Getting Ready For The Big Show

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Click on the Ad to read it.

I've advertised my old Oldsmobile on Kijiji and in Old Autos Magazine, so now I've got the rest of the week to get the car into showroom condition for the big show.  Of course I put the price up a bit for the show but I figure that gives me some wiggle-room. Here's my web site www.OldCarPro.com and here's the big show at Steve Plunkett's mansion: http://www.fleetwoodcountrycruizein.com

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A Ride In The Country

 A view from the driver's seat of my 1948 Oldsmobile, floating along at 50+ mph eastbound on the old Hwy 22. Click to enlarge.

There was only one other time that I remember my old Olds in the wet and that was our 1997 trip to Lansing MI and the 100th anniversary of Oldsmobile. Lately though, rain has been the norm around here, so if I wanted to get the car ready for the Plunkett show this year, a little drizzle must be endured.

"It runs well in the rain." I Googled that expression and there were several thoughts as to why a car might run better in the rain.

Googled Theories:

"The extra humidity/moisture in the air increases it's mass/density. Allows you to pack more air into each cylinder (in a fixed volume)."

"Moist air resists detonation more, so you aren't pulling as much timing out?"

"Humidity makes the jetting richer.if it runs better in the rain it needs richer jetting for the dry." (what ever that means.)

And finally:

"An Increase in water vapor effectively displaces oxygen from a given volume of air, making for a richer mixture."

My theory

I think it might be that there is more soothing road noise so you just don't hear the normal creaks, groans and sputters that a 62 year old makes. (I mean the car of course) This background noise forces you to turn the radio louder so the net effect is the perception of a quieter, smoother running engine.

This picture shows the small viewing area covered by the pathetic, little wipers.

An over half-century gap in technology becomes more obvious as soon as you turn on the inadequate, fragile, little windshield wipers. Since they run off the car's engine vacuum, they slow down to nearly stopping as you accelerate. Also, the steam on the inside of the windows persists in spite of the defroster setting. The irony is Oldsmobile had already had 52 years of building cars when this one was new. You'd have thought they'd had time to figure this out.  I noticed too, the horn doesn't work, but I don't know if it has anything to do with the rain. We really have come a long way, but then, this is part of the old car experience.
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Finding Places On Google Maps 'Street View'

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Click on the picture to see it full size.

For as long as I can remember, this old watercolour was hanging in the dining room of Wendy's parents' house. The Superior Food Store, located at 1080 Richmond Street was also the family home of Wendy's grand parents. Her grandfather owned the store and her father was born there. See the old gas pump and mailbox out front? 

The picture was created around 1940 (Wendy's dad would be 17) by Charlie S. Buck. Mr. Buck lived directly across the street from the store (1079 Richmond Street) and his front window was the vantage point for this work.  I don't know if the rendition was from memory or as it actually appeared in 1940 but the note on the back would suggest that it might be what he remembered it looked like in 1920.

It is truly amazing that now we can simply type in the address and through the magic of Google, go to this very spot in the twinkle of an eye. Try it yourself. The store is now called Miles Variety. Type in to Google Maps 'Miles Variety' or '1080 Richmond Street, London, ON' and see what happens. When you zoom all the way in, presto!

Click the pic to see the full size view.

There you have it. No more gas pump or mailbox, even the fire hydrant is gone, but it does have one of the only phone booths left in the whole city. 

We just traveled from 1920 to 1940 to now, all without leaving our chairs. It's like a time machine!
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"LIGHTS ON FOR SERVICE" A Postcard in Photoshop

Click the pic to enlarge

Here's a little retro art experiment with the restaurant we saw on the way to Port Stanley on Saturday. I think it probably looked more like the top picture 40 years ago. Ooops, I forgot the "N" in DRIVE-IN. You too can have fun with Photoshop - Try it sometime, just for fun.

"Leave your lights on for service." But if it's your dad's car, you'll be in trouble if you let the battery go dead. 


Now here's another experiment with a before and after picture. I found the original as a 'public 'domain'  picture on the internet. A beautiful Art Deco storefront when it was brand new in the early 1950's.

Click the picture to see the wonderful detail.

Entrance to the Waffle Shop at 522 10th Street NW, Washington D.C. (Circa 1950 photograph by Theodor Horydczak)

The Waffle Shop has certainly seen better days. I don't know if there are any left in the chain. We find this picture on Google 'Street View'. When you enter the above street address, the magic of Google takes you right to the spot in Washington. This beautiful old place may have already been torn down. The plan was to re-assemble it in a new location, but with the recent economic downturn, that may never happen. 

It is located in a historic location. The house where Lincoln was carried into (and died) is just to the left, and Ford's Theater, where he was shot, is directly across the street. 


Here's a blog entry about the place in 2008. CLICK HERE.


And here's what was here in 1930.

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A Drive to Port Stanley

We always enjoy a ride to this sleepy little beach town. On the way we stopped at Picard's for some peanuts. Further along, I had to stop for some pictures of 'Food and Foam'. I guess we were too late for the fries. Click the pic to see the panorama.

The place was crawlin' with cops but most people looked like they were having a good time and the town was abuzz.

It doesn't look like there's a life-guard, but then the ice just went off so there were only a few brave souls in the water and it was dead calm. Click for panorama.

