Affordable. We've heard this before about health care.

Although President Trump is best in his field as a business man, he's fast becoming a politician. The latest plug about cars being affordable if the government gets involved is a page out of Obama's book on affordable health care. Barack gave us neither affordable nor healthy and left it to others to write the gazillion rules and stab us in the back. With cars, remember what they did the last time to make them "green?" They destroyed the older non-green models so there were no used cars to be "affordable." Only the rich benefitted. What will they do now? Manufacturers are owned by investors, and although it always looks like they go along with whoever is in power, they need to dance with the one who brought them.

https://youtu.be/ZCPId-2CABs?si=nvfIOwpJ-8kAsPAEAsPAE

You got to dance with who brung you
Swing with who swung you
Don't be a fickle fool
You came here with a gal, who's always been your pal
Don't leave her for the first unattached girl, it just ain't cool

You got to dance with who brung you
Swing with who swung you
Life ain't no forty-yard dash
Be in it for the long run
In the long run you'll have more fun
If you dance with who brung you to the bash

I had a friend in Texas
He really had some style
He sang that good old Western Swing and drove 'em wild
Then a talent scout from Vegas said,
"Boy, play and sing this way"
And in one short year he was broke in L.A

You got to dance with who brung you
Swing with who swung you
Life ain't no forty-yard dash
Be in it for the long run
In the long run you'll have more fun
If you dance with who brung you to the bash

You gotta be real careful what you wish for
'Cause you just might get
The whole darn thing
Be sure what you want is really something you can use
Or you might wind up half dead
Just singing the Blues

You got to dance with who brung you
Swing with who swung you
Life ain't no forty-yard dash
Be in it for the long run
In the long run you'll have more fun
If you dance with who brung you to the bash (yeah)

Dance with who brung you to the bash (yeah)

The 613 Commandments and the number of Federal regulations for automobiles

I have probably been in 613 Bible studies in my adult life, the number of rules/laws in the Old Testament for observant Jews. I often hear (and maybe I said) one didn't need so many laws to be religious, or to please God. I had hoped to be writing a blog about this, but just thinking about today, 6 a.m. when I got up to 9:30 a.m. when I drove to a hair appointment, I thought I could come up with 613 federal, state, municipal, township, plus thousands of regulations that will affect my life. That doesn't count the general commonsense rules we and our culture expect for us. Like brush your teeth; comb your hair; dress for the weather; check the rear view mirror before backing out.  Imagine that people living 4000 years ago could get by with only 613 and yet survived to the 21st century.

Since I would be leaving my apartment in the car I thought I'd just ask AI an easy question, "How many federal laws and regulations apply only to automobiles." Co-Pilot and I really got into an argument, and I kept feeding back to it its answer and telling Co-pilot that was not what I was asking, especially when it finally came up with 142 after telling me about all the revisions and subsections of the codes. After about 6 responses, AI began to blame it on me that I didn't accept its answer!! It really got snippy and tried to overwhelm me with BIG giant words no one would know except a government geek. Really, the gall!!

My final response:

Oh please! You can't answer a simple (for AI) question so it's my fault for the way I worded it? Is this Wizard behind the curtain a politician? "142 is an illustrative approximation, not an authoritative count, and any analytic or policy discussion should recognize this limitation and contextualize the number within the broader, dynamic regulatory environment."

Flying is safer than driving

"In 2020 alone, 30,250 people died while riding in passenger vehicles. Forty-five percent of these were in cars, 34% in light trucks, and 18% on motorcycles.

 
There were 614 serious injuries in the air from 2002 to 2020, an average of 32 per year. Comparatively, Americans suffered about 2.3 million injuries per year in passenger cars and trucks on highways."

https://usafacts.org/articles/is-flying-safer-than-driving/?

Per mile motorcycles are the most dangerous, however, in my opinion, no matter how you travel you are not safe with the latest DEI standards for employment --whether pilots, bus drivers, repairmen, or factory assembly workers. You don't want a diversity hire or union boss guiding your transportation. Merit and skill matter more than ethnic background.

In 2020 although there was a decrease in miles traveled due to the lockdown, there was an increase in pedestrian and bike related fatalities. Another problem our "health" experts didn't think about.

