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+<h1>Tunes for Flying</h1>
+
+
+<p class="description">
+	Each time I travel by airline I have a take-off/landing playlist. These three songs are always at the top of the list.
+</p>
+
+<h2>"Treat Her Right" by Roy Head - The Take-Off</h2>
+
+<p>
+I first heard "Treat Her Right" in Tarantino's <em>Once Upon a Time in Hollywood</em>. It opens the movie with a bunch of cuts of a reimagine Sharon Tate on her way back to California. It's full of old fashioned flying with well-dressed stewards and classy dining on a Pan Am jumbo jet. It's a romantic vision of flight with 1960s rose-colored glasses. No waiting in a TSA line to get scanned as characters make their way through the airport and cruise along the highway. It's an idyllic way to travel that I never got to experience. I like to pretend that's the kind of flying I'm doing instead of reclining 2.5" in shorts and trying not to get airsick. <em>6/10 for imagined nostalgia, "treat her real gentle."</em>
+</p>
+
+<h2>"Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer" by Anita Ellis, The Song Spinners, or The D-Day Darlings</h2>
+
+<p>
+I get to call flying a nuisance instead of a battle for survival. The carburetors on my '53 Hudson were rebuilt and jetted by Walt Mordenti, a WWII vet who served as a mechanic on B-17 bombers. I figure if he could keep a B-17 aloft he was the right guy to tune and set my carbs for my application. Anyway there's a pretty famous song from back in the day called "Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer." The most popular version would probably be the one performed by the Andrews Sisters. Recently I discovered the D-Day Darlings' performance with more fiddle and swing. It tells the same story of a bomber crew making their way back to base "with one motor gone." It's incredibly catchy despite the over-processing and tells a good story. Always amps me up for some reason. <em>9/10 for the feels, "what a show, what a fight."</em>
+</p>
+
+<h2>"Promised Land" by Chuck Berry - The Touchdown</h2>
+
+<p>
+Back in California or rather on the arduous journey there, Chuck tells the story of a po' boy trying to get from Norfolk, Virginia to Los Angeles. The trip starts on a bus which breaks down in Alabama, transitions to a train running across Mississippi, and eventually to a plane over Albuquerque. It's the last verse that always gets me going:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+...in thirteen minutes he'd set us at the terminal gate
+Swing low chariot, come down easy, taxi to the terminal zone
+Cut your engines and cool your wings, let me make it to the telephone
+Los Angeles, give me Norfolk, Virginia, give me Tidewater 1009
+Tell the folks back home this is the Promised Land Calling and the po' boy is on the line
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+Every time I land out of state these lyrics shoot through my head. I'm a Tidewater native and I always send word back thereabouts to Norfolk Virginia when we touch down. <em>8/10 my airport is best airport, "swing low chariot, come down easy."</em>
+</p>
diff --git a/posts/2025-03-31-drive-like-you-drive-blue.php b/posts/2025-03-31-drive-like-you-drive-blue.php
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+<h1>Drive Like You Drive Blue</h1>
+
+<p>
+Amy drives a 2012 Jeep Patriot. As it has aged I have fixed a myriad of electrical issues on it, mostly a result of corrosion which it picked up in the first half of its life in Ohio. This morning Amy called me indicating the "4x4, ABS, and car-rolling-over" lights all came on at once.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, crap.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The all wheel drive system, ABS, and traction control. I've fixed this issue twice before, once by replacing a wheel speed sensor and the other time by replacing both rear wheel hubs. Those wheel hubs have little metal clips which hold the wheel speed sensor on and they basically disintegrate into rust particles before 100k miles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Amy's next question, like always is, "what should I do, come home?" I tell her she should be fine, just be careful and don't assume the ABS is going to work. She replies, "so drive like I'm driving Blue?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Drive like you're driving Blue. Old Blue is my 1953 Hudson Hornet. Old Blue has rear-wheel-drive only. No traction control. No anti-lock brake system. No shoulder belts or air bags or crumple zones. When Amy or I drive Blue we leave lots of extra room ahead of us. We don't weave in and out of traffic or cut people off. We don't take evasive action with the wheel. When it rains, we slow down. We always signal and we always come to a complete stop. We take wide, careful turns. As good as my boosted disc brakes are, we change our driving habits to compensate, knowing full well that we could lock up those wheels and have to pump the brakes to stop. "Yeah hon, drive like you're driving Blue."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I hang up the phone and now my only question is, "why don't we always drive like we're driving Blue? Why doesn't everyone?"
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This past weekend Amy and I went up to Richmond for a couple of days. On the way there we were stuck in traffic for thirty minutes. The reason? A multi-car pileup. On the way home we saw the same thing: five or so cars all rear-ended. It looked like all the drivers were standing. Everyone had been saved by their automobiles, but I couldn't help but wonder how they could have avoided disaster. They were driving what looked like brand new Fords, Hondas, and Subarus. Some of the safest cars on the road, all equipped with the latest safety features. All equipped with anti-lock brakes, traction control and most of them all-wheel drive. The weather was cloudy but not wet. So why were they all piled up?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Every day on I-64 I see a myriad of folks pushing the limits of their cars. It's incredible to me how much trust we place in modern machinery. I think many folks assume nowadays that everyone will walk away from a rolled over car, or a massive t-bone. That wasn't always the case, and I'm not sure many people appreciate that. The safety their cars provide them transforms into confidence. An assurance that whatever they do, they're shielded from danger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But what if everyone drove their brand new cars like they were driving 1953 Hudson Hornets? What if they all drove like they were one hard stop away from sliding into the car in front of them. Without any crash protection. Wouldn't we all leave just a little more space? A little more time to react, to save ourselves rather than accept the impact and let the car deal with those consequences? If everyone assumed that they couldn't swerve onto the shoulder to avoid rear-ending someone, wouldn't they set their cruise control and just hang out at the speed limit at a safe distance?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We've come a long way in preventing driver deaths by engineering systems to absorb and redirect impacts away from passengers. But have our habits improved too? My phone sits in my pocket while I drive. Or even in the glove box. My eyes are constantly moving across the road. Checking to see what pedestrians are going to do. Watching other drivers speed up, slow down, or loll from lane to lane. Whether they're distracted or inebriated I can't tell, it looks the same. And others still are darting from lane to lane, tailgating, or rushing to get to the next red light one car length ahead of others. Life would be a lot shorter if they drove Blue.
+</p>