Guilty Pleasure!

One thing that I love in life, and I mean love is going to a nice foreign or exotic car show. Heck I even love going to the "new car" car show, just don't ask me to go to a classic American car show. For some reason a row of Chevelles, Vettes, Camero's, Mustangs, and other muscle cars does not do it for me, but the exotics and foreign stuff just gets my little diabetic heart pounding. Now I am not saying I won't stop down for a look-see at a classic American car show, I just wont go out of my way to attend one or put it on my calendar as an item "to do" for any day. I guess it is because I live in the land of America and I see these cars up and down the highways and city streets all the time and have seen them all my life but something from a foreign land or with two commas in the price tag is just simply amazing to me.

Here is one of my favorite cars above, the Lotus Elise. This has my favorite recipe for a cool car, very small, light, just weird looking enough to have that exotic look to it, and a simple engine. The Lotus uses modified Toyota engines so in theory (or at least in my head) you could take this to your local Toyota dealer and get parts for your engine.

If you don't remember the movie "Pretty Woman" this the car (not the actual car) from the movie.  The Lotus Esprit, and I love how low and lean this car looks plus it has this wild rear glass kind of thing happening to it that adds to the mystique of the car.  Then there is the simple Ford Probe look to it that makes it look like I could drive this car to the grocery store and to work without standing out in a crowd.  This car was my gateway drug into "wedge" cars and why now my favorite car is the Detomaso Pantera the epitome of the "wedge" car.

Never was much of a Rolls Royce dreamer but I always loved their timeless grill and hood ornaments.

Here is an old Jaguar Mark II front end that inspired the past "S" model.  Timeless again, but still I was never a huge Jaguar fan, probably because of that disaster of a car looking XJS they created in the 80's that just looked odd in so many ways.

I don't exactly get this car, it is a Mclaren MP4-12c "super car" (that means it cost alot and has huge maintenance bills).  Personally I dislike it when car companies just use a bunch of random letters and numbers for the cars name.  Give me something simple and elegant, like you tried to come up with a name not just gibberish.  These cars are starting to pop up around Dallas but the front end looks like some sort of anime character.  I don't want too much of a personality or cartoon character in the look of a car.

Never was a huge Buick Riviera fan but the movie "Road House" makes you really like them.  They have the cool shutter headlights with a sleek looking body.  They look really nice but remember they weigh like a ton and go slow so all cool look with little go.

Maserati is one of my fascination car companies.  I like how they keep the trident and water theme in their cars and the little hair lip in the grill.  Look just above the trident and you can see what I mean.  I hear that Maserati's are the number one car company that have the worst resale value.  wonder how much I can pick this one up for?

If you ever asked me "Diabetic Camper, or Dave what is the one and only Ferrari you would ever own?"  I would tell you the 308 or the extremely similar 328 which is the later version just with small updates.  Why you ask?  First lets remember my fascination with the "wedge" car.  Then I am a sucker for a targa top, for some reason I am not a convertible person but a moon roof or targa top fits me perfect.  Last this is the car from Magnum PI like the greatest public investigator on TV and he got all the pretty ladies.  They show old episodes on a channel in Dallas called "COZI" tv and I stop down and watch them all the time.  Classic car from a classic TV show.

I guess alot of the reason that this is my guilty pleasure is that almost all of these car shows I go to by myself.  There is just some sort of added pressure if someone is with you and they want to look at real cool cars and I am drooling over a random old MG, Triumph, or Delorean.  I guess I am a closet car show stalker or something but at least I can admit it and that is the first step to getting over my problem.  When I get home from these shows I surf craigslist and see what some of these cars would actually cost me and my mind drifts to la-la land like I don't have diabetes and have a head full of hair with open weekends to hang out with cool people.  Just a dream.

Off to the races!

 You know I am game for almost anything, OK well anything legal and non-life threatening.  So a few weeks ago one of my co-workers asked if any of us wanted to go to the horse track on May 4th (yes May the 4th be with you day).  He worked at Lone Star Park our local horse track all through high school and college and he was familiar with the ponies.  May 4th was the Kentucky Derby and so to capitalize on that the track and probably every track has a "Derby Day" on that day so to bring a party to the park.  Lone Star park had a hat contest, live band, and all the guys wearing these funny suits, I asked my buddy and he said the suits were some sort of backwoods Kentucky thing.  In the picture above you can see Josh and I out in the sun waiting for the next race and he was busy on his phone taking last calls for Kentucky derby bets.

 Now I have always wanted to go to the horse track but I have between zero and no experience with horse betting.  The only other time I had done anything with horse betting was once at a restaurant they had the off track betting and another  guy at the event who knew about horse betting did a few bets for me and I made like 45 bucks that night, even after dinner.  Above you can see my buddy Josh with our local track guide putting in our bets while we waited for the big one.  Of course we lost on all our bets that day but the day flew by like nothing.  I thought we had been there for like thirty minutes and looked at my watch and it had been three hours.  Horse betting is like a gamblers dream, there are about a million ways to bet on the same horse to win or multiple places with boxing in and all the such.  I was lost but that is what was nice about having somebody there with "knowledge" with the K to hold my hand and help me lose my money in a smart way.  Not to just blow my money on the horse that goes pee last but one with solid odds to lose and has a good name and maybe from a town I can find on a map.  Makes a bunch of sense right?

