Bay Area, 2:30 p.m.

You’ve seen all of the fire photos. This one is from my friend Mr. Wolf. “Now we’re wearing masks to filter out the ash. Everything looks like it has a very light dusting of snow. Our AQI fluctuates between 80 and 250. 250 is world class bad, like Mumbai etc. But because it’s all fairly heavy particulate just staying indoors with everything closed up is very effective.

Social distancing California style

My buddy Grayson Wolf and his wife Larisa loaded up his 1967 Unimog 404 and drove up into the Sierras for a little break from the pandemic. (More photos here)

Two things in the photo below caught my eye: the well-stocked bar and what looks like a picnic table in the back of the vehicle. Grayson explains:

“It is essential to make six-ingredient cocktails when you’re camping next to a three ton military truck, right?

And that “picnic table?”

A German beer hall table, to be precise, and it is bolted to the bed. Nice place to eat our meals.”

Okay, three things. Grayson has brought back the mohawk.

Life goes on!

Another vintage race car for Mr. Wolf

From Mr. Wolf: “It is a 1949 Lincoln Club Coupe built to race in the 1950 La Carrera Panamericana, driven by Jimmy Hicks. Rediscovered sometime around 1999 in a junk yard in San Jose, it was restored and raced in the 2006 & 2007 Panamericana. It is currently powered by a warmed-over Ford FE 390, and since the T10 4-speed manual blew up a few days ago (right smack-dab in the middle of downtown Palo Alto, in the middle of the road, at rush hour, in front of a high end open-air restaurant. With my wife in the car.) I am in the process of swapping in a 5-speed. Turns out the shop that installed the powertrain put in a driveshaft that was a few inches too long, which caused the mainshaft/output shaft to snap right in half. Oops! Hey, if you’re going to break down and cause a massive traffic problem, you might as well do it in style, right? As soon as I am able to get it to a point where it stops blowing up every time I drive it, it will be out on the racetrack!”

Burning Man Bike


Mr. Wolf had a few cars and trucks stashed in a friend’s warehouse where I spotted this old bicycle. “Looks like something you’d see at Burning Man,” I observed. Turns out I was right. The warehouse was filled with a giant metal sculpture (disassembled) that had graced the playa at some recent Burning Man. The builder/artist is trying to find a home for the massive piece.

Cars too nice to drive

In just a day-and-a-half I saw millions of dollars worth of vintage automobiles. I’m guessing that if you can afford one of these, you can afford several. And cannot resist doing so. But where to you keep a car that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars? We visited one of those places and saw this beautiful collection.

Mr. Wolf has a few clients that pay him to drive their cars once a month to keep them tuned up and ready. Nice work, huh? I asked about security and Mr. Wolf pointed out the difficulty in fencing a car like these.