OT: One More Off Topic Off Season Thread

yukoner88

Registered User
Dec 16, 2009
20,655
25,573
Dawson City, YT
Did you ever own a VW?

I had a 1971 VW SuperBeetle with the 1600 cc engine that was restored. I bought it from a guy in a Sherwood Park in about 1990. Drove it as a summer daily for about 3 years. Then the fad wore out. It sat in storage for 4-5 more before I finally sold it.

Wife had a newer design Bug. We had it Arizona for a while but it was impractical for hauling people to the airport etc.. Fun driver though.

Had a friend that in the 1980s he owned a microbus, nicely redone. Those were neat vehicles. He was a snorkel, scuba guy and also owned a Hobie Catermaran, he did roofing all summer and spent winters camped on the Mexican baja hustling tourists to dive, sail etc.. I went sailing with him once here in Canada. Once. And just once. We flipped his catamaran on the lake in a heavy heavy wind, we were “cruising” and I never bailed out of my “diaper” in time to get clear of the boat as it was going over and was submerged into the water with the mast and sails of the boat pointed straight down and me in there too. Life flashed before my eyes and I said “not for me”. We had to dive down and release all the rigging so that we could then slowly upright the boat and sail home.

I got so many bruises on my shoulder because of those f***ing cars.
 

Bryanbryoil

Pray For Ukraine
Sep 13, 2004
87,618
37,897
Loved those cars. Mine had the 351 Windsor racing 4bbl. I always wanted to slam a 427 Super Cobra Jet in it and paint it black with a silver Starsky and Hutch stripe and a giant grinning skull on the hood.

View attachment 905459
Didn't they de-rate the shit out of the horsepower after 1970 or 1971? My dad had a Gran Torino with a cobra jet motor and a GTO with a Ram Air IV back in his day. I was supposed to get a 1979 Camaro but I probably would've wrapped it around something raising hell so I got a 3/4 ton Chevy instead. I fish tailed on my way out of the school parking lot every single day.
 

brentashton

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Jan 21, 2018
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Mr Kot

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Jan 15, 2022
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brentashton

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Jan 21, 2018
15,300
22,096
When ITV arrived on the scene back in 1974, it was a pretty big thing, adding another whole channel. And then when we got cable channels from Spokane, well, that was like winning the lottery.
TFC, lol. So true.

My folks were building a new home in 1982. I moved home for the summer from university and they were living temporarily in an apartment complex while the house was built (they had sold their previous home). The complex had one of those big ass sat dishes and they got WGN Chicago/cubs games, Superchannel for movies and some other channels (might have been a few that showed some “art” movies). I thought I had died and went to heaven. Most time I ever spent inside during a summer in Western Canada. :)
 

brentashton

Registered User
Jan 21, 2018
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Lake Louise has suffered the same fate.
A lot of hiking trails in AZ too. Camelback, Sedona various loops. Congestion everywhere. Went to Devils Bridge last spring and the wait once you got to the “summit” to get a photo on the bridge itself was over 2 hrs (and people were waiting!!). We came, we looked and left. Wasn’t waiting for that. Never did get to walk the arch. We do a lot of hiking and now try to find obscure areas as much as possible. I saw a lady hiking Camelback 2 years ago, wearing flip flops and another in dress sandals. All I could say as I passed her was “good luck”. Not sure what people are thinking…it looks good on the ‘gram though!
 

5 Mins 4 Ftg

Life is better with no expectations.
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A lot of hiking trails in AZ too. Camelback, Sedona various loops. Congestion everywhere. Went to Devils Bridge last spring and the wait once you got to the “summit” to get a photo on the bridge itself was over 2 hrs (and people were waiting!!). We came, we looked and left. Wasn’t waiting for that. Never did get to walk the arch. We do a lot of hiking and now try to find obscure areas as much as possible. I saw a lady hiking Camelback 2 years ago, wearing flip flops and another in dress sandals. All I could say as I passed her was “good luck”. Not sure what people are thinking…it looks good on the ‘gram though!

Yeah IG has ruined a lot of things.

My wife used to hike Camelback a lot and saw a few people who needed rescue over the years.

Hiking Pinnacle Peak, I called it the Bataan Death March, and guys twice my age were jogging it. Had my first way too close encounter with a rattler there. I broke the land speed record jogging up the peak after that.
 

94 Oil Drops

Copa o Muerte
Sep 19, 2019
5,266
8,173
Alberta
Lifesavers during the 80's/90's for games. Luckily, just as consoles started really moving to AV cables, TV's finally started having them mostly built in. No longer has to have a VCR handy just to play N64/PS1 games.
The house I moved into last summer has a couple of old vcrs the previous owner left in the storage. Being a 90s baby, I remembered that my mom had a bunch of old vhs tapes in her basement at the house I grew up in. I discovered that it's possible to hook up a vcr to a modern smart tv thanks to YouTube. I wanted to do so for the sake of nostalgia and as a fun form of entertainment for my kids and nieces / nephews of the future.

Unfortunately I found out that my mom gave all those old tapes away a while ago. The only tape she had left was a copy of the first Toy Story. :( Sad day but I guess there are other ways to get tapes like that for cheap or free at garage sales and such.
 
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94 Oil Drops

Copa o Muerte
Sep 19, 2019
5,266
8,173
Alberta
Yeah IG has ruined a lot of things.

My wife used to hike Camelback a lot and saw a few people who needed rescue over the years.

