Truthful Tuesday

Truthful Tuesday — Road Rallies

Fandango9 Comments

Frank, aka PCGuyIV, is back with another episode of Truthful Tuesday. The idea behind Truthful Tuesday is for us to respond to the question (or questions) Frank asks and to be 100% truthful in our responses. No glib answers, no funny business, no fibs. Just raw honesty.

For this week’s Truthful Tuesday, Frank wants to know…

Are there any hobbies or pastimes that you have abandoned that you occasionally consider taking up again? If so, do you actually give it a try again, or does something keep you from giving it another go?

The only pastime that I abandoned that I would occasionally consider taking up again is driving in road rallies. Do you know what road rallies are? It’s not drag racing or driving at high speeds around a track or a dirt obstacle course. I was never a race car driver. Road rallies are much more civilized than those things. So what, then, is a road rally?

It’s essentially a scenic drive with a purpose, a chance to enjoy a day with a friend, and the least expensive form of motorsport. Road rally events do not involve speed, teams do not need specialized equipment for their car. Basically, all that is needed are pens, paper, and a wristwatch.

Touring rallies are events where the emphasis is on staying on-time and arriving at each checkpoint at precisely the correct time. These are also known as Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) events and they use easy to follow route instructions to guide contestants along roads that are fun to drive. In addition to instructions, which include average speeds, sometimes the mileage is given for each route instruction, which makes the course even easier to follow. 

Teams compete to see who is the best at reading the route instructions carefully, following the route, and maintaining the assigned average speeds. Each team is made up of two people, with one of them — the driver — keeping eyes on the road and the other — the navigator — reading directions, figuring out times, and helping spot landmarks.  

Competition is measured by when teams arrive at precisely-measured checkpoints set up along the rally route where the exact arrival time has been calculated based on the designated average speeds. Penalty points are assigned if a team arrives at a checkpoint late or early. The further off the time, the more points the team gets and when the time comes to hand out trophies, the lowest score wins.  

When I was in my twenties and was going through my British roadster phase, I used to compete in road rallies at least once a month, sometimes twice a month if I could convince one of the guys to be my navigator. I would occasionally invite a girl to be my navigator, but I found that most of the girls who navigated for me were more interested in the scenery and talking than reading maps and keeping time.

I think I came in third twice but never took home the big trophy. And that was fine. I did it mostly as an excuse to explore beautiful sunny days and scenic roads in my sports cars with the top down.

Then I met my future wife, married her, and she got pregnant. My British roadsters were replaced by station wagons and minivans. It just wasn’t the same.

Would I do it again? I suppose, if I could find a local road rally group that would welcome a septuagenarian, could persuade my wife to be my navigator, and use my little EV, then I might. I would have to learn some new rules about how modern technology can be applied because things like GPS navigation didn’t exist back in the day.

Truthful Tuesday — Networking

Fandango13 Comments

Frank, aka PCGuyIV, is back with another episode of Truthful Tuesday. The idea behind Truthful Tuesday is for us to respond to the question (or questions) Frank asks and to be 100% truthful in our responses. No glib answers, no funny business, no fibs. Just raw honesty.

For this week’s Truthful Tuesday, Frank wants to know…

When you hear the term, networking, what instantly comes to mind? Social networking, such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Tik Tok, LinkedIn, or other such platforms, or do you think about going to industry meet and greets with tons of business cards doing shameless self-promotion, or do you think about connecting an office full of computers together? Or does it mean something else entirely to you? Any idea why that’s what comes to mind for you?

When I was still in the workforce, and before social networking sites like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Tik Tok, LinkedIn, Instagram, or other such platforms were around, “networking” did, to me, mean mostly doing what Frank describes as going to industry meet and greets, seminars, user group conferences, etc, and handing out and receiving tons of business cards. I’m not sure I’d admit to “shameless self-promotion,” though.

And yes, I thought about — and still do think about — networking as a company full of computers networked together.

Now I’m retired and I no longer go to industry meet and greets or user group conferences, etc. Further, I’m not an active user of any of the social media sites Frank mentioned. But I do consider WordPress to be a form of networking in that I interact (i.e., network) with people from around the globe via my and their blogs. But I don’t hand out business cards nor do I engage in “shameless self-promotion.”