The big three for roadway fatalities:  Alcohol, speed and not wearing a seatbelt.

For Earth Day—no savings with electric cars

"According to the study directed by Christoph Buchal of the University of Cologne, published by the Ifo Institute in Munich last week, electric vehicles have "significantly higher CO2 emissions than diesel cars." That is due to the significant amount of energy used in the mining and processing of lithium, cobalt, and manganese, which are critical raw materials for the production of electric car batteries."

And then what do you do with all those batteries?

I found a report of this in several publications with no link to the research, but had to dig some to get the name of the study. Buchal, Christoph, Hans-Dieter Karl and Hans-Werner Sinn, "Kohlemotoren, Windmotoren und Dieselmotoren: Was zeigt die CO2-Bilanz?", ifo Schnelldienst 72 (08), 2019.

1973 Oldsmobile Delta—RIP

Our son's gorgeous 1973 Olds convertible. Great for parades and drives in the country in the fall. It caught on fire on his way to work this morning.  RIP. He got out without getting hurt, and that's what is important.

Monday Memories—what was your first car?

David Graf (lives in Florida, but grew up in Mt. Morris) had a Face Book post about his first car. This is probably more significant for guys than gals, at least from the 1950s when Dave and I were in high school. But it did give me a chance to remember the 1951 Packard Dad bought for Carol and me to drive to college in 1957 (a 6 hour drive), she was at Goshen and I was at Manchester. We could get 6 girls with all their luggage in that 4 dr. sedan. What was your first car?

I don’t have a photo of the car, but do have a vivid memory of a flat tire with it fully loaded with girls and luggage.  Some nice man helped us change it after we unpacked everything. Because I was a freshman, I couldn’t keep the car at Manchester, so it was parked in Goshen, where according to Carol, they locked up the Coca Cola machines on Sunday.

This is a photo of a restored 200 series Packard, which is the lowest end model.

Distracted driving, teens and cell phones

A well known TV personality in Columbus is promoting awareness about distracted driving. His beautiful teen daughter was killed last year. Statistics are already grim for teens and driving, but add in a smart phone and we're all at risk if we're sharing the road with them (as I was yesterday). "Currently, 77% of drivers talk on their phones while driving, 81% of young adults write text messages while driving, and 92% of young adults read text messages while driving. Drivers are 23-fold more likely to crash if texting while driving." But it's not just teens. I see a lot of moms chatting on the phone with kids in the car, watching her behavior. http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1745570#WhatParentsCanDo

Other distractions about which older people need to be reminded: eating and drinking, changing channels on the radio or disc player, hands free phones, passengers in the car talking, checking the GPS, adjusting seats, taking off jacket or other clothing, looking for sun glasses, adjusting the visor to keep out glare, finding a tissue . . . keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road and the other drivers.

Home again

Back from our Easter trip to Illinois. We met many new people. Like the two policemen, young, handsome and polite, who gave us a $130 ticket near Greenfield, Indiana, and the fine crew of good old boys who rescued us with a tow and tire repair near Danville, Illinois. Got to see the inside of an auto repair shop that was established by the owner's grandfather in 1924.  But great service!  If you’re ever near Danville and need help, call Carnaghi Towing and Repair, Tilton, IL.  Don’t ever ignore your “check tire” light.  Get it up on a rack and look for nails causing a slow leak.

We spent Wednesday evening with my husband’s sister Indianapolis, then went on to Illinois and spent Thursday through Sunday with my sister. We had a nice visit with my cousin Dianne. The ladies of my high school class had a breakfast at a local restaurant, while my husband was having breakfast with a group of men from the Church of the Brethren in Leaf River.  We had dinner with my brother and wife Saturday evening at La Vigna near Oregon. On Easter Sunday we attended services at Trinity Lutheran and had a nice Sunday brunch in Polo at LaBranche which is an extension of the facilities at the White Pines State Park.

On the trip I finished reading "Maisie Dobbs" for our May book club.  I'm not crazy about detective genre, but this was very interesting. Enjoyed it a lot. This is the first in a series, and I just might try another one.  It used to be that I would get car sick if I tried to read in the car, but that doesn’t bother me now.  Also started (audio) of the infancy narratives of Jesus by Benedict XVI and also liked that. I've probably read those dozens of times, and never found what he did.

