Old versus New again

You know how some people have fantasy hockey or football pools? Well I seem to be afflicted with a fantasy air-cooled Beetle obsession. Or at least it’ll probably remain a fantasy until the mortgage is paid off.

This may be another example similar to my recent previous post concerning having a thought rolling around in the back of one’s head long enough to attract other similar themed ideas. This process always reminds of an insurance commercial I saw once of a guy tripping at the top of a steep hill. As he catapults arse-over-teakettle he develops a kind of velcro attraction to just about anything in his path, morphing into a massive ball of everything. Ultimately the flailing sphere reaches the bottom of the hill and explodes upon impact with a building (to Youtube it just type in key search words including Ball Rolling Funny Commercial). I get such a better mental image from that rolling orb than the infinitely more banal comparison to a snowball rolling downhill.

The idea metamorphosis connection is that I’ve wanted another early Beetle since I sold my last one; 14 years ago. Up until very recently my goal has been an oval window model, those produced between mid-'53 and the end of '57. It's now transitioning towards a 70's Super Beetle.

My Early Oval-versus-Macpherson strut internal debate may have germinated (pun definitely intended) in the recent news that Shauna’s friend and former work colleague is returning to Vancouver for a visit in order to participate in the SunRun. She’s going to stay at our place. Years ago, just prior to their move East, her husband Nick asked to store his Beetle in our garage. It is a ’74 I think, right in the middle of the 1973-75 North American production run of Macpherson-strutted Super Beetle sedans. (Surprisingly, I just checked my photo library, and lo and behold, Nick’s Beetle is not as I remembered a Super Beetle at all!)

Nick's Bug.

There are two distinct camps of modified-air-cooled VW nuts; those that modify 50s and 60s Beetles into Cal-lookers, and those that modify kafers to exemplify the German-look. They’re similar in that both use a lowered suspension as a base platform, but that’s about it for modification similarities.

The Oval that I have my eye on (and have had since last August) is a 1957 Agave green sedan, lowered with Porsche rims, high performance engine and a fully restored body and interior. It’s perfect in every way possible, except that it’s in North Carolina. And it’s eighteen-five, just reduced from nineteen yesterday.

1957 Agave green sedan

The other style, favoured across the pond, focuses on the enhanced chassis design of the Super Beetle. The Macpherson strut front end greatly enhances the handling of a Beetle, bringing it ever so much closer to a modern production car. The engine-modded old ones were fine for straight-line performance, but cornering wasn’t stellar. European tuners can have the best of both worlds with a SB, acceleration and cornering. And nowadays there are even more super-cool parts to add to the Super Beetle platform with the introduction of the Boxster/ Cayman models, in addition to the tried and true 911. Lowered Mac struts, accessory anti-sways bars and strut tower brace, high performance Type 4 engine, deep-dish wheels and leather seats from a Boxster/ Cayman/ 911...where is my cheque book anyway?

Modified '73-75 era Super Beetle with 911 rims.

Another late model favourite, although not a SB.

SunRun training at Seymour Demonstration Forest

Only 5 km back to the parking lot!

A Little Blue Bag

Since catching up with the past 4-1/2 seasons of Breaking Bad (we started just after Christmas), we decided to see what else was on Netflix. The Canadian version of this service isn't quite as up to snuff as the US version so I'm told, but we did run across Jeff Who Lives at Home. Quite an entertaining movie. When it was initially released and I saw the trailer I remember thinking I'd like it, and I did. It's a bit slow at the beginning, but it does draw you in. It kinda reminded me of Punch Drunk Love with Adam Sandler. (I normally avoid his movies, but there have been about three (out of about 500) that I've liked.)

Anyway, I had a rather odd experience the other day regarding finding some long-lost (and rather forgotten) items over the weekend that, in retrospect, I would tend to attribute to a theme in that movie.

Jeff, the central figure in the movie, is somewhat of a misunderstood layabout. A name gets stuck in his head at the beginning of the day that he thinks he must follow in order to understand some larger picture. He follows various trails of "Kevin" to the end of the movie, and of course, emerges victorious.

My Easter long weekend was drastically different from Jeff's, but I did seem to ruminate on one subject after it sort of appeared in my head over night. I had been building Lego trucks with my nephew...or rather, I had been building them and he'd been playing with them. After the build session I was thinking about all the small kits that had gone into my semi-large stash of blocks. When we were kids my cousin (coincidentally also named Jeff) and I would spend our time building trucks. We fine-tuned our basic design to always incorporate fenders and a certain type of door. I had forgotten where those specialized pieces came from.

Then, for some unexplainable reason, I started to think about a small blue canvas-type bag I'd had as a child. I wasn't even completely sure what it had contained, but I guessed it had been Lego. The image of that small blue bag stayed with me all day.

As the weekend ended I decided I'd ride my bike to work the next day, and promptly set about searching for my panniers. I haven't ridden to work since probably September, and do you think I could find those stupid panniers? I searched all the usual suspects. Shelves, drawers, storage rooms, closets. And cabinets. And that's where I found the little blue bag.  It's heft and fluidity suggested it was a bag of marbles, which it was, except that it also contained many small colour brochures issued by Lego in and around 1970, mostly for small trucks, tractors, trains and cars. Talk about a score! Quelle vintage time capsule!

