Category Archives: Editorial

Mobil1 Oil in a Cheap Wine Box

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Cheap wine box full of Mobil1

Mobil1 Oil in a cheap wine box?  Yes.  You are reading this correctly.  Let me explain…

Today was oil-change-day for my wife’s Equinox and my Camaro as well.  I headed early this morning to Wally-World to see what was available.

The Equinox takes 5 quarts; the Camaro takes 8 quarts.  So normally I would buy my favorite 5 quart containers but today, i found something new…  Turns out some genius at the Mobil oil marketing department, came up with the brilliant idea of packaging 12 quarts (yes a dozen) of Mobil1 in a cheap wine box.

For those of you that don’t know what I am talking about, head out to the wine section of your favorite  local grocery store and find the “boxed wine” shelf.  That is where you can find the cheap wine packaged in a heavy cardboard box holding a “bag” full of wine.  Even comes with a nifty spigot that helps dispense the product.

I am a bit of a wine snob and this is the ultimate insult for what Galileo called “sunlight trapped in a liquid”.  No matter how humble wine is, it should be respected enough to be properly bottled.  But no.  The cheapest of the cheap has to suffer the indignity of being packaged in a plastic bladder stuffed in a cardboard box.  And now, they have done this to Mobil1.

What made this worse for me was that I didn’t realize the box contained a plastic bag full of oil.  No.  I learned of this when I got home and noticed the box had a “don’t cut this box with a knife” warning.  That is when I realized you have to carefully open a flap on the front of the box, then reach in the box, grab the spigot and gently pull it out.  Then after that, diligently place the spigot it in the proper position.  Made me think of something else you have to carefully grab and gently pull out before you can put it in the right position. 😉

The Good:

All this wonderment for $49 and change.  Not too bad, right?

But the deal goes downhill very, very quick from here.  I did buy a 5 quart bottle and fortunately that jug came with a handy with a way to measure off individual quarts by looking at the tick marks on the side of the plastic container.  So I dispensed the 5 quarts in the container first, and used the empty container to help figure out how much I had to use from there.

The Bad:

And here is where the “deal” goes south even more quickly.

Dispensing expensive synthetic motor oil should not be from a plastic bladder.  You see, that spigot in the picture above is not at the lowest point in the bag.  This means that when you think you have dispensed every drop of goodness…  Think again…

Open the “empty” box and we find this…

Too much Mobil1 to waste…  But how can we get this out?

Yep.  Quite a bit of expensive oil is still in the bag.  Surely you don’t throw this away!  So, I had to get pair of scissors and very carefully open an exit for this bit of oil.  Of course, if you don’t get it just perfect you end up making a mess.  Oh and that is not the only way to make a mess…  The spigot leaks every time you open/close that valve!

Take Aways…

You might ask why I am making such a big deal out of something so trivial.  Especially when there are so many things wrong with the world today.  Well, this is an epic fail on the part of the Mobil oil company.  Just think of the thousands of folks out there that don’t read the directions and cut into the box just to have 12 quarts of oil go everywhere.  Expensive lesson (to the tune of $49) to learn, huh?

The 5 quart plastic jug is the hands-down winner.  You can use it as a measuring device (thanks for the tick marks on the side) and it is easy and convenient to use.  I suppose the ultimate solution would be to save 5 quart jugs and refill them from a “cheap wine box of Mobil1”.

But no.  There is something very wrong about fumbling about trying to pull the spigot out of that box…

Any guess on what kind of ratchet we have here?

Michael Collins

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Today, I read a tweet from Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) about the passing of Michael Collins…  Another of my childhood heroes passed on today; he was 90.

Ad Astra, Michael Collins.  God Speed….

2020 Mileage Roundup

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Coming to you on a rainy and dreary New Year’s Day 2021, with the previous mileage roundup for the fleet.  Thanks to the pandemic, 2020 was not the greatest to report outings for any members of the stable.  Good for saving money on fuel and wear-and-tear, but cars are made for driving and this was no fun.

I just realized I did not post totals for 2018 and 2019, so i’ll include them here for good measure.