Friday Family Photo—the Ford Explorer

In the fall of 1999 we bought a 2000 2 dr. Ford Explorer, forest green, shift, good gas mileage.  It has been a great car and still looks good. There was a recall on the original tires very early, so we're still on those replacements after 14 years. The bumper got bumped about 5 years ago and developed some rust, so we had that replaced.  Because it's basically a truck, it's not comfortable for my back when I’m a passenger, but the step ladder fits in the back, so we keep it for the art shows and our kids hauling things. This week our daughter borrowed it while her husband was in Cleveland with their car, so we had to make some adjustments in our schedule.  We could probably manage with 1 car, but this is just too convenient and useful. (This is not our Explorer in the photo—it’s pulling a boat.)

It fits, but just barely

Our son has bought a restored 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 convertible.  He brought it by today to show me. What a boat!  You forget what a door slam in a 40 year old car sounds like. He says he has 2” clearance in his garage to close the door. He will keep his other 2 cars; one he drives to work, and the other, a BMW, is driven only occasionally.  The new one gets 8 miles/gallon and he’s already run out of gas once because he misjudged how far he could go on $10.

Monday Memories--Dad's Ranchero

I think Dad's was all red. My goodness, it was fun to drive! But then, I was 19--woot!

Good Samaritan saves a tire

At church Sunday, someone took the time to write out a note and slip it under the windshield wiper of my husband's car, "low tire." This nice person wasn't counting on the way my husband processes information. All he saw was a restaurant check (other side) and he put it in the car thinking it was from me (this baffles me, since this isn't how we communicate). Last evening he brings the "restaurant check" to me and asks what I want done with it. I looked at it and didn't recognize the name of the restaurant, so I asked him where it came from, and he said it was on his windshield. So, being a clever investigative librarian, I turned it over and saw the note. "Someone has left you a note. Do you have a low tire?" "Don't think so, but I'll go look." He came back in the house and confirmed that yes, one tire was very low. He'd already made a number of errands that day. So today he took his SUV to our son at Jack Maxton, who found all four were low, but one was really low.

Thanks, who ever you are, for saving a tire or preventing an accident.

Ralph Nader--Car and Driver Interview

When you buy a new car, after you do the test drive you do a lot of sitting around in offices with plastic plants or showroom floors with shiny monster SUVs while they pile up the papers you need to sign, even when you pay cash the way we did in November when we bought our 2010 Town and Country. I can't just SIT. I have to be reading or writing, so I did both, and took notes on the Car and Driver interview with Ralph Nader in the September 2009 issue. Maybe you're too young to remember, but Ralph Nader was the consumer crank of my generation who got all the press in the 1960s and 70s. Didn't hurt that he was Hollywood handsome, very photogenic and quirky--he actually lived the lifestyle he recommended for others, as I recall. On auto safety, he says history has redeemed him, and the critics in the government, industry and the media now look like fools. Even the horse chariots in Roman times had a padded dash, he said.

"Everything we’ve gotten so far, we should have gotten years ago. And everything we don’t have, we should have gotten years ago. The first generation of auto safety devices are in play now—you know, seatbelts, airbags, padded dash panels, collapsible steering columns, side protection, head restraints, things like that—but there’s a second generation out there. Part of it is made up of upgrading existing standards that came out in 1968 or so, because they get obsolete. So we need to take that first generation and upgrade them—better collapsible steering columns, stronger side protection, airbags that protect you at higher speeds. Then there’s the second generation, of which most people are not aware, like collision-avoidance systems, much more effective vehicle dynamics in terms of handling and braking—all these should have been phased in back in the 1980s and 1990s. All in all, though, over a million lives have been saved."

When asked what he could have done differently, he responded,

"Well, I’d like to have had a different set of presidents."

But he also tosses in the unions with the automakers as blame worthy, and you can look at the current bailouts and payoffs for health care boondoggles and bennies right up to today to see that he is correct.

