Friday, “Yay!,”

Still trying to recover from a weeks vacation. The diesel pulled well, but need to redo the rear shocks to handle the travel trailer better..

 

Happy Saturday! Enjoy the fine weather before the hurricane wipes us out. LOL Never heard of a hurricane hitting California. First time for everything I guess.

Jim

 

First time in 30+ years I heard a weather reporter say. We usually could use the moisture, but can really do without the winds and lightning.

Not many new fire starts cropping up, but very little containment on most of the ones around here.

On a positive note, the diesel did very well on vacation towing the Travel Trailer down to Morro Bay and back. Now I need to research better rear shocks and air bag suspension.

 

Which one is yours? The one on the right, or left?

Jim

 

I was standing at the toung looking towards Morro Bay. It was a wonderful week of seeing old friends and making new ones too.

 

I've got these 10 year old shoes that are kind of worn down. The heels have been rounded. The bottoms are beat up. At the time, I couldn't decide if I wanted black or brown. So I bought both. They were inexpensive. Stacy Adams shoes are usually sold in stores that also sell Zoot Suits. Not something that you would find in an upscale haberdashery. Stacy Adams shoes are usually favored by rappers and street pimps. I added a Vibram sole to the black pair. Now, 10 years later, I realized that I should have done that to both pairs. Actually, I should add Vibram soles to all of my shoes that have a leather sole.











I go to a neighborhood shoe repair shop. The kind of place where the guy can't decide if he wants to fix shoes, make keys, hem pants, change watch batteries, or sell cheap pocket knives to children from the nearby high school. The guy quoted me "$$$". I was shocked. That's more than the shoes cost. I could buy a brand new pair for less. So I asked him what he would do for that price. I wanted to know what kind of soles he was going to use, if he was going to replace the welt, etc. In my mind, I was thinking of having some lug soles installed. Upgrading and improving the shoe. He tells me that for the quoted price of almost $200, he would sand down the leather and glue on a piece of rubber, then cut off the heel and glue on another piece. He shows me this thin sheet of rubber which looked like it was for patching bicycle inner tubes and a plastic heel block which was stamped "Taiwan". My mouth ran away from me. "That's a hack job. I could do that myself at home." He looks at me, and says, "Well, that's how we do it here."


When I got home later in the day, I figured I would Google Search resole shoes. There are now businesses online that offer resole services. It cost less than the local shoe repair, and they are probably doing a better job.








Then I saw the online videos. I decided that this is something that I could do myself. Or at least try to do it myself. An old pair of cheap shoes is perfect. If I screw up, I'm not really at a loss.






This is the first phase. I tore the heel off, cut the nails, and sanded down the soles. Now I have to source the materials. The next step is to glue on the new soles. I'll use Vibram Christy wedge soles just like the YouTube videos. How hard can this be?

 

Happy Sunday Nor Cal. I have never heard of Stacy Adams shows. But then, I am not a rapper or a pimp, so it makes sense,

Jim

 

Last time was 1939 according to reports I saw. Looks like most of the influence will be toward the eastern part of the state.

 

Another Monterey Car Week in the books. We met up on Thursday at the Highland Inn just south of Carmel. Spectacular views and great company made it an enjoyable evening. Friday morning we got a guided tour at the Mecum auction. My personal highlight was being on the auctioneer's block and getting to SLAM the hammer down on a Bronco sale! On Sat we went to Laguna Seca and got to see the new Mustang GTD in person. Think 800+ HP and a transaxle drivetrain, with a projected sub 7 second Nürburgring lap time. It's bad to the bone! That night we attended a banquet dinner outdoors in Carmel Valley. I was admiring my friend's new GT500 when some guy came up and introduced himself. He said his name was Bill and we started talking antique Fords. I mentioned my dad has a 1910 T, and he came back with owning the oldest Ford in existence. He also mentioned something about owning a car company. At dinner I was seated next to Jim Murrieta, one of Shelby American's "Original Venice Crew" on one side, and former Chief Ford Designer Camillo Pardo on the other. Next to Camillo was Ken Miles' son Peter. The next table over had Peter Brock and other luminaries. A great evening to wrap up a great weekend indeed.

 

Sounds like an awesome time! Did Clint Eastwood show up in his forest green Ferrari? Just wondering.

Jim

 

The only time I saw Dirty Harry Callahan was a caricature on the wall of a bar and grill I was listening to some live music in. Bing Crosby was up there too!

 

It's an iconic brand, which has now been "watered down". It's owned by the same company which owns Florsheim and Nunn Bush. All three of those companies once made reputable products. Now you get the lowest cost materials and construction. My boot's heel was actually made out of cardboard. If you go to lower income neighborhoods, you can buy them in stores that sell Zoot Suits. To me, they sell pimp suits and pimp shoes. When you go to the more expensive side of town, it's the lowest priced shoe at Nordstroms. At Nordstroms, you can buy Stacy Adams that look like much more expensive shoes. That's how I ended up with my Stacy Adams boots. Back in 2012, they were only about $70.

 

We were supposed to get a lot of rain early this morning, but I did not hear anything.

Jim

 

We're getting some good wind today (but not ridiculous), and no rain so far.

 

A twister touched down in Fresno according to the local news, but it is currently sunny and cloudy with no rain at the moment. Didn't affect me one bit as I have not gone outside today.

Jim