That said, won’t you please read my blog? I’m begging you. I’m down on one knee pleading with you to read and follow my blog. I’ll even send you an old business card if you want one!

Fibbing Friday — Mixed Bag

Fandango13 Comments

Di (aka Pensitivity101) hosts Fibbing Friday, a silly little exercise where we are to write a post with our answers to the ten questions below. But as the title suggests, truth is not an option. The idea is to fib a little, a lot, tell whoppers, and be inventive, silly, or even outrageous, in our responses. For this week’s Fibbing Friday, Di is giving us a mixed bag and asking for our suggestions.

1. What is a juggernaut? A ceramic jug used by moonshiners to store the liquor they have distilled from their illegal stills.
2. What is an HGV? It’s a High Gas Vehicle, (i.e., a gas-guzzler).
3. What is an off roader? Someone whose job it is to take the carcasses of dead animals who were hit by cars and trucks and remove them from the road.
4. What is a 4 X 4? A ménage à trois but with four people instead of three.
5. What is a turbine? It’s a type of car engine that is turbocharged.
6. Where will you find an octave? Octave is the 15th of October, like today, March 15th, is the Ides of March.
7. What is a dovetail joint? It’s a large, manually rolled cannabis cigarette that is about the size of a dove’s tail.
8. What is a messerschmitt? The German name for Mister Smith.
9. What is a tangerine? A dream.
10. What is a mattock? The name of a 1986-1995 American TV defense attorney lawyer played by Andy Griffith.

Truthful Tuesday — Vocation Versus Avocation

Fandango7 Comments

Frank, aka PCGuyIV, is back with another episode of Truthful Tuesday. The idea behind Truthful Tuesday is for us to respond to the question (or questions) Frank asks and to be 100% truthful in our responses. No glib answers, no funny business, no fibs. Just raw honesty.

For this week’s Truthful Tuesday, Frank wants to know…

Have you ever had a lucrative hobby?

Hmm. By “lucrative,” I guess Frank means a hobby from which money can be earned. I wish, but no. My hobbies have been for my personal enjoyment and not with the expectation of producing a marketable product or service.

I did have at one point a vast collection of mid-century baseball cards and comic books. I thought that, at some far-off day in the future, these two collections might be worth something. But my dream of selling my baseball cards and comic book collections vanished, along with my baseball cards and comic books, when I was away at college and my father decided to throw them out because they were “taking up too much room” and because he thought it was just “kids’ stuff.”

At one point a few years back I did some research and determined that the two collections would have fetched a few thousand bucks, between them.

As to writing, I have a couple of started but unfinished novels that I abandoned when I couldn’t figure out what direction to take them. I turned to blogging as a vehicle for expressing myself, but with no expectations of generating any income.

And I’m okay with never having had a lucrative hobby. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

Truthful Tuesday — This or That

Fandango4 Comments

Frank, aka PCGuyIV, is back with another episode of Truthful Tuesday. The idea behind Truthful Tuesday is for us to respond to the question (or questions) Frank asks and to be 100% truthful in our responses. No glib answers, no funny business, no fibs. Just raw honesty.

For this week’s Truthful Tuesday, Frank is doing something different. He says:

We’re going to play a game of “This or That.” Even if something else is truly your favorite, the idea isn’t necessarily to get to the favorite, but to reveal which of the two options you would prefer. I will accept a vote of neither if there is truly no preference between the two listed, but don’t provide a third alternative.

Spring or Summer? Spring

Summer or Autumn? Autumn

Autumn or Winter? Autumn

Spring or Autumn? Autumn

Summer or Winter? Neither. Summer is too damn hot; winter is too damn wet.

Spring or Winter? Spring

Picnic in the park or backyard barbecue? Backyard barbecue

Dining outside or dining inside? This depends on the weather outside, but if it’s not too hot or too cold and the wind isn’t gusting and it’s not raining, then dining outside is my preference.

Cooking out (backyard grill) or eating out (restaurant)? Cooking out (backyard grill). Who can afford to eat out at a restaurant very often?

Fresh cut flowers or potted plants? Fresh cut flowers don’t last very long, so I’m going with potted plants.