Prayer For My Father

My Dad went to Heaven last week-- a good long life, peaceful last days at home-- as much as our family could hope for.


Oddly, the day of his passing, I was driving Correcaminos to their house and got to the same spot where, decades before, a truck had run a red and hit my Renault 10 just behind my Dad in the passenger seat. I remember how shaken we both were then ( and I now accept full responsibility for all the advanced psychology that might be applied to this situation-- i.e. "it wasn't an accident" type of thinking). And on this day of his passing, I had a yellow to turn left on, looked up the oncoming lane, and lo and behold, realized that the school bus in the slow lane was speeding up to beat the red. It didn't-- a really bad running a red light, worst I'd seen since that accident. More than one person beeped. These kind of events stretch the meaning of coincidence pretty far.


I didn't define my Dad by his cars, but here they are, throughout his life (some of the years are rough guesses). A pretty interesting bunch:


mid '50s Ford Fairlane, red and white
'59 Peugeot 403, black
'62 Peugeot 404, light green
'64 Ford Fairlane station wagon, light blue
'68 Ford Country Sedan station wagon, green
'70 Ford Country Squire station wagon, yellow and 
       woodgrain
'69 Chevelle Malibu, yellow
'80s Dodge Aspen coupe, white with blue vinyl roof
'85 Isuzu Impulse, dark blue
'90s Buick LeSabre, white
'00 Buick LeSabre, copper


Not bad, Dad! I love you and will continue to honor your safe driving and teachings with these writings.

They can hear you

I met a man briefly today-- nice man, probably a hard worker with a family. Middle aged: he was on top of a ladder, installing something for Optimum Online along Howells Road. I aimed Corre a bit left to give his van and ladder lots of room, and as there were no oncoming cars, could have accelerated. But the thought came-- he can hear me if I accelerate or decelerate. This was my meeting with this man, who I will most likely never see again. He was in a more vulnerable position, and I could either give him a sound from Corre that said " I don't care" or "I care." I decelerated slightly out of respect.

Pedestrians can hear your car.

Right Turn

I can get Corre or Mercedita around a right turn faster if I use the power steering ability to control the wheel with one hand, the right, and rapidly place my left elbow high and at a right angle to my body to brace it on the side window. Otherwise, I'd slide left. The elbow brace I mention is not a race move-- it allows me to control my head and thus my seeing better.

Zero to Fifteen

I have some other moves.

Zero to sixty is, really, zero to ten or twenty-- it's most useful, with our modern traffic, when using a gap to make a turn across traffic.

For example, I'm waiting to make a left turn on a two lane road and Corre is at a standstill, no miles per hour. There are styles to bridge this gap in oncoming traffic. My default is, I don't want to move my car at any angle while another car is approaching-- this would disturb the oncoming driver and might cause a reaction. I look closely at relative speeds af each of the next five or six cars coming. When I find a suitable gap, I let Corre move forward, to maybe one or two MPH-- with straight wheels. It's important to note here that the New York Drivers Manual states to keep the wheels straight while waiting for a turn, in case of a rear collision (my default at the one important intersection I use weekly is, if a rearward car shows signs of hitting me, I accelerate and go straight-- they couldn't hit me if they tried).

Then I turn, rapidly through the gap after checking left to make sure nothing else, a person or a bike, is nearby. With a left turn, I thumb the steering wheel left hand to the 6 o'clock spoke and rotate it about 270 degrees left. This involves less shoulder motion, and hey-- I have power steering. Although I am a bit aggressive and try smaller gaps than most other drivers, I never get beeped at for this move. The key is to react to the back of the departing car, and have the oncoming car not be concerned with you.

Aeromodding and Hypermiling

I took a long look at my wallet the other day, then a long look at Correcaminos, then another long look at my projects-- less and less.

At one stage of his career, my father was Chief Of Aerodynamics at Republic Fairchild Hiller Aviation. He helped with some pretty cool stuff, a lot of wind tunnel testing. So my look at Corre, and at the Web, was with an eye to improving its aerodynamics. For example, look up Aerocivic.

Last week, I purchased online twenty vortex generator tabs. To be continued-- I will report their effect on gas mileage eventually.

I'm looking into the legality of taking off my outside rearview mirrors-- remember, I already use an oversize inside mirror that shows me considerable overlap.

There is evidence that a small raised bar in front of the windshied wipers will guide air more effectively past the windshield area.

And there's much more, a la Aerocivic and others. I may, next spring, cover the rear wheels, and put flat aero wheel covers on the fronts.

Then there's hypermiling, much more serious in that it involves car control. Time to read about it-- a worthy challenge.

character as if we didn't have cars

I find it amusing and I care, as if for a child, that the behavior we have in cars is not the same as we have face to face. Today, I had to back off as another driver veered into my lane-- a man by the way. I realized how embarrassed he would be if we were standing around at a party, and I mentioned to someone else "Yes, I had to cover for him to keep us all safe."


Imagine this statement, or "Yes, I had to keep away from him to keep my son safe" if it did not involve cars-- how absurd it would be.


As said before, driving while semi-anonymous is a true test-- of your character.

the Police don't bother with me

Which one are you?

1. The Police are the worst-- they're out to get me.

2. The Police don't do anything.

3. The Police are not as smart as me-- I can outwit them with my senses and devices.

4. The Police don't bother me-- I'm immune and invisible.

5. The Police don't have to bother with me-- they have more important things to do.
6. My style of driving sometimes helps keep order and therefore helps the Police.
7. I am a member of the Police Force.

I am 5, sometimes 6. I have a lot of respect for 7. It is a demanding job and there are not enough Police to do it entirely. 

I have a little habit-- when I'm driving and have a car in back of me: if it moves to another lane, I instinctively look to see if it's been replaced by a Police car. Why? It's not a paranoia, not a fright. I just want to  make sure that, as I am cruising along at highway speed, with my proper following distance, I am not getting in the way of an overtaking vehicle that has the right to go 100 mph-- a cop. Since I am not the slowest driver on the road, I don't want a cop to decide to ticket me, not knowing my intent while driving. So I look-- once in a great while it appears that it is a Police car. If so, I let them through.