Mackies was busy as they celebrated their 100th anniversary on the beach. We got our fries..

A good looking horse and carriage.
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A Walk At Springbank Park

We parked at the municipal golf course and walked across the footbridge over the Thames river to Springbank Park.

As Al Qaeda says: "Click to blow up." You can enlarge any picture by clicking on it.

This was one of the nicest days for spending time outside that we've had this year.

What a difference a week makes. Lots of birds, insects and people everywhere. I think there was a lot of 'pent up demand' for a nice day when we could get outside.

With all the rain lately, the river is high and flowing quickly.

Most of the older defacements  (I mean inscriptions) on the pump house wall are now being defaced by a younger crowd. It's hard to even find your own graffiti now. Gee whiz. What a world! Wendy's name was nearly obliterated but she found mine from 1971. (that's 40 years ago, wow)

Spring at it's best!

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Email Tracking

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How To Stop Receiving Spam In Your Inbox

"...you are helping the spammers get rich! Let’s not make it easy for them!"

1) Any time you see an E-Mail that says forward this on to ’10′ (or however many) of your friends, sign this petition, or you’ll get bad luck, good luck, you’ll see something funny on your screen after you send it, or whatever, it almost always has an E-Mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and E-Mails of those folks you forward to.


The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of ‘active’ E-Mail addresses to use in SPAM E-Mails, or sell to other spammers. Even when you get emails that demand you send the email on if you’re not ashamed of God/Jesus …..that’s E-mail tracking and they’re playing on our conscience. These people don’t care how they get your email addresses – just as long as they get them. Also, emails that talk about a missing child or a child with an incurable disease – “how would you feel if that was your child”….E- mail Tracking!!!


Ignore them and don’t participate!


2) Almost all E-Mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of E-Mail is, is a way to get names and ‘cookie’ tracking information for telemarketers and spammers – - to validate active E-Mail accounts for their own profitable purposes.

If you have been sending out these kinds of E-Mail forwards, you now know why you get so much SPAM!


Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name(s) to those types of listings regardless how inviting they might sound!…or make you feel guilty if you don’t!…it’ s all about getting email addresses – nothing more!


You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT! Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later and very possibly a virus attached! Plus, you are helping the spammers get rich! Let’s not make it easy for them!


Also: Be aware that E-Mail petitions are NOT acceptable to Government Agencies. To be acceptable, petitions must have a signed signature and full address of the person signing the petition, so this is a waste of time and you’re just helping the Email trackers.

Largest "Freshwater" Lakes In The World?

I was reading my daughter Erin's Blog "Nature in Ontario's Banana Belt" and was horrified to see the amount of sewage that is being freely dumped into our water system. THIRTEEN BILLION gallons since the new year from Detroit alone.  Here's a Press release from the Michigan Government showing an additional 2 BILLION GALLONS. Here's the shocking numbers:

Click on the diagram to enlarge

The above article is a U.S. Government publication so it does not show the Canadian contribution, which although well hidden from us, is very substantial as well. Read the Great Lakes Sewage Report Card below.

US has reporting requirements regarding CSOs (Combined Sewer Overflow)   

In contrast there are neither Canadian federal nor Ontario provincial public reporting requirements nor any summaries of CSOs released to the public in Ontario. Although municipalities are required to report any such events to the provincial government, that information is not provided to the public except occasionally on a discretionary basis. Nice eh!

The Great Lakes comprise fully one-fifth of the freshwater supply to the entire planet. How long can we go on polluting the very water we drink? This resource is more valuable than all the oil in the world and yet we treat it (or un-treat it) like a sewer.
 

CLICK HERE to read the Michigan press release.

To read how Canada compares go to this EXCELLENT Study:

The Great Lakes Sewage Report Card

Keeping It All In Perspective:
As much as this pollution is a terrible travesty against a priceless resource, (and not that I in any way want to make light of the situation) I still must add; in order to maintain some perspective on these huge numbers, NINETY MILLION GALLONS of water flows under the Bluewater Bridge EVERY MINUTE! (1,500,000 gallons per SECOND)

My quote for the day: "Don't pee in the lake, it might splash back!"  Tim C. 2011

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A Walk At The Westminster Ponds

As cold and rainy as it was today, we decided, since Erin had a day off work, to go over to the "ponds" and see what we could see.  Nice boots Wen.

I'm not even sure if the ducks were having a great time. Some Mallards and even a couple of Wood Ducks but that's about all we saw. The rain must be keeping everything quiet.

 We found a great boardwalk that made the walking easy except for a few muddy spots.

Beautiful moss covers some rotting logs in the swamp. 
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An old Beechnut tree with a wild looking scar, looked like it was trying to say something.

Not much activity here today. We didn't even see any other humans.

Some people just don't care or maybe they're just ignorant, but I picked up some garbage along the way and did my bit to leave the place nicer than when we arrived.

We did get a good walk in so I felt like it was worth the effort.

The abandoned buildings were once the home of war veterans who had received poisonous gas during the First World War. Of course those men were all gone a long time ago, so the buildings will be demolished. It's a shame the city lets them decay because they were well built and could have served another purpose.  The location is certainly one of the prettiest in this city.

The area abounds with beautiful panoramic views of the Westminster Ponds which are now protected from development. Click to see a panorama.
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