Hey guys,

It's been a while since I posted here. Just wanted to check and say hi. Whatcha been up to?

Knock on wood, things have been pretty smooth sailing with the old car. It was in storage Jan-March, now it's out and driving around. Obviously driving less than I normally would be (we're working from home now - lucky to still be working). Got past the 100k mile mark a couple weeks ago. Family is well (mom is an essential hospital worker in a diagnostic lab, so a little worried about her).

Hit a new top speed a few weeks ago. Not gonna say what it was, but I will say that even though it's a base model XK8 made in august 1996, it's still got some legs. A ~2010 Porsche Cayman S came to play on the highway last weekend when I was going for a drive, and I left him in the dust a couple times. All in good fun. Had the opportunity to drive a Cayman S last year and it was a brilliant, brilliant car.

I guess the biggest news for me is that I'll (eventually) be moving to NYC to get my PhD. Kinda of bad news for the car, as it'll probably just have to go into long term storage at my parents' house in MA for the first year. After that, I may have a friend in NJ willing to garage it. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it though.

A friend of mine was looking for a car, and got bit by the jag bug after going for a ride in mine. He decided to get a 2011 XF 5.0. We've been having some fun driving around the empty highways here. Nice car, but the previous owner had no taste and made some cheap looking additions to the car. My buddy's now working on bringing it back to stock. Glad he got a V8.

Other than that, I'm just drinking a lot of beer.

Hope you are all well. Be smart, be considerate, and be safe.

 

Good to hear from you Enjoyevery and congrats on getting into your PhD program. What field? NYC=Columbia?

Quiet here at Teacup Farm near the upper reaches of the Russian River. Little occasion to drive but do occasionally take my Jag out for a wee spin. Mostly doing gardening but will soon start a undergrounding project to get rid of ugly poles and overhead wires along our west (valley and coastal range view) side.

Very few Covid cases in our area so far but until we get widespread testing we will probably remain fairly locked down.

Granville

 

EnjoyEverySandwich,

It’s nice to hear what people are doing during this strange lock down time.

Good luck on the PHD and what’s the subject material you’re considering? You will have more time to drink even more beer. I’m more of a wine person, and had fun doing a big wine shop before the Holy month of Ramadan hit the Middle East. Slowly going through it.

Here, it’s quiet and I closed the Bahrain office and had the unenviable job of firing most of the staff. There’s no cash for payroll. All that’s left of us, are trying to work from home.

I previously owned a Porsche Cayman S and it’s a brilliant handling sports car 320bhp and stands well against the faster 911. Trouble was it was too reliable and just sat in the garage. As it’s a mid engine layout, the only way to the engine is via the top of the rear cabin parcel shelf. Only DIY job I did on it was replace an air hose, on top of the engine, and it was impossible to service properly without a lift. Had it 8 years and never really gave me much trouble. I regularly tracked it at the Bahrain Formula 1 race course and it went through tyres at approx 9 month intervals esp. the rears. As I aged, and stopped track racing, comfort became more important, so I traded the Porsche for the older Jag XK8 as a car restoration project.

I wish everyone safe and considerate plans for the re-opening of the world. Just consider this scenario - you’ve got a invisible killer disease, but luckily you have no symptoms, but if you give it to someone else, they will then eventually give it to someone who is more vulnerable .... and RIP. It’s your fault.

 

Our family is doing well. I was an "essential employee" until two weeks ago when I retired. I am in the process of building a new home, in fact the drywall is being taped as I type this post. The Jag went into storage Saturday as our present home is sold with a closing date of June 1 and the garage at the new place won't be finished by then. In fact we will be living in a not quite finished house for a while as we finish it up ourselves.

Our family has not been directly affected by COVID-19 thus far, or should I say as far as we know given that so many show no or mild symptoms. I only know one person that has been diagnosed with it and he was moderately ill and is doing well now.

I hope you all are safe and will continue to be as we work our way out of this situation. God Bless you all.

Ron

 

My wife has been sick in bed for more than a week with what she thought (and hoped) was just a bad cold. With a compromised immune system from multiple lung surgeries during 2018 which turned out to be Meigg's Syndrome caused by a tumor on her uterus (successfully removed in May 2018), she typically comes down with a couple of bad colds each year....

She spoke with her doctor this morning and was advised to come in and get tested for Covid-19. We shall see how this turns out....

 

Hi All,

Jon, I hope your wife's test comes back negative and all you both have to worry about is, at worst, a bad cold. I think the biggest challenge to overcome is no knowing when and how long before this is over. Getting harder to remember what "normal" used to be like.

We live in a suburb of Philadelphia and I monitor construction projects being financed by banks. For some reason, this is considered an "essential service" by the State of Pennsylvania (why construction of a $ 600,000 McMansion is an essential service is beyond me). Cases of the virus are more prevalent in high population density areas, so I try to limit going into Philadelphia as much as possible and stick close to home. Had a few days of great weather lately, so I take the car out for a drive about once a week. Unfortunately, there's really nowhere to go, so I drive out to farm country to find some curvy roads then return back home. Fortunately, since I own three Jaguars, there's always repairs and maintenance to keep me busy in my spare time, lol.

Let's all try to stay safe and ride this out as best we can. This too shall pass.

 

@150FHC @DavidYau Yep! Going to Columbia for Economics. Mostly interested in studying how policies designed to alleviate despair perform as well as what determines despair in the first place (easy to say anecdotally, but responding via policy is much harder to get right). Mostly in the context of developing countries, but we'll have some of that going on in the U.S. too as e.g. agriculture transforms.

