Thanksgiving Eve

Seems appropriate to share this link even if it’s from a minion of the Evil Empire. The video shows the classic scenes from the “Turkeys Away” episode of WKRP In Cincinnati. The show still remains one of my favorites and I think it is orders of magnitude funnier than any so-called sitcom being produced today.

WKRP's 'Turkeys Away' Episode Celebrates Another Anniversary This Year

I’m not sure I will post tomorrow–I wasn’t sure I would post today–so I want to wish all of you Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays. Unlike last year, my sister and niece will not be joining us for the holiday, which puts a bit of a damper on the day.

I am not going to use a disingenuous tone and write about all of the things for which I am grateful. I see much in the world and much in my life that needs to improve, but I am glad to be married to my wonderful wife and, this will probably seem like a shallow perspective, glad to be debt-free.

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In the first 2 1/2 months (!) I have owned the Mustang GT I have driven it about 1,600 miles. Without a third car to “absorb” mileage, both the Mustang and my wonderful wife’s Corvette are accumulating more mileage.

All I want to write is so far, so good. While I don’t really believe in karma and I know that human memories are selective, it does seem that when I “brag” about something or engage in hyperbole bad things seem to happen.

The car is more comfortable and more practical than the Z06 even if it isn’t as fast although it’s certainly not slow. In all honesty, I think the engine and exhaust sound better in the Mustang, especially in Sport mode. I wish I could make that the default setting upon startup, but have not been able to find a way to do that.

So far my overall mileage is about 22 MPG, which–not surprisingly–is better than the Z06, which made a tad less than 19 MPG while I drove it. I cannot stand the Ford logo at the top of the windshield so I have ordered an Arizona sticker to cover it. I think that’s the only visible Ford logo or badge on the car.

I have to admit that I am not as excited about the Mustang as I was about the Z06, nor am I as proud or as willing to take it to car shows. I mean, Mustangs are everywhere. Still, for what I wanted as a primary car–a good-looking car with good performance and without a six-figure price tag–the Mustang is more than good enough. If a Dodge Challenger would fit in our garage I might have considered one, but if my mother were green I would have been a frog.

In all seriousness, this could still be the newest car I own ten years from now. With the insane, blind march to EVs I doubt I will buy a 2025 or 2027 model year car. Any “new” car, which will have to wait until we have space to comfortably park more cars, will certainly be older, maybe even much older.

#ThanksgivingEve

#WKRPInCincinnati

#2022FordMustangGT

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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The Road Not Taken, The Mistake Not Made

As incomprehensible as this is to me right now, today could have been my 30th wedding anniversary. Years before I met my wonderful wife on the other side of the country, I was engaged. My first fiancée and I were supposed to be married on September 19, 1992.

The engagement ended in May and she moved out in June. (We had moved in together in January, 1992.) In all honesty, I think we were engaged because we were in our early 30s and thought it was time to be married. I liked that she was a bright person (she had a graduate degree in a science discipline) who liked sports. I think she liked the fact that I worked for the Orioles.

I consider myself very lucky not to have married this person, no offense to her intended–seriously. My wonderful wife, to whom I have been married for 23 years, is the kindest, cutest, sweetest and most wonderful person in the world. Yes, I used the word “wonderful” twice in the same sentence. So sue me…

We have much control over life outcomes. My first fiancée and I could have succumbed to inertia and married. Instead, we realized that was not the best decision we could make. The problem with making decisions is that while all decisions have consequences, we don’t always know what they are or will be when we make them.

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No, I did not watch Oklahoma roll over Nebraska on Saturday, the first game after now former head coach Scott Frost was fired by Huskers’ AD Trev Alberts. As only Nebraska can, they waited one more game to fire the worst defensive coordinator in D1 football, Erik Chinander.

Despite the whining by Huskers’ fans about bad luck–last season they were the only NCAA football team in history to lose nine games in a season each by fewer than 10 points–most of the misfortunes of the Nebraska football program are self-inflicted. Like I wrote, we have much control over life outcomes.

Since probably none of you reading is a Huskers football fan (I’m not really one, anymore, and haven’t been for awhile) I won’t bore you with details. Suffice to say that decision-making at the top level of the athletic department has been more about lurching from one extreme to another instead of devising a sound plan and trying to stick to it.

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The ordeal is over; no, repairs to the Z06 are not complete. I am no longer the owner of the car!

On Saturday, I received a text from a person in the finance department at the Ford dealership from whom I purchased the Mustang. He said my wonderful wife and I had to re-sign a few documents. Even though Arizona is a community property state, our cars are all titled differently. Her Corvette convertible is titled only in her name, the Cascada is titled only in my name, but the Corvette–and its successor, the Mustang–are titled in both of our names.

