant clouds of smoke around the Riverside area. I had to add a quart of oil for just about every tank of gas.

After a couple of weeks, I decided to visit the MG dealer and get an estimate on the cost of parts to rebuild the engine. I pulled up there, talked to a service tech and he checked things out. He put his hand over a certain point on the engine, asked me to rev it a little, and then quickly proclaimed, “You need a PCV valve.” I didn’t know what that was so I asked him how much that would run me. He said less then ten bucks and he could put it in right there and then. I was dumbfounded but managed an “ok” and he did it. From that point on the MGB ran like a dream and I couldn’t believe it. The famous “PCV valve” had become hopelessly clogged causing the car to blow out tons of oil and replacing it was all that was needed. I was in Fat City driving that sports car and loved every second of it. I kept driving it well into the spring without putting the top up.

Not long thereafter, I was assigned to do a tour in Thailand and we sold her, at a handsome profit of course.

Little Time

So many roads to travel. To our families, our friends, our next destinations. 

So much love to give. To our families, to our friends, to our work, to our homes. 

So much heart to share. With Tyler Thomas and Samantha Marie. 

So many sunrises. The colors, the air we breathe, the day’s adventures ahead. 

So many sunsets. The peace, the family together, the feelings of a good day spent. 

So much laughter. At the small things, at the big things, with each other. 

So much energy. To fulfill life, to fulfill each other. On a path paved with forgiveness. Almost forty years. 

So little time. To spend with you. 

Thank you Julieann Marie. I Love You.

Sittin' There

Don't tell me we're all alone.
'Cause I know he's sittin' there...
on your mind.

Screwed (It's not what you think)

Today, I replaced three lights on the front of our house.
Two guarding the garage and one guarding the main entry.

Note: Our garage contains the Harley’s so it gets more protection.
Another Note: This job involved electrical wiring.

I know nothing about this other than it can hurt you real bad if you aren’t careful.

Julie and I picked out the lights yesterday as we considered new paint schemes for the exterior.

So I put them on today because the originals were all in some state of disrepair. Now I will get to remove them again when we paint the place. The spacing screws that were used to properly attach the lights to the house weren’t the proper length. I needed others so I consulted the “Great Screw Box”.

This is a small Craftsman toolbox that, instead of tools, contains hundreds of different types of nuts, bolts and (you guessed it) screws. I have been saving these puppies from projects as in “I wonder where this goes? Aw hell, I’ll just toss it in The Great Screw Box”… for well over thirty years. This is because you never know when you are going to need an odd one and today… I did. It doesn’t happen very often for me, maybe once every couple of years or less. The Box didn’t let me down this time. I got the screws I needed.

There’s something about this Box that intrigues me… it represents the collection of a lifetime and it is certainly headed for an estate sale one day as my son and daughter don’t generally mess with tools, screws or anything associated except in an emergency.

Sure would be something if I could pick up one at random, blow on it and get whisked back in time to the day I threw it in there. That would certainly have me rummaging around for the oldest one. It would also add new meaning to the term, “Screwed”.

Proportional

I realize this may be in violation of the unwritten “keep it light” modus operandi I usually operate under but I want to sound off on it a little just the same.

“The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child.” Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing the majority opinion that overturned a law permitting the execution of child rapists.

I read this in a mid-July edition of Newsweek magazine and have to admit I have been really bothered by it. So much so, I hung on to the article and went to the old tried and true method of analyzing something… checking out a definition in a hard copy American Heritage dictionary. I think Kennedy is focusing on the second definition here, “A relationship between things or parts of things with respect to comparative magnitude, quantity or degree.” So it is kind of like a sophisticated way of saying, “An eye for an eye.”

My question for Justice Kennedy is how can anything be considered proportional to the rape of a child? I maintain many lives are ruined here, mainly the child’s and also the lives of the parents. I will (and hope to) never be able to fully understand the gravity of this on the victim and the victim’s family but I am nevertheless convinced a rapist steals the lives of several victims.

My argument is that people who have not been victimized by this crime cannot accurately judge “proportion”. Instead, there should be a gathering of previous victim’s parents who would review each case where there has been a conviction. Maybe something like an automatic appeals jury that convenes not on behalf of the perpetrator but on behalf of the victim. This panel should have the same power of life and death decision making that the perpetrator had when so thoughtfully exercising their power to steal a child’s future. Of course there would be an associated expense for convening these panels but the total cost would be minor in comparison to the cost of incarcerating a child rapist for life.

I think we would see some interesting results don’t you? I mean, if I was deliberating over the future of someone who had raped my son or daughter the choice would be pretty clear. I would gladly pull the trigger myself and then, of course turn to the task of forgiveness (the perpretrator and me) along with trying to help my child through the healing process.

I did a little Google research on the aftermath of this and see cries for Kennedy’s impeachment along with much general concern over this ruling.

Want the facts? Here is what the rapist did to this little girl: [The 8 year old victim] was transported to the Children’s Hospital. An expert in pediatric forensic medicine testified that [the 8 year old victim's] injuries were the most severe he had seen from a sexual assault in his four years of practice. A laceration to the left wall of the vagina had separated her cervix from the back of her vagina, causing her rectum to protrude into the vaginal structure. Her entire perineum was torn from the posterior fourchette to the anus. The injuries required emergency surgery.

“Justice Kennedy decided that it was cruel and unusual to execute a child rapist on the grounds that “national consensus” is against such punishments.”

“Proportional?” Proportional to what? The word doesn’t remotely fit the crime, let alone the punishment. “National consensus?” Go figure…

Cancun Cancan

We went to Cancun to learn how to cancan on the Yucatan.

We thought, “We can, can’t we?” and “If we can’t, who can?”

It turned out we couldn’t because no one in Cancun can cancan man.

So rather than cancan, I ran… on the beach.

Julieann, on the other hand, ran on the treadmill.

Can a person cancan in Cancun?

Don’t ask us, we ran.

We also learned this. Cancun is Mayan for "snake nest". Thirty years ago, the population of this, the “Mexican Riviera” was around 200. Today it is around 800,000. The growth has been sparked primarily by the development of 14 miles of hotels along a thin strip of land along the ocean known as the “Hotel Zone.” Most of the people here are from Mexico City, a place referred to by those who have relocated as “the human jungle.”

The people of Cancun are generally very happy and very service oriented. In fact, most of the establishments we encountered would make great boot camps for US service business trainees. They work hard on their English for the benefit of the “touristas” and are very thoughtful in trying to help. They are quick to make eye contact, smile and say “Hola!” They still like siestas but they work long hours.

We also learned this. Cancun is expensive no fooling. The prices for most things are the equivalent of the US, if not higher. They say lots of US citizens like to retire in Mexico because the cost of living is so low. That is definitely not the case in Cancun.

Mexican cabernet is pretty good wine. Chilean cabernet is better.

Mexican food in Cancun is first rate. All other types of food are pretty darn close.

Cuban cigars are plentiful, fresh and costly in Cancun. If you happen to like stogies as I do, you can go broke quickly. They are so good that the Cuban trade embargo is likely a good thing. If the embargo is ever lifted, demand in the US will explode overnight and stogie prices will skyrocket.

We also visited the ancient Mayan city, Chichen Itsa (shesun eetsah), learned some of its great architectural and cultural significance and found out it was the origin of the classic business phrase, “Heads will roll!”

Juliann and I want to live here but we’re concerned that Tyler and Samantha, after moving here with us, won’t be able to get the high paying jobs they will need to support us as well. They would sure learn a lot about customer service though!

All in all, we love it. As the famous Governator says, “We’ll be back!”