"Fuel efficiency, that was the real disaster. Anybody could have seen this coming, and the UAW and GM marched up on Capitol Hill and crushed, year after year, any attempt at fuel-efficiency legislation. And that’s why GM went bankrupt. They did it to themselves."

Then he closes with a quote (paraphrased I assume) from Ross Perot.

" He was talking to some senior GM executives in 1986, and he said here’s a company that doesn’t like its dealers, doesn’t like its workers, doesn’t like its customers—you people don’t even like each other!"

That said--and I do believe auto safety is important--it's not more so than some common sense. Lowering the speed limit to 55 in the 1970s not only saved thousands of lives and billions of gallons of fuel, it made driving far more pleasant and allowed much smoother, more pleasant trips. The decade following 1995 when the speed limits went back up (had been 55 mph), studies show an additional 12,500 people died and about 36,500 injured through 2006, even though overall deaths are going down due to safer cars, more seat belt use, and alcohol crack downs. And health care costs? Gracious, even lives that are saved through safety features, if those people are in an accident the costs to the person, the insurance companies, their investors, the court system in litigation and the state and federal tax system while people are out of work, are billions. Better to get the driver and passengers to their location at "fifty five and alive," but no one wants that any more. The death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan of our brightest and best? Not high compared to our highways. We lose 5,000+ teen-agers (16-20) a year on the highways just because we won't raise the legal driving age from 16 to 18! Their passengers are in danger, too--nearly 5,000 teen passengers were killed in 2006.

Where are our priorities! I can only conclude there is no political advantage to either party or lobbyists or the free market or wing-nuts at either end of the political spectrum to save lives through common sense and raising the legal age to drive.

Snowing out west already?

Boy that darn global warming!

My site meter is already showing hits on my frozen car door blog! It's only Columbus Day, October 12!

A Canadian blogger recommened this little gadget in the comments for a frozen car door. It's not very expensive and if it works would certainly be worth the investment ($4.00).

Cash for Clunkers end result

According to this report from Edmunds, sales of new vehicles in September 2009 fell off a cliff, dropping 41% from August 2009 and down 23% from September 2008. This shows that the primary sales effect of the “Cash for Clunkers” program was to harvest sales that would otherwise have occurred later in the year and compress them into an earlier time period.
More details at Taxman Blog (another great Ohio blogger)

Lakeside Cottage Architecture, pt. 10

Early 20th century garages

It’s rare that I can’t find a topic on the internet by googling a few sets of words, but I think I’ve found one: the architectural history of the American garage. The garage as a piece of America's towns and cities is now about 100 years old--and the earliest are disappearing--except here, where time occasionally stands still or slows down. American Garage Magazine (online) reports the Robie House (Frank Lloyd Wright) was one of the earliest to have a garage in 1906.

Lakeside is a good petri dish for this research. As Midwestern towns go, Lakeside isn’t very old, having been founded in 1873 as a summer campground then growing into a resort with a few permanent residents. For about the first 50 years of its existence, visitors to the Christian campground arrived either by boat, or by rail from Sandusky or Toledo. When a bridge was made across the bay, people began coming by automobile in the 1920s. Rail passenger service ended in 1930 due to drastic losses in passenger ticket sales.

I lived in two small Illinois towns in the 1940s and 1950s and many garages had previously been small carriage houses or barns. Lakesiders didn’t arrive by carriage and left their horses at home so few needed a stable, although some of the local permanent residents probably had horses. Lakeside also didn't have alleys, like the cities and small towns of Ohio where garages for houses were accessible.

Although I'm not sure why summer residents wanted garages, I'm guessing the automobile in the 20s wasn't as durable as today. In the 1920s, garages were first located some distance from the house there being some fear of the gasoline engine. I'm calling the first group six lights over three panels for the door style.


These little cuties with different roof styles both have six panes over three panels in doors that swing forward. The one on the left seems to have the original siding. Both are quite a distance from the street.






This is an early "attached" garage--same door style, but added to the kitchen lean to which had been added to the basic cottage. Early cottages didn't have kitchens or bathrooms.


Same door style, but much bigger building. Also, no visible drive-way which is the case for many garages in Lakeside which haven't seen a car in years.