Unprompted by anyone, I thought it would be a good idea to take the title for the Z06 with us yesterday (yes, they are open on Sunday) and to find an opportunity to offer the dealership the title. The opportunity presented itself, the finance department was happy to receive the title even though the work has still not been completed and the Mustang is now fully paid for and then some.

Yes, I had always been surprised that the Ford dealership let me drive the Mustang home even though I still owned the car that was to be used as payment. This is the second time this dealer has come through for us. We sold the Cadillac ATS to them in April and they paid us substantially more than the local Cadillac dealer offered. If I sell the Cascada, a distinct possibility, they will get first dibs at buying it.

The Mustang is mine with no strings attached! I don’t care how long it takes for the Z06 repairs to be completed! I still need to get the license plate from the Corvette as it will be the Mustang plate and, of course, I need to retrieve a few personal items. However, I feel as if a giant cloud has lifted. Halle-frickin’-lujah!

#TheRoadNotTaken

#TheEndOfAnOrdeal

#2022FordMustangGT

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Where Does The Time Go?!

I am having lunch today with someone I’ve known since 1988, more than half my life. We worked together at the two baseball teams for whom I worked full-time. (He is still working for the second of those teams and has for almost 30 years. That tenure is more than half of his life.)

I started working for the Orioles in a full-time job when I was 28; I am now 62. I know the reality, but it is semi-incomprehensible if I am to be completely honest.

Tomorrow will be five months since the Z06 first failed to start. Yes, supply chains and logistics are busted to bupkis. As frustrating as the situation is, it does not seem like five months.

Today is the 1,708th day that Disaffected Musings has existed. My wonderful wife and I married 8,501 days ago. Can this blog really have existed for one-fifth of our marriage?!

I liken the seeming increase in the speed of the passage of time with age to getting 100 marbles and giving them away one at a time. At first, you’re only giving away 1% of the marbles, but as the number of marbles decreases the percentage given away increases. You’re still only giving away one marble at a time, but when you get to 50 marbles remaining each marble represents 2%. When you get to 20 marbles left, the next marble given away is 5% of the total.

I think your internal clock knows your time is finite and processes each unit of time as a larger percentage of what time remains. I think that’s why time seems to be speeding up as we age. I have no proof (hey, physicists have no proof for string theory, either, but that doesn’t stop them from talking about it), but my theory is as good as anyone else’s.

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Speaking of string theory, this post from Why Evolution Is True is about “physicist and science popularizer” Sabine Hossenfelder “dissing” the multiverse. From the post:

“To Hossenfelder, the problem with mulitverse theories is that they all “Postulate the existence of unobservable entities.” That is, although the multiverse is an outcome of some mathematical physics, there is no way physicists have found to test it—to make observations that would make its existence more or less likely. If it ultimately can’t be tested, she says—and I agree—then it can’t be considered a scientific theory. (This is also true of string theory.)” [That last sentence is Jerry Coyne’s, not mine.]

As much as I respect science, I never forget that it is an endeavor of imperfect human beings. Even this guy wasn’t perfect, although I wish people like him were in charge instead of the dolt politicians.

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Today is Day 7 of the 15-day delivery window for the parts needed to complete the repairs of the Z06. Of course, the completion of the repairs is now all about getting the car ASAP to the Ford dealer from whom I purchased the Mustang GT last week. For perhaps the last time in this blog:

By the way, taking the published figures as given, the Mustang GT I purchased actually has a better power-to-weight ratio than the new Supra, at least in terms of horsepower. (In terms of torque it’s a virtual dead heat.) The Mustang definitely sounds better.

#WhereDoesTheTimeGo?!

#2022FordMustangGT

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Sunday Surprise

No, the post title does not refer to Nebraska’s 45-42 home loss to Georgia Southern as a 22-point favorite. Of course, that happened yesterday, Saturday. The bettors and oddsmakers do not seem to appreciate that the only resemblance of the current Huskers football team to those great teams of the past is the uniforms. Fire head coach Scott Frost and the worst defensive coordinator in D1 football, Erik Chinander, now; buyout be damned!

The post title also does not refer to two Top Ten teams (Texas A&M and Notre Dame) losing at home yesterday to unranked teams. Of course, unranked teams beat ranked teams every season, but having two upsets like those on the same day is unusual.

Here are some photos/videos that should reveal the surprise:

Yep, I pulled the trigger on a 2022 Ford Mustang GT. This is not, however, the same one I test drove on Labor Day because that one was already sold.

