September 21, 2022 • 28 mins
Just an update about all the travel and some car talk/drama. Driving old cars has it's good points and some bad points.
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(00:02):
Mike Dell's world number 383 for September 21st, 2022.
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(00:25):
expressed or implied do not usewhile operating a motor vehicle or
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dogs or horses anchos unless otherwisespecified first, pull up then pull.
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identification purposes.
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Now back to your regularlyscheduled podcast, no podcasters
(02:13):
plants or animals were harmed inthe making of this disclaimer.
Well let's hope not anyway.
Yeah.
I've been using that todisclaimer for a long time.
Uh, I forget how long ago I recorded that.
I think I wanna say probably 10 years ago.
maybe not quite that long ago, but itwas a while that was on my old MXL Mike
(02:38):
down in the old studio in the basementback before I knew what I was doing.
But it turned out.
All right.
Anyway, this is Mike, and, uh,welcome to Mike Dell's world 3 83.
If you're keeping track and it's beenabout a month, actually exactly a
month since I put out an episode, I.
(03:00):
I do mean to, uh, do this a little moreoften, but man times are times are busy.
Let's see.
Since the last time we talked, I've beento Dallas or, well, I don't remember now.
I've been doing some traveling anyway.
I've been to, uh, Columbus in Dallas.
(03:23):
I think.
Let's see.
When was the company meeting?
Eh, it's been a while.
Oh, I guess the company meetingwas before the last episode.
Uh, where was it?
No, it wasn't.
Yes, it was okay.
All right.
I'm I'm screwed up.
(03:44):
So yeah, I was at Columbus beforethe last episode, and then I went
to Dallas right after the episode.
And that was a fun trip sort of, ofcourse, Dallas was getting torrential
rains during the, my flight.
So I didn't make it there on the dayI was supposed to, I ended up getting
stuck in Chicago, which wasn't too bad.
(04:06):
Cuz the airport Sheridan, it wasthe same hotel chain that I was
scheduled to be in, in Dallas.
So I just traded one night in Dallasfor the night in Chicago and flew out
the next morning and all was well.
So it wasn't bad.
And I got my fix of, uh, Chicago hot dogs.
(04:26):
So that was okay.
Uh, Uber eats is a, is a wonderful thing.
Uh, when you don't have wheels and don'tfeel like paying to ride somewhere to eat.
So, uh, I just had, 'em deliverme a couple of hot dogs in a
six pack and I was styling.
I.
That trip from up heredown to Chicago was unique.
(04:49):
I think, or least unique to me.
I flew down on a little tinyairline called Cape air and.
It reminded me.
I flew from Manistee, Michigan, which wasa Tinky little airport and it reminded
me very much of the old NBC show wings.
And when I mentioned that to somebody,in fact, I mentioned it to the pilot on
(05:12):
the way home, since I was sitting a footand a half from him, uh, I said, uh, this
reminds me of that old TV show wings.
And he says, well, you know, uh, We do,uh, service that island, whatever it
was, I think, well, I don't remember whatisland it was, but Massachusetts there
(05:32):
anyway, they said, well, we service thatisland and that TV show was based on Cape
air, so ironic, but it was kind of cool.
Got to fly down on.
I don't know some Italian airplane,uh, ISER that had like eight, nine
seats, something like that, a littletwin, uh, piston engine airplane.
(05:55):
And on the way back, I flewback in a Cessna 4 0 4.
I never even knew what those were.
Just a Cessna twin twin.
And.
I sat literally right behind theco-pilot seat, which was empty.
It was just one pilot and, uh,got to chit chat with a pilot,
uh, and all that good stuff.
(06:16):
And he even joked with me.
He says, well, maybe I'll giveyou the landing in Manistee . But
anyway, that was on eventful.
And then I flew, you know, to Dallasand back on American airlines.
Uh, Yeah, whatever.
They're okay.
And had a good time in Dallashad a little controversy.
I'm not sure you probably heard aboutit, but you might have, uh, with Ben
(06:40):
Shapiro showing up at the conferenceand, uh, some people freaked out, uh,
Because, uh, they didn't like Ben Shapiro.
Uh, I won't go into much more than that,other than it was a definite shit show.
And as far as the publicity for podcastmovement was, but I think they've, you
(07:02):
know, they've apologized and, uh, Ido believe daily wire, which is Ben's,
uh, network has, uh, Accepted thatapology or at least, uh, I think so.
So we'll see.
And maybe they learned a little lesson whoknows, yield, saying, go woke, go broke.
(07:23):
I think that might apply.
Hopefully not, you know, I like, Ilike podcast movement and I'm friends
with the owners of it and it wasn'tthe owners of podcast movement that.
Put out the apology for Ben showing up.
And then it was the owners of podcastmovement that put out the apology
to Ben for freaking out on him.
(07:45):
But, uh, like I said, if you wannaknow more about that, uh, check
out, uh, the daily wire, uh, It'sone of their backstage, not this
last one, but the one before.
So check out the recording ofbackstage at did daily wire.
And, uh, they can go into thatwhole thing right at the beginning.
(08:06):
And it was, uh, really quite.
Uh, shocking was the word that I, thatwe used while we were at the show.
It kinda sucked the energyout of the, the one day there.
But, uh, it recovered, but,uh, yeah, stuff happens.
People all have opinions and, uh,you know, half of 'em are wrong.
(08:27):
what half I'll let you decide.
