Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 08:45:59 -0800
Reply-To: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Safety Inspections
In-Reply-To: <HHEAJIOMDPBGGCKHACGJKEIDDAAA.al_knoll@pacbell.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Well said Al! :)
On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 8:36 AM, Pensioner <al_knoll@pacbell.net> wrote:
> "Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to
> live
> in the real world."
>
> --Mary Shafer NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, KOTVFR
>
> I'm sure that if all our vanagons were inspected for 'safety' they'd all
> fail. It doesn't matter who votes only who counts the votes. If I can
> set
> the safety standard I can condemn your rusty, rotten, ugly, polluting, POS
> vanagon by decree. So stay eternally vigilant for those sneaky
> legislators
> and civil service parasites lest they wrest your pride and joy away in the
> name of saving the children and the greater good.
>
> I have only a passenger side airbag and only on occasion. Be that as it
> may, I personally inspect my Vanagon often for what I feel are 'unsafe'
> issues. Such as rotted fuel hoses, badly worn brakes, loose nut behind
> the
> steering wheel, non-functional lighting, mice, old onions in the food bin,
> MRSA, brown recluse, wheel lug tightness, properly inflated tires (no No
> NO
> NOT A TIRE THREAD), a 'wake the dead' horn, corroded brake lines, an
> overweight key ring, too much bling on the mirror post, excess pocket fuzz
> and so on.
>
> Thus far, with 220Kmi+ on the clock it's gone pretty well (excluding the
> Santa Barbara Condo affair with the drunken welder and the evil beflyguy).
> Not that all won't go up in a puff of smoke and shattering of glass when
> some twenty something with a cell phone in their ear, a doublevente low
> fat
> latte in their lap and sub prime intelligence, does a suicide by vanagon
> by
> jamming their state certified really safe, multiple airbag, 200W Bose
> equipped, GPS guided, ecologically verified rice rocket under the front
> all
> the way past the driver's head area because they were distracted flipping
> off some knuckler (older than a bluehair) or fertile fecund soccer mom
> who's
> momentarily confused as to why she can't just go one half block to the
> piano
> lessons on a one way street against the grain.
>
> The safety issues are certainly out there and as the iron rhino said in
> the
> first sentence those who insist on perfect safety miss a lot along the
> way.
>
> Make your vanagon safe. Donate it to a worthy cause and take the tax
> write-off so the worthy cause can put it back on the road and let someone
> who's willing to shoulder the risk drive it. The worthy cause gains, you
> feel better surrounded by all those new safety features of your new car,
> never mind the payments and sales tax and insurance. Then when you need
> to
> move that 4x8 sheet of plywood you can just tie it to the roof and let it
> blow off on the freeway and give someone else the chance to test their
> escape and evasion capabilities.
>
> Or you could inspect it periodically yourself, save money, get the _real_
> skinny on what's wrong and fix it and not have the car payments and keep
> the
> magic of your vanagon alive AND carry the plywood safely inside.
>
> Just ask Ben
>
> Pensioner (certifiable retrogrouch)
>
--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
Crescent Beach, BC
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27
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