RedRock

This is sad – my 2014 Camaro didn’t see much of the road this year.  With lockdown in place and working from home, didn’t get a chance to get out much…

2014 Camaro SS – RedRock

QuickSilver

Well I suppose this makes my AP1 S2000 more valuable…  It didn’t get driven at all in 2020.  But, I am not quite ready yet to let her go.  Have you seen what nice S2K’s are going for on BAT these days!  Yikes!!

2003 Honda S2000 – QuickSilver

bowtie6

I feel bad for poor old bowtie6.  Hardly driven in 2020.  The RedTop Optima took quite a hit during lockdown – it suffered loss of charge.  So much so, I had to get a battery tender.  I have written about it here:  NOCO Genius10 Battery Charger Review

1972 Triumph TR6 – bowtie6

Finally, some dashboard pictures:

Good Riddance 2020

With 2021 ahead, lets just hope things turn out better for us all.  With vaccines on the horizon I try to be optimistic about 2021.  Sure would be nice to be able to return to some sort of normalcy.  However, the reality is things are still not well not only here in America but in the rest of the world.

Flipping channels last night, I did get to see folks celebrating the New Year in New Zealand where according to the news, covid does not pose a threat.  I reckon folks there had a more unified and caring approach than the rest of us…  Maybe there is hope…

Happy New Year and be safe…

Habanero Pepper Jam

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For the past few years, I have been planting a small garden in my back yard.  I started with a small planter box and through the years, i’ve added three more.  I don’t get too elaborate, mainly eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, herbs and a few hot pepper plants.

This year, thanks to Covid the majority of the plants came from Burpee – they were shipped a little late because everybody in America decided on planting a garden but it was all good. The Burpee plants did very well, but I still needed my hot peppers.  The peppers came from Lowe’s, where I bought one Habanero pepper plant, one Tabasco pepper plant and one Havasu pepper plant.

One of my favorite hot peppers are Habaneros – they are hot as hell and they really make you feel alive when you cut one up and added to some salsa or eat it in tiny bites.  This year, I planted my Habanero plant in a small pot, with some fresh potting soil.  This little plant has been awesome:  I’ve picked dozens of peppers and they are especially hot.

But, what to do with a bountiful harvest of Habanero peppers?  Well, the answer is Habanero Jam. I found a great Habanero Pepper Jam recipe that really works.  I won’t go into all the details because they have already been covered in that link – but suffice to say, the result is amazing.  The Habanero pepper jam comes out with plenty of kick.  Very satisfying, just hot enough to make you come back for more.  So far, i’ve made three batches.  The first two batches I made according to the recipe but I deviated a bit on batch number three.

The “base” recipe yields four 8-ounce Mason jars of goodness.  You will have a little bit extra, enough to be used the day you make the batch.  The recipe calls for 1/2 pound of Habanero peppers – about 15-20 peppers depending on size.

But first, some words of CAUTION.  Habaneros are weapons-grade peppers.  You must handle them with care, in a well ventilated area.  I cut mine in the patio, wearing disposable gloves.  The peppers must be cut and cleaned before cooking – I removed all seeds as well as the inside membrane.

To make things exciting, I’ve added a handful of Tabasco peppers.  You can see in the picture above, the little red peppers.  These peppers don’t have the kick of the Habaneros, but they are quite hot.  I also removed the seeds by cutting the tip and pushing them out.  Basically, they add a little red to the end result.

And finally, I added three Havasu peppers.  These peppers taste like bell peppers but have a small kick of heat.  They add color as well.

I added one more ingredient to today’s mix.  A couple of nice mangoes…

All this goes in a food processor and that gets pulsed a few times until you have a smooth consistency.  Again CAUTION:  the fumes after processing the peppers can take your breath away – just be careful.  This mixture is potent!

From here you follow Canning 101 steps…

  • Sterilize the jars
  • Fill them up using a wide funnel (can’t do this without it)
  • Handle the jars with special tongs

Adding the two mangos increased the yield – this time I got 7 jars instead of just 4.  It also gave the jam a fuller body.  Adding the mango turned out just great!

