Hearing The Siren Song…

of blog views? If you prick us, do we not bleed? (What? I’ll explain shortly.) The first four days of August have seen a healthy rebound in blog views and visitors. While it was my sincere intent to post less, I am only human (hence the line from Shakespeare). The less I post, the fewer views and visitors. Until and unless blog readership dwindles, I guess I’m stuck with posting almost every day.

I will have to make an exception next week, though. As of now, my wonderful wife and I are still scheduled to attend the Mecum auction in Monterey, California. It will be difficult to post every day as mobile devices are just not as good for writing as a desktop computer and I suspect we will be fairly busy.

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These should be a better siren…

 

 

After receiving about five inches of rain in July, the dewpoints have dropped from the 60s. Yesterday, our dewpoint reached 45°. Clouds like this don’t usually appear when the dewpoint is 45° and these pictures were actually taken on August 1st. (As I write this, though, the dewpoint–a measure of the absolute amount of water vapor in the air–is back up to 57°.)

This is day 66 of Meteorological Summer, which means we’re down the home stretch in my OCD-addled brain. A month from today the average high temperature for where we live (not Sky Harbor Airport) will be back into double digits instead of triple digits and by the end of September the average high is about 90° (32° C). Ninety degrees with a dewpoint in the 40s (or lower) is quite comfortable, trust me.

Thanksgiving is on November 25th this year. The average high for that day here is about 70° (21° C). I don’t want to mess up my karma or put a jinx on my life, but I think I will survive my first summer in Arizona no worse for wear.

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Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the FDA, tweeted this yesterday:

 

“There is some evidence that the delta wave is contracting in some of the early outbreak states in the south, with the Rt falling below 1.0; and in other states where the epidemic is still expanding, the rate of that expansion has slowed with the Rt declining.”

 

Rt is the basic or effective reproduction number for a virus. A value below 1.0 means that infections are decreasing. I believe that in the UK and even in India, the “delta wave” was relatively short-lived peaking in just five or six weeks before declining. Once again, the vast majority of new cases, especially new symptomatic and serious cases, are in the unvaccinated.

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This morning, the US Labor Department reported that continuing jobless claims fell below 3 million for the first time since March 14, 2020, or almost a year and a half ago. That number peaked at about 32 million almost a year ago.

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At the shopping center where our nearest Lowe’s is, this car is frequently seen:

 

 

In case you don’t know, or even if you do, this is a Pontiac Solstice. While I like the looks of the Saturn Sky better (the two cars were built on the same platform and were both two-seat roadsters), I very much like the Solstice as well.

I assume that the owner of this car works in this shopping center as, once again, I/we have seen it many times here. While, of course, I could drive my wonderful wife’s Corvette convertible almost any time I want, I wouldn’t mind having a drop-top of my own. An Allante would be first among affordable cars–an Allante is now parked on the driveway of a house just a few houses down from us–but I wouldn’t balk at a Solstice or Sky.

I would like to read your thoughts on the Solstice, convertibles, siren songs or almost any other topic.

 

#HearingTheSirenSong

#DesertCloudSunset

#JoblessClaims

#PontiacSolstice

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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