I accompanied my wonderful wife to take her 2018 Corvette in for an oil change and other service on Friday. When we picked up the car it dawned on me that the Chevrolet dealer was right next to the Ford dealer (AutoNation Ford) where I test drove the Mustang. I told my wife to go home and that I would mosey on over to the Ford dealer.

Despite the fact that the Z06 is still in the shop, which means–of course–I still own the car, they were willing to make a deal. They let me drive the Mustang home yesterday.

They were very generous with the trade-in value for the Corvette–giving me what I paid for the car in March, 2019 although that is far less, unfortunately, than I actually have in it–and I paid several thousand below MSRP for the Mustang. Those developments made it very easy for me to make the deal. I will receive a good chunk of change back from the dealer not long after they take possession of the Z06.

I did not want to wait as new ’22 Mustangs will no longer be delivered and the ’23s will be more expensive. I decided not to buy a Supra for many reasons, one of those being I still want to drive a car with a great-sounding V-8. (Hopefully, you can hear the sound in the two videos.)

As I have written before, the first-generation Mustang was one of the cars that I first admired when I became interested in automobiles around the age of 5 or 6. Obviously, I have not driven it much, and it would be hugely disappointing if the car already had issues. All I’ll write is so far, so good.

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Obviously, I remember the horrific events that occurred on this day in 2001. Always remember…

Remembering 9/11 - Observe, Honor, Serve | LIBERTY FLAGS, The American Wave®

#SundaySurprise

#FireFrostAndChinander!

#2022FordMustangGT

#Remember9/11

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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On The Way To A Million?

I may already be there…of course, I am referring to writing a million words in a blog. While I will never know exactly how many words I wrote in my previous blog, which was hosted by the Evil Empire (AKA Google), I think it’s more likely than not that I have written at least a million words combined in my two blogs.

If WordPress (which has not sent me a badge to commemorate 1,500 posts) allows access to the Classic Editor through at least the end of 2023, then it is more likely than not that I will reach a million words with Disaffected Musings. I will not bore you with the actual figures.

Thanks for reading.

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It’s OK to change your mind even if there’s nothing wrong with the one you have. It’s also OK to say nothing about a topic if you know nothing, or next to nothing, about it. Once again, it is often better to be silent and be thought the fool than to open one’s mouth and to remove all doubt.

As I write this I would estimate the odds that I buy a new Ford Mustang GT are about 80%. The probability I buy a used Supra is about 15% and the chance I sell the Z06 and pocket the money is about 5%. The probability I keep the Corvette? Asymptotically approaching zero.

In an episode of Everyday Driver the two hosts drive and compare a new Ford Mustang Mach 1 to a new BMW M4. Not surprisingly, Paul Schmucker prefers the M4. That’s not a surprise because he loves German cars, especially ~~Porsche~~ and BMW. Todd Deeken, however, prefers the Mach 1. One aspect he notes is the amazing sound of the Mustang engine.

A Mach 1 has some tuning and suspension upgrades compared to a “base” Mustang GT. However, for me those differences are not enough to pony up (see what I did there) another $15,000-$20,000. I have to admit that one of the appealing parts of trading in the Z06 for a new Mustang GT is that I will very likely receive a decent amount of cash back. After the money I’ve spent this year to fix the Z06 AND to buy the Cascada, anything to restock the coffers is most welcome. Here is, again, a picture of the 2022 Mustang GT I test drove on Labor Day and which made such a good impression on me.

If General Motors can be believed at this point, then the window for the delivery of the parts needed to complete the repairs to the Z06 begins tomorrow. Right now, those parts are not supposed to be delivered any later than September 22. Maybe it’s because I haven’t really driven the Z06 since mid-April (except for two weeks when it did not run right), but I prefer the sound of the Coyote V-8 to the sound of the Corvette LT-4.

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This Times of Israel article is about a potential research breakthrough at Tel Aviv University in the treatment of brain tumors, specifically glioblastoma. Israel has more companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange than any other country except the US.

I have known at least two people who have died from this type of brain tumor. Here is an excerpt from the article:

“Using genetic modification, he [Dr. Lior Mayo, head author of the study] could produce mice with glioblastoma tumors, and then remove all astrocytes from around the tumor. “We found that when we did this, the tumors vanished and stayed away for as long as we repressed the astrocytes,” he said.

‘In fact, even when we stopped suppressing the astrocytes, some 85 percent of the mice stayed in remission. However, among the control group, in which all astrocytes remained, all mice died.'”

What kind of research is being conducted by Israel’s enemies? I Stand With Israel!

