Old Tractors and a Skillet Toss

Two weeks ago we went to "Farm Fest" at Hilltop Farm in Suffield, CT. They had a tractor parade (check out the photos below), and a Women's Skillet Toss, among other activities. Okay, so those were the two main attractions for VB. While VB was there she found out why so many of the tobacco fields had been plowed under starting in July - Tobacco fungus took hold. We've had so much rain here in Connecticut this year, it seemed as though April never ended. According to the agricultural specialist, tobacco likes it dry, with a scant amount of rain. And this year was not good at all in that respect. Thus, no tobacco photos this year, except for a few VB posted on flickr from early in the season.

(Below): Photos from Farmfest 2009.














Check out the video VB made of the Women's Skillet Toss. VB's still working on her video making skills. She made this version, then another close up with cropped photos. She then decided she liked this one better, but it took several days (attempts) for it to load onto YouTube properly. VB planned on posting this last week, but due to the circumstances with the video, it's late. And, rather than load up fifty million photos, she thought this was better.

The first woman, in the blue shirt is the yearly winner and she started off well ahead of everyone else. We left before it concluded, but enjoyed watching (and almost getting hit by a flying skillet - twice). The skillets weigh eight pounds each, and each woman had a very distinctive style of throwing. If you watch closely, you can see the skillet flying in almost every photo, and detect which one came flying our way (she's aiming it right at us.)


SKILLET TOSS:

Thwarted!

There seems to be a contest going on at infowars.com to make a video of people posting these racist posters of President Obama where ever possible.

To quote them: "In order to awaken the people about Obama’s agenda, Alex is organizing a contest centered around the “Obama as Joker” poster that has Democrats and Obamanoids going ballistic."

Here's the local version below:


Fortunately others, who apparently have a surplus of the HealthCare '09 bumper stickers, thwarted them.

Funkengroovin Wednesday - Around Town in Connecticut

Yes, VB knows it's late, but it is still Wednesday in the US of A.

According to Boston.com, the Boston Jewish Film Festival (Nov. 5-16), will be showing, Yishai Orian's "The Beetle." Yet, when VB went onto the official site, she could not find the film listed nor the director. What gives!? VB would appreciate any information on this, as she will be back in the area, and would love to see a viewing.

(Below): This is a farming community. Everyone (okay, almost everyone) parks their cars on grass.

(Below): While VB was taking pictures of shade tobacco, this little thing buzzed by.


(Below): Vanagon L, as seen at Suffield Auto Sales. It's been there for awhile now.







NEWS:

You may assume there are photos at every link, but there may not necessarily be.

Anyone keeping up with MadMen already knows the answer to this question: What Should Don Draper Drive? Well, he bought a Cadillac, tried to keep it immaculate, and then his wife puked in it.

ARE TOWNS REALLY SAFER WITHOUT TRAFFIC LIGHTS?

Top five redneck baby-daddy cars

We're gonna have a safety-data party tonight!
"As of today, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched a database of serious accidents involving possible product or equipment failure. That information, known as Early Warning data, has been in use by NHTSA for five years but until today was not available to the public."

Maybe if Bristol Palin and her baby-daddy saw this (beware, more of the Rotten), they would have "abstained" (For real. This car would turn anyone off)!
New VW minivan helps you make a virtual baby
"A more intriguing angle is the Routan BabyMaker 3000, which -- contrary to how it might sound -- is not a handsome, virile android but a mini-website where prospective parents can input digital photographs of themselves. The software then melds their pixels as if they were genes, resulting in a picture of what the fruit of their union might look like.

In an ideal world, there would be a link to the BabyMaker 3000 site, but it doesn’t go live until later this month. And the intrepid Dan Neil will soon be testing the VW Routan, so keep an eye out for that too, all you fertile folk."

Don’t Box Me In, Double-Parker (Full article at the link.)
"Then right before alternate side ended, the driver showed up. Emboldened, I got out and made cranking motion so she would roll down the window."

'“Thanks for boxing me in,” I said. “Because of you I had to wait an hour.”

She gave me a shocked “who, me?” look.

“How was I supposed to know?” she said.

“Exactly,” I replied. “You didn’t leave a phone number on your car.”

Now she looked indignant. “A phone number?” she said. “What do you mean? Everybody does it.”'

