Stochastic Saturday

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During a meeting while I was with the Baltimore Orioles, I used the phrase “stochastic variation.” (Stochastic variation is variation in which at least one of the elements is a variate and a stochastic process is one wherein the system incorporates an element of randomness as opposed to a deterministic system.) One of the “older” members of the organization and one who did not believe in the application of statistics to baseball said, “That sounds like a Czechoslovakian hockey player.”

Randomness, or luck if you prefer, is by its definition not predictable or controllable, but plays a major role in life outcomes. That’s why I believe that life is a Monte Carlo situation. If it were somehow possible to live one’s life 50 times it would not turn out the same way all 50.

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I did have to park my butt at the casino/resort that charged me twice for the same massage. My wonderful wife and I arrived there about 2:15 PM yesterday. Ridiculously, the situation wasn’t resolved until about 3:30. The manager claimed that my credit card transaction had been processed using Apple Pay and that it took “forever” to find the receipt/transaction number.

I was shown a receipt for the credit that I am supposed to receive on the card, but as of this writing that credit has not appeared. The manager apologized several times and said she wanted a chance to win back our business. I replied, “Abraham Lincoln is supposed to have said, ‘If someone fools you once, shame on them. If they fool you again, shame on you.'” This resort has a Four Diamond rating from AAA. That rating should be more like Four Pebbles.

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My wonderful wife indulged me this morning by waking up early enough so we could attend the monthly Penske Cars And Coffee and get a good parking spot. Oh, I have reluctantly decided that my Z06 will have to be returned to stock exhaust. Right now, two O2 sensors are not being read by the ECM and the car, while it does run, seems “unhappy” at this situation.

I can’t be worried about justifying the expense of the tuning last July. That would be cutting off my nose to spite my face. No, I will not take the car back to the dealer that took almost eight weeks to fix the car.

Anyway and not in any particular order here are a few photos from this morning:

 

 

As I have written many times before, my wonderful wife owned a Jaguar XK-8 convertible like this. They look striking, but hers was a maintenance and repair nightmare.

 

 

I must admit I am not 100% certain of the identity of the car in the bottom photo. I think it is an Aston Martin Zagato. I welcome anyone who knows to chime in.

 

#StochasticSaturday

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Published by rulesoflogic

Empiricism over ideology!

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6 thoughts on “Stochastic Saturday”

  2. “my Z06 will have to be returned to stock exhaust”

    When your car first quit and it seemed apparent the ECU was the problem, I thought you might end up losing all the upgrades. Yes the O2 sensors are important to optimum running, I also learned that the hard way a while back.

    Yes, I believe you’re correct about that being a Zagato.

    I had a bit of a fiasco yesterday. The transmission in my hot rod dually decided it no longer wanted to remain full of fluid going up a mountain in Virginia. Made it over the hill and to an exit, but that was it. This happened at around 10:30am yesterday, By the time 2 of my employees could get there with 2 trucks and a trailer (1 truck to tow my race trailer and the other with my flatbed to tow my truck back) it was 7:30 pm. I got back home at 3am. Needless to say, the shop that built the transmission for me got a call. I’ll be dropping it off Monday morning so they can figure out where/how they screwed up. And just to top off the day, I had no internet when I got home. Bad storm came thru yesterday and apparently lightning came in the cable and toasted the router and modem. Guy just left a bit ago after replacing both. Then I had to setup a new network and password.

    Being as tradition says that things happen in threes, I can’t wait for what’s next.

    I’m wondering if your “black cloud” might have drifted east and parked over me.

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  3. Most recent Jaguars are maintenance nightmares, which is why hot rodders only used the suspension parts for their projects. The independent rear suspensions with the inboard disk brakes fit very well under many hot rod chassis.

    Nice selection of cars, I’d take the dark gray one with the Cavallino Rampante badge if I could pretzel my body with the bad left knee into it. The left knee will soon be replaced just not soon enough.

    DDM, I am sorry for your current travails. The only “black cloud” I have seen recently in my neighborhood South of our host, was one yesterday afternoon and the only thing it delivered was some much needed rain, just not enough. Not enough lightning in our area to endanger our electronics, thankfully.

    For the reading public to which it applies, Happy Father’s Day to you all.

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    1. Many thanks, Philip. Nice of you to offer Happy Father’s Day wishes to all for which it applies.

      Supposedly, since its acquisition by Tata Motors Jaguar’s vehicles are far more reliable than ever before.

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