Solstice

The Keed.

Solstice by Pontiac.

Tomorrow (Thursday, June 21, 2007) is the summer-soltice; not the Solstice sportscar made by Pontiac, but the so-called “longest day of the year.”
Actually, it’s not the longest day of the year, as all days are 24 hours long, but it’s the day the sun shines longest: 15 hours, 21 minutes in our area (Canandaigua).
One wonders how successful the Pontiac-Solstice sportscar will be.
It looks pretty nifty, but ain’t as good as the Honda 2000, to which it compares.
Then too Pontiac got themselves in serious hot water with the Fiero, a fabulous mid-engine sportscar that had Corvette partisans worried.
The first Fieros (1984) were little more than a mid-engine variation of the infamous GM FWD X-car: the Chevy Citation, the Olds Omega, the Pontiac Ventura, and the Buick Apollo. Its motor was the X-car motor and suspension wedged behind the seats — except the wheels didn’t steer.
But in the end (1987-1988) Pontiac got serious, giving the Fiero a suspension upgraded from its humble X-car origins.
The Corvette-people went ballistic. The Corvette was GM’s sportscar. It shouldn’t be getting competition from within the company.
So the Fiero was deep-sixed; although it never got a really sportscar engine: e.g. overhead cams.
Even Corvette’s survival had been in question.
John DeLorean, at that time head of Chevrolet (he had previously headed Pontiac, where he was primarily responsible for the GTO), wanted to make the Corvette a Camaro-derivative; like the AMX was a Javelin-derivative.
Thankfully he failed, and the Corvette remains the best Chevrolet money can buy.
Its body is still fiberglass, and the motor is essentially the mighty Small-Block of yore — although vastly reconfigured so it no longer has the siamesed intake and exhaust ports of the original Small-Block. It’s also aluminum (as opposed to cast-iron).
The summer-soltice is the official start of summer; although we know it started a few weeks ago because my brothers were out sullying their grills for their wives to clean.
The summer-soltice means thereafter the daylight in a day gets less-and-less.
This could get messy, since the extended sunlight allows me to walk the dog, even after 7 p.m.
Last year we would eat first, and then walk the dogs.
I tried walking the dog after supper once, but by then it was getting too dark. Then too the 93-year-old nosy neighbor weighed in declaring noisily I should be wearing a reflective vest.
Killian always wants to walk up to the Michael Prouty Park, which means walking along Route 65.
Comprehension of less-and-less daylight is vaporized, but accommodated. I end up walking the dog earlier-and-earlier.
Soon I will be walking him before 6 and then 5 and then 4:30.
He’s desperate for me to walk him.
It also will mean wearing a jacket to combat the falling temperature, and rubbers to combat the snow.

I get my astronomical-events from the Naval Observatory site.

“Killian” is our remaining dog — an Irish-Setter. We previously had two dogs, but the oldest died in March. Both were (are) Irish-Setters; both rescue-dogs.

RE: “Comprehension of less-and-less daylight is vaporized....” is a stroke-effect. I had a stroke October 26, 1993.