This page contains material from the January 2003 newsletter

EDITOR: Jim Pittman NEXT MEETING: Wednesday January 8th, 7:30 PM Galles Chevrolet, Lomas & University THIS MONTH: New Member Sylvan Zuercher Dues Due Sylvan Zuercher December Meeting Minutes Chuck Vertrees December Board Meeting Chuck Vertrees The Driver's Seat Robert Gold Seven Years Ago Jim Pittman Calendar of Coming Events Everybody CNM Ladies Anne Mae Gold For Sale, Trade or Wanted Everybody Revisiting Dummy of the Month Club Dr. X Travel Letters Richard Finch Cat Haiku the Internet Into the new Millennium Jim Pittman CNM Member List 2003 the Editor COVER: Jim gets a test drive in a 1998 BMW coupe. =cnm= New Members -by- Sylvan Zuercher Roger Pape was a guest at our November meeting and joined CNM at the Christmas dinner at KAFB. Roger has three convertibles that he is working on, when he has the time, and a Corvair powered dune buggy. Let's have a big CNM welcome to Roger! Dues Expired or Due or Approaching Due: John Topp 2002-Oct Doug Gadomski 2003-Jan John Wiker 2003-Jan John Dinsdale 2003-Feb Carl Johnson 2003-Feb Frank Stadler 2003-Feb Mike Stickler 2003-Feb Jay Ecclestone 2003-Mar Jerry Goffe 2003-Mar Mike Hacker 2003-Mar Geoffrey Johnson 2003-Mar If your membership is due or has expired, please send your dues to: Wendell Walker, CNM Treasurer, 301 Utah Meadow, Rio Rancho, NM 87124 Note: the Club will mail in your National dues when you renew, but only if you send us the renewal form from CORSA Communique! =cnm= COVER: Jim looks over the BMW coupe he drove around in the dark the night before. No, there were no bent fenders! This previously owned 1998 car had a sticker price of $38,000 so you can imagine some restraint was exercised! Even more so with the 2002 Porsche Boxter S which was something like $57,000 and had a throttle response like a toggle switch! Trying to feed in a little more acceleration felt something like selecting afterburner mode. =cnm= December Meeting Notes by Chuck Vertrees The meeting was called to order at 19:30 on 12/4/02 at Galles Chevrolet. All officers were present. There were 21 members in attendance, which is pretty good at this time of the year. There were no guests present. However, new member Roger Pape was introduced. Roger was a guest at the last meeting and joined at the Christmas dinner at KAFB. Roger has three convertibles that he is working on, when he has the time, and a Corvair powered dune buggy. The minutes of the last meeting were approved as printed in the newsletter. Treasurer, Wendell Walker, reported that we had $915.92 in the checking account and $4,835.22 in the GMAC account for a total of $5.751.14. There was no report from the women's auxiliary because they did not meet during December. There also was no Car Council report since they did not meet in November or December. The December 1st Christmas party at KAFB was a great success, however, there were some members who were really missed because they had to be out of town. We all owe a big round of applause to Rita Gongora and Hector Gongora for arranging this function. They have done it every year for a number of years and it is really appreciated. Steve Gongora reported that not only was it a great time, but we came out almost $4.00 ahead after everyone had paid. Mark Domzalski said that he had not heard anything from CORSA, but that he had found Palm Springs windy, cloudy, and cool. The wind shredded one cover. Tarmo Sutt said that he came into Palm Springs from the coast (West) and that it rained all the way. However, everyone who was there said it was a nice affair. Sylvan Zuercher said that he cleared a little over his expenses, and that he saw many people that he had not seen for years. Joel Nash said that he heard many good comments about CNM and its newsletter. CORSA really needs to set up clear criteria as to what they think a newsletter should be! Mark Martinek wondered how you could get into the D.U.M.B. club without writing a letter. This precipitated a lengthy presentation of many stories from many members, which I could not possibly get down in my notes. Particularly since one of them was mine. Members were reminded that the deadline for submission to Bill Reider of a design for the Raton Tri-State patch was the January meeting. The board will come up with a prize of some sort for the winner. Dave Huntoon went on a cruise with the V.W. Air Alliance (I think that is their name). It was suggested that they might be invited to join us on some of our outings. After all we are all air-cooled. The board will work on it. So far we don't have a garage tour planned for February. The board did not give LeRoy Rogers enough time to work on it. The board