But anyway, so yeah, I've been busywith, with travel and work stuff.
And, uh, we've been putting outa lot of stuff at blueberry.
That's new.
If you've been to Mike Dell's worldlately, actually this episode, hopefully
I'm trying out a new thing called scriptto, uh, edit and transcribe my show.
(08:52):
So if it all works as planned, you'regonna see a CC button on the player at,
at blueberry and you can, uh, hit playand then hit that CC button and it'll
show the transcript and it'll highlight.
As I'm talking everything I'm saying,so kind of like closed captioning.
Well, it is closed captioningand we're the, uh, first audio
(09:15):
company that's done that.
So, uh, it's unique.
I, I, I'm trying to get out of thehabit of saying things like very
unique or, you know, cause there is novariable of unique, unique is unique.
So not that, uh, I speakperfect English all the time.
But I try.
(09:37):
Let's see, what else has been going onhaving a little bit of vehicle drama?
Uh, no, not anything huge.
Believe me, but it's, uh, workedout a little bit strangely this
week, uh, because I have to traveldown to grand Haven for a funeral.
A friend of mine's motherpassed away last week and the
(09:58):
funeral is tomorrow on Thursday.
So this is Wednesday.
Evening, my wife's already downthere, uh, helping plan the, the
party and Memorial and all that stuff.
So she's down there probably cooking,I'm guessing, but my pickup truck,
uh, you know, the typical NorthernMichigan vehicle, that's a little
(10:22):
bit of rust, but that's just theway they are when they get older.
This one's not that old, so 2013, but.
I mean close to 10 years old, I guess.
So, depending on when it was built,I'd already be 10, 10 years old.
I didn't look at the manufactureddate, but anyway, uh, what
happens with these, these thingsis, uh, snow ice, salt and crap.
(10:48):
Get packed all over undersideover all over the underside of
the car and or truck in this case.
And.
The.
What is it fuel pump?
Uh, it has a, a steel plate that locksinto the plastic gas tank and then
all the lines and electrical stuffand the fuel pump all go through
(11:11):
that hole with that plate on the top.
And what's happened with my truck isthat plate has rusted out to the point
where now it's leaking and it's leak.
Enough that, uh, I have to get it fixed.
And so can't drive thetruck and he couldn't get me
into the shop until Monday.
So I still got over the weekendand I've gotta travel down to
(11:35):
grand Haven as I mentioned.
And so I borrowed my folks convertible.
They have a convertibleVolkswagen beetle and.
I drive it home.
And you know, my wife dropped meoff out there and I drove it home.
And as I was, uh, driving at home, it was,you know, spit in sputter once in a while.
(11:56):
I was like, I didn't think much of it.
It didn't get drivena lot this, this year.
So, you know, who knows might just needto get the cobwebs worked out of it.
So I didn't think much of it.
And then, uh, on Tuesday Idid that on Monday on Tuesday.
I, uh, went up to the storeand, you know, pick up some
(12:18):
groceries and stuff in the beetle.
And I put the top down figuring why not?
It's a nice day.
So I put the top down,I go go to the store.
I come back from the store and Ipark it and I haul the groceries in.
And then I thought, oh, I'dbetter put the top back up, cuz.
You know, we got acorns fallingout of the trees and stuff, and
I went the car full of acorns.
(12:39):
So I go out there and I start, tryto start the car cuz you, you know,
I like to run the, the, uh, roof whenit's running so that it doesn't run
the battery out, but I tried to startit and the operative word there.
Try it didn't work.
So I fiddle farted around with it.
(13:02):
I plugged in my scan tool and, and itgave a code for speed sensor, no signal.
And some other thing it had to do withthe catalytic converter, which you,
those are normal, cuz that thing had itslights on any or the check engine light.
Anyway, cuz you know, it's an old car and.
(13:22):
That's just happens.
So anyway, I clear the codes.
I try to start it again.
Won't start, won't start.
Won't start.
Won't start.
All right.
So I call my dad and say, Hey,uh, Beatles's not starting.
And here's what I found and toldhim the code and all that stuff.
And.
(13:42):
He says, well, thing ran perfectlylast time, you know, whatever.
He typical dad response and theyhappened to be over at Costco.
It's about a mile away.
So they come over, mom, dad, and hetried it and looked at it and, oh, well,
so he called the, uh, tow truck and hadit towed to the shop that he goes to.
(14:05):
And in the meantime, Carless because mywife had already left for grand Haven.
And at this moment wedon't have our a third car.
I had to, I had to trash my old van.
I went to the junkyard.
I drove it there, but it wasn't, uh,it, it had needed some stuff that, uh,
(14:25):
I just didn't wanna spend the money on.
And then it was, it was a rust bucket.
So time to get rid of it.
And we hadn't got around to replacing our.
Spare car.
It's always like to have a sparecuz you know, I, I drive older
cars and I do, I do that becauseI don't want huge car payments.
And part of owning older cars isto have at least a spare available
(14:50):
because you know, once in a while, oneof 'em is gonna break and it's a lot
cheaper than car payments to fix cars.
Most of the time.
So here I am carless, no big deal.
And, uh, I didn't have to goanywhere until, uh, Later today.
And my mom and sisterwere going downstate.
(15:11):
So my sister drops her car offlet's, you know, for me to, to, uh,
use and that's all fine and dandy.
So, uh, tomorrow I'll drive my sister'scar down to grand Haven for the funeral.