From Jalopnik, with amazing photos as usual: 1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Synchro

Flower Power: Run Your Ride on a Wild Weed (Cool Bus Photo)
"The folks at Biodiesel Magazine say stinkweed is an ideal biodiesel feedstock because its seeds yield 36 percent oil when crushed. They should know: After all, they work for Biodiesel Magazine. John Fox, president of Innovation Fuels, says the company is testing the plant and its seeds and so far things look good, even if they smell bad. "We're really pleased with the oil," Fox said, adding that stinkweed oil has excellent cold-flow properties."

Carbon Footprints and Vintage VWs. Being Green is No New Thing.
"Vintage VWs:
Instead of plopping down $23,000 for a new Prius, find an original VW Bug (http://www.airheadparts.com/page.asp?recid=28) that has been completely refurbished for a few grand. And in four to five years guess what, the Beetle will be worth more than the Prius. The Prius's "new technology' will get old quick while the Beetle is an appreciating collector car. Or find one and fix it up yourself. Use to be the American way, to refurbish and maintain our own things. I recently restored a vintage VW. Parts where easily found (an outfit in my own little town - Airhead Parts (http://www.airheadparts.com) had everything) and the satisfaction of doing most of it myself was the best part. But any high mileage used car is better than new (and my "Love Bug" gets very good gas mileage)."

Snail Car Is Born When Math, Dreams Collide
(Quite funky. Many photos.)
"OAKLAND, California -- In a project that would make Franz Kafka grin, a 40-year-old bug has metamorphosed into a snail."

Car Talk: Here's the Thing: Short-lived VW car is a rolling death trap
"Tom: The Bug was not a safe car to begin with, and the Thing was basically a Bug without the added structural protection of a roof. So it was a death trap, in my opinion, Bradley. And I agree with your mom. I wouldn't want any of my kids driving around in this Thing."

Interlochen man bitten by Volkswagen bug
'"My peak is right now, I have over 60 Beetles in various shapes. Some are drivable, some need to be repaired, but a lot are just for parts," said March, who says his wife claims if he had a dollar for every part, he would be a millionaire.'

What Happens to Reno's Iconic VW Bug?
"The City of Reno decided to remove a sculpture of a giant bug- made out of a VW Beetle from an old city building."

Break-up of the Beetles: Mexico City ends affair with VW minicabs

VW Beetle taxis on way out in Mexico City
"In Cuba, the Volkswagen Beetle is called the "little egg." In France, it's known as the "ladybird." Here, the vehicle is called el vocho, converted into tens of thousands of green-and-white taxis that have filled the capital's congested streets for at least half a century. But if the city government has its way, the emblematic vochos will drive off into history."


Tomorrow VB returns to Egypt for a month, with one week involved in entertaining relatives. VB doesn't recall where she spotted this video, as it's been quite a while, but it is hysterical. Does it remind you of anyone you know? Whenever VB has to return to expat status, leaving this bucolic town along the Connecticut River, always makes her queasy (for more reasons than just one.) In addition, since she's blogging she don't hang out with the "Wives Club" anymore. They apparently all know VB's business, her husband's rank, and all the company business and gossip, to boot! Getting caught up in all that can make your life one miserable hell. Blogging is much more fun.

French and Saunders - Expatriate Wives #2

Galveston 2006

A little over two years ago, April 2006, The Boss Man and VB took a trip to Galveston, Texas. The Boss Man was working in Houston and VB spent half a year down there. We finally got our act together to do a day trip. Galveston sounded like a fine place to plop the Vanagon down, and have a cook out on the beach. Much to our surprise, it was the weekend for a Hip-Hop festival. There were some pretty fancy cars down there, with distinctive colors (blue and green) possibly designating gang rivalries, parts of town, who knows. We didn't ask, but a couple of folks did let VB take some photos. As you can see, it turned out to be a perfect day.

Oh yeah, and the bouncers let VB use the porta-potty too, even though she didn't have tickets to the show (it's really hard figuring out where to piss on a naked beach!)

VB wanted to go back to Galveston sometime, when it wasn't as crowded, to take photos of the beautiful buildings (photos). It wasn't too long after this, that we discovered we were moving to Cairo, Egypt. So, no, VB never got back down there. The news about Hurricane Ike's assault, is not good. VB would like to add that her nephew is without electricity in Cincinnati, Ohio (one of 700,000), and had two trees in the front of his yard blown down. All this from Ike! But, has any of this been mentioned in the news - noooooooo. We Americans are more concerned with Lipstick and Pigs.