There's power in the sub-conscious mind. It goes to work when we're sleeping, weaving together seemingly random thoughts, events and even sensations. It creates associations and neural connections far too complex to be explained by the likes of me. My wonderfully relaxing 4-day sunny (!) weekend (this season's first application of sunscreen, btw) included dining out, hosting the family Easter dinner, building (Lego, and also continuating with basement renovations), jogging, playing with my dog and planning to ride my bike on Tuesday morning. All of it somehow coalesced overnight into one conscious thought; a blue Lego bag, culminating with the bonus discovery of vintage Lego brochures I'd forgotten I'd kept since childhood.

Note the doors and fenders I used on the latest evolution of my truck design from kits pictured in the vintage brochures below.

Noah's Topiary Ark

The weather this past Easter long weekend was fabulous. Warm with sunny blue sky. Perfect jogging weather, too.

On Saturday morning our SunRun training group happened upon a particularly seasonally appropriate topiary display in an East Van front yard. Shrubs and hedges had been sculpted into a wide variety of animals; some Easter-themed rabbits, plus ducks, chickens (I think), a llama, and even a snake stretched along the side of the house.

And the cherry-blossomed street was a perfect bonus backdrop. There were plenty of oohs and ahhs from our jogging group as we past. I stopped by on the way home to get some photographs.

Oh, and BTW, I finally opportuned of this sunny Spring weekend to take down the Christmas lights. Easter lights never quite caught on.

A Hollow Ring...

So?

Didja watch it?

You know, the Lance love-in?

Considering my affinity for cycling, I had to watch at least part of it. I made it through the first hour and a bit. Up to the point they started interrupting every 5 minutes for 3 minute chunks of commercials.

Here's a thought; maybe ol' Lance just chose the wrong profession. He should have been an actor. Apparently he's been acting for about the last 20 years.

To frame it in somewhat show-biz nomenclature, I'd say his career arc thus far has been roughly as follows: Breaking Away (an 1980s cycling movie) to Breaking Bad (current TV series) to Breaking Wind (this evening).

I dunno. I just can't help but think this whole public apology shtick is being done to satisfy ulterior motives. But I guess Lance said it himself. He doesn't know if anyone will believe what he says at this point. I tend to agree. He's denied allegations so vehemently for so long, I don't really how he could expect anything else.

Anyway, I just had to vent a bit. I feel pretty stupid right now for having given him the benefit of the doubt some time ago. Mainly because, as it turns out, in circles that were "in-the-know", there really wasn't much doubt to be had.

'Nuff said I think. Even (or especially) in this turn of the tide LA is getting too much press. We're running the risk of guiding him into the limelight again.

Sam the Eagle

We challenged ourselves this foggy New Year's day to investigate a new walking trail with Tannah. We'd been to False Creek's Olympic Village already (yesterday), and we've frequented Fraser River Park (a.k.a. Angus Park) the last 2 or 3 years. Stanley Park would have been crazy-busy with the Polar Bear Swim gawkers.

Then I remembered the north shore of the Fraser River along Marine Drive; the stretch approximately between Elliott and Kerr Streets. There's a new riverside trail along that whole stretch of river. Tannah loved it. Lots of birds rusting in the shrubbery.

I brought along my dSLR to get some practice and was richly rewarded in the end. I started off shooting some pigeons on a piling, but the flock exploded from their roost upon the silent swoop-in of a bald eagle. Those things can really clear out a room (or piling, in this case). Since its perch was close it was in easy range of my amateur-grade telephoto lens. I took about a dozen shots before I realized I wasn't using the camera's exposure meter properly. I really am rusty with that camera. After correcting my mistake I got the best shots I've ever taken of an eagle. They really are majestic creatures.

These are the calibre of photos I was after a number of years ago when we visited Brackendale in early January. I'd seen an article in the in-flight magazine on our way home from a Winnipeg Christmas. However I hadn't factored in the fact that we'd be viewing the eagles from across the river. One really does need a cannon-sized (pun intended) lens to do such a photo shoot justice. Fortunately yesterday this eagle was only a stone's throw away next to the pedestrian pier.

Pre-New-Year's Day Eve (a.k.a. Dec. 30th)

Is it bad luck or bad karma (or even bad feng shui) to post last year's photos on the first day of a new year? Well, here's throwing caution to the wind. I had intended to post these pics last night but I got side-tracked watching a Youtubed Wallace and Gromit in "A Matter of Loaf and Death".

We took Tannah to False Creek Olympic Village on December 30th. As we left home the prospects for sunny breaks were favourable, but as we parked the car the sun found a horizontal trajectory between two cloud banks, providing perfect natural light to supplement the alternating white and black bands that mostly obscured the North shore mountains. It really is all about the light.

Tannah got a new red sweater this Christmas season. This afternoon presented the perfect backdrop for some west coast winter poses, one solo and one with Shauna.