Itinerant Air-Cooled

This number is looming dangerously too high.

I remember when I had to change the date on my homework papers in 2nd grade, from 1965 to 1966. That was inexplicable but I liked doing two "6"s in a row.

Then I remember the date change to 1970, that was the end of those curly "6"s and we ushered in a sharp modern "7" on all of our dates. My high school graduating class - 1977. ( yeah, fortieth reunion this year?! )

Didn't even give a thought to 1980 (whatever), but 1984 was a bit of a shock, omg George Orwell's dystopia is upon us, but it was sunny in Southern California, so no clouds of fascist totalitarianism on the horizon that I could see.

1999, my fortieth year, that stupid date was telling me that my youth is slipping away, this here new Millennium with all these kids crowding into my culture, it is over for me, just go fix a washing machine in some dank basement and die already.

2000, whatever.
2010, whatever.
The numbers in front of the Itineraries are just ticking up but I do remember calculating somewhere that I should be dead by 2039, that is 80 years old. So here comes 2017. A sharp new reminder.
My dad died TEN YEARS ago this December. "It is what it is, kid."

So, we all know New Years resolutions are some of the most over-hyped under-exercised underwhelming most fragile attempts to get a grip, we know this, we know this, but what are yours?

Me first? FINE.
I am 57-58 this YEAR, I have a much better idea of what works and what does not work. I do not shine up my resolutions and put them front and center on my clean desk any more. No, they are hidden away in the upper left drawer, within easy reach.
Colin

Chief resolution among the myriad, more pedestrian ones: cope as well as I can at living in a country about to be "led" by a clueless, megalomaniac orangutan.

Happy New Year! Been a busy year for me with my younger brother dying, working hard on various projects, working on my cars and the election. 2017 I turn 65 and the day after asshole was elected I filed for SS and just the other day got my first deposit and hopefully it will continue. To many various injuries to my body to list but this vacation with family has healed me in more way than I can list.

My plan is to hide out even more from this "Smaller Government" the GOP promises but it keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Hah! Youngsters! I recall going into a Piggly Wiggly in Tallahassee, and begging my mom to buy me a copy of the MAD magazine with the date of the New Year, "1961" taking up the whole cover. The trick of it was that it was the the first time since 1881 where by you could turn the number upside down and it would read the same. 1691 before that. 6009 is the next time. Type 4 parts will be hard to come by then , I'm guessing. Sorry about your younger brother, Bleyseng. That stuff begins to pile on as you get older-no fun.

Jivermo wrote:Hah! 6009 is the next time. Type 4 parts will be hard to come by then

Well hell, I better stock up. 6009 is just around the corner.
Colin
(just got some brayand neeooeew 94mm Mahle pistons and cylinders from Bus Depot yesterday for the BobD and I am getting new 85.5mm German Mahles for Chloe from Air-Cooled.net)

Where, and when, are you going to install these new Pistons and,cylinders?

The entire 2016 year was awful.
The 2016 Holiday season was (to quote my wife) SUCKY!
The end of the sucky 2016 Holiday Season became worse when my sister died on December 19th.
Now it is 2017. In 3 weeks the orange haired idiot gets the codes.

My God Help Us!

Get ready to work.

Jivermo wrote:Where, and when, are you going to install these new Pistons and,cylinders?

Why, I am glad you asked . . .

I am going to install the NEW CRANKCASE under Chloe's lovely 1600 accoutrement sometime soon, somewhere.

The 2000 pistons and cylinders are going into long term wait until the BobD or NaranjaWesty may need them.
Colin
(p.s. where did you find that homeless exhaust-carrying ragamuffin?)

Jivermo - That picture is sooo Colin-esque! It so captures the spirit of our vagrant itinerant!

To follow up on the P.O's original post and looking back .... remember about this time 10 years ago I was thinking, dang...I'm approaching 37 which is my late 30's, which is rapidly approaching 40, I'm gonna be middle age! WTF! This year I was thinking dang, I'm approaching 47, which is nearly 50...heck! I'm feeling pretty darn good heading into my 50's! Bring it! :)

Sounds like 2016 was a down year for folks personally based on this thread (I had my perils as well...) so let me tell you a little story ....

I started a new job this year. To make a long story brief, the catalyst of my hiring was a dissolution of a merger that my parent company had with a local company; the merger happened 10 years ago. It was a very bitter parting. The parting was also a bit fresh... had happened in the past several months before I came on board. Thing is, people kept talking about it, particularly our president, even several months after I was on board. Which kinda bugged me...why are people looking behind them?