It's hard to find original siding in Lakeside--it's been wrapped in vinyl siding, but here's a home and garage, 6 over 3, both with original siding.

On Mustangs and other wild things

A friend of mine is thinking about buying a 60s-something Mustang, although he is 70-something. So for him I'm rerunning the Thursday Thirteen blog I did about our cars several years ago, skipping ahead from #1 to #10, the Mustang.

1. We started married life in 1960 with a 1951 Oldsmobile 88. This car used to stall at intersections in Indianapolis and I'd get out and open the hood and jiggle something to get it going, occasionally with a push from the next guy in line. Just Married 1960, 1951 Oldsmobile
8.-10. In 1986 I replaced the 9 year old Buick with a 1983 (or maybe 1981) maroon Buick 4 dr. Skylark which had all the luxury options, plush unholstery, sound system, etc. Possibly the most comfortable sedan we ever had, but being a used car it had some mechanical problems.

Which gave me an excuse to buy my dream car--a 1987 red Mustang, which I had wanted lusted after since my brother bought one in 19631964 1/2. I had a tenure track job at the university and was wallowing in empty-nest grief--so I deserved some happiness, right? However, the night I drove it off the lot it rained buckets, and I discovered that the Mustang model had no gutter around the door frame so if you opened the door after a rain (and it rains a lot in Ohio), you got soaked as the water sheeted off the roof. I hated my dream car, and because it was low to the ground, it also just killed my back. Couldn't wait to unload it.
1987 Mustang in same location as the 1951 Olds photo. See how much the trees grew in 28 years

I sold it to a woman from Worthington who wanted a car for her teens to drive to school. I think she owned it two weeks before they wrecked it.

The Mustang hurt my back whether I was the driver (getting in) or the passenger, however, driving was less painful because I had something to hang on to.

Caught Between empty and a flat tire

A new 2009 or 2010 Dodge mini-van might have been in our future (assuming we could even find one on a lot), but not now, now that we know for certain that neither the government nor Chrysler will honor their agreements. There's nothing wrong with my 2002 van--but it won't be long before the government declares it is a "clunker." The new plan to get less fuel efficient vehicles off the road by offering a cash incentive of $4500 to purchase something with better mileage is of little value to people who can't afford or can't get the credit to purchase a newer, more expensive, smaller and more dangerous vehicle. Remember, not only have we bailed out Chrysler and GM, but we've destroyed the pension and investment account values because once the government can renege on those investors, it can do it to any. In other words, those of us in the lower income group will be hurt the most. That's why all these government plans whatever their good intentions for green spaces, for cholesterol, for cigarettes, for safe toys, for clean air, always hit the pocket books of the poor and fixed income seniors first, and then work their way up the pay scale.

Also, that's our tax money, that $4500 the government will reimuburse the automaker, which is really reimbursing the labor unions, the guys whose pensions Obama is trying to save because they so generously helped him buy the Presidency. We've already given the unions and automaker CEOs billions, but Obama's whiz kids are saying they still can't build a good car unless they get this ridiculous offer. An offer which most people with old cars can't afford, so there will be plenty of scammers running around buying up old cars from people who won't be able to replace them at any price. Next, they'll cap the pay of whatever executive was dumb enough to stay and not flee to another field, leaving the company with more Obama appointees. Besides, if Chrysler won't honor its agreements with the local dealers, some in business for generations, then why should it honor its agreement with me, the buyer, who buys bundled with that car the warranty on the various parts, the service agreements, and the supposed resale value, all of which is built into the cost of a new vehicle. No, I see no reason I should trust either Obama or Chrysler to give me a good deal.

Detroit has been pressured to build more fuel efficient and safer cars for 30 years; and for the most part, I think many of these regulations and laws have succeeded. Even so Americans burned 39% more gasoline in 2007 than they did in 1975, according to Energy Department figures, because more people hit the roads and drove more miles. My 2002 van (my third Chrysler mini-van) is an outstanding product and much better than my first one, a 1989. On the highway it gets around 27-28 mpg if there are no dead deer, semis or head winds to fight. In the city, not so great--maybe 19. But I'm sure the Obama car czar, who probably is too young to even drive and has never held a real job, will look at some sort of average for a 2002 mini-van made in the USA, and within a year or two, I'll be clunker driving. When I don't trade it (new it was about $19,000) with a voucher in hand for $4500 on a $50,000 model, I'll probably be cited for driving illegally, and told to take public transportation.

