A new administration

Barrett-Jackson Photos

Here's a slideshow summary of my Barrett-Jackson experience.



Click this link to view the album in Webshots: Barrett-Jackson 2009

Click this link to view the slide show full Screen: Barrett-Jackson 2009

The Bush Presidency

This will probably be an extremely unpopular post, as it's about one of the most unpopular presidents. Or so it would seem. You see, it's my opinion that George W. Bush may be regarded by future historians as one of the best presidents.

See, I told you it would be an unpopular post.

The greatness of a U.S. President will be determined by the big things, not the little things. If someone mentions George Washington, one naturally thinks about the revolutionary war, the FIRST president, etc. The big rocks, not the little issues. Ditto for honest Abe. You'll think of the civil war. No one remembers Lincoln's position on anything except for southern secession and the civil war.

Same will be true of G.W. Bush. In a hundred years it's only the big items that will matter.

Let's start with global warming. If you believe it's real, the only real solution is significant investment in alternative energy sources. Because of high oil prices, all kinds of companies, new and old, are stepping up to the plate to find new sources of energy. This is the free market at work and Bush is a proponent of the free market. A hundred years from now, historians may well say that Bush's free market views launched us on a path to salvation from "global climate change".

Terrorism has been one of the really big rocks in the Bush presidency. History will not blame him for the attacks on 9/11/2001 (that was clearly the fault of the Clinton administration) but it will probably credit him with preventing any other attacks during his two terms.

How about the "axis of evil", Iraq, Iran and N. Korea. He made promises to make the axis of evil a top priority. How'd he do?

Iraq, it turns out, didn’t have any WMDs by the time we invaded the country, but they probably did prior to that. They also acted like they had them by playing cat and mouse games with UN inspectors. That undoubtedly made Iran nervous since their relationship has never been good. Remember, they were at war during all of the 1980s. So, whether Iraq had WMDs or not, Iran and much of the rest of world thought they did so Iran decided it had better get on the stick and get a nuclear weapons program going.

About the time the U.S. armed forces marched into Iraq, Iran took note and seemed to have stopped their nuclear ambitions. History may well credit Bush with averting a nuclear war in the mid-east. It may seem far-fetched right now but a look back at history will show that stranger conclusions have been reached.

North Korea also seems to have shut down its nuclear program. History will probably credit Bush with that too. You see, when we invaded Iraq, we took out the leadership (Sadaam Hussein) and his sons. Dictators notice things like that. What happened in Iraq probably made Kim Jong II think that if the U.S. was crazy enough to march into Iraq and kill its dictator and his obliging family members, they just might be crazy enough to march into North Korea.
Libya, meanwhile, abandoned its nuclear ambitions without even being asked. Another point for “W”.

What about Al Qaeda? The war in Iraq might turn out to accidentally be the end of Al-Qaeda. History might record that Iraq was the turning point in the war on terror. Iraq became the place where the rubber met road and terrorists flocked there like it was Mecca. They began killing locals and other Muslims, not just American soldiers. That pissed off the locals so they started killing the terrorists. More importantly, they killed the terrorist leadership often. Do that a few times and you leave only the dumb ones. Al-Qaeda bet everything on Iraq, and lost. Bush’s actions and rhetoric to “fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here” pretty much worked. While it didn’t happen exactly the way he thought it would, history will probably credit him for moving the fight and winning it. True, he didn’t catch or kill Osama Bin Laden, but he did render him virtually impotent and did manage to capture or kill most of his first tier commanders.

Those are the big issues George W. Bush will be judged on in a hundred years and I think he’ll hold up quite well.

Barrett-Jackston: Friday

SOLD SOLD SOLD !!!!!


Whew! I'm worn out. The highlight of today was the sale of the first '57 chevy. A 150 2 door sedan. When the hammer came down the final price was $150,000.


I didn't post anything yesterday because by the time we got back to the hotel it was late and I was exhausted. We got up early and drove up to Sedona. From there we took the back roads down to Preston then came back to Scottsdale to attend the auction until late into the evening. I don't even remember what was really exciting yesterday. Probably the biggest surprise is that there were no six figure cars. I think there are plenty of "well bought" cars crossing the block this year.


Anyway, the experience is over for me. I'm heading home tomorrow. It's been a blast and I can't wait until I can come back and do it again. Maybe next time I'll be selling my Corvette here.

Barrett-Jackson: Day 3

Another hot day today. 75 degrees or so. I spent most of my time inside the auction tents though so I never really noticed the heat.

The batmobile arrived today and was on display in the feature car tent. It's not the real thing but a re-creation. Still, I'll bet it gets some pretty good money when they sell it on Saturday.

The only car I was really interested in today was actually a truck. A nice little '34 Ford pickup. I thought it might go cheap but I was sadly mistaken. The hammer fell at $25,000. That was about 10k over what I would have paid for it. Oh well.

Another intersting car was a 1978 silver anniversary edition Corvette. Intersting because I had one of those about twenty years ago. If I remember correctly, I sold it for about $6500. This one sold for $20k but it was pretty special. It only had 17 miles on it. The car was put away when it was new and just brought out to be sold at Barrett-Jackson. Frankly, I think that was a pretty good price for a '78 vette with only 17 miles.

