No Rear View (was Re: Take Two or Nothing)

From: Jeffrey S. Worley <Technoid_at_30below.com>
Date: Wed Apr 23 23:13:00 2003

In Roger's case, I know where he lives. He'd do better with Soviet
equipment intended for Arctic exepeditions. No kidding. He's lucky to
get to work on a proper winter's morning in a 4wd truck.

Thank God once again that 30below's service area is unadulterated by
hills, valleys or other such line-of-site obstacles or they never would
have considered much less implemented a wireless Ethernet system. That
system serves pretty darned well all things considered.

An Amtrack or a m113 might be 'reliable transport' in the winter in his
part of the world. They might even be too heavy to track through. An m1
or a 60 would be lost til' summer. Crew and all.

My brother works at Roger's company. He runs an old 80's Chevy Blazer
with all the stops pulled. My brother generally gets to work on time.

In the Seabees, the Blazer was our Hmmv back in the old days. Different
engine of course, but the same chassis. I don't remember there being
heat in them but we were in the desert most of the time so that wouldn't
come up would it? The Blazer in my brother's custom configuration could
pull a freaking stump.

A nice snowmobile is the only bulletproof way to go all the way up there
short of Ezekiel's firey chariot.




Best,

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of Roger Merchberger
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 1:28 AM
To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: No Rear View (was Re: Take Two or Nothing)

At 01:05 03/25/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>Quothe Roger Merchberger, from writings of Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at
11:50:24PM
>-0500:
> > Altho the station wagons of days gone by could handle pretty decent
loads,
> > they always had the rear-view mirrors of a car... so I'll keep my
> full-size
> > 4x4, thanks! (horrible gas mileage & all...)
>
>Do you get less than 12 MPG on the highway and about 7 MPG or less in
>the suburbs or cities? If not, then you might want to trade up to
>something with lower gas mileage that can shock more people. :-)

I've been wanting a new Avalanche... ;-) (well, everything *except* the
pricetag/payments...)

> Funny
>thing... the fuel economy sticker in the station wagon's window, when
>it was new and on the dealer's lot, read something like 18 MPG, but I
>don't think this was ever achieved (is it possible for a 351C engine
>to ever achieve mileage like that when the car weighs over 5000 lbs?)

Dunno -- the last new vehicle I bought was a '89 S-15 mini-pickup, with
a
grand total of 3 options: rally wheels (the not *quite* ugly ones),
split-rear window, and high-output alternator. No, it didn't even have a

radio or lighter. Sticker said 26 Highway, I usually got 29-33.

My 6000lb. truck I got used, fairly low mileage -- 350ci, Z71 offroad
package... if I kept my foot out of the fuel-injection (<65mph) I could
get
17-18 highway, but as the speedo climbed over 70, the mileage dipped...
(and yes, I can tell you that at 115mph for 20 miles, I don't think I
got
10mph... long, offtopic story... but it *was* an emergency. BTW, the
truck
had over 100K at that time, so it's a credit to Chevy's engineering...
140K
now, gets 15hwy, and still starts NP w/o block heater at -30F. Yes,
there's
a reason for my email domain!)

> > the 10-codes... my dad's a trucker, so I learned young. My handle
was the
> > "Whiz-Kid"]] My dad still has a CB (for channel 9...) but never uses
it
> > anymore -- because of the low S:N ratio.
>
>Thats why I keep one as well, in case the cell phone isn't working.
>However, I wonder if it would even work with all of the high-power
>transmitters blocking other people out.

My Ham radio rig kept my bacon outta the fire more than a few times...
;-)

> > To try to bring this ontopic - every time my friend moves his
(rather
> > heavy) Viewsonic 19" monitor, he complains about it's weight. (He
does
> > on-site digital photography; I help him out some weekends.) I remind
him
> > that I have a 17" that's just as heavy. He doesn't believe me. (The
one
> for
> > my VaxStation 3100). Some nite I'll have him over for a beer, and
teach
> 'im
> > a lesson... ;-) Then I'll let him pick up my DEC 19"... ;-) Who
says
>
>Oooooh,.. cruel! ...to the monitor, that is. After all, what if he
>drops it?

He used to lay block & work construction... I wouldn't want him on the
wrong side of a barfight... ;-) [ granted, that still doesn't stop him
from bitching about the weight of his monitors... ] Considering by 35
I've
had 2 heart attacks [10 years ago] and haven't been as serious as I
should
be about reclaiming my musculature since; the monitor's in a lot more
danger when I pick it up than if he does...

Gaak... 16 hours behind these damn things... I'm headed for the rack!

Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
Received on Wed Apr 23 2003 - 23:13:00 BST