@Jon89 My thoughts are with you and your wife. I can only imagine the stress and worry. Hoping for the best, but let us know if there's anything we can do to help.

 

Thanks for the kind words. She tested positive for Covid-19 and is slowly recovering. I am "assumed positive" but all I have been experiencing is my usual pollen-induced clogged sinuses and watery eyes. Nevertheless, I will self-quarantine until May 14th....

 

Good luck with your lady. I hope everything turns out for the best. Stay healthy and safe.

 

Hope your wife continues to improve, and you continue to be plagued only by our pollen, Jon.

 

Here's hoping Jan continues to make steady progress and you can get relief from the pollen with some of the rain we keep getting.
Thinking about you both and hope all will be well soon.

 

Everyone in my family is well so overall things are OK. Being retired, people think that this staying at home crap isn't too big a change for me, and physically it's not, but not being able to get together with family is getting old. My oldest son's birthday was last Friday and we did the drive by thing. That doesn't cut it for me.
I'm building a deck on the back of the house and doing lots of yard work and small projects and repairs so I have no lack of things to keep me busy. I have a small list of things I want/need to do to the Jag, so I have a good month or two of things to do depending on my level of motivation, then it's summer and too hot to do anything beyond mow the lawn and drink beer. I just hope I don't have to do it alone, but I will if I have to.
I hope that everyone stays safe and sane.

 

Jon,
My sincere best wishes for you both.

Mike

 

Thanks again to all for the kind words. She gets a little better each day but is still very weak and tired and spends most of her day in bed. She is making our dinner tonight for the first time since she became sick two weeks ago. I believe it will take a month or more for her to fully recover. My sinuses remain somewhat stuffed up but other than that, I feel fine. I can indeed confirm that my taste buds and sense of smell have been affected....

 

Geez Jon89,

I wish your wife a speedy recovery. Self isolation is no fun. +1 to stu as it gets old fast. We’re social animals so I can’t imagine what it would be like if you’re solo in an apartment.

Everyone seems to be affected differently. At the beginning of the outbreak, I had a strange upset stomach (weird for me as I usually have a “concrete/rhino” gut) and my wife caught a strange dry cough which she is still trying to shake off after a month. She’s a Yogi so breathing is important to her.

You’ve got loss of taste and smell. Worst cases are coughs, fever and lack of breath. Some have reported headaches and rashes.

We all seem to be affected differently by this Covid19 virus.

 

David,

Self-isolation can be quite stimulating if you choose wisely regarding how to spend your time. Thus far I have locked myself into my music room away from my wife and dogs and cranked up my John Hiatt, Don Dixon, Spirit, Buddy Holly, Patsy Cline, It's A Beautiful Day, Crosby Stills & Nash, John Prine, Roxy Music, Todd Rundgren, Donald Fagen, New Grass Revival, Sam Bush, Marti Jones, Pete Townshend, Bob Welch, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Joe Walsh, Warren Zevon, Joni Mitchell, Dave Brubeck, and John Cowan albums. Still have at least a couple hundred more favorite albums to get to before my quarantine period ends next Thursday....

 

Good man. Sad to see John Prine go...

No music room here, but my headphones have been on constantly. Glad you're able to make lemonade out of lemons.

 

Are these vinyl albums ? I have a bunch too, maybe not so diverse a collection though. Back in the day, we used to go out to the record store and buy an album almost every weekend, and of course go to concerts pretty often too. I still have some with the cellophane wrap on them. I don't have any John Prine albums, but I do listen to him on Youtube. Lately, I've been spending a couple of hours a day listening to music and watching videos. Anything to get away from the dreaded "v" word ! Fortunately, I don't know anyone who has it or has had it, except for Jon's wife - and I wish you both the best.

 

JimmyL,

My personal music library is a mix of vinyl, cassette, and compact disk. I have about 50 of my late father's vinyl albums dating back to the 1940s. Some of those are in great shape, some in not-so-great shape, and some are so old and fragile that they are now unplayable. My personal vinyl collection consists of about 2,000 albums spanning from the late 1950s to the early 1990s and are all in like-new condition because I NEVER LOANED AN ALBUM OUT TO ANYONE, PERIOD. My personal CD collection consists of about 500 albums spanning from the late 1950s to about 2013. My personal cassette collection (all recorded by me on then-new Maxell cassettes from vinyl LP sources for ongoing preservation reasons) consists of about 200 albums....

I purchased my Dual 1218 turntable in 1972, my twin Altec Voice of the Theatre speakers in 1975, my Onkyo cassette tape deck in 1982, my Yamaha R8 receiver in 1985, and my Yamaha CDX-530 CD player in 1990. This vintage audio system is without question my most cherished possession. If our house ever catches on fire, the first thing I will grab and carry outside will be my twin Altec speakers. I will be counting on my adrenaline glands to kick in big-time because they weigh about 260 pounds each, they are upstairs in my music room, and I am now 66 years old with long-suffering football injuries to my shoulder, back, left knee, and both Achilles tendons. My wife knows to get out of my way because if she does not, I will mow her down on the way out....

 

I’ll play along to this one....

First thing to grab would be


My Picasso Blue Ladies (certified lithograph)

Plus my grandfather’s, father’s and my watch collection. Not a big collection but with some fine particular pieces - a 1960s Rolex Date-Just (full manual wind up), Vintage Cartier Tank, Raymond Weil Officer’s watch plus there’s a platinum Brequet fountain pen (which weighs a tonne). I’ve added a Gold Rolex and Tag Huer, plus there’s my wife Cartier Speedster.