Happy New Year everyone!

The biggest event for me in 2019 was Dad’s passing; he had a good run. Last year at this time he was pretty sick; so, we knew what would happen, just not when. Now, this time, it’s Ann’s mother who is in that same situation. We know what’s going to happen, but not when. It’s just that time of life for us.

Dad in the foreground, a few days before his death. Me in the background grabbing some zzz’s. Yep, I was a big help!

EWILLYS: 

I mentioned last year that eWillys, as we know it, might change in April of 2020. I have pushed that date back to January 2021. My goal with those changes is to free up more of my time for other projects. Moreover, during this last year, it feels like prices have really skyrocketed on 1940s-1960s jeeps of all types; the variety of jeeps feels like it has declined as well. Deals are less frequent, which means providing daily content has become more difficult.

On top of that, it’s getting more of a challenge to find new content for ‘feature’ posts. I’ve built a pretty substantial collection of brochures/magazines/books/misc and, from that, have been able to generate new content over the years. But, there are fewer and fewer items on eBay that I don’t already have, so locating rare items takes more time and money. For example, I know there are other mid-1950 Willys News magazines that remained undocumented and more than twelve mid-1950 Globetrotter magazines (maybe as many as twenty of them) that would be of interest to everyone. But, I’ll keep at it.

This excerpted pic is from the July/August 1955 issue of Globe-trotter magazine.

Currently, there are 53,726 posts on eWillys. While I will add approximately another 4000 posts this year, I also plan to be cutting much of the dead weight throughout the year; these are posts that provide no useful insights, modifications, or other aspects that might be interesting to me or readers.

2019 TRAVEL:

For the first time in seven years, we didn’t take an eWillys trip that lasted longer than a month. Dad’s illness (and frequent trips to Seattle) combined with tight finances kept us around home. On the positive side, the summer in Pasco was perfect temp wise––like Goldilocks porridge, not too hot and not too cold––so I spent a good deal of time pouring through Ernie Pyle’s old columns next to our garden-pond area (Ann’s flowers and plants were beautiful this year).

Summer 2019 Backyard courtesy of Ann (well, she selected the plants, while we dug).

I found Ernie’s account of pre-WWII America fascinating (he traveled all over the US between 1935-1941). Then, when he finally got the chance, he traveled with troops from the frontest of the front lines to the most removed troops far in the rear performing critical, but often forgotten, roles. I believe his columns provide a comprehensive, perhaps unequaled look at why the behind-the-scenes military operations are so important to fighting conflicts.

The one major two-week trip Ann and I did manage to accomplish was a fast trip to Pennsylvania and back during early July, to deliver Rusty the DJ-3A to its new owner. We were very lucky to leave after the rains finally subsided in the Midwest, but before the heat arrived on the East Coast. It was a wonderful to be on the road again, even if it only lasted two weeks.

Rusty the DJ-3A all ready for his trip east in July of 2019.

LOST BISCUIT: As for work on Biscuit, that’s come to a halt again. Time is proving difficult to find, and will so for at least the next year. So, I plan to sell Biscuit (and all the trimmings); I just hate to see it sit there. Meanwhile, I’ll keep Patterson and fix some of his small issues. Then, in two years, I’ll have the money to buy another flattie.   Continue reading →

Our own Joe-in-Mesa had a chance to drive a WWII vet to his 100th birthday party. I bet he enjoyed that! Great work Joe!

This year, 2020, it is estimated that 75 percent of new vehicles sold globally can be linked to the internet. I’ve discussed this issue before, but I thought this article https://www.dailywire.com/news/washington-post-hacks-into-chevy-to-show-how-much-cars-are-spying-on-owners does a good, short summation of how much data is downloaded by new vehicles when phones are connected to them (the full WP article is here).

Of course, even if you don’t pair your phone, your new vehicle still provides a variety of metrics to automakers. Why do automakers want that data? For a wide range of reasons, as this report points out: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carmakers-are-collecting-your-data-and-selling-it/ . Though automakers will shout “safety and convenience” every time when cornered on the topic, it seems much more about increasing revenue outside of vehicle sales.

Worse, some new vehicles are arriving to showrooms equipped with cameras to monitor driver behavior, such as warning drivers when they appear to be distracted or monitoring their eye-lids to detect fatigue: https://www.consumerreports.org/automotive-technology/who-owns-the-data-your-car-collects/

My personal belief is that, in the end, it will become very difficult to avoid being monitored by both corporations and the government, the former possibly being even more insidious and impactful than the latter. Perhaps the best hope for anonymity is not to try to escape it, but try to make it worthless by flooding it with disinformation (for example, a disinformation app that produces false location geo tags). A simple example of this was how Miami police were falsely reporting their positions to Waze to prevent drivers from knowing their true locations.

Good luck out there in 2020!