Peter Vieira
Wow, you're reading this? Thanks! If you're into RC cars and I seem vaguely familiar, it's because I spent over 25 years writing and editing RC car news, reviews, and tech articles in print and online. What else, what else ... I have a degree in Film Studies (useless), most of a degree in Graphic Design (useful), and I'm married to a wonderful woman with horrible taste in men. Thanks to her, we have a terrific daughter who just earned her Journalism degree and is way, waaay more together that I was at her age. Or right now.
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I got t-boned by a bitchin’ Camaro on my bicycle when I was 14 and damaged my knees pretty well, particularly the left one, which hit the top bar, flipping me into a forward tuck I held into a roll when I hit the ground. According to a witness, he said it looked like I had some kind of military training because of the roll I ended with jumping up onto my feet to grab my borked Diamond Back and get off the road and that he was amazed that I was fine. As he told me this, my knees, bent into a crouch to inspect the bike, swelled up and I couldn’t extend them and I started to get nauseas while my vision closed up like a tunnel until I couldn’t see at all. That part cleared up after a few minutes as I cursed my pansy body for going into shock (or whatever it was), but for years, my knee cap would randomly and suddenly pop (like, other people could hear it for the first few years), feeling like it dislocated, but more like it relocated even though it wouldn’t hurt prior to popping. For a few years, it would nearly put me on the ground to massage it for a few minutes until I could put weight on it again. Over time, the frequency and severity reduced and, to my amazement, my knees aren’t bad today (though they hate one bicycle in particular, the one that’s supposed to be great on knees—a Miyata 1000LT with Biopace). To finally get to the point, for probably the first decade or so, I could also tell the weather by feel, but that went away and I use the less accurate Weather Channel like everyone else now.
Seems like it should be Operation Bilbo: there and back again 🙂
I don’t think anybody who read Mercedes’ Operation Frodo stories is particularly surprised that Naomi has found a new forever home. It was meant to be!
Rule #1 of being around rescue dogs; just accept that you’re going to rescue at least one of said dogs…
About a year and a half ago my wife sent me a FB post with a 6m/o GSD pup for rescue and our son had already said that morning that he wanted a “Chase dog” (from Paw Patrol). My reply was “we’re adopting a puppy aren’t we?”
We went to meet her and the foster family and were pretty much exactly who they were hoping to find for her as we’ve had German Shepherds in the past and were just letting an elder cat live out his days in peace, this was about 3 months after his passing. As it turns out now, we’re almost positive she’s part Belgian Malinois (haven’t bothered with a DNA test, it’s not really that important to us) so we have a 2y/o likely Maligator running around our home (people familiar with working dogs will get the implications). We love her to death and are starting to get samples of the awesome dog she’s going to be once the puppy/velociraptor phase is over (she’s incredibly sweet and smart, just an energetic handful with almost all intrusive thoughts). Having a pretty good idea what we were in for and accepting that was what the fosters were looking for since they aren’t for everyone.
Naomi sounds like pretty much the opposite of Poppy (our dog), and there’s no denying the right fit for the family. Congratulations on your adoption story Mercedes!
Congratulations Mercedes! I know you and the pup will be good together.
Don’t do it, Antti! Or maybe do do it! But only if the price is right.
I crushed my heel in a car wreck in 1976, when the front left wheel of my ’74 Capri came through the floor and encountered my booted foot. Crutches for nearly 3 months. A cane for another month or so. Weekly cast changes at the doctors office. It only occasionally lets me know of impending bad weather. Every morning I walk it off and it then loosens up and is fine for the day, unless I do a lot of standing on concrete. I can walk all day on any surface, though. Your knee is probably not that bad, and shouldn’t give you too many issues. Glad you and Naomi are getting together. That seemed pre-ordained.
It is cool to learn that Streeter is your given name!
Advice to anyone getting a rescue dog:
Plan on a lot of time the first couple of weeks gently reassuring it. If it doesn’t play or exhibit ‘dog behavior’, be patient. They may take years to really believe you will be there for them. Ours took two years to start playing.
I had not heard that before. Good job, Lotus! I wonder if the sub transformation was written before or after the Esprit was picked. A ’77 Aston Martin would definitely not make for a convincing sub.