And that'll be that.
And I, and a and another,uh, related note.
(15:33):
Uh, my sister's son, my nephew,Zach, uh, picked up a winner
beater, cuz he he's got a oh one ofthose, an older Lexus hot rod car.
I don't know, LS.
300 or ES 300, whatever, the, thehot rod, one with the six cylinder
and the manual transmission.
And he didn't want to drive it in thewinter cuz it's in pretty good shape.
(15:58):
And so he bought a, a winter beater,oh 99 Corolla manual transmission.
It, uh, needs a little bitneeds, some struts and door
handles and you know, typical.
Corolla things, but itwas in decent shape.
And then my uncle passed awaya couple weeks ago and my.
(16:20):
Called Zach and asked if hewanted, uh, his old car it's
so rather nice Chrysler 300
So he, he jumped at that and got itfor a cheap price and it's a nice
car and he got a hell of a deal.
So now he is, got thisCorolla that he doesn't need.
And you know, he's a mechanicat the Toyota dealer, so he's,
(16:40):
he was gonna fix it up, sell itwell, I found out about that.
I went and checked it out and, uh,I agreed to buy it from him, but I
still gotta wait till he gets thestruts and the door handles and
whatever else he wanted to do to it.
He bought all the parts.
He just has to get time to do it.
So in the next couple weeks,I will have my spare car.
(17:00):
And as a bonus, I'll have onewith a manul transmission.
Which I will enjoy thoroughly, cuz Ihaven't really driven many manuals lately.
Uh, of course I drove Zach's Lexushome, uh, when we went to pick
it up or part of the way anyway.
And uh, so I got to drive that, thatwas that's the only time I've driven
(17:23):
a stick shift in quite some time.
I think the time before that Igot to drove a drive, a focus.
St.
I think it was down atthe Ford test track.
Um, when I was, uh, writing for geeknews central, I got a, got to go on a
junk at, for Ford down at the test track.
(17:44):
And that was a lot of fun.
Got to drive just abouteverything Ford made at the time.
I wanna say that was 2015 maybeor 2014, something like that.
But it was fun.
We got to drive a whole bunch of carsand even they even had some Nissans and
Toyotas and stuff for, uh, what theycall comparative drives around the track.
(18:05):
And, and, uh, they set up an auto crosstrack and an offroad track for the truck.
So got to drive a Raptoron the offroad track.
And yeah, it was just,it was a lot of fun.
Uh, but, uh, the only stickshift that I'd driven down there.
Uh, that focus SST or RT or RS or whateverthe fancy one, the fancy focus was.
(18:27):
And, uh, so hadn't really drivena lot of stick shift lately when
I was a kid, it's all we had.
That's all anybody had thatI knew for the most part.
I mean, my uncle had an oldvan that had, uh, uh, automatic
transmission, but I didn't knowvery many people that had automatics
(18:49):
and this was in the early eighties.
And.
So it was just, you know, pretty mucheverything was a stick shift, unless
it was, you know, some, you know, fullsize truck or some beast of a car.
But for the most part, everythingI drove, I mean, I learned on a 64
Volkswagen beetle, which was old at thetime, come on, 20 something years old.
(19:11):
And then, uh, my first vehiclewas a Chevy pickup that had
a six cylinder and no power.
Anything.
I mean, no power steering, no powerbrakes, no air conditioning, no power
windows, no cruise control am radio.
Uh, you know, it was a truckand had a three speed column
(19:35):
shift, uh, manual transmission.
And, you know, so I, you know, up untilI think the first automatic that I owned.
That's when I lived out in Idaho, Ibought a cut list, uh, for my then
wife, my first wife, and every oncein a while, I would drive that.
(19:56):
And then later on, we had a Camarothat had a automatic, but everything
else I had was stick until Ithink until I got the Imperial.
Yeah, that, uh, that big old 1970Imperial I had as a toy car, of course,
that was, uh, automatic, but I also hada manual Corolla and a, uh, and a Mazda
(20:22):
pickup that was manual at the time.
Uh, So, uh, you know, then, you know,the next vehicle after the Mazda was
a Ford truck, it was just automatic.
And, you know, we've hadall automatic since then.
So it'll be interesting to have asomewhat daily driver stick shift.
(20:44):
I have to get used to that again, butit'll be fun even though it's a Corolla.
I mean, they're kind of the mostvanilla boring cars on the planet.
Stick shift.
It's a little bit better andthings in pretty decent shape.
It's a little rusty, but you know,what do you expect for 23 year old
car in Northern Michigan, but they'resolidly built and the, you know, the
(21:08):
chassis is good and the, the mostof the body panels are good too.
It's just a little bit around the edges.
It's got some rust on it, but it's notnearly as rusty as that old van was.
And interior's nice that needs adoor panel on one side and all the
door handles interior and exterior.
(21:29):
That's a typical Toyota problem.
My Camry that I had had that same problem,the exterior door handle, uh, broke.
And the way I fix is I took a peach pieceof, uh, strapping and that wide cloth.
Strapping and made a loop and screwedit into the mechanism on the outside.
(21:51):
So I had just had a, a loop and Ijust grabbed that loop and , she'd
write open right up, no problem.
And then come to find out, uh, that'swhat Porsche does on the Boxter.
At least they did back.
And then, you know, when theyfirst came out, the interior door
handle is just a loop of cloth.
So , it's kind of funny.
