Wandering Wednesday

This post will live up to its title and might be quite long, so settle in.

First…views per day for February were the lowest of any month since March of 2020 and that occurred even though there was a surge in views and visitors the last five or six days of the month. What can I say? It would probably be a case of cutting off my nose to spite my face to stop writing because of declining readership, but I’m not always a rational person. If you’re reading and enjoy this blog, please share the blog URL with your friends. Thanks.

Second…the last couple of nights have been chock full of dreams, but the only one I can remember as I sit here is the one where I had seven toes on my right foot. I have no idea where that came from. I do remember that a baseball player named Sixto Lezcano played for the Milwaukee Brewers and several other teams from the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s. My friends and I would sometimes “joke” that he had a brother named Seventoe. By the way, Lezcano was a good player whose best year, 1979 with the Brewers, was really good.

Do I have an opinion on major league baseball’s current labor troubles? The only thing I care about baseball is that my pension is deposited in the correct account every month.

 

David Banner (not his real name) sent me the link to this Slate article titled, “Killer Truck, Dude. How will you feel when it actually does?” While I think the piece is a bit judgmental, some of the facts presented are eye-opening, such as:

 

“The heavier a car, the more likely it is to kill a pedestrian if it strikes them. [My note: Remember, force equals mass times acceleration.] And trucks and SUVs are getting heavier: New pickups weigh 24 percent more than they did in 2000, according to Consumer Reports, and these days big cars regularly exceed 4,000 pounds. Let’s not even talk about the new generation of electric vehicles, like the Hummer EV, which thanks to its immense batteries weighs more than 9,000 pounds.

Your car is also really tall, and that makes it more dangerous, too. A grille that’s more than 50 inches off the ground—as tall as the roof of my [author Dan Kois’] Honda Civic—makes it more likely that a pedestrian will be struck in the head by a collision. Big trucks are also more likely to push a pedestrian under the tires, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, something that increases the likelihood of a fatality.”

 

It is true that about 35 percent of pedestrians killed by a vehicle were under the influence of a drug like alcohol. It is true that all of the modern electronics and–ironically–safety features make vehicles heavier. Still, like most things in America, vehicles have become too heavy.

I see people driving alone in vehicles like a Cadillac Escalade, which weighs 5,500 pounds and is almost 77 inches high. I see people driving alone, and with nothing in the bed, in something like a Ford F-350 that weighs over 6,000 pounds and is 80 inches high. I see no reason for either. It’s almost as if people want to be able to drive their house around town.

I don’t pretend to know what the answer is. I don’t think governments can just ban vehicles that weigh more than, say, 4,000 pounds. (Another reason, though, that EVs are not the answer.) However, as every regular reader knows, I loathe the trend towards SUVs and pickup trucks. I guess I didn’t know, though, that the trend can be fatal.

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The Dick’s Sporting Goods store nearest us did not, incredibly, have many treadmills in stock. Our drive to one that did had a serendipitous outcome; it placed us less than two miles from our local Gateway Classic Cars franchise. Yes, we did buy a new treadmill and, hopefully, it will be delivered in the next week to ten days.

My wonderful wife and I were the only non-staff at the Gateway Classic Cars (GCC) location. Two of the staff made an effort to greet us. Of course, they wanted to sell us a car, but I’ve met many salesmen who were much less pleasant. One salesman asked me if that was my Z06 parked outside and when I replied in the affirmative, he was effusive with praise for the car.

I also learned that GCC is considering expanding its model to allow dealers to purchase cars to sell as opposed to only selling consignments as is currently the case. That was in the context of a conversation where I remarked that some of the cars seemed overpriced to me, but added that GCC is at the mercy of its consignors.

Many of the cars were of great interest to me, but I’m a Wackadoodle (it’s Wednesday!). Without further ado, here are some pictures:

 

 

Supposedly, this 1956 Cadillac Sixty Special has just 36,000 original miles.

 

 

I was quite smitten with this 1937 Oldsmobile F37. The “F” designation means the car was equipped with a six-cylinder engine. An “L” designation would mean the car had an eight-cylinder engine. I think this was a business coupe (it only had two seats) and, if so, means this was one of just 13,958 produced that year.

 

 

This GCC franchise did group similar cars together when possible. The silver Cadillac XLR is a 2005 model with almost 100,000 miles while the black one is an ’08 with 24,000 miles. Not surprisingly, the list price for the 2008 was $12,000 more than for the 2005 although both seemed a bit on the high side for me. My wonderful wife and I both preferred the looks of the ’05, but I would not buy a 2004 or 2005 XLR and the high mileage would be the proverbial nail in the coffin. I do think they are great looking cars, though. Now, to more idiosyncratic favorites of mine.

 

 

Finally, one last photo:

 

 

Hope you have enjoyed this long and wandering post.

 

#WanderingWednesday

#SixtoLezcano

#AmericanVehiclesAreTOOBIG!

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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