I’ve tried the jam on baked salmon – it was awesome.  Also tried it on a pork chop and it was really good.  Finally, take a Ritz cracker, add a little bit of cream cheese and top it off with Habanero jam, for a real treat.  
Finally, one last trick:  Once the Mason jar lids “pop”, start turning the jars end over end a few times.  Do this until the jam sets up and it will ensure an even distribution of the contents.  Otherwise, the bits will tend to float to the top.

All that is left, is enjoy!

As always, hope all is well with you during these weird times.  Be safe!

2014 Camaro Tail Lights

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My 2014 Camaro SS

The 2014 Camaro tail lights are mounted in a way to allow water on either side of the trunk to freely flow and exit under the rear bodywork.  Two plastic covers finish off the installation and give a nice appearance, however their design is piss-poor.

But first, why did I remove the rear tail light plastic covers to begin with?  Turns out, I recently washed my 2014 Camaro SS and noticed not only a handsome scratch but also a dent on the tip of the rear driver’s side fender.

That should buff out…

Thanks to Covid, my driving has been reduced dramatically and I just can’t place where this damage happened.  I am very anal when it comes to this type of thing, so I made a few phone calls and found a local paintless dent repair shop not far from my home.  I visited the shop and after a few minutes, the fellow said “no problem, we can fix the damage”.  I was not too thrilled about the price, but hey, the fellow at the repair shop has to make a living.

Back to the plastic covers…

Here is the driver’s side covers before removal.  They are held in place with three of those expanding plastic tabs – the damn things are a pain to remove.  As you can see, the plastic cover is designed to direct water (and any debris) to flow under it.  And there lies the design issue…

This is what the cavity looks like, and you can now see the problem.  This area is a magnet for dust, debris, pollen, you name it.  I pulled out two good hand fulls of crap from here.  I can see in the future one day, folks finding major rust areas in this cavity.

And so, i’ve learned the hard way to keep this area clean.  I will make a point to keep this area clean by removing the covers more frequently.  After a quick search on eBay I found a vendor that sells the plastic clips for not much money.  Those things are so easy to break. so I will have a few replacements going forward.

How did the dent removal go?  Pleased to say it was worth every penny.  They found a couple of other places that needed attention and I could not be happier.  Amazing what they can do!

Life continues in our new “normal”.  F1 is back – yay! – sure is nice to watch it again.  There is some close racing, just wish some of the other teams were closer to the Mercs.  HAM is great but it would be nice to see others reach the podium.  Then again, there is some great racing in the midfield.

I just finished reading “Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story Of The Atomic Bomb And The 118 Days That Changed The World”.  Once you get past the opening pages, the book reads very fast and is amazing.

Here are in no particular order some take aways…

Harry Truman had no clue of the Manhattan Project at the time of FDR’s death.  After assuming office, Truman meets with War Secretary Henry Stimson and General Leslie Groves (director of the Manhattan Project and incidentally overseer of the construction of The Pentagon) and in in 45 minutes is briefed about the tool that will end WWII.  I sincerely doubt modern-day politicians would have the ability to do that.  And on top of that, the ultimate decision to use the new weapon in 118 days.  Think about that…

Of course, the book explains in detail the 509th Composite Group and the man in charge of it: General Paul Tibbets.  Quite a few years ago, Paul Tibbets hosted a talk here in Greenville SC.  I made it a point to attend and after the presentation ended, I took the time to stay so I could shake his hand.  I remember he talked about the effort and determination on what had to be done and how that altered the course of the war.  As a result of the talk, I made it a point to go see the Enola Gay as well as Bockscar.

And finally, the book discussed the predictions the War Department made regarding casualties from an all-out invasion of Japan.  This hit very close to home…  My Dad didn’t talk much about his service during WWII but every now and again, he would break his silence.  A few years before he passed, we took a road trip to the AirForce Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB and that is where we saw Bockscar.  On the way back home, Dad explained how he was on leave in mid-1945 after serving in Germany.  He had been told by his superiors to enjoy the time off and get his shit together, because if needed he would be part of the invasion force against Japan.  Dad then told me the casualty predictions were better than 50%.  That is what this book mentioned.

I’ll have another update soon on my next book…  Stay safe.