Several months after I was I hired we had a sales meeting (I'm on the sales team) with all the sales folks as well as the Executive team. I had to put a presentation together to explain my new role as well as introduce myself. So I made a little analogy, that although I had good run with my previous employer, I was ripping off the rearview mirror and only looking forward to this new opportunity, and encouraged the others in the crowd to rip off their rearview mirror from this painful separation and do the same. Believe me, I thought long and hard about whether or not I should do this, as it was a sore subject (particularly with our president who was present)..was this going to be career suicide? Were folks going to think I was callous? Eventually, I figured Eff it... this is what I see, and if it is rejected, so be it, I don't belong here. However, I had several people come up and comment about this analogy (in a good way). And I'm not sure if this little analogy had an impact , or whether time heals all wounds...but after this meeting I rarely ever heard people reference the bitter separation again...including the president.

My point? We need to rip off our rearview mirrors and look forward at what we can do in the here and now and in the future; learn from the past but not be tethered by it.

Cheers,
Mike

TrollFromDownBelow wrote:Jivermo - That picture is sooo Colin-esque! It so captures the spirit of our vagrant itinerant!

To follow up on the P.O's original post and looking back .... remember about this time 10 years ago I was thinking, dang...I'm approaching 37 which is my late 30's, which is rapidly approaching 40, I'm gonna be middle age! WTF! This year I was thinking dang, I'm approaching 47, which is nearly 50...heck! I'm feeling pretty darn good heading into my 50's! Bring it! :)

Sounds like 2016 was a down year for folks personally based on this thread (I had my perils as well...) so let me tell you a little story ....

I started a new job this year. To make a long story brief, the catalyst of my hiring was a dissolution of a merger that my parent company had with a local company; the merger happened 10 years ago. It was a very bitter parting. The parting was also a bit fresh... had happened in the past several months before I came on board. Thing is, people kept talking about it, particularly our president, even several months after I was on board. Which kinda bugged me...why are people looking behind them?

Several months after I was I hired we had a sales meeting (I'm on the sales team) with all the sales folks as well as the Executive team. I had to put a presentation together to explain my new role as well as introduce myself. So I made a little analogy, that although I had good run with my previous employer, I was ripping off the rearview mirror and only looking forward to this new opportunity, and encouraged the others in the crowd to rip off their rearview mirror from this painful separation and do the same. Believe me, I thought long and hard about whether or not I should do this, as it was a sore subject (particularly with our president who was present)..was this going to be career suicide? Were folks going to think I was callous? Eventually, I figured Eff it... this is what I see, and if it is rejected, so be it, I don't belong here. However, I had several people come up and comment about this analogy (in a good way). And I'm not sure if this little analogy had an impact , or whether time heals all wounds...but after this meeting I rarely ever heard people reference the bitter separation again...including the president.

My point? We need to rip off our rearview mirrors and look forward at what we can do in the here and now and in the future; learn from the past but not be tethered by it.

Cheers,
Mike

I just came in from cleaning all my rear view mirrors and making sure that they are securely attached.

See, in a VW Bus that moseys along, you have to be alert to anything that comes rushing up behind you so you can demurely curtsy to the side in plenty of time and let it rush past pell mell while you remain firmly planted in the beautiful day.

Me? I see a bold red and black and white flag in the rear view mirror, and it is rushing up fast.
Colin

which flag are you referring to?

Amskeptic wrote:

TrollFromDownBelow wrote: My point? We need to rip off our rearview mirrors and look forward at what we can do in the here and now and in the future; learn from the past but not be tethered by it.

I just came in from cleaning all my rear view mirrors and making sure that they are securely attached.

See, in a VW Bus that moseys along, you have to be alert to anything that comes rushing up behind you so you can demurely curtsy to the side in plenty of time and let it rush past pell mell while you remain firmly planted in the beautiful day.

Me? I see a bold red and black and white flag in the rear view mirror, and it is rushing up fast.
Colin

I'm going to take a WAG here and speculate that you're referring to a distinctive flag which prominantly sports a black swastika?

To stretch the mirror analogy further, I have my rear-view mirrors carefully unbolted and stowed away, ready to be re-installed once I feel it necessary to drive with hindsight again.

I was thinking Russian flag, and the color combo didn't make sense. IMHO ... to compare the current political state to the Nazi's is much too simplistic....if Bizarro world had a flag, that would be the one that is most appropriate. It would be nice if our new leader would act more leader like rather than .... ok... I think I am off topic for this post. I apologize.

TrollFromDownBelow wrote:to compare the current political state to the Nazi's is much too simplistic.I think I am off topic for this post. I apologize.

Not at all, have fun. Happy New Year.
Now then, I think we do have a startling parallel between today's political situation and the rise of the Third Reich:

We have a leader exploiting the results of a system that has been bleeding dry a dyspeptic populace exploited by the greedy plutocracy and that populace is showing exactly the sort of indiscriminate tribal loyalty that allowed daddy Hitler to become a monster, un-moored from proper accountability and seemingly unaware of the natural evolution of human progress and lacking for any empathy for the weak. The grave error of all Trump supporters (I say this without irony or partisanship) is that they dumbly followed Trump's mis-attributions of The Problem, he blamed the hen house instead of the foxes in the hen house.

It is not that Trump is Hitler. It is that we have a swath of Americans who are utterly adrift.
ColinSchnellAchtung