Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Carl Casper Auto Show

Last Friday, I took the family to the Carl Casper Auto Show at the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center in Louisville, Kentucky. I know very little about cars, but I had a friend who is a mechanic to explain some things. Plus, I heard the A-Team van was there.
And here it is! I love it when a plan comes together. The A-Team was a cool TV show, despite the incredibly bad aim the team was with guns. I pity the fool who doesn't like the A-Team van.
I do not think I have ever watched a full episode of "The Dukes of Hazzard." I think the premise of the show is a couple of good ole boys with good intentions racked up a long list of felony arrest warrants for fleeing and evading the police. I am certain that General Lee, a devout Christian man, hardly approves.
This paddy wagon makes good timing from the crime scene to the jail.
The original Batmobile! Amazing technicolor, corny jokes from Adam West, and  onomatopoeic words exploding on the screen during fight scenes made this classic TV show a hit.
Let's face it, though. Michael Keaton is the real Batman, and this is the real Batmobile. I don't know how possible it is to control a car with a jet engine in the rear, but I wouldn't turn down a test drive!
Detailing the history of rum-running cars like this one is an interesting part of American history. Perhaps the paddy wagon above could outrun this bootlegger?
I don't really know what all I am looking at, but injecting nitrous oxide (NOS) into the intake manifold apparently is so dangerous, straps are placed around the engine to keep it together if it explodes. This doesn't sound wise to me.
K.I.T.T. is a talking car that drives itself. If I had a talking car, I'm sure it would be moody.
This Pontiac has swivel chairs in the front that turn around to face the curved bench seat in the back. This is a swell car to have for family picnics.
The original Bigfoot. My brother and I rode this once when we were little down a straight-a-way near the old Louisville Motor Speedway. Bigfoot used to crush cars. Now he spends his retirement on display at car shows.
Ecto-1! Well, okay, it's not the original. But still, this brings back childhood memories of sticking vacuum hoses through my backpack to capture ghosts around the house!
An example of what primitive man in the 1960's thought we would be driving today ("the future").
This 1948 Ford has a Chevy engine and claims to have once been owned by Elvis Presley. The farm truck in the back is pink. Interesting...
Here is something I do not understand. Apparently, some take old cars (I have been told "G Bodies") then put hydraulics on it and use a remote control to jump the car around. The entertainment of this is lost on me.
Best I can explain the event is something like bull-riding a very athletic bull, except the bull-rider has a leash on the bull off to the side instead of sitting in the saddle.

Friday, January 18, 2013

A Walk in the Woods after a Fresh Snow


There is a deep sense of untainted wilderness
                                                    when walking in the woods after a fresh snow.
Barren boughs stretch to the heavens,
                                         which answers with an affable yet penetrating breeze.



Limbs oppressed by mounting snow burden 
                        evergreens to gracefully bow.
The snow drifts are like a Winter amphitheater for the distant chatter of birds Autumn
                                                  has left behind.
 









Hedge branches pervade a pristine 
                                                trail, 
outstretched as if to greet me.
A secluded hollow summons my 
soul to rest within her soft, 
                              snowy embrace.









A resting pause, a calm invitation, a moment’s portion 
                                                              is my only payment –
for I must endure through this snow-banked trail 
                                               to gently touch its supernal end.




Where the eastward breeze shall lose her bite, 
                                              snow surrenders into tiny droplets.
Then Winter's ethereal beauty shades Spring no longer, 
                                                        hope will birth Dawn eternal.