Robert Hall

Yes, and another interesting factoid--where I was when I took that pic was at the widest point of Lake Erie--from Painesville Township Park in Ohio, it is approx. 60 miles/97 km across to Port Stanley, Ontario. I love the Great Lakes region.

I recall some cars in years past with spoiler delete options. No idea if anyone has such an option anymore.

By the way, I checked my Marine Traffic app, it was the CSL Tadoussac, a Canadian ore laker. https://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/CSLTadoussac.htm

Yesterday was a beautiful day, got out and went up the coast to a pier to see the lake, saw a big lake freighter out on the lake. Very windy. I love it.

I do miss dining in restaurants from the before time. I haven't eaten inside in a restaurant since March 2020. Been cooking at home, getting meals delivered, doing takeout. Ate outside at restaurants a couple of times.

Smart garage door sounds potentially useful, but it's just another failure point. Hitting the Homelink button in my car is more convenient than fiddling around on the phone. A fob or key makes sense for many use cases, for example, when you have to let someone else drive the car...I'm not going to hand over my phone over to some rando at the dealer or to a valet... Evolving technology makes everything more complicated, rarely ever makes things simpler...and more points for failure.. Phones get lost, destroyed, replaced and the batteries go dead. Don't want to be completely dependent on a device when a simple key works just as effectively to get in the house...

My folks' various Town Cars, Thunderbirds and Explorers had that feature...remember using it as a kid in the 80s.

One thing I've always found neat that I'd like to have seen go mainstream was Ford's door keypad. I like that idea..would certainly be convenient at the beach. When I go to the beach I still take my key fob and phone w/ me and stash them in my beach chair when I go in the water, but it would be nice to be able to leave the fob in the Jeep. Though it is convenient to pop that hatch as I walk toward it dragging the beach chairs/etc at the end of the day...

Even though I am a 'tech guy', I have no interest in opening or starting my car w/ my phone. I don't need to connect to everything via my phone, I don't mind carrying the key fob. When I leave my house, I always have my wallet, phone and car key & house key. I do like the way my Jeep unlocks when I grab the door handle w/ the fob in my pocket and the push button start is fine. I keep my phone locked and unlock w/ a finger print, don't need face recognition. But the younger digital native resource units probably find keys to be an antiquated concept and want to control everything via their phone or smart watch. So face recognition for opening a car or starting it is for them...

Many consumers are used to using their face to unlock their phone, so this is just an extension of that..

My company is doing it's holiday party next Friday afternoon as a virtual event...since we do have several 100% remote people incl. myself and almost no one goes in the office. I'd wear nice pants, a dress shirt or turtleneck (since it's December) and a sport coat if I had to go to an in-person event. As far as formal wear, last time I wore a suit and tie was for my Mom's funeral 5+ years ago. I did tend to dress up for nice dinners and evenings at the symphony in the before time (I really enjoyed going out to nice events in the before time), but rarely put on a tie.

Got my 3rd Pfizer shot the week before Thanksgiving and my flu shot in October, no ill effects of either. I've had a cold/mild sinus infection for the last couple of weeks...always seems to happen when the weather turns cold. Just rolling into the end of the year exhausted. Looking forward to some time off between Xmas and New Years.

There is a plug-in hybrid 5 series. In the 80s they used the e suffix on the 525e and 528e for ‘economy’. Those were known for bad engines.

There are many things.

The transmission on my old Jeep was starting to slip on upshifts back in early 2017, at over 16 years old and 170k I knew it was not long for this world and made no sense to spend further on it..that was when I decided to trade for my '14. Other that that, I've never had transmission issues in 35 years of driving... 4 cars and 1 SUV w/ manuals, 4 cars w/ automatics and 2 SUVs w/ automatics.

'IC' can also imply Internal Combustion like in ICE, not the image they want for EVs... 'IQ' sounds OK....definitely better than '-E' on everything...I could have seen them having XT3-E, XT5-E, CT4-E, CT6-E, Escalade-E, etc... Ya, damp weather and cold here, feeling my 51 years of age...joint pain w/ the stairs (after living most of my adult life without stairs it's been a challenge getting used to them the last few years), etc...

'Generiq' as in 'generic'. Not 'Geriatriq' if that is what you are implying...

Diesel? I thought the GM truck V8s were all still pushrod

?

Sounds ok, as long as they don’t name something ‘Generiq’.

Speaking of the decaying and dying planet, heard about this on a podcast..'Earth's Black Box' project in Tasmania...pretty interesting.. going to recording lots of data. https://www.earthsblackbox.com/

It's a Chrysler New Yorker, '79-81. The St Regis (along w/ the Newport and Gran Fury) was plainer without the goofy top treatment. The only thing distinctive about the St Regis is it had a sloped nose w/ the clear headlight covers from the Magnum. Chrysler New Yorker...there is one around here in the same color that was in good shape when I moved here almost 5 years ago, but it got hit on the right rear corner in '18 or so...have seen it a couple times since then, still damaged. The short-lived R-bodies replaced the battleship C-bodies for '79, and were basically the old midsize B-body underneath w/ squared off new styling.

Watched Peter Jackson's excellent Beatles documentary 'Get Back' last weekend. Also watched the recent 'Nobody' (John Wick style thriller w/ Bob Odenkirk and RZA as brothers!), 'From a Vine' (recent light comedy/drama w/ Joe Pantoliano as a burnt out Canadian auto exec that moves to rural Italy to restore his grandfather's winery), and a couple good '80s British cold war dramas w/ Michael Caine ("Fourth Protocol" w/ Pierce Brosnan also) and 'The Whistle Blower'.

Your Escalade is 15 years old, isn't it? Stuff GM was doing then is in no way relevant to what they are doing now..isn't even the same company....that's as lame as me criticizing modern Stellantis for something that Daimler Chrysler did 20 years ago...

Watched part 1 of Peter Jackson's Beatles 'Get Back' documentary on Disney+ last night...pretty good, footage from 1969 rehearsals..