Pictures of the Day

Another hectic week. Getting back into work has really warped my brain. It is hard to keep up with work, life, and like, four different blogs. I’m trying really hard though!

Anyway, enough of my bitching. Here are a few pictures from Portland, Oregon. It was a damn fine city, and if I had to move out west, if would definitely be to Portland (anywhere but California, really).

Perhaps the most beautiful rotating assembly of baked goods ever

I don't know who these people are, but they seem to be watching me...

The classic Bagdad theater...a little Middle East in the middle of Portland

That’s it, I am pooped. Weaksauce, I know, maybe I will find some motivation later…

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Chris, August 12th 2010 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Picture of the Day

Picture of the Day: Wacky Rides Edition

I’ve decided from now on, I’m going to try to do three updates a week. Going back to work has really thrown me for a loop, as has a whole host of other issues. I tried to start my Jeep this week, and it started right up. Wonderful! Then I tried to put it into gear…no dice. I’ve been dealing with a leaky slave cylinder for some time, and it appears now that the cylinder has given up altogether.

I had to make a choice. My Cougar’s engine is almost done. My old pickup truck needs a new oil pan. And now my Jeep needs the transmission removed (damn you Chrysler!) I’ve decided I need to finish the Cougar. It’s been clogging up my garage for almost a decade. It has been five years since it last ran. It must run, and it must move!

The Jeep can come next. The F-150 will have to wait awhile.

Anyway on to some pictures! As we already know, I love cars, and we came across some wacky rides as we strove across the country. Here are just a few.

This truck was at the Mid-Point Cafe, and pretty much anyone could sign it

What's up with this bug?

Oh, it's just been stretched into a hippie limo, that's all...

And one more...flaming sedan ho!

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Chris, August 5th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Picture of the Day

A Chalky Day

It has been a few days since the last post. For that I apologize. Real life gets crazy sometimes, you know? I just haven’t had the wherewithal to sit down and type out a piece. Worry not though, I’ve got some great pictures.

On Sunday Nicole and I went to Cruisin’ On Main Street in Manchester, CT. Basically they shut down the whole downtown and park cars there. Mostly the cars are muscle cars in various states. Some are show stoppers, others are rust bearers. We saw some really great rides there though, and even some Cougars (!!) which I never see anywhere.

We decided to enter our Mustang in the show, even though it was newer than most of the cars and had only half of the cylinders it should have. For the first time we decided to leave the chalk out and let people write on the car. The results, speak for themselves.

This was done within 30 seconds of us pulling up and getting out of the car

We wandered around for an hour, and when we got back, the car looked like this

Give it another hour...

By the time we left the show the car looked like this (and it still does right now in fact)

We sat on a nearby hill and watched our car for a few minutes. Pretty much everyone who walked past it stopped and checked it out. We were pretty damn proud of Pony that day.

Ok, back to work! I just needed to share these pictures before I forgot.

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Chris, August 3rd 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Picture of the Day

Pictures of the Day

Not a lot of time to type today.

I’ve been cleaning, running errands, and still trying to get my life in order. Plus, I am playing a roller hockey game tonight (until midnight) and I have to be up at 630 tomorrow to go play golf with my grandfather.

I can’t complain about being busy. Life is good. I just wish I had a little more time to type what I want to type.

This is a cool looking coyote

That's a lot of liquor

Is anything more effective than an arrow?

These pictures all came from along Route 66. 66 had a lot of cool signs, back when the only way to advertise was to have a sign that “stuck out”. Lots of neon, and lots of catchy slogans helped places thrive and stick out.

Alas, they didn’t all survive, but the survivors have earned a permanent place in the history of the Mother Road.

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Chris, July 27th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Picture of the Day, Route 66

Pictures of the Day: Big Sky Edition

Our time in Montana was brief yet beautiful. It might be the most untouched example of what the American west was like way back when. There is a whole lot of nothing in Montana…and I kind of liked that. I’m sure in the winter it gets terribly cold, but I don’t mind snow one bit. Cities were few and far between, and traffic was non-existent. I could totally get used to that.

What I liked most of all was the vastness of everything. You could very clearly see the stars at night, and being surrounded by mountains made me feel sort of…safe. People have lots of land in Montana, which means they can do pretty much what they want. I’d like to know my neighbors, without having to stare at their house. Also, Montana brews some fine bear. I’m impressed.

Without rambling on too long, I’ll just say that Montana is a must-see for any road trip. In fact, every place east of Seattle all the way through Minnesota is just natural bliss. Next time I go, I plan on staying a lot longer. It takes a day just to drive across the damn state!

Big Sky, oh yeah

Casino + gas station = good times!

Wild Horses Monument in Washington. I know, not Montana, but cool anyway

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Chris, July 26th 2010 | Tags: , , , , ,
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Hot And Wet At The Northeast Grand Prix

I’ve never been to a major automotive race before. Sure, I’ve been to the drag strip, and I’ve watched NASCAR on television. I can recall once attending a race at Limerock with my best friend Corwin over a decade ago…but I don’t remember much about it.