I put Porsche door handleson the, uh, Camry, but.
(22:15):
Anyway, I'm getting farafield on vehicular pursuits.
Still plan on doing the, the auto.
History podcast, but being asbusy as I've been, uh, haven't
had a chance to launch it.
I've got a couple of good interviews inthe can and got a couple more scheduled.
So, uh, we'll get that going.
(22:36):
Uh, definitely wanna do that and,and explore some automotive history.
I think maybe the Corolla would be a goodone cuz they've been around a long time.
I think since 1970.
I wanna say in the us, I don't know,overseas might be more, but, uh,
they're by far the best selling carin the world now, uh, overall they've
(23:00):
made, I wanna say over 30 millionof them with a Corolla named plate.
So , it's pretty impressive.
When the Volkswagen, Ithink, got to 20 million.
Or something like, or 15 million,20 million, something like that.
And the Ford model Tmade it to 15 million.
(23:22):
So, uh, yeah, we'll see, uh, how muchlonger they keep making the Corollas.
So of course they're nothing like theyused to be too many whiz bang stuff.
That's another reason I likebuying older cars is not as
much computer controlled crap.
That 2013, Chevy's got an off.
I mean, I like the truck don'tget me wrong, but, uh, I could do
(23:45):
without a lot of the computery stuff.
Although I do love my sister's car.
Hers is a Toyota newer one, uh,RAV4, which is a little less
SUV, but it has radar cruise.
Oh man.
Do I love that?
I wish I could add thatto a car, you know?
After market, but I don't think that'spossible, but the radar cruise is awesome.
(24:09):
You set the cruise and youjust, uh, follow along and
you just keep up with traffic.
It's, it's pretty slick.
I rented a, a Ford one time to go downto Columbus that had that, and it also
had the lane keeping and all that.
So basically you didn't have to doanything, uh, to keep it in the.
(24:30):
And even if you, if you, uh, justhit the turn signal, you know,
to change lanes, just tap it.
And it would blink three times.
And then if it was clear, itwould, it would merge left, pass,
whatever slow vehicle was in frontof you, you hit the turn signal,
it would merge right on its own.
And, uh, I drove all away fromgrayling, Michigan to, uh, the state
(24:53):
line or, well, exit five down southof grand or south of, uh, Ann Arbor.
Without touching the gas orthe throttle on that car.
Uh, cuz they just stayed on thefreeway and it slowed down, even
went into a traffic jam and thecar comes to a complete stop.
And then when the car in front ofyou takes off, it takes off again
(25:16):
and it's uh, really quite something.
So that is one fancy whizbang thingI wish I could get, but I'm not
paying $50,000 for a new vehicle.
Just not gonna happenunless say hit the lottery.
There's just no way in hell I'llever have a $50,000 new vehicle.
You know, I'll wait till the, some ofthe newness wears off and buy one later.
(25:41):
. That's usually the better way to go.
Cuz again, maintenanceand repairs on vehicles.
Most of the time arecheaper than car payments.
Now, you know, if I blow an engineon a car that I've got paid off and
it's not worth putting an engine in,I just junk it and get another one.
It may not be the best way todo it, but it's the way I do it.
(26:03):
Let's see.
Yeah.
Other than that, uh, it'sbeen a pretty nice summer.
Uh, getting a lot of stuffdone around the house here.
Uh, you know, mainly just sortof spring cleaning things that
got the fence up in the backyard.
Uh, So that now I have a littleprivacy again, uh, since they
built those houses behind us.
(26:25):
And so I put up a six foot privacy fenceand that keeps the dogs from barking at
the neighbors back there and all that.
So that's a good thing.
And again, I have some privacy in thebackyard, so when I don't feel like going
all the way into the house, well, I canjust use a tree next to my office here.
(26:47):
But, and I'm not gonna getinto the politicy stuff.
There is just a lot of that going on.
I don't, I don't know.
It's, uh, I, I think we're living in clownworld, you know, watching some of the
headlines and I still don't watch the newson TV except for every once in a while.
(27:08):
I'll turn on the local news.
If I know something's goingon, but for the most part, I
get my news from a couple of.
Daily podcasts and, uh, and you know,some online sources and, you know, if
anything big happens, I hear about it,but, uh, I'm not going to look for it.
And I don't wanna sit through allthe drug ads and all that stuff.
(27:30):
Uh, it's just a waste oftime and actually, you know,
find, I have a lot more time.
I'm not watching a lot of traditionalTV anyway, especially not the news.
But anyway.
All right, well, I'm gonna justcall this a quickie update and.
Let you guys get on with the nextpodcast, but I do, uh, want you to go
(27:54):
check out Mike, check out Mike Dell'sworld.com on this episode and, uh,
check out that closed captioning thing.
Uh, let's see if it works on this episode.
But it should be the latest episode ifyou're listening to this, uh, anytime
in September or October, although I hopeto have another episode before then.
(28:15):
Come on.
I got some, I got somethings, uh, to talk about.
So anyway, we'll catch you next time.
And again, check out Mike dell.comfor any updates I might have that
don't include a podcast episode.
It's me later.
Mike Dell's world number 383 for September 21st, 2022.
This podcast is meant for educationalpurposes, only void wear prohibited.
Some assembly requiredbatteries, not included.
Items may be closer than they appear.
Contents may settle during shipmentuse only as directed no other warranty
(00:25):
expressed or implied do not usewhile operating a motor vehicle or
heavy equipment subject to approval.
