No April Fools

Too many people are fools every month…

A bad neck/head ache actually turned into a good thing this morning. I woke up about 4 AM because of the pain, but four ibuprofen and a half hour of heat with my new heating pad and I felt fine. Waking up at that hour allowed me to get the trash out on time for collection. I usually put it out the afternoon before as it is picked up quite early, but I forgot yesterday.

I was also able to get breakfast for my wonderful wife and me at the nearest Starbucks. It is very close, less than two miles driving distance one way. Weirdo that I am, I was struck by the fact that when I left for Starbucks the motion sensor night lights over the garage went on, but when I returned there was too much light in the sky for the lights to trigger. I told you I am a weirdo…

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“Post-mortem” for monthly/quarterly blog performance…views for the first quarter of 2022 declined 30% compared to the first quarter of 2021. Yes, the number of posts also declined, but only by 13%. The last month with the same number of posts as March of 2022, which was November of 2021, had 23% more views with one fewer day.

I can’t deny the data; fewer people are reading Disaffected Musings. Of course, I will not use the criminal organization Fack Fucebook to drive blog traffic.

I think that the more I ask those of you reading to pass the word, the less effective that messaging becomes.

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The financial news media is making a big deal out of the fact that the 2-year/10-year Treasury yields inverted yesterday, meaning the 2-year yield was higher than the 10-year, for the first time since 2019. That’s supposed to be a signal of an imminent recession.

Well, not exactly…the last three times that part of the yield curve inverted the average time to a recession was actually 16 months. (I have also seen that average shown as 20 months.) Investors should get nervous when the 3-month/2-year yields invert; that is actually the signal for an imminent recession. At present, that part of the yield curve is not even close to inverting.

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Over-reaching government is everywhere. In Great Britain, proposed legislation to make it illegal for car owners to “tamper” with their vehicles is causing an uproar in the classic car community, which is quite large.

The legislation, which is actually aimed at new cars and their owners, is worded in such a way that it could be interpreted to apply to all cars. British collector car insurance company Footman James wrote, “The goals that the Government describes have the best of intentions, however, it is when you read deeper into the ‘Tackling Tampering’ section that each paragraph and future ‘offense’ could easily be applied to the classic vehicle industry.” As I have written before and truly believe, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

ALL proposed legislation should have a cost/benefit analysis performed by a non-governmental company. I know that’s a pipedream, but in a world where all resources are finite, efficiency always matters and trade-offs always exist.

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I would be incensed if I had purchased this car and then be informed that it would be illegal for me to modify it.

This is a 1948 DeSoto convertible that sold for $35,200 all in at the recent Mecum auction in Glendale, Arizona. Imagine the stupidity of regulations that say I couldn’t modify it, EVEN if the modifications made the car safer and more efficient.

I would never go off the grid and live in a forest, but I understand why some people do. Government is NOT supposed to be an unaccountable, dictatorial monolith, but is only supposed to exist with the consent of the governed.

#NoAprilFools

#IAmAWeirdo

#WhereAreTheReaders?

#InvertedYieldCurve

#SayNoToBigGovernment

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Monday Musings 83

The bottom has fallen out of the box of blog views. Seemingly every day with a post is garnering fewer and fewer views.

Maybe this blog has just run its course after 45 months and more than 1,200 posts. Once again, those who are no longer reading cannot tell me why they stopped. Of course, with many fewer readers maybe I’ll just remove any vestige of muzzle.

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See the source image

Interstate 83 only exists in two states: Maryland and Pennsylvania. Like many such roads, I-83 has become a commuter pathway, or at least it did before the damn virus. Since I don’t live there anymore I don’t really know for sure.

When I lived in northwest Baltimore, where I was born and raised and lived until I was 25, I-83 was my usual route to downtown Baltimore, which is its southern terminus. (Of course since I don’t own a bulletproof vest, I would never go to downtown Baltimore anymore, anyway, even if I still lived in the mid-Atlantic.) In my junior and senior years of high school, I would use I-83 as part of my route home from school so I could use more of the horsepower in my 1967 Pontiac GTO. In Baltimore, I-83 is called the Jones Falls Expressway. Originally, the plan was to have this road connect to an extension of Interstate 95 in south Baltimore, but between community opposition and funding issues, the plan never materialized.

It is a virtual certainty I will never drive on this road again. The number on today’s Monday Musings title led me to think of I-83 and all of the time I spent driving on it.

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How many of you have ever watched a show called Flipping Bangers on Motor Trend? The premise is that two motorheads have given up their regular jobs to attempt to make a living buying and flipping cars at the bottom of the market, which are called bangers in the UK. Supposedly, they give themselves only five workshop days to spruce up the cars, although in one episode they acknowledged they needed the morning of a sixth day in order to finish.

I really like this show, especially when the featured car is something interesting to me, like this:

See the source image

This is a second-generation Toyota MR2, also known as a Mk II. In general, my interest in automobile restoration shows is dependent on the featured car(s). As much as I like looking at Cristy Lee, if All Girls Garage or Garage Squad featured something like a pickup truck, then odds are I wouldn’t watch the episode.