Friday and Saturday, I just about lived at Limerock. Boy, what a ride.

American Le Mans made a big splash at Lime Rock

Read more…

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Chris, July 25th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Picture of the Day

It’s Race Weekend!

It’s good to be home…just in time for the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Raceway!

I’ll be at the event Friday and Saturday, meaning I might not update the blog for awhile. Or…I might. Depends on how good my Internet connection is. Hopefully I’ll be able to post up some snapshots of the race while I’m there.

In celebration of my favorite racing team, Corvette Racing, I leave you with a picture of the day from our trip to the Corvette Museum in Kentucky.

In a museum full of meticulously maintained machines, this 'Vette really stood out

Off to the races, enjoy your weekend readers!

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Chris, July 22nd 2010 | Posted in Picture of the Day

Pictures of the Day

Short post today. Very busy with work and whatnot, and I can’t quite seem to get ahead. Better I be swamped with work than not though, eh?

I also got to spend some time finishing assembly of my engine. I started work on it last December-ish, just got the cylinder heads on tonight, but I was stopped by a lack of oil for the lifters. Perhaps over the weekend I can get that done. Probably not though.

Friday morning Nicole and I are heading up to Lime Rock Park to see the American Le Mans Series. Press pass, baby! Up close and personal with the action I can’t wait to get out there and root for my favorite team, Corvette Racing. They haven’t been doing so hot as-of-late, but I’ve got faith they will pick it up during the second half of the season.

Anyways, on to the pictures. Today’s theme; rivers.

Where's the rest of the cowboy?

Picture taken June 15th in St. Louis, Missouri, while the river overran its banks.

The Colorado River; nothing but a stream, right?

Picture taken June 21st at the Grand Canyon.

Wood. Hehe.

Picture taken July 8th, just inside Yellowstone National Park.

That’s all I’ve got for today folks. More to come tomorrow.

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Chris, July 21st 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Picture of the Day

Pictures of the Day, VW Bus Edition

While on the road, we saw a lot of campers, pickups, 5-th wheel trailers, and muscle cars. We got numb to all the 60 foot mobile homes on the road, but wherever we went we always managed to notice the many VW buses on the road from Virginia to California.

We actually probably saw 30 or 40 buses on our trip. I’ll never understand why people have become so infatuated with these buses. Nicole in particular loves these things, and I promised her that, one day, we will find, restore, and take one of these buses cross country. I’ll admit a certain fascination with the VW bus. She really wants a bus with the camper top but any rust free versions are prohibitively expensive.

We saw the red one in Klamath for $700, but it would have cost twice that to ship it back home, and thousands in restoration costs. Hippies like the buses, and they aren’t always the most proficient mechanics meaning many of these buses were used, abused, and neglected. Still, they draw attention wherever they go and one painted in chalkboard paint would be pretty damn neat. It’ll need a better engine if I am gonna drive it though, none of this air-cooled oil-leaking garbage. VW makes a lot of turbodiesel engines…I wonder how hard it would be to rig a bus up with one of them?

Here are a few of the many pictures of VW buses we took, in a veritable rainbow of colors.

Looks like a lemon bar

Taken June 17th, in Amarillo, Texas, at the Vintage AutoHaus.

Read more…

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Chris, July 20th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
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I Got My XboX Back!

It has been exactly 50 days since I last watched MY television and played MY XboX.

One great thing about our road trip was that I got to put my video game habit on hiatus for a while. I love playing video games. I always have really loved video games, but at times, I loved them a bit too much. I may have mentioned before the brief affair I had with World of Warcraft.

I imagine a lot of people just rolled their eyes. It was the first game I could talk about to a non-gamer and they would be like “Oh I know a kid who plays that game.” People rarely admitted to playing it, but everybody “knew” someone who played. And like a lot of people, I played to the point where it affected my life in profoundly negative ways.

Says it all

That is a post for another day. Now, I am a happy video game enthusiast, not an addict. And it has been almost two months since I played a video game…if you don’t count the 15 minutes or so I played in a head shop in San Francisco. The guy behind the counter was playing Modern Warfare 2, one of my favorite games. He was terrible, to be nice about it, so I gave him some pointers, played a few rounds (while Nicole stood by, rolling her eyes) . Other than that, no video games. We really didn’t even watch TV.

I’ve played all three major video consoles. I never owned Sega, and to date my favorite console is still SNES. I really enjoyed my time with the Playstation 2 as well, but after a very expensive Sony Visio computer crapped out on me (and the part to repair it was half the cost of the $2000 laptop) I have since sworn off Sony products. Toshiba is on my shit list too.

As much as I’ve enjoyed my time with XboX though, I’m starting to lean towards Wii. Even though I’ve played video games my whole life, even back when I had SNES, I was almost always playing games with other people (usually my two best friends, Adam and Corwin).

I’m going to enjoy my time with my XboX 360, and I’ve borrowed Red Dead Redemption from Adam. Basically, I am going to play my XboX from now through the night and possibly into tomorrow afternoon, when Nicole gets here.

That’s just how I roll. Chris out.

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Chris, July 19th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Musings
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