This is not an offer to sellsecurities apply only to affected
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All models over 18 years of age, nouser serviceable parts inside freshest
fused before the date on carton.
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seal constitutes acceptance of agreementfor off road use only as seen on TV.
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ingredients colors may in time.
Fade.
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Keep in a cool dry place.
Process.
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for direct indirect, incidental,or consequential damages resulting
from any defect, error, or failureto perform penalty for private use
substantial penalty for early withdraw.
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dogs or horses anchos unless otherwisespecified first, pull up then pull.
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Some of the trademarks mentionedin this product appear for
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This supersedes all previous notices.
Now back to your regularlyscheduled podcast, no podcasters
(02:13):
plants or animals were harmed inthe making of this disclaimer.
Well let's hope not anyway.
Yeah.
I've been using that todisclaimer for a long time.
Uh, I forget how long ago I recorded that.
I think I wanna say probably 10 years ago.
maybe not quite that long ago, but itwas a while that was on my old MXL Mike
(02:38):
down in the old studio in the basementback before I knew what I was doing.
But it turned out.
All right.
Anyway, this is Mike, and, uh,welcome to Mike Dell's world 3 83.
If you're keeping track and it's beenabout a month, actually exactly a
month since I put out an episode, I.
(03:00):
I do mean to, uh, do this a little moreoften, but man times are times are busy.
Let's see.
Since the last time we talked, I've beento Dallas or, well, I don't remember now.
I've been doing some traveling anyway.
I've been to, uh, Columbus in Dallas.
(03:23):
I think.
Let's see.
When was the company meeting?
Eh, it's been a while.
Oh, I guess the company meetingwas before the last episode.
Uh, where was it?
No, it wasn't.
Yes, it was okay.
All right.
I'm I'm screwed up.
(03:44):
So yeah, I was at Columbus beforethe last episode, and then I went
to Dallas right after the episode.
And that was a fun trip sort of, ofcourse, Dallas was getting torrential
rains during the, my flight.
So I didn't make it there on the dayI was supposed to, I ended up getting
stuck in Chicago, which wasn't too bad.
(04:06):
Cuz the airport Sheridan, it wasthe same hotel chain that I was
scheduled to be in, in Dallas.
So I just traded one night in Dallasfor the night in Chicago and flew out
the next morning and all was well.
So it wasn't bad.
And I got my fix of, uh, Chicago hot dogs.
(04:26):
So that was okay.
Uh, Uber eats is a, is a wonderful thing.
Uh, when you don't have wheels and don'tfeel like paying to ride somewhere to eat.
So, uh, I just had, 'em deliverme a couple of hot dogs in a
six pack and I was styling.
I.
That trip from up heredown to Chicago was unique.
(04:49):
I think, or least unique to me.
I flew down on a little tinyairline called Cape air and.
It reminded me.
I flew from Manistee, Michigan, which wasa Tinky little airport and it reminded
me very much of the old NBC show wings.
And when I mentioned that to somebody,in fact, I mentioned it to the pilot on
(05:12):
the way home, since I was sitting a footand a half from him, uh, I said, uh, this
reminds me of that old TV show wings.
And he says, well, you know, uh, We do,uh, service that island, whatever it
was, I think, well, I don't remember whatisland it was, but Massachusetts there
(05:32):
anyway, they said, well, we service thatisland and that TV show was based on Cape
air, so ironic, but it was kind of cool.
Got to fly down on.
I don't know some Italian airplane,uh, ISER that had like eight, nine
seats, something like that, a littletwin, uh, piston engine airplane.
(05:55):
And on the way back, I flewback in a Cessna 4 0 4.
I never even knew what those were.
Just a Cessna twin twin.
And.
I sat literally right behind theco-pilot seat, which was empty.
It was just one pilot and, uh,got to chit chat with a pilot,
uh, and all that good stuff.
(06:16):
And he even joked with me.
He says, well, maybe I'll giveyou the landing in Manistee . But
anyway, that was on eventful.
And then I flew, you know, to Dallasand back on American airlines.
Uh, Yeah, whatever.
They're okay.
And had a good time in Dallashad a little controversy.
I'm not sure you probably heard aboutit, but you might have, uh, with Ben
(06:40):
Shapiro showing up at the conferenceand, uh, some people freaked out, uh,
Because, uh, they didn't like Ben Shapiro.
Uh, I won't go into much more than that,other than it was a definite shit show.
And as far as the publicity for podcastmovement was, but I think they've, you
(07:02):
know, they've apologized and, uh, Ido believe daily wire, which is Ben's,
uh, network has, uh, Accepted thatapology or at least, uh, I think so.
So we'll see.
And maybe they learned a little lesson whoknows, yield, saying, go woke, go broke.
(07:23):
I think that might apply.
Hopefully not, you know, I like, Ilike podcast movement and I'm friends
with the owners of it and it wasn'tthe owners of podcast movement that.
Put out the apology for Ben showing up.
And then it was the owners of podcastmovement that put out the apology
to Ben for freaking out on him.
(07:45):
But, uh, like I said, if you wannaknow more about that, uh, check
out, uh, the daily wire, uh, It'sone of their backstage, not this
last one, but the one before.
So check out the recording ofbackstage at did daily wire.
And, uh, they can go into thatwhole thing right at the beginning.
(08:06):
And it was, uh, really quite.
