Max and I are in Virginia this weekend for the inaugural race of the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup. You can read all about that at Diesel Forecast and AutoblogGreen. If you’ve been watching TV in recent weeks you might have seen Volkswagen’s new brand campaign featuring a series of interviews between some pseudo celebrities and “Max”. Max is the star of the ads and he/it is here this weekend for the race. Max and Max met face to face for the first time this morning. The TV Max is the one on the right in the commercials.

There’s a tap on the door, the phone rings, a message in your in-box, you bump into someone you haven’t seen for a while. Who knows how it will happen, it just does. For whatever reason sometimes you don’t feel like getting out your comfy chair, other times you respond. Sometimes you’re looking for it, other times it looks for you. In the fall of 1991, I called about a job that I wasn’t sure I really wanted, sixteen years later I’m still there, but not for much longer. In the fall of 1993 I responded to a message and ended up meeting the love of my life.

Over the years I’ve gotten many, many calls from recruiters and none ever felt right. When the company that I worked for decided to unilaterally cut the pay and benefits of many of their best people while at the same time continually increasing the compensation of those at the top, I began to express my thoughts here on this forum. This place became my soap-box, a place to just spout off on whatever I felt like, the good, the bad, the obscene. This little corner that I carved out for myself allowed me to find another part of myself, to use the knowledge I had gathered over the years and to find my voice.

As it happens it also allowed others who otherwise wouldn’t to hear that same voice. Some liked what they heard, others carried on about their lives. After the incident that prompted my set up corner here, another opportunity arose that I meant to pursue, but my response to the message somehow fell through the cracks. A few months later it thankfully popped up again in a slightly different form and I went after it with a vengeance. It worked and my name began to appear on another nascent site related to cars. I began to make some contacts and not long after that opportunity presented itself yet again. My colleague Alex was busy and I was on vacation from the day job. A quick day trip to New York and back introduced me to a remarkable new car and a lot of very interesting people. That quickly ballooned as I talked to those people on a regular basis.

During one of those events I encountered a pair of gentlemen who would soon reappear. In the fall of 2007, barely a year after I stumbled into automotive journalism, the message appeared in my in-box. I called back. We talked and eventually the deal was struck. A new phase of my life and career would begin. I wish to express my gratitude to the clumsy, ham-handed HR department without whose bumbling, this may not have happened. Thanks to Sebastian and John for plugging in the amplifier that allowed my voice to spread to a wider audience. I look forward to continuing to work with you guys for a long time to come. To John, Rob and Scott for giving me a chance to make a left turn against the prevailing traffic. And most of all to Jules, Sofia and Max for supporting me so much as I make this momentous non-trivial change. Sometimes when opportunity knocks you need to respond in the affirmative.

We just got back from a little vacation up in Traverse City for a few days and while most of it was great, there is one thing I feel I must warn you about.  West of Traverse City on the Lake Michigan coast is the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.   The Platte River flows through part of the park and there are at least two companies that offer canoing and tubing trips down the river.  The river is shallow and meanders down to the Michigan shoreline at a very slow pace.  It’s a great way to spend a sunny summer afternoon.  Just don’t go with Riverside Canoe Trips.  They have the most convoluted process I’ve ever seen for getting the tubes, getting transported to the drop-off point and then returning the tubes to get your deposit back. I won’t get into all the details, but suffice it to say that if you choose to do this I would go with the Trading Post instead.

The other problem with Riverside is their tubes are too small for adults to get comfortable on.  They had these funky tubes that had an inner ring in the center that prevents an adult from letting their butt slide down into the tube so you end up sitting up on top of the whole thing.  Aside from that the river was great and it’s an awesome way to spend a couple of hours.  The whole Traverse City area was nice and the beaches there and at the Dunes were wonderful.   We’ll definitely be going back.

My kids are of an age where they will very likely never get to experience going to a drive-in theater to watch a movie or whatever it is people used to do at drive-ins. However, today I received a Saturn Outlook that I’m driving for a week for a review. As soon as Max got in and saw the rear seat entertainment system he immediately wanted to watch a movie. So he’s been sitting in back row of the Outlook for the past hour and a half watching Little Miss Sunshine on the seven inch screen, complete with a big bowl of popcorn and a drink.

Listening to the wonderful Morning Stories podcast this morning, near the end, Tony Kahn made this very insightful remark:

Parents, the obstacle put in our path on the way to becoming a human being

Morning Stories comes out every Friday and is a great little podcast typically about 8-10 minutes and definitely worth a listen.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today is Valentines Day. This will be the 12th valentines day I have spent with my wonderful wife Jules and I love her as much today as I ever have. On this day 12 years ago I got down on my knee and asked Jules to marry me. We had already talked about it previously and decided we wanted to get married, but on valentines day I actually gave her a ring. Three months later we got married by the beach at sunset on Kauai. The wedding took place at Gloria’s Spouting Horn Bed & Breakfast on the south shore of Kauai. Our marriage got off to a beautiful start. Not a day goes by that I don’t treasure my life with Jules. I never leave the house without kissing my wife and telling her that I love her. As in all relationships between people we have had our disagreements, but we have had remarkably few serious fights. We have almost never gone to bed angry. After 12 1/2 years together, I can’t even imagine my life without her by my side. I love Jules with all of my heart and I am glad that we are soulmates, lovers and friends.

Today was a gorgeous fall day, the sun was shining and the temperature was about 70. Max had a football game this morning. During the warmup the guys did great, they were catching everything. Once the game started they ran their patterns, and they got open. The defense reacted to the changing formations on the line of scrimmage just like they practised this week. There was just one minor problem. They couldn’t get seem to catch the ball. This little sequence basically tells the story of the game. Just click on the picture to see the sequence.

Later we had lunch at the Sidetrack. I love the fish and chips there, but today I had the BBQ pork sandwich and it was great. If you are ever i the Depot Town area of Ypsilanti definitely stop in at the Sidetrack. Then this afternoon I took Max and his friend Nick out to a corn maze. The boys had a good time running around the maze. Then we stopped off and got some apple cider and donuts. All in all a really nice fall day. The Ypsilanti area is really a great place to live and raise a family.

 

 Online Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A little background. My mom is Slovenian (formerly a part of Yugoslavia, they split off with only minor fighting in 1991 before all hell borke loose with Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo) and my dad is from Jordan. They met when my dad was going to school in Jordan. They got married and emigrated to Canada when I was 2. My mom had a younger brother and sister, who had never visited Canada. My grandmother visited Canada several times over the years before her death last year. My dad has ten brothers and sisters, several of whom live in Canada and the US.

Anyway a couple of weeks ago my mom’s brother visited Canada for the first time. A couple of days ago I was talking to my mom on the phone and she told me a story I thought I would never hear. Last week my parents took him to Toronto and they took a tour of the Skydome. While they were there my uncle saw that The Rolling Stones would be there this week. He really wanted to go see them so my mom got tickets and they saww them on Monday night. My 61 year old mom went to see the stones! with her mid-fifties brother! I sa the stones in Toronto in 1989, but I never thought I would see my mother going to a stones concert. Let’s just say my parents don’t like rock music. The funny thing is she said all the people there were old. That makes sense since the stones are all in their 60’s now and with the price of tickets these days what young people could afford to go to a stones concert. Needless to say my mother didn’t like it (too loud!) but I my uncle did.

abuelsamid