How big or little is the Elio going to be?

Posted By on February 5, 2018

Although there are quite a few reservation holders starting to doubt whether we’ll ever see production (last update was 2019 deliveries), the marketing team continues to tease (update) on this small commuter car. The original low price has been inched up, but it still will be a bargain if Elio Motors can afford to put this 3-wheeled vehicle into production.

This week, a few of the “how big or how small” questions were answered:

From the Elio Blog:

With our configuration and design, the Elio can be a bit of an optical illusion. As we’ve said in the past, the Elio can comfortably seat two 6’2 adults comfortably. The dimensions of the front seat are comparable to the 2017 Honda Accord.The Elio has 39.8” of headroom and 42.7” of legroom, while the Accord’s same dimensions are 37.2’’ and 42.2’’. The Elio also has the same amount of headroom and legroom as the 2018 Toyota Corolla [corrected].

At first glance, the Elio may look slightly low to the ground.Actually, our ground clearance 5.75″ which is consistent with other vehicles on the road such as the Honda Accord EX and the Mercedes S550.

With a wheelbase (which is the center of the front wheels to the center of the rear wheel) of 110,” the Elio is similar to the Toyota Corolla, which has a wheelbase of 106. As far as length, the Elio, at 160.5”, is the about the same length as the 2017 Honda Fit, the 2017 Chevrolet Sonic Hatchback, and the Mercedes SLC.

With our front-to-back seating, the space where the door opens is a very important area of the Elio and one that is quite popular with people that have yet to see the Elio in person. To help you visualize the ingress for the Elio, we took three different measurements of the door opening and compared them to other vehicles that you commonly see on the road. (more…)

Music Monday: The Drifters and Under the Boardwalk

Posted By on February 5, 2018

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So much for new home theater seating for Super Bowl 52

Posted By on February 4, 2018

This is what I get for procrastinating until this weekend — TWO right hand seats!

The boxes containing the long delayed leather home theater seats (ie. basement flood of 2013) arrived a couple weeks ago but I waited until HomeTheaterSeating180203this weekend to unpack since I was out of town last weekend. I unboxed them and started putting the individual seats together thinking it would be nice to have them set up for the Super Bowl with friends on Sunday night — NOPE!

Oh well … we’ll still have enough seats and HOPEFULLY enough food for Super Bowl LII.
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That said, I’m pretty confident Wayfair will correct the issue even if is will be delayed.

Our long delay in finishing the home theater had to do with a minor disagreement between Brenda and I as to how to best get the proper seating into the room. The first problem is that the stairs and door do not permit a full size couch or sectional; we needed separate units.

I was ok with fewer larger/bulky seats and counter high barstool seating behind.  Brenda wanted a sectional but it was way too challenging to fit in our space and seat enough people. We compromised with a slightly more compact sized theatre recliner and are putting them in two rows of 4 in order to seat eight in front of our 112" HD video projector (I still like this for a dark basement home theater like ours). Once done, the only two missing pieces will be an actual reflective screen instead of painted wall and a replacement sub-woofer.

Super Bowl LII – New England Patriots vs Philadelphia Eagles

Posted By on February 3, 2018

Once again … those of us who enjoy NFL football are forced to watch the New England Patriots play yet again in a Super Bowl. The last time they met the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl was in 2004, the outcome was 24-21 … which is slightly under margin of victory being predicted this year. Personally I suspect the majority of the country either doesn’t care, or is pulling for the underdog Eagles.
Ask Alexa.  Who’s gonna win?   Winking smile

superbowllii

Date: Feb. 4, 2018
Time: 6:30 p.m. ET
Where: U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN
TV: NBC (check local listings)
Stream: fuboTV (Try for free)
Announcers:

  • Al Michaels (play-by-play)
  • Cris Collinsworth (analyst)
  • Michele Tafoya (sideline reporter)

Huge stock market sell-off. The economy is strong. Time to buy?

Posted By on February 2, 2018

DJIA_ChartClose180202I played the “high risk, high reward” game on Friday while watching most if not all stocks collapsed over rising interest rate concerns. It looks more likely that the Federal Reserve may have to be more aggressive in raising rates in order to control inflationary pressures after the jobs report. Unemployment is low, the economy strong and about every business sign is pointing to good times ahead — perhaps that in itself is a worry?
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The U.S. economy added a better-than-expected 200,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department said. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%, its lowest level since December 2000.

