3009 Escapes

Saturday, July 3, 2010

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
-- Plato --

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So, last night the Hairless Hunk was cutting up some downed trees in my yard when Vic arrived to work on the van. I left them to it, and went to dinner and a movie. I didn't get home until very late.

HH called this morning to tell me that Vic fixed the brake line on the driver's side, but then found a leak on the passenger side too. So he'll be returning Tuesday night to replace that one.

Then Vic wants me to re-register it (it's still insured, and has plates on it) and drive it to Captain Vantastic's, where he'll finish the job. I'm not clear on this re-registering business. I let the registration lapse because I couldn't get it inspected. I guess Vic thinks it will pass inspection? And that it will make it to Esopus?

One step at a time. Right now I have to figure out how to avoid being trapped by Vic Tuesday night. I don't think I can just leave again.

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Last night's movie was "City Island". It was really good, funny, I enjoyed it. Trailer here.

One thing I didn't understand was that at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, a big deal was made about the difference between people born in (on?) City Island (an old fishing village, a piece of New England, in the Bronx), and people who came there from elsewhere. Natives are "clam diggers", and imports are "mussel suckers". It was treated as very important. But the distinction had nothing whatsoever to do with the story.

Perhaps the movie is from a book, and that part was left out.

Watch for it. I recommend it. Men who aren't apes will enjoy it, too.

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Today I went to a demolition derby at the Rhinebeck fairgrounds. I haven't been to a DD in forty years. I used to love them.

Well, I seem to have this problem. Every time I go anywhere new, to a party, on a tour, a hike, a festival, a date, whatever, if I haven't been there before I have a picture in my head of what it will be like, and I am ALWAYS disappointed. Always. I try very hard not to preconceive the experience, but I can't stop me, and reality never meets my expectations.

The old demolition derbies in Pennsylvania were always on a racing oval. It was an actual race (hence "Derby") in one direction around the oval, the drivers tried to put the competition out of commission, and the winner was the last car still moving. It took a while, cars lapped each other, and the track gradually filled with debris, bumpers, fenders, tires, and eventually what was left of the losing cars. Most collisions were either sideways or someone coming up behind another car and hitting it in the rear end. Bumpers, hoods, trunks were not reinforced.

Imagine my disappointment when I arrived and found this (clicking a photo will biggify it):
That's not a track! It's a boxing ring!

And that's pretty much how it went. They had 4 different "events" based on the size and weight of the cars. They'd throw 10 or 12 cars in there, and the drivers mostly just drove backward trying to bash the other cars with their rear ends, aiming mostly for the other guy's motor or tires. They couldn't get up much speed.

Lots of cars lost tires or whole wheels. One valiant little car did a heck of a lot of damage on three wheels - driver's side rear tire was gone. The advantage of four-wheel drive, I guess.

Lining up at the start. The second car from the right has a huge stuffed animal on top.

Getting caught in the middle. Bad place to be.

First and second place winners in this class. The dark car, second place, went through most of the round on three wheels - note that badly tilted front tire.

There were more people in the stands than these photos imply. The largest of the three sets of bleachers had a roof, and therefore shade, and was packed.

See what I mean about them having very little room to move, so no speed? It gets worse when most of the cars are disabled, and you can't get around them. Yeah, that's smoke coming out of the car in front, but it didn't catch fire. Those red things in the back are fire trucks standing by.

And, here's what happens when you go to a demolition derby:
(That's my underarm you're looking at, not what it looks like.)

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Later. Now here's a 1:53 clip of a demolition derby sort of like I remember them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9A_jwF5lQY

This one's more exciting because it's a figure 8 track. Whoop!