Tomorrow we're taking a break from the auction and driving up to Sedona. I'll probably go back to the auction tomorrow night though. It's kind of addicting!

Barrett-Jackson: Day 2

What a day. Today was actually the first auction day. Yesterday was "preview" day, today people got to actually buy cars. The car pictured at the left is not one of the auction cars but it's still one of the coolest cars on display. It's called the "7-8-9". The front end is styled after the 1957 Chevy, the mid section on the 1958 and the rear on the 1959. A very cool custom.






Of interest to us personally was "Cosmo", a 1959 Nash metropolitan. The car was a very nice hardtop that had been restored. The big surprise was the selling price. $30,000. Yep, that's not a typo. $30K for a met hardtop. That's got to be some kind of record! The catalog said that it was a "nut and bolt" restoration but it didn't really look like it. The engine compartment was not that clean and the paint under the hood was original while the outside of the car had been repainted.

"Cosmo" on the auction block

Another really interesting car was a 1957 BMW Isetta. One of the original "micro" cars. This little baby went for $41,000. Not very many of these little cars are even in this country.

A really nice '64 El Camino sold for a paltry $10k and it was easily worth twice that. A nicely restoreed car with a hot 400 cubic inch small block and a four speed. The Boyd Coddington wheels were probably worth $6k or more!



A 1940 Packard 110 four door touring sedan sold for $8500. I have some regrets for not bidding on that one. I've always wanted a packard and opportunities like that don't come along all that often!

That's it for today. Stay tuned.

Barrett-Jackson: Day 1

Well, after a pain in the ass day travelling, we got to spend the day at the auction today. The auction doesn't acutally start until tomorrow but today was the preview day. Acres and acres of cars and vendors. Prettty warm too, but most of the time is spent inside of tents erected to protect the cars. And there are some really special cars!

Above is a photo of the new Camaro. Unfortunately , it's the only photo I took with my small camera that uses an SD card. My Nikon uses Compact Flash cards and I can't read those with my notebook that I brought. I'll take more photos for the blog tomorrow though, now that I know this notebook only has an SD slot.

Among the more special cars:

The oldest '57 chevy in existence. Body # 00001 with 46k original miles on it.

An Austin Jolly, of which only three were produced.

Eddie Van Halen's 1956 Nomad with a matching signed guitar.

The very first Thunderbird ever produced, A 1956 bearing serial # 1

A 1968 Hemi Roadrunner, one of only 108 produced.

Tonight the opening night "Gala" for bidders and consigners. It's a black tie affair with food, drinks and entertainment. It should be fun!

More tomorrow....

Weather in the Northwest

Ok, this is getting out of control now.

Kind of an understatement

First, we get pounded with snow, then a fire hose of epic proportions opens up on the whole Puget sound!! The last record flood on the Snoqualmie River was in November of 2006. This time it appears the river will flood nearly a foot above that previous record. It took me over two hours to get home last night. Before going to bed last night I got the email warning about the state of the roads in King County. It said that Woodinville-duvall road would be closed before morning. Given that I’m unable to work at home right now, I set my alarm for 2:30 AM so I could get out of Duvall before it was cut off. I think I was the last car out before they closed the road.

So, now I’m on the west side of the Snoqualmie River, our house (and my wife) is on the east side of the Snoqualmie River. Duvall is completely cut off, as is Carnation. Interstate 5 and all the surface streets headed south out of Puget sound are closed. All the mountain passes headed east are closed. The only way to get out of here is north to Canada and there’s severe flooding up in Bellingham as well but so far you can still get to the border. Of course British Columbia is not all that much better off. What isn’t flooded is still covered in snow and ice.

We’re supposed to fly to Arizona on Sunday but from what I’m hearing, I won’t be able to get home before Sunday and Carole will not be able to get out of Duvall before Sunday so it looks like we’re going t o miss our flights!

This really SUCKS!!!!!!

One more thing, It's still raining.

Like Christmas all over again!!

First, we decided to get ourselves an Xbox 360. I knew it was a mistake to let Terry hook up theirs to my big screen TV! As soon as I saw that and played with it the first time I knew I had to have one. Since Carole was going to Costco anyway I asked her to pick one up while she was there. I stopped at the company store on the way home to get the wireless connector and an Xbox Live subscription. While I was there I aslo picked up a copy of Project Gotham Racing 4. So far I’ve managed to do severe damage to a Ferrari and Corvette ZR1. This is going to take some practice! I also need one of the steering wheel controllers. Trying to drive with a joystick sucks! I already have a list of games I want to pick up as soon as the company store gets them in stock. There are also a few that are by other companies that I want to get as well.

Next, while we were playing with the Xbox, the doorbell rang and it was Fed Ex with my new guitar! Finally! It took a long time but it was worth it. It’s not a terribly expensive guitar but it’s a cool one. It’s called the “T-Bucket” from Fender Guitar’s Hot Rod Series of guitars. It has fifties style pinstriping on the headstock and around the sound hole, maple top and mahogany back and sides. It even has a built in electronic tuner. How cool is that!

Like I said, it’s like Christmas all over again!