Most Viewed Automotive Blogs (377)

I drive about 32 miles one way to get to work. On Saturday I do my food shopping and on Sunday I visit my kids.

In Southern California that isn't considered a lot of driving. But the phenomena of tailgaters just seems to be just as wretched as if I was always on the road. Needless to say it just chaps my hide to continually be "tailsmooched" by some driver be it a man or a woman from teenagers to old geezers!

I have decided that they are here to stay so in fun I have categorized them. Here they are so just have a good laugh!

Teenage Girl

She will always be driving a Neon or a Soul. They will be driving fast and they tailgate you extremely close albeit for a few seconds or so. This tailgater is in a rush to get someplace so she'll also swerve from lane to lane just to get to her destination. But it doesn't matter how fast she thinks she's moving because the traffic signal will always get her! When you arrive next to her she's hunkered over the steering wheel just biting the bit for that dang green light to come on and then speeding away tailgating and swerving.

Teenage Boy

He will drive a Mustang, some altered Honda or a pickup with hug wheels and those bright white Halogen headlights that bear down on your neck because the pickup is real high. Again, driving fast and as they approach you they will stay on your tail "smooching" it but they will stay there and harass you to get you to speed up. When they don't get their way they will pass you an honk at you also giving you the one finger salute! They too will get stopped at the red light and speeding away as soon as the light turns green. They don't swerve but they speed headlong in a straight shot!

Woman

The strangest of all tailgaters. She will be driving a van or SUV. She doesn't speed or act stupid. She will stay pinned to your tail "smooching" it for miles EVEN IF you 2 are the only ones on the road. But in traffic, too. She won't go around you and when you tap your brake to let her know your feeling uncomfortable she will eventually pass you and look at you wondering why your acting so strange in this completely puzzled look! She's totally oblivious to the fact she's tailgating you.

Man

This tailgater just wants to be a jerk. If you slow down to make him go around he'll just begin feigning a rear end smacking. As if the tail "smooching" wasn't bad enough. He'll be driving a high end car like a Mercedes or a Lexus but sometimes a restored car. When he finally gets tired of playing Rambo he whips around you and tries to stare you down like he's "ready to rumble"!!!! He still thinks he a pimply faced hot rodder full of estrogen!

OK, give me your comments and fav's. I know there are some tail gater's that also chap your hide!!

Contrary to kettle bells, sex can be a transaction. Not a transaction of monetary worth but of physical wellbeing. It can be an activity like tennis. Why must we claim to be in love to partake? As if we need permission or good reason to exercise our right to make love? Say, you've got no SO, and you feel randy and there's a fellow nearby to accommodate, why not participate? It's not against the law. If you're going to bring in God's law, well then, if the opposite sex is of like minds, this issue shouldn't come up. this is a present issue. the prospective suitor judges for such activities, while the same prospect indulged. what a mess. If we can establish that one is different from the other and that practice makes perfect, what's the problem? Just another bowl of kibble for the masses.

It's not easy. It doesn't feel good. It's difficult. It's painful. What is it?

Where does one find happiness? With in you or from others who can make you happy?

I waffle when it comes to this topic but tend to hold a nihilistic view. I appreciate life--mostly, but I've yet to find it meaningful.

For all I know DNA is an intergalactic parasite that's been stranded here on earth and has been using a process that we know as "evolution" to get itself off the planet.


So anyway, I binge-watched After Life on Netflix. If not for it being a product of a fairly well-known atheist, Ricky Gervais, I probably wouldn't have given it a second look. The episodes by themselves weren't especially profound but as a whole, I thought it was, well, brilliant. Sure, maybe nothing new in the way of a story but the perspective, characters and jokes drew me in and before I knew it, I'd watched 6 episodes!

What I took from it: Purpose and direction may not add up to meaning, but they can be enough to make tomorrow worthwhile...and that, at least for today, should keep me from jumping off the roof.

Two steps forward. Three steps back.

Here is my latest annoyance. The recent snow melting has left some crater sized potholes. I found one last night. The pipes are 30 years old. Here is what the bump accomplished.



I see two fixes. Buy some new pipes for $20 each. OR take a steel soup can, slit it lengthwise. Squeeze it to fit and slide it into the pipe and the muffler then tack weld it in place. Either way, a distraction I don't need.

I was meant to write this last week, on Friday, but life got in the way.

Now I have the time to write down what I think of the episode!

This time on The Grand Tour - it's challenge time! Jeremy, Richard and James are testing three pick up trucks, a Mercedes-Benz X-Class, a Volkswagen Amarok and a Ford DangerRanger. Jeremy is driving the Amarok, James is driving the Mercedes-Benz, and Richard is - predictably, perhaps - driving the Ford.

During their test, the guys are doing their best to prove, that the car they each are driving, is the best one in a developed country. That include tests such as tearing down statues, providing vital help to a village, and delivering fuel to a helicopter.

Back in England, Jeremy is testing the new Jaguar XE SV Project 8, which is a 5 door sedan, with 600 angry, snorting horses available. The test only shows me, that I want one of those cars! It's magnificent!


This is the Jaguar Project 8

As with the other episodes, there are some gags and fun stuff, and you can just tell they enjoyed making this season.

All in all, this episode will land on a solid 8/10.

these videos fascinate me

Truck tires are treated differently than car tires. Car tires usually get discarded or chopped and recycled into other rubber products. Big truck tires for 18-wheelers are more expensive and get recapped when worn. The process takes a worn tire and puts a new layer of tread shaped and glued to the original core. The process is safety approved, but not perfect. Sometimes, the entire retread tire belt begins to delaminate, bits shred off and breaks loose from the tire core. Considering the numbers of trucks on the roads and you've done highway driving, you've probably seen parts of truck tires on the roadway.

While driving on the highway a few weeks ago, the car adjacent to me hit some shredded pieces of truck tire that flew up and hit the front of my car just under the bumper and grill. One piece was so large that it flipped around the tire and pulled away some of the cowling in the wheel well.

I reported this to the Highway Patrol and also my insurance company who assigned it to an authorized body shop near me. Dropping my car off, they arranged the rental company to pick me up to get a rental car covered under my insurance plan.

I'm into a Toyota Camry this week that's got 46,000 miles and very acceptable as a rental. I did a short highway trip and was totally surprised to be getting 41 miles per gallon! It didn't have all the features that my car has (like map & GPS, mirror warning lights when cars are approaching on my blind spot, keyless entry) but my last car didn't have those features either.

This week I've got several outside appointments and should be okay with gas mileage.

I pulled up a YouTube video of the process used to retread truck tires. The part I didn't like is the seam where the join at the wrap. Until I saw the video, I would have expected the entire recap to be one seamless piece pulled over the old core. It's deemed as a safe process.

I took a risk and can only blame myself
And although things don't always work out
And although the lessons are tough
I discovered there's always a tomorrow

The faces in photos, long gone
Don't hurt anymore
I've released the doves
After a salt-water cleanse rained down

I've taken many risks
And although there were times, so painful
The doves soar above my head
Forcing me to look up, taking my breath