Flipping Bangers is entertaining to me because the two presenters, Gus Gregory and Will Trickett, seem to be quite knowledgeable about cars, seem to be pleasant fellows and the show contains quite a bit of humor, most of which seems genuine. In that way, the show reminds me of another one of my favorites, Salvage Hunters: Classic Cars, which is also shot in the UK with two British hosts.

I assume at least some of you watch automobile-related programming. What do you like?

#MondayMusings

#WhereAreTheReaders?

#Interstate83

#FlippingBangers

#ToyotaMR2MkII

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Monday Musings

Please read this post. Thanks, title notwithstanding it’s not a ragu recipe. The fact this post has received almost no views is another example that timing matters.

March, 2019 is in the books. (!) A little bookkeeping…

The recently concluded month had the second highest number of blog views (behind November, 2018) and the second highest number of comments (behind December, 2018). The number of comments is more surprising given that this blog’s two most prolific commenters, 56packardman and Steve Dallas, have not commented since long before March 1. I am pleased that more people seemed to be reading Disaffected Musings in March, but still think that this blog should have five to ten times the number of views it receives.

This post generated about nine percent of all views for March; this post, that was actually written and posted in February, generated about six percent. The number of views for the first post were due to Bill James re-tweeting it and I thank him, once again.

Almost all of us are vain to some degree and almost all of us have an ego that likes recognition. I am no different and don’t pretend to be. I am proud of this blog and think it is of high quality. The Internet doesn’t seem to agree although, of course, one could argue (and I have) that success on the Internet is correlated with catering to the lowest common denominator. This blog is what it is and I am what I am.

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Mecum’s next auction begins on Thursday; the venue is Houston. Many interesting cars are being offered, but also many pickup trucks in which I have no interest. The Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale in January seemed to be almost nothing but pickup trucks and restomods. Sorry, but to me pickups are boxes with wheels.

This is a picture of a 1958 Chevrolet Biscayne; a car like this will be offered at Mecum on Friday, April 5. Once again, Mecum does not allow its online lot photos to be captured; this picture is from classiccars.com.

In 1958 Chevrolet’s lineup changed. The hierarchy had been the BelAir at the top, the 210 in the middle and the 150 at the bottom. For 1958, not counting the one-year only Delray, the newly-introduced Impala was at the top, the BelAir was in the middle and the Biscayne, also introduced in 1958, was at the bottom. I must confess that I barely remember the Biscayne. When I was very young the only Chevrolets of which I was aware were the Corvette and the Impala. Of course, I’m no spring chicken. Getting back to 1958, I believe that all of these body styles were only produced for that year, sort of the ultimate in planned obsolescence. The Biscayne was only available as a 2-door or 4-door sedan and about 176,000 were produced in 1958.

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Which college team do I think will win the NCAA Basketball Tournament? Which team do I want to win? I don’t know and I don’t care. In what seems like a paradox, Maryland’s 2002 championship ended my interest in college basketball. I grew up in Baltimore as a big Terrapins basketball fan; I guess I never thought I’d see them win it all so when they did I guess I didn’t think I had to watch anymore.

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Monday Musings

First, another of my semi-regular complaints/rants about lack of readers. Without using the Digital Gangster AKA Facebook I know I will never have thousands of readers a day. I still think Disaffected Musings should have at least 5-10 times the number of views it actually receives. For a brief period last October/November it appeared as if that might be possible. At the higher number, perish the thought, I might actually get paid for my time and effort.

In this vein I am considering cutting back to 3-4 posts a week. I realize that the number of total viewers would decline even more, but I would have more of my finite time for me. On the other hand, I realize that blogging is cheaper than therapy and probably almost as effective.

Facebook is a Digital Gangster! #DeleteFacebook #FackFucebook

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My wonderful wife and I spent much of yesterday watching an Overhaulin’ marathon on Motor Trend. Overhaulin’ was a show (it’s no longer in production) where a team led by the legendary Chip Foose would acquire someone’s car on a ruse and then give the car back after completely modifying it.

Most of the people whose car was the one on which the work was done react quite emotionally upon seeing the finished product. That reaction is the payoff for watching the show and on more than one occasion Chip Foose remarked that’s why they do what they do.

The reason I’m mentioning all of this is that for much of yesterday I kept wondering how emotional I will be when I actually buy the 2016 Corvette Z06 I have decided to buy. I am really getting psyched about acquiring this car.

From gmauthority.com a picture of a 2016 Corvette in Daytona Sunrise Orange. If I can I will buy a car in that color, but as I have written before only 251 Z06 coupes were painted in orange in 2016. Repeat after me: I have dreams, but I live in the real world. I am not going to wait a year to find an orange 2016 Z06. Torch Red and Long Beach Red look good, too.

This is also a nice segue to Ultimate Garage 2.0. I would very much like to read what cars would be in your ultimate garage. Ideally, your list should include 5-10 cars and you have total freedom to choose the criteria for selection.

#IhavedreamsbutIliveintherealworld

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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