The moment came when the Kentucky derby race number 13 I think it was (they have other races at the derby besides the big one) and we headed into the off track betting which is where you can bet and watch tracks from all over the country.  The video boards switched to the derby and everyone was at the gambling machines making last minute bets.  Then in like two minutes it was over and my long shot Lines of Battle pulled up the middle of the back of the pack and we threw our stubs away headed to get some food at Cracker Barrel.

I think days like this is why I think everyone should be open and nice to each other.  If it weren't for my co-worker willing to hold my hand at the race track I would have never gone in my life and look now I have done it and have the pictures to prove it.  If I were an angry or easily upset person then my co-worker would have never offered this adventure to me.  This is why even with vinegar and salt in our blood steam because of diabetes we still need to have a positive look on life and be friendly to each other.  That other person just might educate you on how to lose your money properly.

When good rides go bad!

 So my good buddy Jeff and I went bike ridding yesterday.  We really didn't have much of a plan for the ride but we knew we wanted to ride and have knowledge of a solid 80% of all the bike paths and routes in the north Dallas area so we took off at 7:00am and planned to ride till either we made it back or Jeff called his wife to get us.

 I am not sure why but, I only have one actual picture of Jeff so instead of using the same photo of him over and over I thought to use one of his many pictures he sends me about diabetes all the time.  This Wendy's sign looks right for a carpool full of diabetics, or just one price conscious diabetic that is currently suffering from a low blood sugar episode.

Now Jeff and I love to ride together because we both don't care.  What do we both not care about?  That would be speed, looks, or anything else.  We just love to ride and have fun.  Think of when you were a kid and your good BMX buddy and you would ride to the corner store to get Slurpee's and Twinkies (maybe that is why I am diabetic?), that is Jeff and I.  We spent probably two hours yesterday hanging out on curbs just shooting the sh*t and cracking jokes.  We talk about anything from diabetes to why Jeff rode yesterday with no air in his tires then the subject can go from food to kids to girls, we just ramble on and on.  Most of our other friends are goal oriented and focused on speed and stuff.  When Jeff and I ride we just ride and stop at at the corner stores where we drink  monster energy drinks, split cliff blocks, honey stinger waffle things, and hang out.  Kind of like in high school where you and your buddy would split one of those giant dill pickles while planning the rest of your evening.

 Back to yesterday, I was feelin very fine, fresh and foxy with my ride and Jeff with his no air pressure in his tires was keeping a pretty darned good pace until we hit the "little Mexico" part of Dallas and we both slowed down because of broken beer bottles, random weirdos on the sidewalk and of course cars.  One intersection is our arch nemesis and yesterday it got me.  It is a three way stop where we cross the street but the cars coming are turning and Jeff was first then I noticed a truck coming right for him and I yelled at him to pick it up so that he would not get hit.  Then once Jeff was safe I then noticed the driver was watching him and turned directly into me so I had a choice to make, get my front tire clipped or speed up and take the truck directly in the grill (t-bone style).  I decided on T-Bone style which was good because the truck hit me and I went up the hood and my bike basically stuck into his grill and he went a few more feet and I was hooked on pretty good and life and diabetes was good.  Then I cleared the truck and he took off and Jeff was about to go chase the guy down but I told him not to worry about it that I did a good number onto the grill and hood of his truck.  We then took a moment to inspect my bike (and inspect me a little) and nothing was really bad and went along our way.  Oh, the funniest thing was this lady who spoke extreme broken English kept saying how she saw the "stupido" man how he was "rude-o" for doing that.  That is when I tried to crack a joke and told her that I was OK and my diabetes would always protect me, then she had a great come back and said "how is diabetes going to protect you in this neighborhood when we all have diabetes."  That was the funniest thing I had ever heard.  Welcome to little Mexico!

 Jeff and I continued our bike adventure and made it to a lake near downtown Dallas and happened into the middle of a car club get together and show.  So yes, like what Jeff and I always do we stopped, looked at the cars, snapped some pictures and went along our way.  There was a Triumph car club, a Jaguar car club, a Mini car club, Lotus car club, and an MG car club there.  In the picture above I for some reason put my thumb over part of the picture,  sorry.

Check out this photo of a three wheeled car and if you look hard to the left of this picture that is Jeff getting out his cellular telephone to do some random texting (is texting and riding a bike any different than doing while driving a car?) and also snapping some pictures of the cool cars.  We finished our 70 mile journey at like 2:00pm in the afternoon after lots of hanging out and enjoying the adventures.  There is nothing like a lazy Sunday afternoon with another ADD diabetic, who knows what will happen next time.  I never told you all when Jeff almost killed a guy sleeping on the sidewalk that looked exactly like a smurf now have I?  That was the funniest thing ever, and maybe some day it will be published.