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This recent Corvette Blogger post reports that Chevrolet/General Motors are halting new orders for the 2023 Corvette Z06 through the end of 2022. From the article:

“The move, we are told, allows GM to better handle the ramp-up in the production of the all-new Z06 and not get into what we saw with the 2020 Corvette Stingray, in which GM had thousands of cars in the system that couldn’t be produced.”

I had read that Z06 production would be limited to 10% of total 2023 output. However, Scott Bell–Vice-President Global for Chevrolet–said this:

“We’re not building as many Z06s as we’d like to right now, it’s really that simple. We plan to sell more of this generation Corvette than any other generation in our history, and that includes a high percentage of Z06s.”

That second sentence is very interesting. The most Corvettes sold in any generation was the roughly 543,000 C3s. Due to the damn virus, the UAW strike and everything else, the C8–while very popular–is a LONG way from that number. Is Bell’s comment a hint that the C8 will be produced until whenever GM goes all-electric? Also, 10% is not “a high percentage of Z06s.”

While my Corvette ownership will likely end soon, I will always be interested in the Vette. I admit that I wish I liked the looks of the C8 more than I do because in that scenario I could have seen myself buying one. However, I don’t so I won’t.

#OnTheWayToAMillion?

#2022FordMustangGT

#IStandWithIsrael!

#HaltToC8Z06Orders

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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1,500 Posts!

Indeed, this is the 1,500th published post for Disaffected Musings. I think WordPress, the platform that hosts this blog, will send me a badge to commemorate the occasion.

I mentioned yesterday that in the most recent WordPress week this blog received its most views in a week this entire year. I can also tell you that in each of the last three weeks, the number of views has reached a level previously seen only once since February 1. Thanks to all of you who are reading my blog. Of course, I can’t thank those of you who are not reading. 🙂

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On Sunday I walked five miles for the first time on my treadmill, although I had reached the five mile mark a few times when I was running/jogging. I must confess that I mixed in a little of the latter on Sunday so I could finish the five miles in under 75 minutes; I made it with a minute to spare.

I also must confess that my feet are really hurting (remember that I have bunions and bone spurs on both big toes), so much so that I might have to skip today’s “scheduled” workout. As only I can do, I have developed a most strange symptom as well. When I take a deep breath, I feel a quick but sharp pain on the bottom of my right foot. It is always in the same place, the “pad” just below the big toe. Maybe it’s the metatarsal-proximal phalanges joint.

When I was very young, in elementary school, I had a similar condition. When I would take a deep breath both of my ankles would hurt, but only briefly. This went away on its own after about a month. I am reluctant to write this, but can’t help myself: No good deed goes unpunished.

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These “Hili dialogue” posts from Why Evolution Is True are varied and often interesting. On this very sad day in 1972, ~~Palestinian~~ terrorists murdered nine Israeli Olympic athletes and a German policeman. The Munich massacre is the primary reason I do not watch the Olympics to this day.

On this day in 1983 the Soviet Union admitted shooting down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (on September 1), claiming it didn’t know it was a civilian aircraft when it, supposedly, violated Soviet airspace. I don’t know if I am supposed to reveal this, but it was around the same time that I was interviewing for a job with the CIA. At the time I only listened to news stations on the radio, so hearing about this incident on the way down and back from CIA headquarters seemed oddly fitting. I did not get the job. It is a virtual certainty that my life would have traveled down a much different path if I had.

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What is this? This is the new 2022 Ford Mustang GT I test drove yesterday. I must say I was most impressed. I wish I had recorded the sound the engine makes under acceleration; it is intoxicating.

The car was loaded with nice features, was very comfortable, braked and steered very well AND was thousands less than any decent low mileage USED Supra in the area. The Mustang even has rear seats, not that anyone over 5-8 would be comfortable in them. The car also looked better to me in person than it does in photos, even the one above. No, I am not considering the GT500 model, 760 HP or not, as that is much more money than I want to spend. I can be happy with 450 HP/410 LB-FT of torque in a car with a curb weight of 3,750 pounds. Those are Ford’s reported figures, by the way. The car felt like it had more power than that and many manufacturers are now under-reporting engine output.

I firmly believe that flexibility and adaptability are keys to being happy and successful. I owed it to myself to test drive a Mustang GT and I must admit it is now the likely choice to replace the Z06. In a way, my car life would come full circle as the first-generation Mustang was one of my favorites when I first became interested in automobiles at the age of 5 or 6.

I would, of course, very much like to read your thoughts. Oh, why am I not considering a Dodge Challenger? They are too long for our garage (the Mustang would barely fit) and I would never park any of my cars outdoors unless we lived in a gated community–we don’t–and I could park them on our lot but out of sight.

Thanks again for reading this blog enough to spur me on to 1,500 posts.

#1500Posts!

#2022FordMustangGT

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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