will consider a possible tour of Bode Aviation or a trip to Tarmo and Kay's with a visit to some of the Santa Fe museums. Stay tuned. The Bosque tour is scheduled for January 18th. We will plan for the bus to leave the visitor's center at 09:00. However, there are lost and lots of birds and if you want to see the dawn exodus you would need to arrive at sun-rise, then take the bus at 09:00. Jim Pittman gave some high spots of his and Heula's Thanksgiving trip to Baton Rouge. He got to drive an interesting selection of cars while there and also found that tire pressure is not very important to some people. This was followed by more stories, and finally the meeting was adjourned at 20:25. PHOTO: Mary & Heula and the new 2003 Civic in Baton Rouge, 25 Nov 2002. =cnm= December Board Meeting by Chuck Vertrees The meeting was called to order at 17:20 on December 18th at House of Covers. Present were Jim Pittman, Steve Gongora, Wendell Walker, Sylvan Zuercher, Chuck Vertrees and Joel Nash. Joel was a little late and apologized for being late since he thought the meeting started at 17:30. The minutes of the last board meeting were approved as published in the newsletter. Wendell reported that CNM had $960.92 in the checking account and $4,835.22 in the GMAC account for a total worth of $5,796.14. The first item discussed was what activity to have in February. We approached LeRoy Rogers too late for him to set up the usual garage tour. It had been suggested that Steve Johnson could arrange a tour of Bode Aviation (at Double Eagle Airport) or a tour of Empire Engines could be arranged with Brian Sedillo. Sylvan said that he had talked with both Steve and Brian and they both were agreeable to arranging a tour on a Saturday. Joel apologized for being late. Bode Aviation does overhauls on aircraft engines and other aircraft maintenance. The air-cooled opposed aircraft engines are somewhat similar to the Corvair engine. Empire Engines does machine work on Corvair engines and also builds racing engines. Bode Aviation is at Double Eagle Airport and Empire Engines is near Jefferson and I-25. It was decided that because of the distance between the two sites we should chose only one to tour. We would probably lose quite a few between the two sites if done on the same day. As a result it was decided to tour Bode Aviation on February 15th. Sylvan will set it up for lunch, at a place as yet undetermined, at 11:00 and the tour will start at 13:00. We can plan a tour of Empire Engines at some future date. Also it might be possible to have Brian Sedillo give a talk at the January meeting. Joel apologized for being late to the board meeting. It was brought up that the first Wednesday in January is New Year's Day and is hardly the right time to try and hold a meeting. Joel will check and see if we can get the meeting room on January 8th. Check elsewhere in the newsletter to confirm the January 8th date! It was bought up that the board has not heard anything from the last three recipients of the Meissner Award which is due to be presented at the March 9th Progressive Dinner celebrating the CNM birthday. The board will check with Mark Domzalski and see if he can give a brief summary of the award at the January meeting. It was mentioned that Mark had written an excellent summary and presentation on the Meissner award and the Boydston award in the past. It was noted that the Meissner award is a CNM award while the Boydston award is an inter-club award, part of our Tri-State events. Joel apologized for being late to the board meeting. A discussion followed as to whether CNM needs to change the date of election of officers and their installation date. Did the installation need to be a more formal event, such as at the dinner, or as it is now, "Here's the gavel". If the installation would be at the dinner, we would have to change the election date to prevent a long stretch with a lame duck president. If we change on the day of the election, the outgoing president would be unable to finish any plans he had. No conclusion was reached. Possible future presentations might include asking LeRoy Rogers give a talk on security, Steve contacting Plains Air Conditioning about a talk, or someone giving a non-technical talk about internet resources. Sylvan may have a contact who can give an internet talk that won't lose the non-computer experts among us. Joel apologized for being late to the meeting. It was brought up that during some of our presentations, some of our members who are not interested in the topic, just go on visiting with their neighbors. This is very poor conduct, and should not happen. The board hoped that we could ask Dave Huntoon to try and build a relationship, with the help of the board, with Air Alliance Club. Various clubs need to start forming some bonds with each other so we can unite if needed against unfounded measures that could be introduced by some of our uninformed politicos. After another apology by Joel about being late, the meeting was adjourned at 18:35. If any CNM members wonder (either through belief or disbelief in what's published in these meeting minutes) what really goes on at board meetings, the are very welcome to attend. They are always the second Wednesday after the regular meeting. However, we will see when it will be in January 2003. =cnm= Note from Vice-president Nash - Subject: Jan. 8 2003 meeting 1. I did manage to reach Joe Trujillo, who confirms that Jan.8 is OK with Galles. Our usual policy has been to postpone the meetings a week in case of conflict with holidays, but it is reassuring to get confirmation from our sponsor. (And, his wife is a witness.) 2. Sylvan will try to contact Brian Sedillo as a speaker on engine rebuilding that night. 3. I watched the Clarks' tape last night, all 93 minutes of it. Although it is somewhat interesting, I think we would have to chain the doors shut to keep everyone from leaving if we showed it at a meeting. (They might be sleeping too deeply to leave.) I am leaving the tape with Steve this afternoon; I would recommend letting people borrow it if desired. Even Cal Clark comments as to its length. 4. Apology 4.5: I noted that I had referred to the previous Board meeting minutes which stated that the meeting was called to order at 1730 hours; so there at least was some reason I thought it was at that time, and not a complete departure from reality. I think Trent Lott is 3.5 apologies ahead of me but I will stop now. No more from me. -- Joel =cnm= FROM THE DRIVER'S SEAT Robert Gold Well, it's time to chalk up another year. I finally got used to writing 2002 and 2003 is upon us. What usually happens to me is that I'll remember it's the new year for a couple of weeks, then old habits kick in and I start writing 2002 again, and that can really mess up a check! I was thinking what I have to look forward to in the coming year. Concerning cars, one big thing is that the tags for my Corvair fleet come due. I decided a while ago to renew on a two year cycle, so 2003 is when I get those nice reminders from MVD. I make sure I send the money in immediately so I can avoid the horrors of the local MVD office. The only good thing I see about tag renewal is that Corvairs don't have to have emissions testing. Since I'm writing about the passage of time I thought I'd relate a recent travel experience that shows how I'm lagging behind the times. On a recent trip to St. Louis I rented a new Dodge Intrepid. It had leather seats and other luxuries that made for a first class ride. However, there was one small problem. I locked the car and then as is my habit I unlocked it from the passenger side. SURPRISE!- the alarm went off and my blood pressure shot through the roof. Luckily, my younger brother, Alan, was there and he told me to go and unlock it from the driver's side. I don't think I'll ever get used to alarms on cars. Let's hear it for old technology! Speaking of technology I had one Corvair experience to tell you about. My '65 Monza was running poorly and I had tried everything short of an engine overhaul to fix it. It turned out I had missed one really important thing - you remember those plug wires in your car that were replaced when the first George Bush was President? Well, they've been cooking in the engine for all those years and they are not in very good shape. I replaced mine and the engine started running like it was new (only without leaded gas). So my suggestion to you is to look at replacing your plug wires (Clark's calls them cables). I'm now looking for a museum that would like a set of prehistoric fossilized plug wires for their collection. Oh yes, I want to mention an oversight I made at the last meeting. While recognizing the Johnsons, I failed to mention Gordon Johnson, who regularly attends our meetings. Though he's not a blood relative to Geoff, Carl, and Sally, he does count toward the Johnson tally. We're getting ever closer to an all Johnson all the time car club. Keep up the good work! I can't finish this column without a Christmas story. There are many beautiful light displays in my neighborhood. One family has Santa and his sleigh and enough lights to do a Las Vegas casino proud. You might ask what the Gold household's display looks like, well... I had every intention of putting up a nice display of lights. The problem was that Thanksgiving came and went and before I knew it Christmas was a few days away. So up went a couple of stands of lights along the porch. The Gold family is now experiencing a minimalist Christmas display. Luck for us my lovely wife got the tree up, so we do have some Christmas spirit. But wait until next year we'll have a really great light display-- Right! I guess that's all for now. Just remember that Jerry Goffe's tour of the Bosque del Apache is coming up in January (Saturday the 18). It was a lot of fun last year and I'm sure it will be even better this year. Jerry says there are even more eagles and hawks this year. Happy New Year and I'll see you at the next CNM meeting on January 1, 2003 at 7:30. -- Robert Gold [Wait -- while Robert was away the board decided to have the meeting on January 8th. When informed of this, Robert said, had he been at the meeting, he would have suggested it. So now all we have to do is make sure everybody gets the word.] ============================================================================ C O R V A I R S o f N E W M E X I C O C O M I N G E V E N T S ============================================================================ | | | | | J a n u a r y | F e b r u a r y | M a r c h | | | | | | : : : 1 2 3 4 | : : : : : : 1 | : : : : : : 1 | | 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | | 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | | 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 | 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 | 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 | | 26 27 28 29 30 31 : | 23 24 25 26 27 28 : | 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 | | : : : : : 2003 | : : : : : : : | 30 31 : : : : : | ============================================================================ Wed 1st January 2003 -- Happy New Year! Our meeting is NEXT week, not today! Wed 8th Jan 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 11th Jan 1:00-4:00 CNM Ladies - Sylvia Goffe - 1009 El Alhambra Cir NW Sat 18th Jan early! Bosque del Apache bus / photo tour - Jerry Goffe Wed 22nd Jan 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers -- a week late! Fri 24th Jan 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Wed 5th Feb 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 8th Feb 1:00-4:00 CNM Ladies - Ruth Boydston's Sat 15th Feb 11:00 AM Lunch & Garage Tour - Bode Aircraft - Double Eagle Wed 19th Feb 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 21st Feb 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Wed 5th Mar 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 8th Mar 9:00 AM Route 66 Clean-up - Ollie Scheflow Sat 8th Mar 1:00-4:00 CNM Ladies - TBA Sun 9th Mar ? Progressive Dinner - Birthday Party - TBA Wed 19th Mar 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 21st Mar 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sat 5th April early! Trinity Site Tour - bus from the Bosque - Jerry Goffe Sat May ? Albuquerque Museum/NMCCC Car Show Fri-Sat May 30-31 Tri-State Meet - Raton, New Mexico - Bill Reider Fri-Sun Jun ? Campout in the Pecos - Ruth Boydston Tue-Sat Jul 15-19 CORSA Convention - Carlisle, Pennsylvania =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Program Note!!!! Bryan Sedillo of Empire Engines will be our guest speaker on January 8th. Bryan will give some of the latest info on technology etc. Also Corvair headwork, cylinder boring, rod realignment etc. Bryan will answer questions that you may have about Corvair engine machine work. Empire engines is listed in our Care and Feeding booklet and a visit to the shop will be an eye opener. -- Joel Nash =cnm= CNM Ladies -by- Anne Mae Gold Happy New Year! May your 2003 be full of health, happiness and prosperity. On January 11, 2003 we will be meeting at Sylvia and Jerry Goffe's home. Meeting time will be from 1-4 pm as usual. The address is 1009 El Alhambra Cir NW, phone is 345-3100... please call for directions. In February we will meet at Ruth Boydston's home to eat her delicious white cake and celebrate another year with Wendell, so come out and join us! That's it for now! Hope to see you there.... AM =cnm= Tri-state Meet Update -by- LeRoy Rogers The 2003 Tri-State Meet is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, May 30 and 31, 2003. The committee has decided to use the Microtel Motel at 1640 Cedar Street as the host motel. Their rates are $44.95 plus tax for a room with two queen size beds and $53.95 plus tax for a suite which consists of a room with one queen size bed, a kitchenette and a couch that makes into a double bed. The phone number is 505-445-9100. When you make reservations mention the Corvair Meet to get these rates. Two alternate motels are recommended. The Super-8 at 610 Cedar Street, 505-445-2355 and the Motel-6 at 1600 Cedar Street, 505-445-2777. I do not have 2003 room rates from them yet. There is also an RV park available in Raton. It is Summerlan RV Park at 1900 South Cedar, phone 505-445-9536. The banquet will be held at Domingo's at 1903 South Cedar. They will offer three entrees in the $13 to $14 price range. More details to follow. We plan to have a patch for the meet. If you have any ideas for a design, turn them in at or before the January meeting. Bill Reider will accept ideas for a patch. Call him at 299-4597. * * * * * * * * * * * * * FOR SALE, TRADE OR WANTED * * * * * * * * * * * * * * FOR SALE: Two NOS tire chains for 13" wheels. $500 for two, or FREE to anyone who needs them. Larry Blair 821-1386 WANTED: 1960 Corvair 4 door sedan 500 or 700 series. Prefer running condition with minimum of missing items. Please contact me at: roharvey AT nmsu DOT edu or call 505-527-1353 (Las Cruces) (I realize this desire for a 1960 came to me at a weird time but I learned to drive on one of these and my family had 2! I have a 65 monza coupe and 2 66 Monzas (coupe and 4 door) waiting for work. But you can't just have one!!! Thanks again - Bob Harvey NM CORSA member for 2 years. ) FOR SALE: Set of seats (front & back) for 1965 Monza - blue Good condition. Asking $50 OBO. Robert Gold 268-6878 FOR SALE: Early sedan fender skirts, new, painted white. Asking $25. Geoff Johnson 344-3178 * * * * * CNM ADS ARE FREE TO CNM MEMBERS, $5.00 TO NON-CNM MEMBERS * * * * * Seven Years Ago - January 1996 - Volume 22 - Number 1 The cover compared an early coupe and a late coupe. Mark Domzalski penned our meeting notes (was Chuck away on a cruise?) and new members were Mickey & Billie Payne. Our treasury hovered at the $1257 mark. At five months before convention, the raffle car was in mid-paint. The 3rd printing of Bill's CARE & FEEDING book was available. Mark praised the new meeting room facilities at Casa Chevrolet. Mark told us he planned to run for CORSA Western Director and asked for our support. Terry Price gave us a good tech talk on steering box rebuilds, including passing around many worn parts for our perusal. Tech tips included a list of URLs for Corvairs on the Internet and a note on what engine shrouding would fit what year car. We planned to go to Galles Racing to see their new Indy cars. Our garage tour was scheduled to include the Paul Maloof car collection and the Gab Joiner car museum. Bill Reider's occasional column on CARE & FEEDING covered many aspects of steering boxes. Billiken mentioned the change of speed limit signs on I-25 from 55 to 75 -- a big deal for a lot of people! Finally, the 1996 member list included names and phone numbers for 53 members. Of these, 32 resided in Albuquerque and five were out-of-state. Fourteen Years Ago - January 1989 - Volume 15 - Number 1 On the cover, four views of the globe implied that Corvairs could be found around the world. Bill Hector presided and we had $613 in the bank. LeRoy said shelves had been installed in the library van and he was ready to begin collecting material for the library; he provided a list of items intended to be stored in the van. (How many current members have made use of material from the library van? How many have even see it? How many know where it is?) We were finalizing plans for the Red River Tri-State, and we voted to design a 15-year anniversary patch. We hoped to have a speaker who could tell us about oxygenated fuels and make some of us believe there was actually some value to their use other than to line the pockets of the Archer-Daniel-Midlands executives. But perhaps I am being too cynical. President Bill wondered how many of us used our Corvairs as daily drivers, how many of us were "Corvair-only" families and what our annual "Corvair miles" would be. His opinion was that we'd have the highest scores of any CORSA chapter. Francis praised Tom Martin for organizing a "top drawer" Christmas at the County Line restaurant. A short article by Malcolm Wells claimed that making left turns was our most dumb and selfish driving habit; in my opinion it's dangerous as well. But, Albuquerque does have lots of left-turn lanes and left-turn arrows, alleviating the danger somewhat. One of the club's "unsung heroes" was praised for his continual service to the club in many ways... then as now, that member was/is Sylvan Zuercher. Finally, the member list named sixty CNMers. Twenty-one Years Ago - January 1982 - Volume 8 Number 1 The cover featured an illustration of an exploded carburetor; well, not literally exploded but... you know what I mean. President Reider announced that the club was now incorporated. George Morin gave a talk on distributors and ignition. This issue was the first to feature Jim's monthly SEVEN YEARS AGO column, but Murphy arranged for it to be erroneously labeled "SIX" YEARS AGO. Tech tips: why to hold down your battery; how to brighten up dim headlights; diagnosing slow starting; a list of carb screw sizes. Twenty-eight Years Ago - January 1975 - Volume 1 Number 1 The first issue of the club newsletter was actually mailed out last month. Mark Morgan claimed the rear-engine Corvair was the best snow car around. At our December meeting we planned future activities, including a 1975 car show and tech talks at meetings. The member list contained 35 names. =cnm= A revisit to our CNM subchapter Dummy of the Month Club At the last meeting, a member, with much gnashing of teeth, begging, groveling, chastising, pleading and whining, voiced a complaint that he had not been invited to join the very exclusive DOM club. For those members who are not aware, the Dummy of the Month (DOM) club is open to anyone who works on a Corvair and commits a faux pas of some kind or other, be it minor or major, and will publicly fess up so that others may not have to cover the same ground. A minor example is: "My car won't start, It's an automatic, Did you shift into neutral?" A major example is installing the clutch disc backwards. And so on. This member's qualification for membership in DOM is driving onto the car dolly, hooking the unit to the back of the RV and towing it down the road at 60 mph, while the Corvair was still in 1st (or was it 2nd?) gear. The disintegrating engine provided enough smoke to kill all mosquitoes within a five mile radius. Was the EPA notified of this infraction? Back to the Question. Does this qualify for a first rung on the ladder of membership? In my opinion, since this is a MAJOR MAJOR FAUX PAS, it should move him to the top of the ladder as President of DOM, replacing the (self-appointed) President Dell Patten who was, after all, overqualified as President with at least four or five faux pas. How about it Dell? We have a sadder but wiser and lighter in the pocketbook candidate for membership and high office unless you plan to commit a few more FP's to keep (or regain) your position. Be generous; I personally don't like to see a grown man cry. The one good thing about this sad tale is a completely rebuilt, very strong, 102 engine to complement the very nice convertible. Del: IF you allow voting, I vote a resounding YES!!! Moral of the story. Corvairs should be DRIVEN and not towed. -- The Fly on the Wall =cnm= Subject: November Trip Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 10:23:28 EST From: Richard F Finch (finchbird AT juno DOT com) Hi Everybody, I just thought that you would be interested to know that Gayle and I are back home safe and sound after our 3,754 mile round-trip to Arizona, California and Oregon. We did the trip in just 18 days and saw lots of people. On our way back home, we stopped by the Boso's in Apache Junction, AZ and picked up the Corvair Rampside Pickup that Gayle bought from Howard and Marsha at the Palm Springs Corvair show. For those who wonder about the "pulling capacity" of a Corvair 95 HP engine and Powerglide transmission in a 5,500 pound Ultra Van , we want to report that we drove down the highway at 55 to 65 mph on level roads and at 30 mph going up 6% mountain passes, flat towing the 3,000 pound Rampside Pickup !!!. Only once did we need to have Gayle get out and run the engine in the Rampside and "push" us up a steep 7% mountain grade. That one time was on the West side of San Augustin Pass just East of Las Cruces, NM. That is the steepest pass between New Mexico and the Pacific Ocean! And we want to thank Howard for loaning us a governor for our Ultra Van transmission. Our governor down-shifted us into low gear at 65 mph on the busy freeway I-10 just West of Phoenix. ( and threw our GATES brand fan belt off ). Howard's governor worked just great all the way back home. So, this is a report on a very successful Corvair trip . Sincerely, Richard and Gayle Finch =cnm= Subject: Albuquerque trip Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 22:12:53 EDT From: Richard F Finch finchbird AT juno DOT com Hi Jim, Gayle and I really enjoyed our 24 hour trip to Albuquerque recently. I would much rather go to Albuquerque than to El Paso. In a few days, I will write a story for the newsletter. One item will be about you and I buying Lucas Flamethrower headlights for our Corvairs back in 1968 (from J.C. Whitney). It seems that you bought two and I bought just one for my left high beam. Mine is still working and I still use it on dark windy (winding) roads. I once measured its candlepower output on a meter and found that it is 5 times brighter than my original T-3 high beam. My T-3 measured 5,000 candlepower, but my Lucas measured 25,000 candlepower! I can hold my hand about 36" in front of the Lucas and feel heat. Sincerely, Richard & Gayle =cnm= Newsletters On-Line: http://www.unm.edu/~casa The newsletter web page has the text of past newsletters from January 1996 to date. There is an index of (nearly) all articles from January 1983 to the present. Newsletters for 1995 and earlier are NOT on-line. As for printed newsletters, I should have every issue since the first one, and if anyone needs a particular issue or article, I may be able to find it and make a photo-copy for you. - Jim Pittman =cnm= Subject: Cat Haiku You never feed me. Perhaps I'll sleep on your face. That will sure show you. You must scratch me there! Yes, above my tail! Behold, elevator butt. The rule for today Touch my tail, I shred your hand. New rule tomorrow. In deep sleep hear sound Cat vomit hairball somewhere Will find in morning. Grace personified. I leap into the window. I meant to do that. Blur of motion, then - Silence, me, a paper bag. What is so funny? You're always typing. Well, let's see you ignore my Sitting on your hands. My small cardboard box. You cannot see me if I Can just hide my head. Terrible battle. I fought for hours. Come and see! What's a "term paper"? Small brave carnivores Kill pine cones and mosquitoes, Fear vacuum cleaner. I want to be close To you. Can I fit my head Inside your armpit? Wanna go outside. Oh, crap! Help! I got outside! Let me back inside! Oh no! Big One Has been trapped by newspaper! Cat to the rescue! Humans are so strange. Mine lies still in bed, then screams. My claws are not that sharp. Cats meow out of angst: "Thumbs! If only we had thumbs! We could break so much!" The Big Ones snore now Every room is dark and cold. Time for "Cup Hockey." We're almost equals I purr to show I love you. Want to smell my butt? Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 Article: 8900 of rec.humor.funny Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny From: ladydwarf AT webtv DOT net (linda fox) Selected by Jim Griffith. MAIL your joke to funny@netfunny.com. Attribute the joke's source if at all possible. A Daemon will auto-reply. The best of old postings from RHF are now also available in the new group rec.humor.funny.reruns. Unless you've been a loyal reader since '87 you may want to subscribe to that too, since RHF does only new material. The archives are also at http://www.netfunny.com/rhf This joke's link: http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/02/Dec/haiku.html =cnm= Into the New Millennium Jim Pittman It's the holiday season. The days are short, the weather is cold, and it's time to hibernate and visit friends and relatives and send out cards and letters to those we don't see often enough. When this newsletter shows up in your mail box it will almost be time to start thinking about New Years Resolutions and gearing up to go back to work. The start of a new year leads to thoughtful feelings of new beginnings, of planning to do things we didn't get around to doing last year, or intending to do things better instead of letting them deteriorate into the messes they became last year. For example, every year it seems that I look at the Corvair Club events I failed to attend last year, and help with the board's planning of events for the coming year, and I resolve to attend more events this coming year. For many years our Corvair Club has been made up of an extraordinary group of people who enjoy doing a lot of things together. We have diverse talents and we tend to complement each other very well. And despite our diversity we don't get into cliques or choose sides or go around saying that earlies are better or lates are better or forward controls are better -- we just like all Corvairs and we respect each other and our individual likes and capabilities. So, at the start of a new year, it's always comforting to anticipate a new session of activities with our friends and our favorite cars. But for me anyway, in recent years there has been a growing undercurrent of unease around us. The pace of life is accelerating, often unpleasantly. There is more traffic and drivers seem more selfish and less cooperative. Computers are everywhere, and as they provide us with more capabilities they also bring us spam and porno and unintelligible setup procedures. Suddenly everyone has a cell phone, and many use them in rude and dangerous ways. More and supposedly better gadgets compete for our attention and our dollars, and when we buy them they don't work as well as they should or they become obsolete and we have to buy new ones. Institutions we used to take for granted turn out to be weak or crooked and many of us lose money on investments through no apparent fault of our own. Many honest workers are suddenly laid off because of decisions made far away by rich board members who make millions off the dissolution of a company. Those who still have jobs are advised to keep on working beyond retirement age because there won't be social security or affordable health care for them. Crime, both by executives and by low-lifes in the mean streets, seems to be increasing and we don't know of anything we can do about it. The terrorism of 9/11 was just the most spectacular of many signals that our civilization is in big trouble and somehow needs to be fixed before it topples and takes us all down with it. My feeling is that we all get these signals all the time, but we stuff them into the back of our heads and go on with our daily lives as if we were still capable of making our way through our lives under our own steam and under our own rules. But in the back of our minds we somehow feel that we are no longer in control and the forces of darkness are gathering, preparing to descend on us and blow us away. My take on part of this malaise is that we have developed a way of life that has become too complex and too fast-changing for any of us to understand or control. Computers, communication and travel have advanced to the point where those with an inclination to steal or destroy have efficient tools with which to carry out their crimes and hide before they can be caught. One night at three in the morning I had a kind of dream, or perhaps one of those late-night philosophy sessions described so well by Jean Shepherd. My vision was, our civilization can be compared to a great sailing ship of the eighteenth century. It's made of the finest wood, has the best canvas sails, has a superbly trained crew and a wise and experienced captain. It can go anywhere through any weather to deliver its cargo. A magnificent clipper ship, doing what it was designed to do perfectly. Then one day the ship's carpenter is in port and picks up a load of tiny little chain saws, each about as big as his thumb, and a trunk full of tiny little two-way radio sets. He brings them onto the ship. Soon everyone on board has a toy chain saw and a radio to play with. New technology has come to the ship! One crewman uses his chain saw to carve ivory to make souvenirs. He can make three or four times as many as he could using his pocketknife. He happily anticipates how much he'll get when he sells them at the next port of call. The boson's mate finds that the little chain saws are great for chipping rust from the metal parts before they are painted. Now fewer sailors can do the chipping and painting in much less time and with less effort. The lieutenant finds the radios are great for giving instructions to the crewmen high in the rigging. Now the sails can be unfurled more quickly so the ship can change course more efficiently. The captain is intrigued by the radios. He realizes that the lookup in the crow's nest will be able to warn him of reefs and shoals and coming foul weather much more efficiently than before. The ship will be able to sail faster and yet be safer from now on. Meanwhile, below decks in the hold, the load of chain saws has come to the attention of the ship's rats. They find that they can use chain saws too. And what do rats like to do? Yes, they like to gnaw. So, while the officers and sailors happily exploit the capabilities of their new technology to make their ship run better, below decks a thousand rats are happily gnawing away. Until one fine day when the entire ship is gnawed to pieces and disintegrates into the ocean. Here we all are, presented with all this fine new technology that changes so fast we don't have time to understand it before we discard the old gadgets and buy a bunch of new gadgets. Meanwhile, the bad guys are using our technology to gnaw our ship to splinters. =cnm= CORVAIRS OF NEW MEXICO MEMBER LIST 2003 ALBUQUERQUE, NM Kathy & Larry Blair blairylar AT hotmail DOT com 505-821-1386 505-768-3627 Ruth Boydston 505-821-1506 Kathy & Doug Gadomski gadomski AT unm DOT edu 505-265-8345 Sylvia & Jerry Goffe goffephoto AT aol DOT com 505-345-3100 505-262-1421 Anne Mae & Robert Gold beisbol30 AT aol DOT com 505-268-6878 505-830-7930 Rita & Steve Gongora stevegongora AT houseofcovers DOT com 505-292-5570 505-256-0551 Mike Hacker 505-244-9280 Susan & Larry Hickerson 505-296-1636 Carl Johnson 505-344-3178 Geoffrey Johnson geoffj AT unm DOT edu 505-720-1484 H. C. 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