The cap and trade hoax, of which this "cash for clunkers" and automaker/union bailout at taxpayers expense are a part, is just the newest version of the 1970s DDT ban which killed or disabled millions and millions of black Africans, mostly children, so that European and American liberals could feel smug and self-righteous and continue to worship their pagan goddess, Mother Earth.

Let them drive golf carts

One Oar in the Water, an Ohio blogger, has a good piece on golf carts. I'd been thinking the same thing. Two weeks ago when we were at Lake Erie I stopped at a produce stand. Across the street was a thinly populated Chrysler dealership. The building and out lots looked almost new. It’s not hard to imagine what the taxes from the business, real estate, and employees mean to that area. Every business up and down that high way, all through the county and on into Port Clinton are affected. This is what President Obama doesn’t seem to understand by micro managing this business--how many models, how much for advertising, imports, who can be a dealer and who can’t. Or does he? I believe he has no intention of “saving the economy,” and what he’s doing to the auto industry, and next the health care industry, all the cap and trade nonsense, is just fast tracking us into the waiting arms of the Chinese.

We're bleeding red, white and blue

For lunch today I served red, white and blue dessert--raspberry jello topped with blueberries, slathered with Cool Whip. This is to honor the USA’s survival of almost four months of the War against the Economy, War against the little guy, War against the hard working taxpayer and the War against the pensioner. Some of you are seeing this in terms of your grandchildren, but unfortunately, I don't have grandchildren. I don’t know where it stands today, but here’s what it was the first 6 weeks (Feb. 9), as reported in Bloomberg

"The stimulus package the US Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9,700,000,000 (9.7 trillion) enough to give $1430 to every man, woman and child in the world. It is 13 times what the US has spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office data, and is almost enough to pay off every home mortgage in the US, calculated at $10.5 trillion by the Federal Reserve."

Last night I noticed flipping through the channels Glenn Beck interviewing a Chrysler dealer. He's been in business almost 70 years (his father before him), and poof, thanks to President Obama, it's gone. About 20 people sent home to go on the unemployment rolls. I couldn't stand it. I kept flipping. You can only take so much stupidity, hurt and watching your country's economy be dismantled brick by brick, street by street, business by business, family by family.

You're a Democrat? A RINO? An FDR fan? So you're not worried. Hey--it only took 13-14 years the last time we did this, how bad can it get? Too many unsuccessful dealers--too many models? This guy's business was successful. You don't stick around 70 years if you don't have customer loyalty and you aren't providing a service. The Chrysler contract was given to another dealership two miles down the road. Ever wonder how much that guy donated to the 2008 campaign?

Go ahead. Claim paranoia. But next it will be your flower shop; dry cleaners; furniture store, craft outlet; printing company, book store; office supplier; sporting goods store; coffee shop; pharmacy. Obama, Micromanager in Chief, may decide you advertise too much, or there are too many of your kind in a 50 mile radius. And when your local tax bucket goes dry? Who's going to fill it? Higher property taxes? What if you don't own a business, you just supply a business sector. What if Obama decides you can only sell a certain amount of janitorial supplies (to save the environment and not hurt your competition); or that you've met your quota of jewelry designs to market to that new mall store; or No, you can't have a start up on the internet--there are too many now.

We've always (in my life time) had these rules at the local level. You don't build your bar next to a school or a church; you can't leave junk autos from your repair shop on the street; you must mow your lawn. But from Washington DC? Did you, Democrats and fraidy cat Republicans, you elected a man with no business experience and almost no time in the US Senate just so he could drive us over the cliff while reading a teleprompter scrolling words about not exporting American jobs? He's right in a way--there won't be any jobs to export because only those global companies with a base overseas will be profitable.

Disclaimer: I drive a Dodge van; my third Chrysler van; my brother does too--his second; my father had several; my sister as a PT Cruiser; my niece and nephew had Chrysler vans. I'm very sad that my 2002 van that gets 28-29 mpg on the highway may be my last.