Uh, shocking was the word that I, thatwe used while we were at the show.
It kinda sucked the energyout of the, the one day there.
But, uh, it recovered, but,uh, yeah, stuff happens.
People all have opinions and, uh,you know, half of 'em are wrong.
(08:27):
what half I'll let you decide.
But anyway, so yeah, I've been busywith, with travel and work stuff.
And, uh, we've been putting outa lot of stuff at blueberry.
That's new.
If you've been to Mike Dell's worldlately, actually this episode, hopefully
I'm trying out a new thing called scriptto, uh, edit and transcribe my show.
(08:52):
So if it all works as planned, you'regonna see a CC button on the player at,
at blueberry and you can, uh, hit playand then hit that CC button and it'll
show the transcript and it'll highlight.
As I'm talking everything I'm saying,so kind of like closed captioning.
Well, it is closed captioningand we're the, uh, first audio
(09:15):
company that's done that.
So, uh, it's unique.
I, I, I'm trying to get out of thehabit of saying things like very
unique or, you know, cause there is novariable of unique, unique is unique.
So not that, uh, I speakperfect English all the time.
But I try.
(09:37):
Let's see, what else has been going onhaving a little bit of vehicle drama?
Uh, no, not anything huge.
Believe me, but it's, uh, workedout a little bit strangely this
week, uh, because I have to traveldown to grand Haven for a funeral.
A friend of mine's motherpassed away last week and the
(09:58):
funeral is tomorrow on Thursday.
So this is Wednesday.
Evening, my wife's already downthere, uh, helping plan the, the
party and Memorial and all that stuff.
So she's down there probably cooking,I'm guessing, but my pickup truck,
uh, you know, the typical NorthernMichigan vehicle, that's a little
(10:22):
bit of rust, but that's just theway they are when they get older.
This one's not that old, so 2013, but.
I mean close to 10 years old, I guess.
So, depending on when it was built,I'd already be 10, 10 years old.
I didn't look at the manufactureddate, but anyway, uh, what
happens with these, these thingsis, uh, snow ice, salt and crap.
(10:48):
Get packed all over undersideover all over the underside of
the car and or truck in this case.
And.
The.
What is it fuel pump?
Uh, it has a, a steel plate that locksinto the plastic gas tank and then
all the lines and electrical stuffand the fuel pump all go through
(11:11):
that hole with that plate on the top.
And what's happened with my truck isthat plate has rusted out to the point
where now it's leaking and it's leak.
Enough that, uh, I have to get it fixed.
And so can't drive thetruck and he couldn't get me
into the shop until Monday.
So I still got over the weekendand I've gotta travel down to
(11:35):
grand Haven as I mentioned.
And so I borrowed my folks convertible.
They have a convertibleVolkswagen beetle and.
I drive it home.
And you know, my wife dropped meoff out there and I drove it home.
And as I was, uh, driving at home, it was,you know, spit in sputter once in a while.
(11:56):
I was like, I didn't think much of it.
It didn't get drivena lot this, this year.
So, you know, who knows might just needto get the cobwebs worked out of it.
So I didn't think much of it.
And then, uh, on Tuesday Idid that on Monday on Tuesday.
I, uh, went up to the storeand, you know, pick up some
(12:18):
groceries and stuff in the beetle.
And I put the top down figuring why not?
It's a nice day.
So I put the top down,I go go to the store.
I come back from the store and Ipark it and I haul the groceries in.
And then I thought, oh, I'dbetter put the top back up, cuz.
You know, we got acorns fallingout of the trees and stuff, and
I went the car full of acorns.
(12:39):
So I go out there and I start, tryto start the car cuz you, you know,
I like to run the, the, uh, roof whenit's running so that it doesn't run
the battery out, but I tried to startit and the operative word there.
Try it didn't work.
So I fiddle farted around with it.
(13:02):
I plugged in my scan tool and, and itgave a code for speed sensor, no signal.
And some other thing it had to do withthe catalytic converter, which you,
those are normal, cuz that thing had itslights on any or the check engine light.
Anyway, cuz you know, it's an old car and.
(13:22):
That's just happens.
So anyway, I clear the codes.
I try to start it again.
Won't start, won't start.
Won't start.
Won't start.
All right.
So I call my dad and say, Hey,uh, Beatles's not starting.
And here's what I found and toldhim the code and all that stuff.
And.
(13:42):
He says, well, thing ran perfectlylast time, you know, whatever.
He typical dad response and theyhappened to be over at Costco.
It's about a mile away.
So they come over, mom, dad, and hetried it and looked at it and, oh, well,
so he called the, uh, tow truck and hadit towed to the shop that he goes to.
(14:05):
And in the meantime, Carless because mywife had already left for grand Haven.
And at this moment wedon't have our a third car.
I had to, I had to trash my old van.
I went to the junkyard.
I drove it there, but it wasn't, uh,it, it had needed some stuff that, uh,
(14:25):
I just didn't wanna spend the money on.
And then it was, it was a rust bucket.
So time to get rid of it.
And we hadn't got around to replacing our.
Spare car.
It's always like to have a sparecuz you know, I, I drive older
cars and I do, I do that becauseI don't want huge car payments.
And part of owning older cars isto have at least a spare available
(14:50):
because you know, once in a while, oneof 'em is gonna break and it's a lot
cheaper than car payments to fix cars.
Most of the time.
So here I am carless, no big deal.