(Below): Our Van on the beach - looks mighty fine if I say so myself! We are well below the seventeen foot breaker wall.


(Below): The queue of cars waiting to enter, looking for parking spots (we got the best one.)



(Below): A Chevy Lumina all tricked out.


(Below 2): A Cadillac all "pimped out". Check out the trunk (second photo.) And yes, that's a huge, thumpin' stereo in the trunk. Ghetto Dreams is a hip-hop album by an artist from the Houston area, who was gunned down. That's about all VB knows on the subject. Oh yeah, and the owner has turned his back to the photo, but very proud of his car none-the-less.





(below): As we were leaving, late in the afternoon, a queue was still forming on this tree lined street in Galveston.



(Below): Closing in on Houston - the multiple leveled highways gave VB acrophobia.


(Below): Coming down from on high. It's a strange feeling when you're driving and get the feeling you are just about as high as a skyscraper.

Lou Reed - Perfect Day

Who You Gonna Call?

Apparently VB's neighbors decided on this company!

Funkengroovin Wednesday Belated - Puppy Trip To PA

Photos for Would You Buy This Truck and today's blog are fixed - finally! Vagabondblogger posts photos from her desktop. She used to post them from her flickr account, but some countries block flickr. So uploading from her desktop allows everyone to view them. It lowers VB's flickr count, but she doesn't care. She doesn't know if this was part of the problem, but it's now "fixed," to quote the Goggle geeks.

Just about a month ago, The Boss Man and VB took a trip to Pennsylvania to pick up our new pup, Lotus. While there, in a small, small town, we spotted two VW Vans. One on the road, and one being worked on. Later, when we were leaving with the pup (Lotus), we saw both vans at the same house. Same owner? Who knows. We had a six hour drive back to CT, so we weren't exactly in the mood to stop and chit-chat. Besides, Lotus was crying.





How Many Days Till Christmas? VB's been remiss in her Christmas list. LIMBO has a general store offering sun catchers, mugs, clocks, caps, tees, and stickers. How could she do that, even when she had those sun catchers right under her nose while working on the shopping list? You can order from LIMBO anytime, you don't really need Christmas as an excuse now do you?

NEWS AND ARTICLES: Articles about parking lots. Don't you love them? Isn't that what we all live for - to drive around in circles looking for a parking space, that is, unless you own a VW Bus which is too high for most garage height requirements. And VB will bet that a lot of you have been doing just that - shopping for the holidays. You can't get VB near a mall this time of year. She lets her fingers do the driving, err walking. From Slate: Garage Mahals ARCHITECTS TURN THEIR ATTENTION TO THE PROBLEM OF PARKING. By Witold Rybczynski

"Equally dramatic, in a high-tech way, are the parking towers at Autostadt, Volkswagen's exhibition complex and automotive theme park in Wolfsburg, Germany."

Read more about it and ten others at the link above. There's also links to more garage themed articles.

Glory of Cars, Even Parking

"Contributing writers provide a handful of book recommendations, all related to automobiles but most of them of interest to the general reader."

Registration required (free).

It's time to vote for the Collectible Car of the Year!

"Over 500 of you submitted entries of some of the best automobiles we've ever seen: vintage Alfa Romeos, classic El Dorados, souped up Corvettes and Porsches ready for their close-ups. It wasn't easy, but our esteemed panel of judges whittled down the entries to thirty finalists. Now it's up to you to vote for the winner."

Check out, Buy a car - Chicago on Travel Pod. Starting on May 10th with his acquisition of an '85 Van, he is still going from Chicago to December in Peru, with plenty of photos.

From Jalopnik: Buy an $88,000 VW Beetle, Get the Gold for Free

Photo here, but not lighted (see below.) Family's car business can't stop 'buggin'

"ALEXANDRIA - Bill Goepper and his son Matt put a punch into their family business' light display with a decorated Volkswagen Beetle. The family's BMC Auto Rental at 7885 Alexandria Pike, Alexandria, has covered "bug" cars in lights during the holidays for six years."

