John

Congrat's on the PB Paul, that is a monster! Sean, you sure know how to choose a great bottle of wine!

No, not that weekend TJ, the weekend following. The lovely Monique already OK'd it.

Sorry Rich, but you are wrong on this one. The quality of parts going into vehicles built by the big three has never been higher. Unfortunately it's getting from the component parts and modules to the finished automobile that is the problem!

It's called training, resulting in pride in what you do!

Way to go Bernie, nothing wrong with a little preaching to the non-believers!

Sir Alex and the boy's must have been celebrating with you all summer Clive based on what we have seen so far this season!

Hey Randy, how about organizing a swill. We can all bunk at TJ's for the weekend.

I tried to stay away from this but......... A huge portion of my sales comes from the auto industry. Not directly as it used to, but now indirectly from Brose and other non-North American companies, who through amazing efficiency and cost control, still seem to be able to make money even in challenging markets. I used to sell directly to Ford, who spun off the division to Visteon, who became ACH, who are now once again Ford. This division has lost huge money perennially, independently of who owned what. I understand the hard to swallow salaries and bonuses of the CEO's and CFO's and have my own opinions there, but those obscene "packages" are really a drop in the ocean compared to the other mismanagement that has accumulated the massive legacy costs and payrolls that the so called big three now have to deal with. One example of gross mismanagement is one couple that I know, (quite well), both still work at one of the US big three divisions. He is a line supervisor and she operates a small machine. They are both unionized. Now comes the fun part. He schedules her work and her hours. He also has (had) the ability to work unlimited overtime. So, they could both work together, (at overtime rate), and sleep together, as they chose. Between them they make (made) well over $250,000.00 US for each of the last 10+ years............This example of wages is not by any means unique. Many, many of the Ford and I suppose GM and Chrysler unionized workers live (lived) very well in large homes with "fleets" of new automobiles... Yet, anytime that I visited the plant, the work ethic and pace was at best pathetic. Who is to blame..........? The exec's, the unions, the workers, government, or you and me............The auto makers give us what we want and what sells. It seems to me that the culprit is the same as it was in all of history..............greed. We have become accustomed to living beyond our means. As long as we have the ability to cover our monthly outgoing, then all is well with the world. As soon as the source of cash dries up................well you know!

Thanks for sharing Lew, great post.

Ahhhh, puberty is a difficult time for some!

Two Ladies Talking in Heaven 1st woman: Hi! My name is Wanda. 2nd woman: Hi! I'm Sylvia. How'd you die? 1st woman: I froze to death. 2nd woman: How horrible! 1st woman: It wasn't so bad. After I quit shaking from the cold, I began to get warm & sleepy, and finally died a peaceful death. What about you? 2nd woman: I died of a massive heart attack. I suspected that my husband was cheating, so I came home early to catch him in the act. But instead, I found him all by himself in the den watching TV. 1st woman: So, what happened? 2nd woman: I was so sure there was another woman there somewhere that I started running all over the house looking. I ran up into the attic and searched, and down into the basement. Then I went through every closet and checked under all the beds. I kept this up until I had looked everywhere, and finally became so exhausted that I just keeled over with a heart attack and died. 1st woman: Too bad you didn't look in the freezer---we'd both still be alive.

Maureen, glad the logo worked out for you. Chris and I were only too happy to be involved in such a worthwhile cause. Barbara and I should be there and would be glad to help out in any way. John...

We all owe a great debt to those like Alton who served their countries so that we may be free. Thanks for sharing Jim and reminding us all. Lest We Forget!

Your Mom was at the playground without her shirt on? You know that's legal now............

Looks like it was a great day Cliff. Congrat's on the PB..

Yes, but it's yours and my family that is on the roads with the dumbass's........

I think that the typewriter on the table adds that little bit of olde world charm!

Looks pretty fine to me Brian! I particularly like the flat screen over the fireplace.........

Sorry, still don't see where you are going with this. There will always be discretionary powers for police and others, sometimes it is abused, most often it is not, sounds somewhat similar to us all, doesn't it.......get over it! If you want to join up and serve the general public, go and take the ATS course............you might realize what even the most preliminary tests our police have to go through is all about.....

Welcome to our zoo Pepe. Thanks for the pics. J...

I started reading this thread yesterday, however waited until today to add my 0.02. I wanted to pay particular attention to my morning commute and what was going on in the other vehicles hurtling along the highway. Observations were less than scientific, but interesting, (and frightening), all the same. I usually travel between 100-120km/hr. A large percentage of these passed me not only in the outside lane, but also on the inside lane. Distractions included typical cell phone usage, applying various forms of makeup, newspaper reading, eating what looked like a bowl of cereal, having animated conversation with other occupants of the vehicle, wearing headphones, (I can only assuming listening to music), and these last 3, which if they hadn't been so downright scary, would make the top 10 of anyone's list.... One woman with a cigarette in one hand, a cell phone in the other and a map across the dashboard. One guy with a bluetooth headset on having a very animated conversation with a timmies in his left hand and some kind of breakfast in the other! A late teens (guess) girl with a cigarette in her mouth, cell phone resting against the steering wheel with thumbs goings like crazy text messaging someone, timmies cup, presumably full on the top of the dashboard, with, get this, "God loves me", on a sticker on her trunk.........she may get to meet him sooner rather than later. Banning hand held cellphones is not the answer. Anyone can have a hands free cellphone relatively cheaply these days and mount their phone on a pedestal or on the dash, but how are they going to stop the text messages, dialing and web surfing??????????? Although I have mixed feelings about it, the only way is to ban usage by the driver under all circumstances when moving. The problem then becomes usage by passengers who are a third party in the conversation.............not sure that one is any less distracting either. GPS usage is another story. It would be next to impossible to enforce. I'm not sure that a GPS giving prompts as to where to turn is any less distracting than listening to the radio.......and probably much less so than a driver with headphones on listening to whatever.... I will be watching the first court challenge with interest.

Thanks for sharing your first year, I hope that you have become hopelessly addicted.

I have a Garmin Nuvi 360 Lew and I really like it. I bought this model for it's Bluetooth capability which gives me hands free cellphone capability. I find the I am using it more and more. Even for silly stuff like finding the closest Timmies.........

Belated happy birthday Chris...