And, uh, I didn't have to goanywhere until, uh, Later today.
And my mom and sisterwere going downstate.
(15:11):
So my sister drops her car offlet's, you know, for me to, to, uh,
use and that's all fine and dandy.
So, uh, tomorrow I'll drive my sister'scar down to grand Haven for the funeral.
And that'll be that.
And I, and a and another,uh, related note.
(15:33):
Uh, my sister's son, my nephew,Zach, uh, picked up a winner
beater, cuz he he's got a oh one ofthose, an older Lexus hot rod car.
I don't know, LS.
300 or ES 300, whatever, the, thehot rod, one with the six cylinder
and the manual transmission.
And he didn't want to drive it in thewinter cuz it's in pretty good shape.
(15:58):
And so he bought a, a winter beater,oh 99 Corolla manual transmission.
It, uh, needs a little bitneeds, some struts and door
handles and you know, typical.
Corolla things, but itwas in decent shape.
And then my uncle passed awaya couple weeks ago and my.
(16:20):
Called Zach and asked if hewanted, uh, his old car it's
so rather nice Chrysler 300
So he, he jumped at that and got itfor a cheap price and it's a nice
car and he got a hell of a deal.
So now he is, got thisCorolla that he doesn't need.
And you know, he's a mechanicat the Toyota dealer, so he's,
(16:40):
he was gonna fix it up, sell itwell, I found out about that.
I went and checked it out and, uh,I agreed to buy it from him, but I
still gotta wait till he gets thestruts and the door handles and
whatever else he wanted to do to it.
He bought all the parts.
He just has to get time to do it.
So in the next couple weeks,I will have my spare car.
(17:00):
And as a bonus, I'll have onewith a manul transmission.
Which I will enjoy thoroughly, cuz Ihaven't really driven many manuals lately.
Uh, of course I drove Zach's Lexushome, uh, when we went to pick
it up or part of the way anyway.
And uh, so I got to drive that, thatwas that's the only time I've driven
(17:23):
a stick shift in quite some time.
I think the time before that Igot to drove a drive, a focus.
St.
I think it was down atthe Ford test track.
Um, when I was, uh, writing for geeknews central, I got a, got to go on a
junk at, for Ford down at the test track.
(17:44):
And that was a lot of fun.
Got to drive just abouteverything Ford made at the time.
I wanna say that was 2015 maybeor 2014, something like that.
But it was fun.
We got to drive a whole bunch of carsand even they even had some Nissans and
Toyotas and stuff for, uh, what theycall comparative drives around the track.
(18:05):
And, and, uh, they set up an auto crosstrack and an offroad track for the truck.
So got to drive a Raptoron the offroad track.
And yeah, it was just,it was a lot of fun.
Uh, but, uh, the only stickshift that I'd driven down there.
Uh, that focus SST or RT or RS or whateverthe fancy one, the fancy focus was.
(18:27):
And, uh, so hadn't really drivena lot of stick shift lately when
I was a kid, it's all we had.
That's all anybody had thatI knew for the most part.
I mean, my uncle had an oldvan that had, uh, uh, automatic
transmission, but I didn't knowvery many people that had automatics
(18:49):
and this was in the early eighties.
And.
So it was just, you know, pretty mucheverything was a stick shift, unless
it was, you know, some, you know, fullsize truck or some beast of a car.
But for the most part, everythingI drove, I mean, I learned on a 64
Volkswagen beetle, which was old at thetime, come on, 20 something years old.
(19:11):
And then, uh, my first vehiclewas a Chevy pickup that had
a six cylinder and no power.
Anything.
I mean, no power steering, no powerbrakes, no air conditioning, no power
windows, no cruise control am radio.
Uh, you know, it was a truckand had a three speed column
(19:35):
shift, uh, manual transmission.
And, you know, so I, you know, up untilI think the first automatic that I owned.
That's when I lived out in Idaho, Ibought a cut list, uh, for my then
wife, my first wife, and every oncein a while, I would drive that.
(19:56):
And then later on, we had a Camarothat had a automatic, but everything
else I had was stick until Ithink until I got the Imperial.
Yeah, that, uh, that big old 1970Imperial I had as a toy car, of course,
that was, uh, automatic, but I also hada manual Corolla and a, uh, and a Mazda
(20:22):
pickup that was manual at the time.
Uh, So, uh, you know, then, you know,the next vehicle after the Mazda was
a Ford truck, it was just automatic.
And, you know, we've hadall automatic since then.
So it'll be interesting to have asomewhat daily driver stick shift.
(20:44):
I have to get used to that again, butit'll be fun even though it's a Corolla.
I mean, they're kind of the mostvanilla boring cars on the planet.
Stick shift.
It's a little bit better andthings in pretty decent shape.
It's a little rusty, but you know,what do you expect for 23 year old
car in Northern Michigan, but they'resolidly built and the, you know, the
(21:08):
chassis is good and the, the mostof the body panels are good too.
It's just a little bit around the edges.
It's got some rust on it, but it's notnearly as rusty as that old van was.
And interior's nice that needs adoor panel on one side and all the
door handles interior and exterior.
(21:29):
That's a typical Toyota problem.
My Camry that I had had that same problem,the exterior door handle, uh, broke.
And the way I fix is I took a peach pieceof, uh, strapping and that wide cloth.
Strapping and made a loop and screwedit into the mechanism on the outside.
(21:51):
So I had just had a, a loop and Ijust grabbed that loop and , she'd
write open right up, no problem.
And then come to find out, uh, that'swhat Porsche does on the Boxter.
At least they did back.
And then, you know, when theyfirst came out, the interior door
handle is just a loop of cloth.
So , it's kind of funny.
I put Porsche door handleson the, uh, Camry, but.
(22:15):
Anyway, I'm getting farafield on vehicular pursuits.
Still plan on doing the, the auto.
History podcast, but being asbusy as I've been, uh, haven't
had a chance to launch it.
I've got a couple of good interviews inthe can and got a couple more scheduled.
So, uh, we'll get that going.
(22:36):
Uh, definitely wanna do that and,and explore some automotive history.
I think maybe the Corolla would be a goodone cuz they've been around a long time.
I think since 1970.
I wanna say in the us, I don't know,overseas might be more, but, uh,
they're by far the best selling carin the world now, uh, overall they've
(23:00):
made, I wanna say over 30 millionof them with a Corolla named plate.
So , it's pretty impressive.
When the Volkswagen, Ithink, got to 20 million.
Or something like, or 15 million,20 million, something like that.
And the Ford model Tmade it to 15 million.
(23:22):
So, uh, yeah, we'll see, uh, how muchlonger they keep making the Corollas.
So of course they're nothing like theyused to be too many whiz bang stuff.
That's another reason I likebuying older cars is not as
much computer controlled crap.
That 2013, Chevy's got an off.
I mean, I like the truck don'tget me wrong, but, uh, I could do
(23:45):
without a lot of the computery stuff.
Although I do love my sister's car.
Hers is a Toyota newer one, uh,RAV4, which is a little less
SUV, but it has radar cruise.
Oh man.
Do I love that?
I wish I could add thatto a car, you know?
After market, but I don't think that'spossible, but the radar cruise is awesome.
(24:09):
You set the cruise and youjust, uh, follow along and
you just keep up with traffic.
It's, it's pretty slick.
I rented a, a Ford one time to go downto Columbus that had that, and it also
had the lane keeping and all that.
So basically you didn't have to doanything, uh, to keep it in the.
(24:30):
And even if you, if you, uh, justhit the turn signal, you know,
to change lanes, just tap it.
And it would blink three times.
And then if it was clear, itwould, it would merge left, pass,
whatever slow vehicle was in frontof you, you hit the turn signal,
it would merge right on its own.
And, uh, I drove all away fromgrayling, Michigan to, uh, the state
(24:53):
line or, well, exit five down southof grand or south of, uh, Ann Arbor.
Without touching the gas orthe throttle on that car.
Uh, cuz they just stayed on thefreeway and it slowed down, even
went into a traffic jam and thecar comes to a complete stop.
And then when the car in front ofyou takes off, it takes off again
(25:16):
and it's uh, really quite something.
So that is one fancy whizbang thingI wish I could get, but I'm not
paying $50,000 for a new vehicle.
Just not gonna happenunless say hit the lottery.
There's just no way in hell I'llever have a $50,000 new vehicle.
You know, I'll wait till the, some ofthe newness wears off and buy one later.
(25:41):
. That's usually the better way to go.
Cuz again, maintenanceand repairs on vehicles.
Most of the time arecheaper than car payments.
Now, you know, if I blow an engineon a car that I've got paid off and
it's not worth putting an engine in,I just junk it and get another one.
It may not be the best way todo it, but it's the way I do it.
(26:03):
Let's see.
Yeah.
Other than that, uh, it'sbeen a pretty nice summer.
Uh, getting a lot of stuffdone around the house here.
Uh, you know, mainly just sortof spring cleaning things that
got the fence up in the backyard.
Uh, So that now I have a littleprivacy again, uh, since they
built those houses behind us.
(26:25):
And so I put up a six foot privacy fenceand that keeps the dogs from barking at
the neighbors back there and all that.
So that's a good thing.
And again, I have some privacy in thebackyard, so when I don't feel like going
all the way into the house, well, I canjust use a tree next to my office here.
(26:47):
But, and I'm not gonna getinto the politicy stuff.
There is just a lot of that going on.
I don't, I don't know.
It's, uh, I, I think we're living in clownworld, you know, watching some of the
headlines and I still don't watch the newson TV except for every once in a while.
(27:08):
I'll turn on the local news.
If I know something's goingon, but for the most part, I
get my news from a couple of.
Daily podcasts and, uh, and you know,some online sources and, you know, if
anything big happens, I hear about it,but, uh, I'm not going to look for it.
And I don't wanna sit through allthe drug ads and all that stuff.
(27:30):
Uh, it's just a waste oftime and actually, you know,
find, I have a lot more time.
I'm not watching a lot of traditionalTV anyway, especially not the news.
But anyway.
All right, well, I'm gonna justcall this a quickie update and.
Let you guys get on with the nextpodcast, but I do, uh, want you to go
(27:54):
check out Mike, check out Mike Dell'sworld.com on this episode and, uh,
check out that closed captioning thing.
Uh, let's see if it works on this episode.
But it should be the latest episode ifyou're listening to this, uh, anytime
in September or October, although I hopeto have another episode before then.
(28:15):
Come on.
I got some, I got somethings, uh, to talk about.
So anyway, we'll catch you next time.
And again, check out Mike dell.comfor any updates I might have that
don't include a podcast episode.
It's me later.
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