K Squared Was Right

First, a detour…yesterday my wonderful wife was able to make both vaccine appointments for herself with a national pharmacy chain. Ironically, her first appointment was to be later this morning. Of course, my first vaccine appointment was earlier this morning.

We went to State Farm Stadium for my appointment and as K Squared (our realtor) predicted, my wonderful wife was vaccinated as well despite not having an appointment. We both received the Pfizer vaccine and our next appointments, three weeks hence, have already been made. Talk about an early appointment, try 3:20 AM. We don’t care, really.

I am very glad we are five weeks away from “max immunity,” but still disappointed that so many people believe lies and disinformation about the vaccine and won’t take the shot(s). Ignorance is not bliss, it’s dangerous. Get Vaccinated!

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This piece from Corvette Blogger is very interesting to me. It is a list of the fastest General Motors cars in the history of the Car and Driver Lightning Lap.

1.	2019 Corvette ZR1	2:39.5
2.	2015 Corvette Z06 (Z07)	2:44.6
3.	6th-Gen Camaro ZL1 1LE	2:45.0
4.	2017 Corvette Grand Sport (Z07)	2:47.1
5.	2020 Corvette Z51	2:49.0
6.	2017 Camaro ZL1	2:50.1
7.	C6 Corvette ZR1	2:50.7
8.	2015 Camaro Z28	2:50.9
9.	2011 Corvette Z06 (Z07)	2:53.5
10.	2014 Corvette Z51	2:53.8

Some notes:

The 2019 ZR1 has the fourth fastest lap among all 281 cars ever tested. The three cars ahead are/were WAY more expensive.

The #2 GM car is, of course, identical to mine except for the year. Oh yes, I’ve had some intake and exhaust mods done to add some power.

The time for the #3 car was with the automatic transmission because it was nearly a second faster than the lap recorded with the manual.

Once again, while the car snobs may disagree, dollar for dollar the modern Corvette is the best performance car in the world. Long live the Corvette!

#KSquaredWasRight

#GetVaccinated!

#LongLiveTheCorvette!

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Still An Important Anniversary

December 23, 1987 will always be one of the most significant days in my life. PLEASE read An Important Anniversary, which I posted on this day last year.

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OK, what do these three pictures represent?

The top is a view from my office in our previous home; the bottom two are views from my office now. I wonder if people who were born and raised here or who have lived here a long time take the views for granted. I hope I never do.

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So far, about 800,000 people in the US have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. That number is about 2.5 million worldwide. I know the MSM has a different take, but I think it’s amazing that in about a year since the virus was discovered in the human population, vaccines have been developed, tested and given to millions of people. (Update: the CDC just announced that the number of vaccine doses administered has surpassed one million.)

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What was the best-selling car in the US in 2000 that was made by an American company? The answer is the Ford Taurus, picture below from IIHS:

See the source image

The Taurus was manufactured from October, 1985 through March, 2019 except for a brief hiatus in 2006-07. About 8.1 million cars with the Taurus “nameplate” were produced in total.

The Taurus grew out of an effort to improve manufacturing processes at Ford. My friend Dr S (a PhD in Statistics) will appreciate this: Ford adopted a quality culture employing statistical process control across all aspects of automobile design and manufacture. The Ford Taurus was the first Ford model resulting from this statistical approach to manufacture.

Even 20 years ago, however, the writing was on the wall about the future of vehicles like the Taurus. The top three selling vehicles were the Ford F-Series pickup trucks, the Chevrolet Silverado and the Ford Explorer. The F-Series sold more than twice as many units as the Taurus.

As I have written here ad infinitum, I weep at the trend towards SUVs and pickup trucks. In addition, NO ONE will ever be able to convince me that America’s march to obesity isn’t the primary reason for that trend. More than 70% of American adults are overweight and more than a third are obese. The fact that SUVs have higher profit margins than cars means that automobile manufacturers are only too happy to oblige the trend. Give me one of these any day; oh, I already have one:

#StillAnImportantAnniversary

#OfficeViews

#DesertViews

#COVID-19Vaccine

#FordTaurus

#LongLiveTheCorvette!

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Life Intrudes

My thoughts are with one of my best friends, Bob. His mother is gravely ill.

Bob and I have been friends for 30 years. In that time we have experienced enough ups and downs to fill five lifetimes.

He is a real mensch. During a visit to us while we lived in Texas we were on our way back from a meal when we passed a pickup truck that was parked on a side street with the tailgate down and a large cardboard box in the street behind the truck. I thought nothing of it and continued driving. Bob insisted that we stop and offer help. We stopped and helped.

In my very broken Yiddish and Hebrew: Zei Gezundt, Mein Hahver!

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It’s difficult to segue to cars, but I’ll just do it.

This post from Corvette Blogger is titled, “The Amazing Corvette Collection You Could Have Instead Of One Bugatti.” Bugattis are repugnant to me from the start because they are really nothing but ~~Volkswagens~~ in a fancy dress. I also think they are hideous in appearance. I have written that if beauty is only skin-deep and ugly is to the bone then Bugattis are skeletons. Without further ado, here is the list:

The Amazing Corvette Collection You Could Have Instead of One Bugatti

Here is more from the post:

“In the end, we ended up with 20 Corvettes spanning all eight generations, a total of 9,933 Horsepower, and we still had $314,100 leftover to continue adding to the collection as more mid-engine variants keep showing up. This kind of perspective makes the Bugatti look pretty trivial (looks already haven’t been a particularly strong point of modern Bugattis).”

Amen! Here are some random Corvette pictures:

Carpe Diem!

#TheSadnessOfLife

#LongLiveTheCorvette

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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