The early morning selling continued right  into the close on Friday and few seemed to be willing to buy and hold over the weekend … especially as the well telegraphed news of #thememo (PDF) was released to the public. Few analysis tied the concern regarding the obvious anti-Trump political bias and abuse of power at the top level of the FBI to the market sell-off, but I’m sure most traders were paying attention to the news.

FordStock180202

Since I recently sold a few stock positions that had run up for no other reason than I was concerned the gains were too fast, I did end up buying back in once again. For the record, I’m back owning Ford ($F). Who knows if buying shares at $10.66 is a near term bottom, but after their recent “miss” and selloff, I’m hoping the negativity was already priced in prior to the panic selling today? It seems to me that at a time consumers are spending, have more money in their paychecks to spend due to tax cuts, having near full employment and those pressures forcing wages to rise (although only slightly)Ford should at least sell a few cars. We’ll see.

If you own a Mercedes Benz 300D, you know this sound! #humor

Posted By on February 2, 2018

Only an old Mercedes Benz diesel driver can fully appreciate this … very funny.

Hospitality of good friends and a Bundt Cake Breakfast #recipe

Posted By on February 1, 2018

It sure is nice to have friends like Mark and Dar to impose on when traveling … although I KNOW they would say I was invited and was not an imposition (the mark of true friends!)
Winking smile
They put me up at what I now refer to as the "Jones B&B" as they always feed me AND give me a place to sleep instead of driving non-stop to Florida. So nice. This past "stay" they tried out a new recipe out for breakfast … tell me this doesn’t look great?

buntcakebreakfast

Mark and I enjoyed talking into the early morning hours about everything under the sun … including photos and plans from his latest dream of building hunting log cabin on a piece of acreage. He also ended up making copies of a couple recipes so Brenda and I can try making it at home – but I’m almost positive they will not turn out as perfect or taste as good!

Bundt Cake Breakfast (above)

1 cup diced Ham
2 c tater tots…still frozen
1 dozen whisked eggs
1 can (8) Pilsbury Grands biscuits..diced up (raw)
2 c. Cheese…your choice…I used Cheddar
1/4 c milk

All mixed together. Put in greased bundt pan. Bake on 400 degrees for 45 mins. When done flip onto platter and cut and serve

You can use any meat or any veggie you want!!!! The key is not to add too much bread and the tater tots add just the right amount of potatoes…they shred up and you would think they were hash browns without making it dense! I have made this SOOOOO many times and varied the ingredients almost every single time! but this morning these were the simple ingredients I used!!! So get creative!!!! you won’t find this recipe anywhere because, as usual I MADE IT UP!

An impressive final Supermoon of the trilogy (see previous post)

Posted By on January 31, 2018

P1020821I haven’t been wielding my camera around much lately as it is so much easier to whip out the iPhone and take a photo or some video … but occasionally there’s a subject that can’t be photographed easily with a smartphone or even with a DSLR. Here was my quick attempt last night with the supermoon on Florida’s Treasure Coast.
SuperMoonRawPhotos180130 

Someone on Twitter suggested the photo was Photoshopped due to the cloud looking as if it were behind the moon, so I posted a screen shot of the raw shots in my folder.
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EDIT 1/31/2018 – Image of the SuperBloodMoon on Wednesday AM from the Griffith Observatory.

Once in a lifetime event – a supermoon trilogy

Posted By on January 31, 2018

supermoontrilogy180131

  A Supermoon chat with John Rowe & Mike Hasking – 1/31/2018

Tonight is your last chance to witness a once in a lifetime lunar event.

A super blue blood moon will be visible in the night’s sky for just over an hour, from 11.50 tonight.

It’s the third in a trilogy of large, red moons caused by the unique position of the moon.

Stardome educator John Rowe told Mike Hosking the trilogy probably won’t happen again this century.

"When these three things come together, super, blue and blood, we won’t be alive. Let’s hope it’s not cloudy."

The last so-called "supermoon trilogy" was in 1866.

LINK

Playing games on a smartphone while attending SOTU2018

Posted By on January 31, 2018

What was your representative doing during last night’s State Of The Union address … hopefully not playing Candy Crush on a smartphone like Michigan’s Democratic Representative Brenda Lawrence?

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Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog