The Next Step

My job for the past six years, serving customers at Pro-Tech in Buckner, KY

This entry is being published on October 31, 2012, Halloween, and many of you may not read it until a day or two after it hits. I'm writing this one for both my friends, followers of my blog and my customers of the last six years at Pro-Tech.
For over six years now I have been the Service Manager, Office Manager, whatever you want to call it at Pro-Tech Auto Repair in Buckner, KY. John and Marty the business owners, gave me this opportunity on referral from a former co-worker of mine. Coming into Pro-Tech I was leaving a job where I had been less than satisfied with my former employer's tactics, honesty and integrity. I was also paid on commission and having to use high pressure sales tactics to earn a living was not something I was typically comfortable with. Often it involved coercive and exploitative sales tactics that my former boss insisted on, they were designed to take advantage of a customer's lack of knowledge about their car and maximize the dollar totals on each ticket. This type of selling did not fit my personality or my moral values.
Pro-Tech offered something different. I was paid on salary, I was expected to perform and do my job, but instead of hard, high pressure, and deceptive sales tactics they simply took the recommendation approach to repairs and maintenance. The atmosphere in the shop, while geared toward working hard and maximizing our usage of time is almost always a lighter mood than most places I have worked. Employees are treated more like family and friends, especially when they are sick or need to care for family.
John and Marty as well are smart businessmen. In spite of the economic downturn the shop remains in a very stable and positive position. Blessed with better planning and sense than most, this is a shop that will last when many others will fail.
Their commitment to their customers and to doing the right thing will always keep business coming through the doors. I can not say enough good things about Pro-Tech. I've been treated well, and while all jobs have their burnout factor, and not all days are sunshine and doughnuts, overall this has been the best job I ever had to wake up and go to Monday-Friday.
I've said in the past, this would be the last shop I'd ever work for unless I started my own. I grew up in and around the car business. I now have just shy of nine years experience first hand working in service advising and management on the repair side. I know a good shop operation when I see one. I would put  Pro-Tech above anyone out there in terms of honesty, integrity, skill, expertise, customer service and commitment. They are number one, without a doubt. If I'm not working there, this is who will be fixing my cars when I can't do it myself.
With all that in mind, you've probably guessed by now that I'm saying goodbye to this job. Why would I do such a thing now, at this time in my life? It is not to leave and go to another shop, even though the turnover rate in the repair business, especially for service advisors and front counter is often very high. It's also not to start my own shop or purchase one. There's a much deeper explanation that all of you should read on to find.
I've been presented with an opportunity, a carrot dangled in front of me that I simply can not resist. An offer that tantalizes the teenage kid inside of me. This offer is too good for me to pass up. It bares more explanation as to why I find it so intriguing.

Rod Authority is one of many of the E-mags I've been writing for

Many of you who are my friends on FaceBook no doubt have seen me post numerous car related articles and teasers from photoshoots. Most of the articles I have posted have been written by me. I love cars, that's no secret, but I also love to write, as this blog should be evidence of.
Last winter I wrote a blog entry titled "Almost Famous", you can find it among my archives. I laid out some of my past in automotive writing. I've loved to write since I was ten years old, and I've loved cars since I was a little kid. As a pre-teen I'd discovered car magazines, and the world they opened up of new, and modified cars, trucks and hot rods. I spent countless hours with magazines sprawled out on the living room floor, my bed or the kitchen table pouring them over the way some kids read fantasy novels. My world revolved around when the next issue hit the door. At the same time cable networks like TNN (now Spike) were just starting to run the do it yourself shows that compose a large part of their weekend lineup today. I even read the car review in the local paper each week and looked through the autos section to see what news there was of the business. I was obsessed.
As a teenager in my high school English Lit class I had to do an assignment. I can't remember now which year I was in, but I want to say it was either Sophmore or Senior. Either Mrs. Dye or Mrs. Lucas was my teacher depending on the year. The assignment was a presentation on things about you and your life. You had to make it all fit in a paperbag and part of it could be what you aspired to do after high school, whether college or career, etc. I couldn't make a car magazine fit in the bag, but I photocopied the cover to an issue of Car and Driver, folded it twice and set it inside. As part of my presentation I revealed that I wanted to write about cars for a career.

Car's like Mike Webb's Mustang GT are just some of what I've been writing about.

I've come close to that goal in the past, as I talked about in my "Almost Famous" entry. I had until this past year resigned myself to believing that those days were long gone, simply a young mans pursuit and that I would probably never again be back in the magazine business. Certainly never full time as I had dreamed of doing in my childhood.
Not long after I posted "Almost Famous" to my blog, I saw a FaceBook post from the man I used to write for, James Lawrence. James is now president and owner of PowerTVMedia. A California based company specializing in automotive performance industry E-magazines as well as advertising and web development. I jokingly commented in the FaceBook thread about the job openings that it was too bad you had to live in California to do them. James offered me a job if I'd move to California within hours of that comment, a move that at this time in my life I can not make. He then followed that up with an offer for me work freelance on the side, as much as I thought I could handle.

I'll be covering events like the Street Rod Nationals which is close to home.

So almost as quickly as I had given up on a dream that I thought was lost forever, I was off again, freelance writing about cars. I'm not traveling like I used to but writing all the same. Technical articles, car features, and news stories. I scrubbed out the rust and cobwebs from my writing skills, cleaned up my camera and have been back at it on the side ever since.
Some months I've cranked out a huge body of work, amounting almost in some cases to a full time income. Others I've not been able to produce as much due to time and family constraints.
Towards the end of September my managing editors came to me with a job offer, asking what would it take to get me to leave Pro-Tech and work for them full time from home. We went back and forth, there were a lot of questions of how much work, what my status would be with the company, etc. In the end this is an offer that I can not pass up. PowerTVMedia is growing and thriving. In my opinion they really do have lightning in a bottle with respect to the direction of automotive publishing. All publishing is moving in the direction of electronic, and I've said for years that by the time I'm in my forties print publications like magazines and newspapers if not fully extinct will be so few in number that they'll be the exception and not the rule.
With this offer to write full time, I get the opportunity again to make that childhood dream a reality. I'll be compensated apporpirately. I'l have some flexibility, do a small amount of traveling and get to meet more new and interesting people along the way.
Perhaps most importantly I get to work from home or on the go, wherever I can setup my laptop and get a wifi connection.

In my PowerTV shirt at my home office.

November first is The Next Step, the day I start writing for a living. The day I get to start doing what I've always dreamed of. I'll be sad walking out of Pro-Tech and locking up the shop for my final time on October 31, an appropriate scare for Halloween, as change is always scary. Still not many people can say they had the opportunity to work at what they always dreamed of. If I can follow that dream even for a short while, even if for some reason it doesn't work out, I can always say that I took a shot at it, gave it my best. That in the end is more than what most of us can say about entire careers and sometimes sadly our lives.
I wish all of you who have made my years at Pro-Tech so good, the very best, I'll see you around the community, at festivals, 5k's, and the store. You can follow me here on my blog, you can also friend me on FaceBook, Google+ and follow me on Twitter @DonaldCreasonJr. You might even see me on the other side of the counter at Pro-Tech getting my own car worked on. 

Just Being Dad

It's interesting being a father now. Of course I'd say that, I'm a father now. While I was able to prepare certain aspects of my life for being a parent there were certain things I was totally unprepared for.
For instance the way my daughter's eyes, even at just 5 weeks old follow me and look for me when she hears my voice.  How sometimes when my wife can't seem to calm her down, she really does just want daddy.
When Cora was born via C-Section I was given the chance to hold her first. After she'd been cleaned up some and examined by the doctors, weighed, etc. I sat back down and they handed her to me, swaddled in clean blankets. I'll never forget the moment the assisting physician showed her to us the first time, or that moment holding her for the first time in the hospital. She began to whimper and cry, and Sydney said, "Sing to her, sing her song." So I began, "Cora Sue, won't you come out tonight,, won't you come out tonight..." just a little bit, just as we had been jokingly singing to her for weeks while she was still in the womb. She immediately stopped crying and looked up at me.
Now at home, I love to lay on the floor next to her, and watch her as she looks at toys suspended above her, or seems to make an attempt to reach out for me or Sydney when we lay beside her. Tummy time is also a priority, and I have to say I'm a proud father when I see those little arms do a mini pushup or that head successfully turn from one side to the other.
I know that this is just the beginning, we're only creeping up on six weeks at home, and I can already see how much she's changed from the pictures we took in the hospital. It makes me wonder how much more she'll change in the next year, the next five years, and on. I look forward to every minute of it. I know there are times when it's not fun, it's challenging, we've already run into those with some crying and gas pains in the evenings. Still though, she's a well behaved baby, and I hope for our sake she stays that way throughout her young life.
I woke up early one morning a few weeks ago, raised my head and looked at Cora asleep in her bed, Sydney lying beside me and just looked around the room. I thought to myself, what else is there, really? I have never been more content or happy in my life, I don't know how we lived without this child for so long, or how life could be any better. We've endured much in the past year, but we now know it all lead us to this place, and this is better than we ever could have imagined.

Groundhog Day, the Countdown til Cora Sue's Arrival

Groundhog Day

The Countdown til Cora Sue

Lately I find that I feel like a combination of a kid on Christmas Eve and Bill Murray's character in the movie Groundhog Day. Or maybe I'm stuck in that old Tom Petty song... The waaaaiiiting is the hardest part, everyday... something something something, I can't remember the lyrics without hearing the song but you get the point.

Let me clarify this analogy a bit for the uninitiated. In the movie Groundhog Day, Murray plays a weatherman who's stuck with the unenviable assignment of covering the weather and emergence of Punxsutawney Phil and the festivities that turn the Nation's attention on this small Pennsylvania town one day each year. The trouble is that everyday Murray wakes up only to find that it's still Groundhog day. He finds he's repeating the same day over and over again. To get out of this he must fix what's wrong in his life.

I don't feel like I need to fix anything so wrong in my life that God or the universe is punishing me in some way but allowing me the opportunity to get things right. Each morning when I wake up, I'm starting to feel like it's the same routine again and again, will she arrive today, or maybe tonight, or most likely not at all.

So each night I head to bed giddy as a kid on Christmas Eve, hoping that tonight's the night. That tonight my wife will wake me up, or at least give me a good wack across the chest and proclaim that now's the time!

Now if this all sounds unreasonable and that I'm crazy for wanting to jump right into sleepless nights, etc, well maybe I am.

Let's look at some facts for just a moment. My wife, Sydney has had a remarkable pregnancy. No morning sickness, zero, none. No strange cravings for odd foods or strange combinations. No close calls, no emergency runs to the doctor's office or hospital. No indigestion, no heartburn, none of the maladies that plague so many pregnancy's. In fact up until two weeks ago she's had no swelling, we believe a round
of three or four days in one week of meals out may have caused a rise in her blood pressure and an increase in swelling, only to see her BP go back to normal after a day and the swelling all but completely disappear after two or three days. We truly have been blessed with a total lack of drama throughout this pregnancy.

I attribute much of her good condition to the following. Sydney was in excellent physical shape when we conceived this baby. She swam on a regular basis, stuck to a very healthy diet, her weight and blood pressure were both right on target. Throughout her pregnancy she has continued this regiment of exercise and healthy diet. She even added walking to her routine to augment her lack of being able to swim as many laps as she had been.

Next there's rest. Since around the twenty eight week mark, the start of the dreaded third trimester, she's been off work. This is in part due to her being a teacher and in part due to her specialized teaching. She won't have any students until this December, so she is simply using some of her personal days so she can prepare for the baby's arrival and also to rest.

Last but not least for us is prayer. Say what you will but we have prayed daily. We have prayed for her health and safety and for the safety of our unborn child. I firmly believe that God has blessed this pregnancy and the child my wife carries.

Still though, the due date is this week, and I have to be honest I fully expected our baby girl to be born sometime sooner rather than later. After all, Sydney is 35, she has a mother who had toxemia and preeclampsia while carrying her. Syd herself was born sometime around the thirty week mark. I have spent most of this pregnancy on eggshells waiting for something to happen, similar to what happened with her and her mother all those years ago. It hasn't and for that I thank God everyday.

Cora's later arrival too has helped in that we have the house ready. Sydney spent much of the early summer cleaning out rooms. Last fall I remodeled our bathroom which means it's now ready for our new addition as well. This spring and early summer we completed work on what is to be Cora's bedroom. This bright and colorful room received new paint, new carpet, new or refinished furniture, and all kinds of colorful and friendly decorations. Last weekend I purchased a carpet cleaner, a big heavy duty model that
heats it's own water and scrubs deep. I spent several hours running that machine all over the house (except Cora's room with the new carpet). What a difference it made on our floors.

Our bags are packed, Sydney thought of everything, in fact there's so much stuff that you'd think we were going out of town for two weeks, not to the hospital for a couple of nights. The bags are even loaded into her car already. All we need to do on the way out the door is feed the cat, grab the phones and iPad, and remember to lock the doors.

The car seat is loaded in the car, strapped in securely, I check it once a week and adjust as needed. I have tinted the window's on Sydney's new car to keep the sun off our new arrival as she rides along. I had the oil changed a month ago, expecting something to happen any day.

Baby clothes are sorted, washed and put in the appropriate places. Baby toys that were given to us have been unpacked and cleaned, batteries purchased and tested in each one.

Early this spring I was given the opportunity to start freelance writing again, perhaps part of the reason why I haven't blogged in so long. This extra income has helped buy things for Cora's room, and will help offset the cost of her childcare and needs once she arrives. I don't believe in coincidence, and as such I once again give credit to the Lord above for showing me an opportunity when our family needed it the most.

Now we're down to crunch time. There was a blue moon just days before labor day. I don't believe in such, but it was fun to imagine that Cora might be born under such circumstances. Well that myth is out the window for us because it had no affect on said baby. Nor did my birthday, the labor day holiday, or a hurricane the remnants of which supposedly passed through our area.

I'm anxious to see our baby girl for the first time. To hold her, to hear her cry, to kiss her little face, even to change her diapers. This may sound odd for a lot of men, but all I have hoped and prayed for is a healthy child, it never mattered to me whether we had a girl or a boy. I look forward to spending time with this new life, to watching her grow. I realize that not everyday will be perfect, but life never is. It's an old cliche that patience is a virtue. That may be true, but it's a virtue because it's so darn difficult to maintain.

One of the things I do for both my own entertainment and to make Sydney laugh is make up alternate lyrics for familiar songs (or make up a song of my own) and walk around the house singing it. Lately it's been a variation of Buffalo Bill from It's a Wonderful Life. The original goes something like Buffalo Bill won't you come out tonight, come out tonight, come out tonight. I've been replacing Buffalo Bill with "lil Cora
Sue".Sydney laughs every time.

I should be happy and relieved that everything has gone so well, so far. For me this is like being at the end of a big project, in fact for Sydney and I this is our greatest undertaking ever, both individually and as a married couple. So I'm anxious for this part of the project to be over and the next chapter to begin.

Some have suggested that Sydney eat spicy food to get things going, swearing that it sent them into labor. We already eat a lot of spicy stuff, so this won't work either. She already exercises regularly so strenuous activity is also out.

Maybe I should start a project, something involved, I've been talking about a kitchen remodel since I finished the bathroom last year. That would probably do it, as soon as I started ripping up the floor, or working on the plumbing, Sydney would probably walk in to tell me it's time to go. Elbow deep in dirt and dust and I'd have to go to the hospital a filthy mess.

Seriously though, I just can't wait, everyday right now feels like Christmas eve. Anxiously I await, sometimes waking in the middle of the night and finding it difficult to fall back asleep because I'm so excited. There are times when I can't wipe the smile off my face thinking about what it'll be like to see her for the first time. What it will be like to hear her laugh, and watch her play.  I can't wait to get my present. lil, Cora Sue won't you come out tonight, won't you come out tonight, lil Cora Sue won't you come out tonight, and plaaaaaaay by the light of the mooooon!

She's Your Wife... Not Your Maid!

I might be going on a bit of rant here, but there’s something I need to address with a few husbands out there. Recently my wife recounted a conversation with a friend, this friend shared that her husband seldom helps around the house. He tends to sleep in on Saturdays while she gets up and begins cooking and cleaning. Her husband doesn’t understand on Saturday night when he wants to go out but she’s wiped out and ready for bed. This friend of my wife’s is also pregnant (as is my wife).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this guy is a bad guy or that their marriage is in trouble. I don’t even know him (or her) personally. I hear these kinds of stories from my wife and others from time to time and I have to say it bothers me. So let’s begin with some background on why it bothers me.

When I was a kid my mother who is a nurse would often have to work weekends. This left at least three if not four or five kids at the house with dad many times. Dad often enlisted us to help with age appropriate chores, but regardless of how we helped the chores got done, they weren’t left for my mother to do when she got home after being at work all day. Dad worked hard too, he put a lot of hours in at his job as well, but my parents viewed taking care of the kids and the house as tasks that they must address equally.

I can recall on many occasions as a kid helping fold laundry with my siblings, running the vacuum, mowing the yard, pulling weeds, helping make dinner or helping my dad with various maintenance or improvements to the house or the yard. As a teenager I’m sure that I displayed the typical teenage laziness and occasional laze fare attitude of many teenagers, by then my mom seldom had to do any weekend shifts, still I had to do chores or whatever task was asked of me or face the consequences. I can recall many weekends when I had stayed up too late, only to be awakened bright and early usually by my dad alerting me to get my tail out of bed and ready to do some work.

Fast forward to today. I’m married now. I’ve found that throughout my life I find joy in doing things that make others happy. I’ve also found that when you’re married sometimes even the smallest things can mean the most to your wife. I don’t do it to score points or earn my allowance as I might have as a child. I do it because I love my wife and because I view our marriage as one of equals, especially in terms of the roles we play in taking care of our home. We both work full time jobs, we both must deal with family issues and we both have other things on many occasions we’d rather be doing than cleaning, cooking and laundry. However these things must get done and if we share the workload they get done faster. Since we enjoy doing many of the same things together it only makes sense that if we help one another out we both get what we want faster.

So husbands I have to ask, if you’re not helping your wife out, why not? Are you lazy? Do you not know what to do? Are you worried you might miss the big game this weekend? Never mind that the big game is probably on for several hours at a time, there’ll be a big recap in the half hour to hour long postgame show that follows with all the important highlights you missed and again that night online and on sportscenter. None of these are an acceptable excuse. You can turn on the TV and run it in the background while you clean if there’s a game on that you want to watch. The vacuum cleaner won’t suck the life out of you while it’s sucking the dirt out of the carpet. Laundry is easy, (what did you do when you were single anyway?). Cleaning the bathroom can be disgusting but as a husband are you not supposed to want to protect your wife? So protect her from the germs and filth in the bathroom and get in there and scrub, it just takes a few minutes anyway. If you have questions about where a certain cleaner is, what to use or what should go in what cycle in the laundry, just ask her. Better yet figure it out yourself! (just don’t’ experiment with laundry cycles and her clothes).  The dishwasher is also another device that was made to be convenient, not frightening, I promise that loading and unloading it will not break your back, and running it is a task of pouring out some soap, flipping a knob or just pushing a few buttons. We’re men, we pride ourselves on being able to do complicated manly tasks, why can’t we do the seemingly complicated buy terribly simple household ones as well.

Then there’s cooking. I go back to, what did you do when you were single? You didn’t live off carry out and going out all the time, or at least I hope not. You don’t have to cook every night, or even every week but once in a while it would be nice for you to contribute to that too. While we’re talking about dinner let’s talk about what’s for dinner. My wife and I decided long ago that since we both work full time jobs that cooking something different and new every night is not always feasible. So what happens most weeks is that we fix something to last the whole week. We might fix a large pot of soup or chili, a big batch of barbecue. Lasagna, spaghetti, there are lots of things you can fix that will last all week. This makes getting a healthy meal by a reasonable time easy to do and neither of us feel as though we waited the whole evening to eat dinner.  I promise this won’t kill you, it won’t upset your stomach or send your taste buds into some kind of funk. You can even make two things and alternate them between different nights. We usually make dinner on Saturday or Sunday afternoon and it’s ready for the week. I will admit that my wife cooks more often than I do, but many times while she’s in the kitchen I’m tending to something else.

So I’ll close this entry out by saying husbands if you really want to show your wife how much you care it’s not always about buying flowers or taking her out to dinner (though that doesn’t hurt either). Sometimes just pitching in and doing your share of the housework is enough to let her know how much you really love her, and I promise she will really appreciate it. After all she’s your wife not your maid.

The Future of Pony Cars

The Future of Pony Cars

Pony cars are a segment of the automotive landscape near and dear to me. I love and respect all three major manufacturer’s versions of these cars as offered in both past and present iterations. All had their perspective strengths and weaknesses and the argument of who built the best one could go on for days if not weeks at a time. This entry is not a focus of where they’ve been or who is building a superior product, rather it’s where they are and where they are headed. I will tackle each of the Big 3’s offerings here and offer what are my opinions of the future of each car. I may be completely off on all of my predictions here or only partly correct, so just remember these are just my opinions and not any facts of production yet, but they are based on my daily readings of various blogs and news stories about the Big 3 or about the pony cars.



Is this the shape of the next Mustang?



Up first is the car that started it all, the original Pony car the Ford Mustang. Significantly revised for 2005 and updated several times since then the Mustang today offers a solid performance value.  The current V6 base model makes more horsepower than many of its V8 predecessors, the legendary 5.0 badge and displacement made their return recently and offered one of the best V8’s Ford has ever produced in terms of performance and technology. For 2013, the Mustang will get a slight bump in power, some cosmetic changes and that’s about it. The Shelby GT500 model gets the significant improvements with a revamped 5.8L DOHC V8 producing an astounding 650HP. Along with that you can get electronically controlled suspension and a top speed in the coupe of at least 200 MPH, provided you can find a police free, empty stretch of road long and straight enough for you to safely enjoy such a feat (better keep that one to the track).

The Mustang will celebrate it’s 50^th birthday soon and it would seem that the original Pony will be maturing a bit. Rumors are flying around that the long used 8.8” solid axle will be ditched for an independent rear suspension, let’s hope it’s superior to Ford’s previous attempts at offering an IRS equipped Mustang in the 1999-2004 Cobras.  Since the Mustang is to be a “World Car” in line with Ford’s current “One Ford” strategy it would make sense that an IRS is probably a sure thing in the next generation Mustang in order for it to compete on a global scale.

Rumors abound as well of a four cylinder version coming onboard perhaps in lieu of the current V6. This may make sense as well. The upcoming Focus ST will offer a 250ish HP 2.0L Ecoboost direct injected and turbo charged four cylinder. I would venture that with some tweaks to displacement or in turbo and injector size as well as computer calibrations that this same engine could be applied to a rear drive configuration in a Mustang with the same power as the current V6 offering. Let us hope too though that the next generation car is light enough to make good use of a 4 cylinder base powertrain.  As I am writing and editing this both Top Gear and Motor Trend have rumor reports of a 2.3L SVO powertrain rumored for the next Mustang.

I would expect the 5.0L engine to live on, though I would imagine it will be an updated iteration to feature direct injection allowing for perhaps more power and better fuel economy as well as lower emissions. Remember folks CAFÉ restrictions are coming soon and they threaten to strangle all manner of cars within the auto industry not just the performance cars and big trucks. Direct injection for the 5.0 also makes sense. The current engine’s cylinder heads are setup to easily allow for direct injection as designed originally. Some revisions in designs and tooling as well as a new intake manifold and valve covers are the biggest bits of what will be needed to make this change physically to the current engine. This change may also allow for another bump in the engine’s compression ratio.

The Shelby GT500 if it survives I imagine will also make use of the 5.0L. While Ford made a significant investment in the current 5.8L adding new tech such as piston cooling jets this engine is essentially becoming long in the tooth. Still a derivative of the modular platform that was developed way back in the 1980’s and first seen in Crown Vic’s as a 4.6L in the early 90’s this engine is destined to go by the wayside soon. While the 650HP number is quite spectacular from the current car and the most powerful production Ford engine ever, I don’t see how it can last in this form with the new CAFÉ standards looming.  SVT also is rumored to be going by the wayside as we know it and being incorporated into the ST line as part of the “One Ford” vision. This may also contribute to the Shelby receiving a heavily hopped up version of the 5.0, quite possibly making at or close to the current 650HP mark. A lot of this may also depend on what the competition is doing.

As far as chassis and body goes on the new Mustang. It is my hope that it will be a smaller car, lighter in weight and stiffer. Since this will be the first truly worldwide Mustang sold in multiple international markets would expect the interior to be a little more upscale. The current chassis is good but there is always room for improvement.

As far as appearance goes, what will it look like is perhaps as big a question for most people as is how much horsepower will be under the hood. I say look no further than the EVOS concept for your basic shape and design. This concept according to Ford represents the styling direction of Ford for the next several years. Looking at multiple pictures of this concept there are several things that standout as to why I believe this is the shape of the next generation Mustang. The first is the car’s layout, it is very much Pony car in it’s long hood and short rear deck or even hatchback design. Now forget about the four gullwing doors, that’s just a concept car design gimmick to get attention at shows.  Look closely at the photos too and you see some big brakes on this car, also a performance car hallmark these days. If you removed the taillights from the rear deck and replaced them with an updated variant of the Mustang three bar design that harkens back to 1965 as well as has been back in use since 1994 in some variation or another. Stretch the too thin front lamps down, move the grille up and change it from the current shape to a more traditional for Mustang trapezoid shape, stick the running Pony in the middle and there you have it.





Now for all you bowtie lovers, let’s talk about the Camaro. This car was late getting back in the party having only just recently come back to market. Like anyone who is late to the party though, the Camaro has made a big entrance. Coming on the scene besting it’s chief competitor (the Mustang) by 100 horsepower when it debuted the Camaro has made waves once again in the pony car/muscle car market, just as it did back in 1967. The styling of the current car can be a bit polarizing, it also kills visibility from the driver’s seat, some love it, some hate it. I will admit from my perspective that while the concept was great at the time it was revealed GM was too slow to market with this car and it came in far too late in the retro crazy pony car rebirth. In spite of all this the Camaro has managed to outsell the Mustang the past two years in a row, no small feat, and probably partially attributed to loyal fans holding out for the Camaro to return to the scene.

The upcoming ZL1 Camaro promises even more fun for those who can afford the sticker. Much like the GT500 is Ford’s top Mustang offering the ZL1 will be the top shelf Camaro. Currently boasting a supercharged 580HP as well as electronically adjustable suspension technology taken from the Corvette, the ZL1 will be a force to be reckoned with on the street and track. Make no mistake about it there will be a horsepower and a performance figures war between Ford and GM for supremacy, bragging rights and customer’s cash at least until 2015.



My opinion Code 130R = 2015 Camaro



Also due for a refresh in 2015 the Camaro faces the same challenges as the Mustang in terms of fuel economy while maintaining performance.  GM has already shown its hand in terms of what will be under the hood though.  The next generation small block Chevy V8 is set to debut in the 2013 Chevy Corvette. Much like the LS1 debuted in the mid 90’s in the C5 corvette the new small block will debut here in GM’s flagship before various versions of it make their way throughout the production line over the next few years. Technology that GM V8’s have made due without (and by made due I mean done very well for themselves)  for the last several years will be standard on this engine, variable camshaft timing and direct injection are promised. We know in the C7 Vette that displacement will drop to 5.5 liters although GM maintains that performance will be equal or better than current power outputs. It would make sense that the Camaro will receive either a 5.5 liter, 5.0 liter or similar version of this same engine, with the same or slightly less power than the big brother Corvette makes.

Base powertrain is also likely to be a forced induction four cylinder. GM has a lot more experience in this department than Ford having developed hot cars like the Cobalt SS and the turbocharged Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice a few years back. They also have already proven these types of powertrains in a rear drive applications (the above mentioned Pontiac and Saturn). I would expect these four cylinders to also deliver the same or better performance than the V6’s they will likely replace though their power output will likely be in the 300HP range.

The ZL1 like the GT500 will either remain or will be the last gasp of the high horsepower battle between Ford and GM. I fully expect the ZL1 to get even more power before 2015 as Ford and Chevy duke it out for pony car muscle supremacy. If the ZL1 remains it will likely be just as the GT500 would be a lower displacement but still high output engine. Still utilizing forced induction this GM performance bruiser could theoretically continue fighting against Shelby until the market for such cars dries up.

As far as appearance and chassis goes. Much like I believe Ford has already shown their cards in this respect I also believe that GM has shown it as well. Look at the Code 130R concept car from GM. Right now GM has an issue, an age issue. The average age of a Chevy buyer is 55. They need to attract a younger audience. However building two rear wheel drive performance cars in the current market (the Camaro and the 130R) makes little sense to me as one could cannibalize the sales of the other. This might have made sense in the 1960’s but today there is too much competition from other brands, let alone from within. Higher ups at Chevy have said they will tour the Code 130R concept this year to gauge public opinion. I see this as the next Camaro and Chevy shifting the focus from aging Baby Boomers and 40+ crowd buyers for Camaros back to the youth market that the car was originally intended for in the 60’s when it first debuted.

Other reasons I believe the Code 130R to be the next Camaro, it is built on the same platform as the upcoming Cadillac ATS sedan. This is also the same platform that the next generation Camaro will ride on according to GM. Again final shape and styling are all subject to a little tweaking but the retro theme is now literally old and will most likely see its end with the debut of the next car. This small lightweight car would be a true pony car in every sense. The concept also featured an independent rear suspension, something already present in the current Camaro.

Inside I would look for plenty of upgrades to the Camaro over even the current car. I also would imagine a new infotainment system similar to what will be offered on the upcoming ATS. Again I might be totally wrong on this prediction but the more I look at the pictures of the Code 130R the more I say, there’s your next generation Camaro.

In the handling department I expect the electronically adjustable suspension which is debuting on the upcoming ZL1 to trickle its way to the option packages on future Camaros, perhaps even on this generation car as well as the next generation much like it has over the years on the Corvette where it first appeared.

Transmission wise I think a 6 speed manual is the available transmission across the board in all models as well as possibly an eight speed automatic. Rumor is that a seven or eight speed manual trans will be available in the upcoming C7 Corvette, if this is true I would look for that to take the place of a 6 speed manual in the 2015 Camaro.

The last of the Big 3 ponycars is the Dodge Challenger. Little has been mentioned other than a few whispers about the future of the Challenger. Rumor has it that this nameplate is going by the wayside along with the current “big” car. The Challenger is a big car indeed, bigger than either the Camaro or the Mustang. While stylistically the closest appearing to its retro inspiration it is also the lowest volume seller of the three. Still the Challenger is a good car, with great power and plenty of options.  This is a car is a platform that was missing from Chrysler’s lineup for over 30 years in terms of a rear wheel drive pony car.

All of my info on the future of a Chrysler pony car is based on rumors I’ve read and speculation on my part. Chrysler has been either tight lipped or is simply behind in developing a plan for what’s next. Rumor has it that Chrysler will replace the Dodge Challenger with an SRT branded ‘Cuda or Barracuda model in the near future. The car will still be rear wheel drive. Powertrains are as yet unnamed. I would suspect a variant of the Hemi V8, perhaps even with variable cam timing and Chrysler’s displacement on demand systems shutting down individual cylinders during even or part throttle cruising to save fuel.

I would also suspect much like Ford and GM that a four cylinder forced induction base model engine will be offered that is at least the equivalent in power and performance to the current V6 base model. If the current model is an SRT brand only though, it is possible that it may only be offered as a hot V8 and in limited production. Think little brother to the Viper but not a high volume car like the Camaro or Mustang. Another possibility is that the Pentastar which is Chrysler’s new V6 could remain an option as the base engine in the ‘Cuda as this engine offers significant refinements in terms of power and efficiency, all of this is of course speculation.

In the styling department Chrysler has said that the replacement for the Challenger will not be retro. This is the first of the big 3 to come out and make this statement known. Though they have said that the new car will pay homage however to the models that came before it and bore its name just not in a completely retro fashion as the Challenger does.  It would also make sense that the ‘Cuda replacement will be a much smaller car than the current Challenger.

Chrysler has in the last two years made dramatic improvements with respect to interior quality throughout its lineup, I expect this to continue here.  This really is all I have read or know about what’s coming from Chrysler with respect to their pony car, a model which may have been neglected in the recent merger with Fiat due to the increased focus on small cars.

Chances are if you’re reading this blog posting you have at least some interest in performance cars or pony cars in general. What I hope is not going to happen is 1974 all over again. Manufacturer’s back then delayed far too long and did not develop the necessary technologies and strategies to meet consumer and government demands. Performance can be had in smaller, lighter packages but without sacrificing V8 power and while netting better fuel economy. Let’s hope that the Big 3 learn from the past and don’t set our performance figures back 20+ years because they were unable to cope with changing times and standards.

A Geographical Oddity

A Geographical Oddity



On this day I nearly was a man of cosntant sorrow



I felt like I was in a movie, one movie in particular came to mind, even a specific scene from “O Brother Where Art Thou”. I’ve seen this film I don’t know how many times and I found myself now in a situation that resembled a comic moment from that movie. Let me back things up to how I got there first.

It was a very hot and humid summer day a few years back, I’m going to say around 2007, or 2008. Sydney and I had left the house late in the morning and were headed to her sister’s home outside of Bloomfield, KY. We were going to a birthday party for one of my nephews although at this time I don’t remember which one.

Since these three nephews in particular are car crazy there was no debating on which car to drive, we took my Mustang. The kids always got a kick out of it, primarily because its loud and to them it’s fast (It’s fun to me not necessarily what I would describe as fast). The car’s loud, (because of the changes I made to the exhaust), it’s shiny, it looks pretty good and it’s a Mustang so the kids are into it. I try to make it a point to bring it over on special occasions since it usually gets them excited.

Since this car is only driven in nice weather it also spends a lot of time sitting in my garage. Normally I keep a trickle charger or battery maintaining device connected to the car so the battery does not drain during long periods between drives. That being said on this particular day the battery was low because it was summer and I hadn’t hooked the car up the charger (I drive it a lot more in the summer).  I had to jump start the car to get it going. I had no reason to be worried otherwise, it had been sitting for about a month as I’d been to busy to get it out and drive it. I was working under the false assumption that a jumpstart and the drive to see the kids would be enough to recharge my battery.

Upon hitting the interstate I realized I would need to get gas at some point if I was to make it to Bloomfield. I decided that I would stop at one of the several stations that dotted hwy 55 between Jeffersontown and Taylorsville, planning to stop closer to Taylorsville since it would give the battery longer to be recharged by the car’s alternator. I chose a gas station and pulled in, filled the tank up and to my horror found that the battery still lacked a strong enough charge to start my car. Since I had yet to make the changeover to a manual transmission that I desired to have in this car from the automatic transmission it came with there would be no push starting.

I was certain that the gas station which featured a small general store/food mart would sell jumper cables as I can recall seeing them at several gas stations through the years. This however was not the case, there were plenty of fireworks and overpriced engine oil, but no jumper cables to be found.

 A good Samaritan inside the gas station offered to go to his house, retrieve jumper cables and come back to get me started, he made good on his offer and I thanked him profusely. Back on the road I knew there was a NAPA auto parts store just on the edge of Taylorsville, my plan was to stop in, buy a new battery and a wrench to install it, this would keep me going not only for the day but also be a better solution to this minor but agitating problem. I found it ironic as well that as someone who worked in the car business daily I was on the other side of the counter so to speak, now in need of someone else’s assistance so I could remedy my car woes.

Upon arrive at NAPA I left the car idling with my wife sitting in the passenger’s seat and ran inside. I was certain they would have a battery since it should have been a common size fitting many Ford and other applications . Approaching the parts counter a rather greasy man with a scraggly beard and dirty t-shirt seemed to ask with his eyes



How hard could it be to find a battery to fit this car?



“Whaddya need city boy” (he didn’t say that, he didn’t say a word).

“Hi, I need a battery for a ’98 Mustang, 4.6L.” I began.

He grunted and began staring at his computer as if it had heard my voice and was going to give an audible response.  He finger pecked away at the keys and tapped the keyboard a few more times.

“Ain’t got it, could have one Monday, probably more like Tuesday though.” He said.

“You don’t have something that I could substitute in it’s place do you? I’m not from this area and so I really can’t wait until Tuesday.” I asked.

“Nope, but you can try ole Smitty’s gas station ‘round the corner, he might have one.”  He said in between drags on his ashy Marlboro.

“Great thanks”.

I made my way out the door and kept my fingers crossed that the car had not stalled or shut off for some inexplicable reason. Five minutes later I was “’round the corner” at “ole Smitty’s”.  I found an older man, balding with white hair and glasses sitting in coveralls on a bench in the shade just outside the garage door on the side of the building.

“How you doing” I greeted him.

“Well, it’s hot” he replied grumpily.  With that reply, I wanted to smartly say “well you know it’s probably not the best weather for coveralls” but I refrained. I could already tell this was most likely also going to be futile, since I wasn’t driving a 1975 Chevy or 1984 Ford pickup it would seem that no one stocked batteries that fit anything but these two models. I would soon find that this premonition had been correct.

After telling the man what battery I needed he lead me to a room in the back where he had batteries literally stacked or piled almost floor to ceiling. After scanning his “Inventory” for a few minutes he said:

“Ain’t got one, probably have it Monday, more like Tuesday”.

It was at that moment I realized I was trapped in a scene similar to the one in “O Brother Where Art Thou”. If you’ve seen this movie try to recall the scene at the general store where George Clooney’s character (Ulysses “Everett” McGill) is looking for parts to repair his broken down (and stolen) car as well as some “Dapper Dan” hair jelly. The store owner tells him both the car parts and the hair jelly are about two weeks away, to which Everett replies “Well ain’t this place a geographical oddity, two weeks from everywhere”.  That one line sums up how I was feeling about Taylorsville on this particular Saturday afternoon.

I am thankful to say that we made it to the birthday party, and with the aide of my brother in law Terry we hit the Wal-Mart in the big metropolis of Bardstown, KY to get a battery so Sydney and I could get home that evening.

I grew up in and still live in what I consider a small town, but I have to say that I was probably spoiled by living in such close proximity to Louisville. It always seemed if we couldn’t find what we needed as kids we were just a short drive from somewhere else that would have it.

It was interesting also to be the customer for a change and remember that helpless feeling when you’re hoping someone else can help you with your car. Sometimes in my work life I forget how much more I know about cars than many of my customer’s and how they must feel being on the other side of the counter. It’s times like that when I need to remember how I felt standing in that NAPA store or there with “ole Smitty” trying to get something as simple as a new battery so I could get on with what I had planned for my Saturday.

I loathe mediocrity

I loathe mediocrity.

I want to make a clear distinction before I even start. Trying your hardest and failing is part of life and that is not what I mean by settling for mediocrity. It is when you put forth only the minimum effort and end up with a result that is just passing or then failing that you have strived for mediocrity only.

Trying for mediocrity really bothers me. We’re all guilty of it on some level. Sometimes we just don’t feel up to the task that is at hand. Sometimes it’s a task that we’re really not enthused about. Sometimes we just don’t know what we’re doing. So instead of putting out that effort that could end up in a great result we just put out enough to know that it satisfies the criteria for completion.

This could stem from a fear of failure. Often a go big or go home, an all or nothing attitude is what it may take to succeed at a difficult task. The less difficult path may not offer as stellar of a result but may offer the safety net of no chance for failure. That’s not to say that striving for excellence is always a do or die, win or lose scenario since each situation is different. Putting out what is acceptable instead of exceptional though is what we see all too often in our society and what continues to lower the bar for others and bring us down a notch as human beings and as a society.

Too often in recent times we had discouraged competition, thwarted healthy rivalries and detracted from the hard work of those who are successful, in order to not offend or upset those who are only putting for the minimal effort. I would argue that we should instead be rewarding and incentivizing those who do well, who succeed and put forth the extra effort and encouraging those who put forth a worthy effort but fall short of the goal to try harder the next time. Those putting forth only the minimal should be encouraged to put more effort in, incentivized to put their best effort forward and praised for it only when doing so.

On several occasions I’ve read in horror stories of little league games that don’t keep score, where everyone gets a trophy at the end of the year. Really? Playing and not keeping score was called “practice” when I was a kid not a “game”.  What does this scoreless type of competition really teach those kids? I’m all for teaching equality and fairness, for praising a hearty effort. I also feel though that teaching kids that putting forth your best effort and failing is sometimes all that you can do and that you must face that throughout life. I’m also for the old cliché “to the victor go the spoils”. Teaching these lessons to kids is a good life lesson and when done properly will help make them a stronger individual as an adult. When those same kids try and fail showing them how to seize the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and try again is often one of the best teaching aides we can find. How else do we learn how to do something right if we don’t first understand what didn’t work on the first attempt? A toddler would not take their first steps without first learning what didn’t work to get them moving independently on two feet. Why would we coddle our kids and expect them to not learn the same things from their own efforts elsewhere in their lives? Why do we do this to ourselves and our co-workers or family as well?

Consider Thomas Edison. Edison was one of the great scientific and engineering minds of the 1800’s, revolutionizing the way we use electricity and coming up with a practical and safe electric light bulb (among many other fantastic inventions). Depending on the account you read it is said Edison failed to satisfy his requirements for an electric light bulb anywhere from hundreds to thousands of times before finding the right combination of correct parts and processes to create the bulb that satisfied his demands. Edison is often famously quoted as saying he did not fail hundreds (or thousands) of times he simply found that many ways not to make a bulb.

Imagine if Edison had simply strived for mediocrity. Safe, practical, longer life bulbs might have taken years or even decades to perfect if ever at all. The industrial revolution might have stalled or at least slowed down greatly. Reliable lighting in our homes and work places might have taken years to develop.

Consider this as well. There is often talk about decreasing the demands placed on medical students. These students often must work grueling hours completing internships as well as finding time in between to study what would seem to be a ludicrous amount of material in order to take and pass tests. I would argue these tests and ways of doing things exists for a reason. Physicians make life and death decisions, even treating a minor illness if done poorly could turn into a major ailment for a patient. Would you keep going to a physician who was unsure, indecisive or who appeared to cave under pressure when it was time to make difficult decisions? I am by no means saying physicians are perfect or that they never make a mistake. However if we lower the bar, relax the standards and settle for mediocrity with our medical professionals what quality of service are we going to get? Are you going to want to be treated by a mediocre physician?

Have you ever been somewhere and received bad service? Whether it was a restaurant, a retail store, getting your car fixed or buying a car? Why were you unhappy with that service? Chances are good it was because someone involved at some level, maybe not even the person you were dealing with was only putting forth a mediocre effort.

As a country we have in many ways settled for mediocrity because it’s comfortable. We’re fat, we’re lazy, instead of playing sports we pay big money for cable or satellite or game tickets and we watch other people get paid millions to play. We spend hours in front of the TV stuffing our faces in a comfy chair, if you like that sport so much why not go out and participate in a recreational league? Their all over the place. We’ve generally accepted and decided that it’s ok to file for bankruptcy; it’s ok to be on welfare or food stamps or other public assistance. I’m fine with you being on public assistance of some sort if you really need it, what is not ok is people who mooch the system and abuse it because they’ve settled for mediocrity instead of striving to be the best they can be. Those who choose to sit at home in their subsidized housing watching daytime tv and waiting for their next check to come in so they can buy some more scratch off lottery tickets at the store. The same goes for bankruptcy, if you’ve done all you can and you’re left with no other alternative then you are forced into it. If on the other hand you went out ran up a bunch of bills and instead of paying them you just decided it would be easier not to work hard and pay it off, then you have settled for mediocrity. There are all types of examples I could keep going on about, it has become too easy to take the low road instead of the high road and that’s the point I’m trying to make. What are we missing out on, what are we limiting ourselves to?

When I run in an event/race I know my limits and I work that entire race to run at the limit I set to meet my goal. Prior to that event I have spent countless hours in the weeks or months prior putting countless miles under my feet. I spend time training my body to get faster, become more efficient and be stronger. I spend hours each week in the swimming pool as cross training, improving my heart muscle, getting stronger and my improving my lungs. I stretch, I eat healthy food. On race day I often wake up at 4 or 5 am to eat a breakfast that will provide me with the energy I will need in a few hours (I go back to sleep after I eat). On some of those training days when my alarm goes off very early and I need to get a run in, or on those nights when it’s cold and rainy and it would be easier to stay in bed or stay on the couch than go to the YMCA and swim, I remind myself that I’m working toward a goal and that settling for mediocrity is what too many other people are doing at that moment. I really think that training physically has made my attitude better, and made me a better worker and better person.

Yes these are economically and in some ways socially difficult times. No, you are not expected to be the next Thomas Edison. Hardship though is often the fire that tempers an individual and breeds innovation. If we could all strive at our daily lives the way that we do at many of our personal goals, the way that many of our relatives did during times like the depression or the second world war then we might lose that acceptance of mediocrity and might make our society and our world a better place. Think of what we could do if we would just hold those ideals of doing our best high again.

Do You Kiss Your Mother with that Mouth?

Do You Kiss Your Mother with that Mouth?

Is it a case of life imitating art? I believe that may be a part of where this particular problem stems from though I do not completely blame movies, music or media entirely. I do realize that yes this is a free country and that the first amendment guarantees us free speech. What troubles me is the proliferation and rampant use of foul language in everyday settings, which seems to be growing.

You may be guilty of it yourself. I will grant you that in private or under extreme stress sometimes there may be no better word in the heat of the moment to describe or fit the agony, frustration or turmoil you are currently suffering. I would admit to being as guilty as anyone of giving in and using this type of language in the past, though as of the last several years I have made a conscious effort to curb that to a number of occurrences per year that could be counted on both hands at the most. As an alternative I often times mutter complete nonsense to myself as I’m working on a frustrating or difficult project; it usually makes me laugh and lightens my mood.

If Ralphie were a real person today he'd go blind from soap poisoning

Back to my opening statement, consider this; Hollywood is constantly trying to push the envelope, as is the music industry in many cases. The problem with language as I see it is that they’ve gone as far as they can go. Unlike gore, sex and nudity which “artists” will continue to push the limits of, there are only so many swear words available. So the only way to go further is to just keep piling on the expletives. When the only adjective in a sentence is the constant repetition of the same four letter word (or that word conjugated various ways) it makes little sense from a grammatical or reasoning standpoint, and it completely turns me off to what I’m watching (in this example).

Given the proliferation of such language in pop culture, it would seem that it has thus become more accepted in daily life, including in public use. As a kid I can rarely remember hearing the F-bomb being dropped in any place but in a movie. Keep in mind I grew up with a dad in the car business and spent quite a bit of time around a business environment both blue collar and white collar. I can recall no times prior to my teenage years hearing that word used in an open setting.

However today I hear this word among many others used on a regular basis. Not only do I hear it, I read it where various web sites, social media, etc contain stories or quotes containing not only that one but sometimes that one used several times or worse. Recently I had two college age women in our waiting area/office at work. One girl took a phone call on her cell phone and had a conversation that I can only describe as very colorful with the person on the other end. She not only used several colorful phrases but dropped the F-bomb at least every other sentence (sometimes three or more times in one sentence). This was all casual conversation for her, she was not angry or stressed, she was just using it in the same way I might use the phrases “messed up” “not right”, “unbelievable”, “whoa”, “you’re kidding” “blue”, “pretty”, “awesome”, “oh yeah”.  People will come to my desk and speak this way across the counter to me, or when they call on the phone. They are not necessarily directing anger or hate toward me as the word might imply in some cases but instead are using it as an adjective to describe something casually. This really makes me want to ask someone to leave and come back when they can speak in a language that resembles daily English and not the script from the latest horror movie.

Does anyone realize how stupid they sound when every sentence contains the same word used repeatedly? Yet it’s supposed to have a different meaning? Or it may be used as various parts of speech in the same sentence, noun, verb, pronoun, adjective, and adverb. When the same word is used repeatedly in this manner and it outnumbers the words that actually relate to what you’re talking about I have to say you don’t look just look and sound stupid, you come across (at least to me) as a complete moron with a limited grasp of the English language.

Read this sentence aloud and see if you can keep yourself from laughing or smirking; “I loving love you you loving mother lover, you’re such a loved up little love.”Ok so I made that up, but you get the idea I have replaced most of the parts of speech used in that sentence with the word “love”. You’re probably reading that thinking, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever read. Do you see what I mean about the prolific usage of the same (or even multiple) profane words in a sentence. Replacing it with something that is not profane takes away the dagger’s edge of nastiness from the sentence and instead reveals how ridiculous it sounds.

Recently I was at my physician’s office for a routine checkup. I was alone in the waiting room. Another man came in and began talking to the receptionist. He was obviously frustrated and without getting into the details being a little bit whiney for not getting his way. He proceeded to start swearing at the receptionist. Without thinking I stood up out of my chair ready to ask him to leave (I really don’t know what got into me other than not wanting to see this young lady be bullied) she glanced my way and so did he “You will not talk to me like that!” she shouted. Glancing back at me standing up now and then back at her he backed down and apologized to her. I don’t know that I would have even done anything more in that situation but I’d like to think maybe I helped her take a stand and not be verbally abused by an abrasive person.

There was a time when using extreme amounts of expletives was reserved for combat situations, prison, R rated movies, comedians looking for shock value, backrooms, bar fights and private, quiet conversations. Such words were only shouted during those emergency moments when you’re about to crash your car, fall off the roof, stumble into a frozen pond or just smashed an extremity with something heavy or when two drunks were about to duke it out.

Not long ago using such coarse language was considered rude and disgusting in the presence of women and children. Saying such words in the wrong company was in some places enough to literally get you kicked out of an establishment, knocked out or in some cases maybe even have a gun pointed at you. In fact when I was a kid I can remember my grandmother saying that as a girl (think 1930’s) she was walking down the street with her older brother, a man walked by and said something foul (she never would say what the word was), my great uncle (her brother) proceeded to knockout the other man and leave him lying in the street for speaking in such a manner in front of his young sister.  While I see no reason for us to go back to the horse and buggy days in terms of how we deal with rude people, or the ways of life in rural Kentucky during the early 1930’s I do see a need for us to be more creative in our use of language and to exercise some courtesy, morality and civility. We should not be so coarse with each other, or so casually use these types of words, especially when we’re out in public.

Watchdog groups often cry foul over TV, music and video game violence, language or portrayal of women. They claim children may be influenced or desensitized by repeated exposure to such things. I believe as a society we may have been desensitized to the weight such foul words carry. In fact I would wager that since foul language has become so common place that not swearing may bear more leverage in a heated moment than letting loose of such words.  Just think about it the next time you’re having a conversation or are stuck in a moment where you might use an expletive, be creative and see what else you can come up with.

I’ll get off my soapbox now.