We’rrrrre baaaack…
…and, we're on for Saturday, August 26, for another wonderful E@RTC. Come on out and hear what happened in Monterey because no story out of Enumclaw will be as interesting. Except maybe one, now that I think about it.
For those of you who showed up at our invisible event, please come out and share what you never saw last Saturday. We're dying to hear what you didn't see. We're pleased to say there was no reported bad behavior during our invisible show.
We're working on something special in conjunction with Ford's EV program for September 9, so stay tuned for that announcement. Ford contacted us and asked if we could work on something with them, so we are. More on that coming up, but mark the dates. This will be more exciting than that half marathon you ran after stuffing down Taco Bell before that hike up Mt. Si.
We have only about six Saturdays remaining, with British Car Day scheduled for September 16, followed by a few more Saturdays, until either the rains begin or it's too cold in the morning or none of us want to see each other that early on a Saturday morning. None of us want to stand there hugging to prevent hypothermia. “Hypothermia” always sounds like the name of the weird chick in high school.
We don't usually know in advance when our season is over. We don't have a hard date, and instead take it as far as we can before Redmond Town Center needs the parking lots for Christmas shoppers who want to get an early start and snap up all the good stuff while the rest of you are still home raking.
After our season ends, a bunch of us attend CES in January which is becoming more and more of an automotive technology show every year. That's the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas for those of you from or near Fresno. It's become so prominent in the automotive industry that the Detroit Auto Show had to move their dates to summer because so many wanted to go to CES instead. Besides, Detroit in January sucks! Same with the other eleven months, but someone likes it, obviously.
If you want to see the real future of the tech and automotive industry, it's worth attending. It will change you for life, not in a Turkish prison kind of way, but it will change how you think about where the world is going and why. It's hard to go there and not be super-impressed by something, even if it is a buffet somewhere. Seriously, if someone ever invents a levitating car, that's where you will see it.
I didn't start attending CES until 2003, but in the mid-90s, a friend went and came back all excited that someday, a phone would have a map, a GPS, music, and the internet all in one device, and none of us could believe it. Now you can go and see little devices that vibrate from far distances that will drop a nun to her knees in prayer. Don't make me explain that one. Use your imagination. Just ask Vic.
Years ago, CES was where you saw endless car stereos, big speakers, undercarriage lights, and the like. All of that is gone. That's now SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) for those of you from or near Fresno, and that also runs from October 31st to November 3rd. CES is different. CES is more about the technology that's coming and why. Sometimes there is more "why" than anything else, like paints that shift colors but look like crap.
The point is, there is enough car stuff going on all winter to keep anyone happy, so attend something, get involved. Don't just sit home watching "Leave It to Beaver." Talk to any of us who go to CES or SEMA if you want to know more.
See you Saturday.