High School Hijinks! ( Another photo)

"The administration at Haddonfield Memorial High School has to be pretty pissed—but isn't that the point of senior pranks? During Spirit Week, the class of 2008 bought a 1974 VW Beetle, painted it up, took it through the school's hallways, and deposited it in the courtyard. Then they removed the steering wheel and locked the doors. Nice work!"

More here too: Phil's Volkswagen Beetle: "The Bug"


nat king cole - the christmas song

My Little Town

VB wrote this a little less than a month ago and had not gotten around to posting it. Today, everything has a dusting of snow, and is frozen from the ice storm last weekend. This is a fall view of the area.

Vagabondblogger usually talks about her neighborhood in Cairo, Egypt. Today she has decided to focus on her neighborhood in Connecticut. Vagabondblogger lives in a small town along the Connecticut River. She has seen foxes, a snapping turtle, eagles, wild turkeys, rabbits, frogs, other suspect varmints; she has heard about coyotes attacking cats and dogs; owls trying to kidnap cats; bears, moose, deer traipsing around; and that bobcats, are moving in to the neighborhood. Vagabondblogger doesn't really care for many of these creatures. In one way or another they're either just plain annoying or terrorists. Plus she has to put up with the smell of equine urine, and manure used by the local farmers, who specialize in growing the world's finest cigar wrapping tobacco. Don't believe Vagabondblogger? Then check this out: The Secret Life of Shade Tobacco.

Shade tobacco is used as the outermost layer of high-end cigar brands like Davidoff, Macanudo and Arturo Fuente. It is the state’s No. 1 agricultural export in dollars, bringing in more than $30 million a year, according to the federal Department of Agriculture.

The tobacco farmers really create traffic problems during harvesting season. One contraption after another clogs the roads hauling tobacco, and workers around. Of course, most farmers also support themselves with the usual farm stand vegetables, fruits, and flowers. Brown men suddenly appear from May staying through until the end of harvest. Vagabondblogger knows not where these men come from, nor where they're headed when they leave. Actually, she's not sure she even saw them to begin with. She sees NOTHING, she knows NOTHING!


















One of the local farms and rows of dried out corn stalks.







Here's a tour of Vagabondblogger's neighborhood:

This neighbor has canoes parked outside his barn, and offers Christmas Trees you cut yourself, which is how we have been doing it since we moved here. He lives across the road from the guy who walks around in his boxers, has been caught by the police peeping in on VB's neighbor, and has been seen (by Vagabondblogger herself) listening intently to his mailbox. There's one of those in every neighborhood, right?

Then just a few houses down, lives "The Cat Lady." We call her Tweety, because she sounds like Tweety Bird, and she has a "Cat Crossing" sign in front of her house. She's nice, talkative, has an assortment of feral cats, and dead autos behind her house. We do believe, she has a smokehouse, as we can smell something smoking in the wee hours of the morn'. She claims that her family has lived here since before the Civil War, so it's quite possible the next landmark is a relative of hers.

Farther down the road are two grave markers from 1761, overlooking the Connecticut River. The larger adult died of smallpox at the age of 81 years. The other is an infant.



Now we get to the scene of the crime, or the crime that never was, or the uncrime crime. This was what people here refer to as a "package store". It's just another name for a liquor store. It was run by an elderly Polish lady, who had been caught selling alcohol (mostly beer) to under-aged teens (rumor has it, it was usually skunked.) She fell, broke a rib, and died of internal bleeding. Her much younger boyfriend, who had a restraining order on him to not set foot near her, had just been released from jail, and was with her when she died. Panicking he decided to construct a fake crime scene, and called the police to say he "found her like that." The newspaper was full of innuendos, speculation, and assumptions, that he did the dastardly deed. The local coroner figured out she had not been beaten, but that her injury was accidental. Her boyfriend, who apparently couldn't keep his hands off the old gal, confessed to constructing the murder scene, and is now going back to jail, for violating his probation.


Around the corner and up the road is the local farm stand, now closed for business, although they do seem to have an abundance of pumpkins this year.



As usual, all over the area, people park their dead cars in the woods. This old van seems to be oxidizing pretty well.



Finally, the old Grange Meeting House, which has been converted into a theatre. This winter they are performing A Tuna Christmas! Maybe they'll add some more dates due to the usual high demand.