“I basically only leave my apartment on weekends,”
Me: Looks at article thumbnails of Mercedes driving a semi, driving a motorbike, flying a plane, driving across the country, visiting train museum…
Yep. That is possibly true.
The upside is that Naomi is a “portable” size and has proven to do well on a road trip…
Is it way-kal, why-kal or some other pronunciation?
One Mercedes gets a dog and the other, I hope, gets some fresh silver paint on those steelies.
I don’t want to say I called it, but somehow it felt like you’d end up with Naomi (okay I definitely didn’t call it, but still: hell yeah!). Looking forward to what nicknames she gets. All dogs deserve a good nickname or two. Or three.
You’re coming back to Portland and going to Seattle? HOORAY!
WAAAM is having their antique car show Saturday July 11 so if you’re going back to Portland and taking I-84, you’ll be going right by it. Otherwise, I-90 from Seattle is a great drive, though I’d cut down I-82 though Yakima to I-84 and skip Northern Idaho. Either way I hope you get some good PNW tourist-ing in.
The Barbacoa Grill in Boise has been recommended to me.
Congrats on Naomi joining you and Sheryl on a new life adventure!.
A small squirt of spray brake cleaner and a clean rag or paper towel should lift the oil spot in the carpet from the Spree. That would avoid renting a carpet cleaning machine and discovering the challenge of evenly cleaning a light beige carpet.
YES! This is the happy ending we all wanted for Naomi!
So happy for you three. I think I called earlier…
It WAS the start of a beautiful friendship.
Congratulations.
Woof! Dog love! I am super happy for you. Reading this as I just got back from an off-leash woods walk with my rescue mutt Juno.
Godspeed! I am happy that Sheryl is excited too. Juno likes car rides too.
I am soo excited for you Mercedes and Naomi looks like a doll, I wish you many happy years with your fur baby!
It might… temporarily. When you reach a certain age it will become apparent again.
*adjusts belt onion*
Sorry to say, but I broke my elbow in 1983 and it is still a barometer. It was vaguely motorcycle related, as I was holding the battery box to my Suzuki and going outside in the winter to rinse it under the faucet – a ridge of ice caught my foot and flipped me down hard sideways. Had a 5 inch screw.
Shattered my knee 20+ years ago and now have a 6 inch titanium plate in my leg. Not only does it act as a barometer, it alerts me to the phases of the moon. We’re in waxing gibbous at the moment.
No, no,no. You need to tell the story better. You were fighting for the AMA superbike championship. You had a DOUBLE high side (not sure what that is, but it sounds good) coming throught he final turn on the last lap at, um, central Nebraska autodrome, landed on your elbow and skidded across the line in first place. Alas they didn’t count it because the bike bounced off the wall and didn’t make it across the line with you.
More dog stories involving automotive stuff please.
Happy to hear another successful dog adoption has taken place although that dog looks like it will be stretched out sideways in the bed in about two days of living with you guys.
Plus fighting you both for the couch.
Yes, maybe an article on how pro manual dogs are?
All dogs protesting: “Save the sticks! Save the sticks! Save the sticks!”
Mercedes, I regret to inform you that your knee has now become a barometer. While its psychic powers may wane somewhat due to your youth, as you age it will gain power… more power than an educated meteorologist.
I was honestly expecting that you’d have found a way to keep Naomi before returning back based on the way you talked about her.
Congrats on Naomi–more than a few of us thought that might be in the cards. I’m happy for your family.
Here’s hoping there’s time during this understandably urgent and purposeful trip for a PNW Autopian meet-up!
Thank you for clarifying this was the big reveal of your surname. I was afraid I had previously missed Mercedes lore.
So happy that Naomi is coming home!
Congrats, Mercedes! (The writer, not the A class.)
Hey, c’mon now! I’m sure Antti will provide a sweet, loving home for that adorable little A-class.
Congrats, Antti! May the two of you have many happy miles together, assuming that is your final decision.
And congrats to you, too, Ms. Weikal. As for the knee-barometer, don’t let the others get you down with stories of it never going away. I tore my ACL and meniscus in college and have had two surgeries on it. It gets a little sore when a big front moves in, but nothing that would hinder any activities I do. Granted, I sit around a lot.
Ah! An auto!
I love dogs too. I am not surprised 🙂