Hiking Pinnacle Peak, I called it the Bataan Death March, and guys twice my age were jogging it. Had my first way too close encounter with a rattler there. I broke the land speed record jogging up the peak after that.
F*** Instagram! More importantly, f*** Mark Zuckerberg for buying what was once a great app and corrupting it. I barely use it at all anymore.

Besides turning beautiful, secluded locations into tourist hell scapes, it's heavily polluted with advertisements, AI images that are deliberately posted to fool users into thinking they are real, pictures of women that have been so artificially enhanced by filters that they look nothing like they do in person, and the creepy simps that get thirsty for them. Not to mention all the messages you get from scammers too.
 

brentashton

Registered User
Jan 21, 2018
15,300
22,096
Yeah IG has ruined a lot of things.

My wife used to hike Camelback a lot and saw a few people who needed rescue over the years.

Hiking Pinnacle Peak, I called it the Bataan Death March, and guys twice my age were jogging it. Had my first way too close encounter with a rattler there. I broke the land speed record jogging up the peak after that.
Haven’t done Pinnacle. Putting it on my list for this fall…rattlers or not. They’re all over the place on these hikes.
 

5 Mins 4 Ftg

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Haven’t done Pinnacle. Putting it on my list for this fall…rattlers or not. They’re all over the place on these hikes.

It’s really nice. It’s a double peak if you go to the very end so up and down twice. The view of the city is nice from up there in the NE valley. Some nice shacks on the other side too.
 

Drivesaitl

Finding Hemingway
Oct 8, 2017
49,505
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Islands in the stream.
TFC, lol. So true.

My folks were building a new home in 1982. I moved home for the summer from university and they were living temporarily in an apartment complex while the house was built (they had sold their previous home). The complex had one of those big ass sat dishes and they got WGN Chicago/cubs games, Superchannel for movies and some other channels (might have been a few that showed some “art” movies). I thought I had died and went to heaven. Most time I ever spent inside during a summer in Western Canada. :)
Superchannel and First Choice here in Western Canada. Those were the specialty pay stations. 1983 I was in an apartment with one of those big satellite dishes and lots of free channels. Some I won't mention.. haha.

First Choice had the Friday Night "First Choice Rocks" Filmed live concerts from somewhere in Canada. One night they had Santers band, Johnny Winter, Golden Earring. 2hr show, a nice way to wind down from weeks of work. Every Friday was a different filmed live concert. Rush, Jethro Tull, whoever was touring Canada around the time.

But anyway those dishes were grabbing some quality TV. It really was PPV before its time. We got it for free though and rent was cheap for a large two bedroom. I hate to say how much.

Haven’t done Pinnacle. Putting it on my list for this fall…rattlers or not. They’re all over the place on these hikes.
I'd rather only have bears and cougars to worry about. Still can't get my head around hiking in Rattler/Scorpion/poisonous spiders territory. hard pass heh
 

Drivesaitl

Finding Hemingway
Oct 8, 2017
49,505
63,825
Islands in the stream.
The house I moved into last summer has a couple of old vcrs the previous owner left in the storage. Being a 90s baby, I remembered that my mom had a bunch of old vhs tapes in her basement at the house I grew up in. I discovered that it's possible to hook up a vcr to a modern smart tv thanks to YouTube. I wanted to do so for the sake of nostalgia and as a fun form of entertainment for my kids and nieces / nephews of the future.

Unfortunately I found out that my mom gave all those old tapes away a while ago. The only tape she had left was a copy of the first Toy Story. :( Sad day but I guess there are other ways to get tapes like that for cheap or free at garage sales and such.
Most VCR tapes will have long since seized up. These are basically paper weights now. yet another betamax, or 8 track type format that just contributed to tons of junk in landfills. My pet peeve is how the recording industry crying all day about copyrights and not making enough money would want consumers to buy the same fricken album or movie in several different formats. So that one would have an 8 track, Cassette tape, Record, CD of the same friggen album. Paying copyright several times. Such an industry deserved to crater.

I still play some cassette tapes in garage when working in there. They still play. But those VHS tapes were clear false advertising. Even the Gold level VCR tapes didn't last. Maybe 1/100 still play. Even VHS movies purchased new. I started noticing tapes not playing around 20yrs ago now none do.

Anybody remember "Columbia records" Buy just one selection and get the next dozen for free or for one dollar" or some shit like that. Turns out they weren't worth that.
 

Drivesaitl

Finding Hemingway
Oct 8, 2017
49,505
63,825
Islands in the stream.
Yeah IG has ruined a lot of things.

My wife used to hike Camelback a lot and saw a few people who needed rescue over the years.

Hiking Pinnacle Peak, I called it the Bataan Death March, and guys twice my age were jogging it. Had my first way too close encounter with a rattler there. I broke the land speed record jogging up the peak after that.
Moraine Lake. Million people per year climbing the stupid rock pile and taking the one picture everybody takes. Remember times when there would be half a dozen people on that pile. Just a lateral moraine for people geographically minded. Its the worst hike in the region, hardly even a hike but its the only one 90% of the people do because they got the pictures..

Tea Houses at Lake Louise now have to helicopter waste and garbage from the huts. They used to pack everything in and out. Now its all heli supplied and has to be theres so much going in and out of there. Used to be you'd get a football field away from the IG photo spot in front of Chateau Lake louise and you get some peace. Now all the trails just inundated. 36bucks pay parking now if anybody hasn't been lately. Or take the shuttle, and ahve to reserve it because its full.....

With Jasper essentially being closed much of the summer its added weight to how busy Banff National Park is. probably never been worse.
 
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