Sunday “Sermon”

Just because an idea or concept is comforting doesn’t mean it’s true. Just because something is frightening doesn’t mean it’s false. You can bury your head in the sand to avoid the unpleasant, but all that means is that you are more likely to have something bite you in the ass.

Image result for Funny Ostrich Head in Sand

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Whither Italy? For much of this year this blog had a consistent daily number of views from Italy. For awhile in 2022, more blog views came from Italy than from any other country except the US or Canada. In mid-June, though, those views from Italy virtually disappeared.

Since this blog’s inception in January, 2018 it has been viewed by people in more than 100 countries. Not surprisingly, the US has accounted for the highest percentage of views, by far, at about 90 percent. That proportion, though, has declined over time. Canada is next at about 4 percent. In case you’re interested, or even if you’re not, Israel is third, but at less than one percent. With the departure of L Weaves Words from the blogosphere (believe it or not, due to a technical issue that WordPress could not fix despite much effort), I suspect views from Israel will stagnate and that India will move into third place in all-time views by country.

Although I often complain about what I perceive to be a lack of views relative to the quality of this blog and about the marked decline in views and visitors since February of this year, it is amazing to think that Disaffected Musings has had hundreds of thousands of views from well over 100 countries. I do still enjoy writing, but in the back of my mind I cannot shake the fear that WordPress will cut off access to the Classic Editor despite the fact that the new editor has not been as widely adopted as they had hoped, not even close in actuality. When blogging becomes a chore, as it would with the awful new editor, I will have to stop.

My intent when I write about declining views or the awful block(head) editor is not to threaten my readers that they better step up or else. Even though my identity is unknown to most readers, I think I have been very transparent about most things that are blog related and even life related.

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Yesterday my wonderful wife and I drove to the weekly car gathering that is the longest running such event in the US. We arrived about 20 minutes before it is supposed to start, but unlike the custom at most similar events in this area, hardly any cars were there. We also learned first-hand that the difference in elevation in the Valley Of The Sun really does make a difference in the temperature. Of course, the fact that the event is held in the parking lot of a large shopping center without much vegetation makes it hotter as well.

The elevation at this event is about 1,300 feet above sea level. Our house is about 2,100 feet in elevation. With the dry, adiabatic lapse rate being 5.38° F per 1,000 feet in elevation, that means our house should be about four degrees cooler, on average, than the shopping center where the car event is held. I can tell you when we got out of my wonderful wife’s Corvette it felt like opening an oven door.

We waited in the shade near a building for awhile to see if more cars would arrive, but they didn’t and eventually my wife could not avoid the siren song of White Castle as we had seen a marquis indicating that the famous Midwest slider place was nearby.

See the source image

This is the first White Castle location in Arizona. In its first year of operation more than 4.2 million sliders were sold there, making it the top location in the entire 360-plus store chain.

After my wife ate a couple of sliders and fries, we drove to the Penske complex that I visit quite frequently. We had a good conversation with Michael, one of the sales people. Oh, you want to see some pictures. OK, these are from the event and from Penske…

The second photo is Camelback Mountain, perhaps the most famous landmark in the area. I have shown pictures taken from the mountain before.

The bottom photo is, of course, a Maserati MC20. You won’t see this car in the Hall of Very Good Cars series because it is highly likely it would be a member of my Ultimate Garage 4.0, not that it’s likely that will ever be published. Even trading in my Z06 for this, I would consider purchasing this car to be too imprudent, too impractical.

As always, I welcome thoughtful comments. Thanks for reading.

#SundaySermon

#SaveTheClassicEditor!

#FutureOfDisaffectedMusings

#WhiteCastle

#MaseratiMC20

#somanyCARSjustonelife

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“There are more things in heaven and earth…than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”

“Life’s but a walking shadow…a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

– Shakespeare

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After communicating via phone, email and text for more than 35 years, “Herb Schwartz” and I finally met last week. My wonderful wife and I drove to Palm Desert, California where “Herb” and his wife spend the winter.

“Herb” is a former major league baseball player and has been a sports columnist for a long time. As he used to write “insider” info I occasionally gave him during my many years in baseball (he returned the favor by providing me with info) it is better if his identity is not revealed.

The three of us had a blast over breakfast, which went far too quickly. “Herb” had a tee time at noon and our confab lasted only a little over an hour. Obviously, we can’t wait another 35+ years to meet again. Despite what quantum physicists tell us, it sure seems as though time only goes one way.

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As Palm Springs is not far from Palm Desert, my wonderful wife and I drove there one afternoon. In all honesty, I wasn’t that impressed with “Downtown” Palm Springs as it seemed tired to me and too much of one note.

One venue that did impress me was the Palm Springs Air Museum. The sheer size of some of the military aircraft was unknown to me beforehand and I was not able to get many shots where I could show an entire plane up close. Here are some photos; I apologize for their less than sterling quality.

I don’t know if you can tell by the palm trees, but it was extremely windy the day we visited the museum. I think wind gusts were easily in excess of 50 MPH.

I even piloted a C-130; of course, that was on a simulator. A retired Air Force pilot “manning” the museum library was among the many volunteers. We chatted and he casually offered me an opportunity to fly the plane. After takeoff, I basically followed the Thames River over London. It was not easy, but it was fun and I learned a lot. I am also now tempted to buy a flight simulator for my computer.

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I attended the monthly Cars And Coffee at the local “event venue” yesterday. I went by myself as I wanted to get there very early to get a premium parking spot and didn’t want to disturb my wonderful wife. Well, I didn’t want to disturb her any more than I usually do. 🙂

The event is scheduled for 7 AM to 10 AM, but when I arrived at 6:20 I was not the first person there. The venue was already open and as it was a tad cold for me–about 40° F–I went inside and had some coffee and donut holes.

Once again, I am amazed at the car culture here. I wouldn’t want to guess the combined value of the cars, but it was easily well into eight figures. Without further ado:

It seemed like fate that I should see a Cadillac XLR yesterday given my growing interest in buying one. I introduced myself to Howard, the owner of the car as well as the owner of the realty office in this business area. He was very nice, but couldn’t offer much insight about this particular car as he has only owned it for one week. He did offer that he knows the XLR has issues, especially for the 2004 and 2005 model years; his is a 2005.

The fact that the car is next to a Ferrari is par for this event and for the Arizona car scene, in general. I have seen a real Ferrari Enzo at this event, of which only 400 were produced from 2002 to 2004.

I did not try to include Ferraris in every photo, but they were quite numerous yesterday as they usually are.

I cannot guarantee a return to my previous blogging schedule, even after we leave the busy month of March. I will try to finish the Cars A To Z series in a timely manner.

#Sunday”Sermon”

#Shakespeare

#PalmSpringsAirMuseum

#ArizonaCarCulture

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

If you like this blog please tell your friends and share the blog URL (https://disaffectedmusings.com). Thanks.

Tag: Sunday “Sermon”

Sunday Sermon