Heat Wave, July 4th, and Vintage

July 4th is Thursday. My ancestors are in the national record for having helped liberate America from the British. New arrivals to America are taught about the revolutionary war in order to be granted citizenship. My family were there. A lot of our biases come from that war, and our suffering passed down. The Civil War was no picnic, and while it addressed the issues of tyranny, history is written by the victors, and both sides of that conflict were doing bad things. More bias passed down. Our society is unfair, built on cruelty and lies, but that's sadly traditional when it comes to people. We're an Evil species. Its a real shame.

There are two reasons that Californians are obsessed with Cars. One is our state is the size of most of the East Coast, a really huge amount of land, most of it empty, dry, and with vast distances to cover going from one populated spot to another, often where water or weather are. The other reason is that with it being empty, its easy to get away from the Evil (other people) by driving out of town. To a lesser extent, we'll take any vehicles. Observing masochism in action makes me sad, but we all get to live with our choices, even when we try and shove them off onto others.

I really wish I had a place with a big garage so I could buy an old bike, make it work and make it pretty, ride it to work. Then buy a trailer and strip it, insulate it so it can be cooled or heated properly, and turn it into a mobile HOME, a place to live in with my modest SINGLE needs.

We've had 100'F heat for days now. The low, overnight, was 80'F for the last few nights. I'm glad I have a fan to cool me while I sleep. It means I CAN sleep. Most of my coworkers can't, and complain bitterly of sleep deprivation, being sticky from sweat, etc.

Last evening, thunderstorms started building, and got huge over Nevada and California. The sky is GREY this morning and the sun isn't making much headway at lighting the world. You can see, but its dim out there. No shadows. I'm wondering if I should park my car with the sunroof closed just in case it rains. And its going to be 101'F despite the sweaty air. I am expecting lightning strikes and fires from these thunderstorms. There was a noticeable orange tint to the light all day yesterday, from a fire in Arizona whose smoke filtered its way into the middle atmosphere and rolled into California, visible across the whole valley as well. That color makes the light look really weird, and the orange turns greens blue so signs and plants just look eerie. I am often reminded of the fragile state of life here, of the disasters which define the state and its non-visitor residents. I accept the disasters as reality. New arrivals don't. Eventually they either accept it or leave. Temp is already 88'F at 8:00 AM. Yikes. Its going to be miserable hot today.

This heat would be both good and bad for a convertible. Good because in the morning with the top down its the perfect temperature. Bad because driving home after work it will be 100'F and the A/C won't work with a rag top. When its truly horrendous heat, I see most ragtops closed, A/C blasting, driver miserable. A convertible just isn't the right car for people on a budget. You need a grocery getter, one that's got rain protection, and a garage to park the convertible in the winter. That just turns into lots of money. I'd rather have a 19 foot airstream and welding shop in my garage. Of course, with the way things are going economically, that's unlikely to happen. Scaling back your dreams to reality is an ongoing effort in this economy. It ALWAYS gets worse, not better.

People who don't think twice about owning an open topped car like a convertible or jeep shudder at the danger and risk of a scooter or motorcycle. Probably because they don't realize the scooter or motorcycle gets better than Prius MPG, while the convertible is heavier than a family sedan so slower and uses more gasoline. There's good reason most convertibles are owned by rich people. If you're not rich, you can't afford the gas. You may as well be driving a pickup truck. Not to say this was always true. Before the obsession with "safety" during the 1990's, convertibles were powered by tiny engines with good fuel economy. Some bug-eye sprites have 600cc engines and get 60 mpg. They aren't FAST, but they're small, light, and economical. The original Fiat 500 was named that for the size of its engine, a 500cc two-stroke that smoked like a fiend, buzzed, and was unreliable, often stranding you with a hot Italian girl, which led to a shotgun wedding and bouncing baby 7 months later. For Italy, the 500 was a great dating machine in a Catholic country. The new one is a sad commentary on failure. The canvas roof was great too. The new one is too practical, not at all like the original. Its cute, though. And its the right direction for the nation, finding ways to make Bubble Cars fun. This is a good use of Vintage.

The Hipsters are teased for riding scooters and mopeds and old bikes instead of taking The Bus. My bus-riding experiences, and BART, were like Zims. They motivated me to get serious about 2-wheeled transportation. I must read more of the riding manual today. Pick a random page during break, read it. Find something I didn't know. I'm still peeved that the "right engine" doesn't yet exist. With modern CNC, they keep cheating to avoid building the parts to scale, introducing inherent inefficiencies. If we had a 400cc racing class for street bikes, you can bet they'd do it right. Especially if it was high speed road races, with climbs and turns. I can think of many roads this would be just fine and hardly disruptive to real traffic, being rural. It could be a racing series to show it off. Throw in modern HD cameras and GPS and you'd have something worth doing. Imagine if it were formula based, with regulations to force competitors to tweak the technology, then it filters down into real bikes. It would be interesting. Even when the gasoline runs out, this is still valuable because the amount of fuel used in racing a series for a year is less than a day of commuting in any normal city. It also keeps people engaged in real technology instead of endless simulations. Stuff I got tired of working in GIS and programming. I wanted to get my hands dirty and hold what I made, physically. Speaking of, time for work.

Have a good 4th. Remember your freedoms came from blood and sacrifice, and discarding those insults our ancestors and their sacrifices.