Stardate 200904.04

The car exhibition year began, as it did last year with Earth Day celebrations. There were two celbrations/expos in New Paltz, overlapping by a couple of hours. The first was at the Reformed Church, where I was re-invited from last year. I was placed between a hybrid bus and a Smart Car.

I spent several hours there, then went to the other show, which was sponsored by NYPIRG, mostly composed of SUNY college students. These were pretty uneventful, although I got pissed when someone stole one of my active tribbles when my back was turned.

Oh. The Tribbles.

Over the winter I made a couple dozen Tribbles out of whatever pieces of faux fur I could find, stuffing them with old socks. Also a number of $1 teddy bears from the dollar store were murdered, dismembered, and recycled into Tribbles. I got them so that the Zhang Heng could have a good infestation, and wanted to have enough to give away since they are popular with Trekkies. I also bought a few that vibrated and made the Tribble sound.

The first real car show was nearby in Newburgh, NY at Orange County Choppers, the site of American Choppers on Discovery Channel. It was their 10th anniversary, and they were a bit overwhelmed at the turnout. Most interesting there was this Green Hornet Black Beauty that showed up.

   

Completely green windows, rocket lauchers, machine gun, and babe in short shorts Chauffeur outfit made it a winner: Best of Show. This is owned by a guy who runs a limousine service in Westchester. He also had a 60's TV era Batmobile, a Monkeemobile, and life size R2D2 and C3PO robots. As usual a few Trekkies stopped by. I attempted to recruit them into the USS Abraham Lincoln and Starfleet International, a new part of my mission. One of them said that he was affiliated with Star Trek Phase II, and that was a crowd that would enjoy my vehicle. I knew about Phase II, but I forgot about the encounter.

Stardate 200905.02

After Earth Day, the next big event was the Green Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, where I had come in second to Hobbit last year. Hobbit said he was not coming, so I had a shot at first place. The competition was different this year with the fuel economy run being separate from the sports car rally. The course was around Lake Seneca, about 80 miles with a strict time limit, which made maximizing fuel economy more difficult.

Even so, I recorded 58.8 MPG using a new technique put forth by Hobbit. Unfortunately, the official results had to be discarded because the officials tried to calculate fuel consumption by consecutive fillups, which does not work with the Prius, because of the flexible fuel bladder.

Stardate 200905.08

The big event for the Star Trek crowd was, of course, the release of the new movie. The USS Abraham Lincoln shows up for events like this in uniform. Both girls were home also, so they joined in, in uniform.

We parked the Zhang Heng right in front of the IMAX theater as people were leaving the movie, and the crew recruited new members.

Stardate 200905.18

The movie opening was the first of a blizzard of events that filled my first month of retirement. Ah, yes. Retirement. My 65th birthday was April 28th, and I had set that day as my retirement some time ago. Medicare, last kid out of college, and enough time in the retirement system to leave me with more disposable cash than I had previously while the kids were in school. None too soon, since my job at the mental health center had become unbearable in the last couple of years. Also happening in May was a retirement party, Liz's Ph.D. graduation in Connecticut,

 

Irene's graduation (Magna Cum Laude) in Boston,

Liz's graduation party, the kids coming and going to these affairs. Plus a couple of car shows.

Stardate 200905.23

I went to a couple more car shows. The HITS (Horses In The Sun) was affiliated with a week long horse competition. It was a small show, but overlooked the jumping arena, so one could watch the competition, which was pretty high level.

 

I really didn't fit there, since it was oriented toward classic cars. The person on the phone told me I was welcome, but I overheard some owners saying they wanted me out of there. As often happens, the organizers of the event do not have the same ideas as the persons running the car show. I got a ribbon for showing up, but I won't be going back there.

Stardate 200905.31

I went to the UNICO car show where I had one my first trophy of the year in 2008. It was pretty much the same scene. Did not win anything because a couple of hot European sports cars showed up, and were in the same category (Imports) with me. Also the cars were Italian.

Stardate 200906.07

The next car show seemed right up my alley. The Monticello Raceway and Casino was having their 4th annual car show to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy. Their theme for this year was "Past, Present, and Future," though they did a lousy job of recruiting. This affair was poorly publicized, no signs on the grounds of the Casino/Raceway, and no way anyone inside the building would know that it was happening a few feet away. There was not much "Present" there (contacting some car dealerships would have fixed that), and only two "Future" cars, me and a "Back to the Future" DeLorean that was not even fitted out with much more than a small scale Flux Capacitor.

As it was, I one second place for "Most Unique Car," first place going to a chopped 1950 Mercury, a la American Graffiti, that while beautifully done is not unique. The prize was $20 worth of coupons to play in the casino. I got $15 when I cashed out. I made my own award certificate from stuff from their website.

 

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