My Vineyard

28 September 2010

Buy American? Shocking, but true

I'm kind of a car guy. Well, not really.

I like cars. I don't love cars, not like my friend Brian who's life centers on cars. Having said that, I really don't like to drive. It's just another chore. If I could teleport myself from place to place, I'd be a most happy camper.

2010 Ford Focus Sedan

But, I've owned a lot of cars. Just ask MFW if you doubt me. And, I could afford to retire today if I wasn't so insistent on trading cars so often over the years. Having said that, I would really be in deep trouble if I'd bought houses like I did cars. And, I'd probably be divorced.

My BMW got in a small fender bender (not my fault). Someone backed out of a driveway and hit my parked car on the street. Oh, well. Not much damage, just inconvenience. So, it's in the shop getting repaired this week.

My "loaner" is a 2010 Ford Focus SES. I've heard a lot about the Focus, but now I'm a believer. This is one nice car. It's got spunk, is fun to drive, has a lot of "luxury" features and best of all is quiet for a car in its price range. I'm really surprised by how quiet it is. Oh, did I mention it gets 35 mpg on the highway and 27 in the city. That's about the same as my smaller turbo Mini Cooper.

And, Holy Martha, the price. I could buy two of these for what I paid for the Bimmer. Now, to be honest, this is no BMW. It doesn't have the fit and finish and the amazing workmanship. But, it's probably good enough.

I'm seriously thinking this will be our next car and probably the one after that, too. Amazingly, this will be the first American-made car I've ever purchase. I had two Ford trucks, but no cars. I like Ford and think they're doing a good job. It has a lot of cool features which was always the reason I bought foreign. Some of the Ford's implementations -- like Sirius radio -- are superior to the BMW and far, far cheaper. I also think the radio sounds better if you can believe it.

I may have squandered a lot of bucks on cars earlier in my life. Now I see a chance to make amends.

12 September 2010

Pork shoulder looking awesome

Posted via email from CFH

I've had better days

Home after yesterday's disappointing trip to LA for Linfield's opener against Cal Lutheran. It was the (frustrating) story of two halves that ended in a rare non-league loss. Looks like the Cats have some lessons to learn and one was taught to them yesterday in Thousand Oaks. We usually make great adjustments in the second half, but this time, it was the Knights who made the adjustments, leaving Linfield wondering what happened.

What happened was that Linfield just got whipped. Too many mistakes on offense and a way-too-porous defense to win this game. The offense will be fine. The defense needs work. The good news was that Willamette is probably not as good as we may have thought and therefore completely beatable. The whole season comes down to the Oct. 2 matchup with the Bearcats at Maxwell Field. Lick our wounds, regroup after a bye week and get ready for Willamette.

On a happier note, the Ducks looked amazing albeit against a second division SEC team. I was able to watch most of the game (the best part, at least) form a bar at LAX. When we arrived, the Alabama-Penn State game was on every one of the 10 TV screens, so I asked that some of them be switched to Oregon-Tennessee. That didn't please the jerk sitting in front of me. He practically wanted to fight because they hadn't asked his permission. The customers were clearly into the Oregon game and could care less about Alabama.

So today, it's BBQ and NFL, my two favorite three-letter acronyms. Now, hopefully NFL Redzone is also working. Had some issues with Frontier over that, but they've assured me that we've got it. The station comes up and now there is music, so I'm hopeful. Gotta run to check on the charcoal.

Posted via email from CFH