Atascadero Speed Emporium

Folks,

Everyday I go for a walk around downtown Phoenix during my lunch hour.  I do not often, actually never, talk to anybody I see.  I just walk and look at the cars and all the construction going on around me.  But not yesterday.

1. While eating at the Coney Island I struck up a conversation with a guy (about my age wearing a security guard uniform ) about how good and healthy his chicken salad looked.  He proceeded to tell me that he has a 50% clogged artery and needs to eat as healthily as he can.  He has no health insurance and can’t afford the operation to clear the artery.  He his hoping that eating well will help him until he can get some insurance.  But he realizes that with his condition that is not likely to happen.  We talked for a little longer about this and that.  I wished him the best and left.  As I walked away as asked myself, why do I have health insurance and this person doesn’t?  Why am I the lucky one?  Reminded me to be thankful for all that I have.
2. I left to go back to my office but I turned around and headed the other way just so I could walk a little more in this beautiful weather.  A couple of blocks away I stopped to look at a really nice motorcycle, I heard a male voice in well spoken Spanish say, that’s a beautiful motorcycle isn’t it?  I agreed.  The man, about 40 or so, clean, well dressed, of clear voice asked me if I had any work for him to do.  I said no, as we spoke he told me he had just come in from Mexicali, needed, work, food and I place to stay.  I told him that Maricopa County was not a place friendly to people without documentation on and that he might be better off someplace else.  I saw an empty lost look on his face.  I felt for him, told him where the local mission is and handed him my last $10.  I wished him well and walked away, back to my office, the one with health insurance.

I think that the guy with the artery problem liked talking to someone about his problem. I am happy that I could help the man that just came from a far away place with a few bucks.  Not much I could do.

But I have admit, that I walked back to my work feeling like one of the luckiest persons in the world to have so much.  But why me?

Like I said, I never talk to anybody on my walks. Everyday I see all sorts of people, but talking to them adds a different perspective on whom and what they are. This is not meant to be some sort of live changing story or event, nor does it have a deep meaning about life, just a story about my day yesterday. The only reason I am sending this is because it was very different from my usual lunch hour.

By forwarding this to 75 people you will not have some miracle come your way. By not forwarding this you will not be held responsible for destruction of the world as we know it.

Armando

Listener Challenges Radio Blowhard

Mando (shown accepting a 1st place trophy for his '99 Mustang GT) may not be ASE certified but he can tell blowby when he hears it.

On May 14, 2008, Mando reported the following incident which we take to be an honest and accurate description of events:

Saturday morning I was working in the garage listening to some local (Phoenix, Arizona) talk radio station. I was interested in the conversation because it was about gas mileage and the host said that he was an ASE certified mechanic with 35 years of auto repair and modification experience. Here is what he said:

“I get 20 mpg from my 3/4 ton Sierra pickup. I have not modified it in any way whatsoever. My secret is that every time I come to stop light I put the automatic transmission in neutral. By putting it in neutral the sensors read that there is no load on the engine which then puts the engine in a different operation mode. Just this simple thing has doubled my mpg.” Read the rest of this entry »

Armando C Muñoz, age 17, in 1963 when he attended El Paso Technical High School

One day I asked Mando how it was that he ended up attending El Paso Technical High School rather than my alma mater, El Paso High School. He gave the matter some thought and responded as follows:

The Tech thing came down like this:

In the seventh grade our class of thirtysome 12 years olds was transferred from Lamar (Grammar School on Montana Avenue) to Houston (Grammar School on Rio Grande Avenue) to make room for younger kids. They needed the room at Lamar for grades below us and they asked us if we would be willing to go to Houston to help the younger kids. (We all know that they did not really ask us, they just pretended to do so). So off to Houston we went. Read the rest of this entry »

SOMEWHERE WEST of LARAMIE

RAM and the 1995 BMW 325is he drove to Texas. The car had recently been detailed, thus the brilliant sheen. Despite its age, the car has an on board computer that some say may have malfunctioned during the trip. Balderdash! Before the trip, the car had been taken to a body shop in Tijuana, Mexico to be customized to look like a 1950 Buick. In an amazingly quick turnaround, the shop delivered the modified car in two days with the fuel injected 2.5cc 6-cylinder, OHC engine replaced by a carbureted straight eight (with the Buick Eight logo emblazoned thereon), the factory automatic transmission replaced with a three speed Dynaflow automatic, and the body style converted from a two-door to a four-door sedan. Furthermore, the unibody structure had been converted to body-on-frame. Amazing!

In July of 2008 I participated in a road trip from San Diego, CA to El Paso, TX via Phoenix, AZ. On the return leg of that trip an unusual event occurred. I reported that phenomenon to four analysts on August 5, 2008 as follows:

It was actually somewhere East of Lordsburg rather than “Somewhere West of Laramie” but Laramie sounds more exotic. I was on the road with my traveling companions when somewhere out there in no man’s land something mysterious happened. Read the rest of this entry »

In the summer of 1953, just as I was about to turn 7, the Muñoz family, moved from Tobin Place (El Paso) to N. Noble St. We were the first Hispanic Family to move into the Franklin Heights area. Over the years the neighborhood would transformed it’self from a middle class place populated by Anglos, Lebanees, and Jewish families to a mostly Hispanic neighborhood. But, it never really became all Hispanic, there was always an interesting mix of all sorts of people that made it a unique place to call home. Just some background as to the place were the Atascadero existed. In 1957 I turned 11. Read the rest of this entry »

The Maverick was a huge sales success. Nearly 579,000 units were produced in its first year. This rivaled the record-setting first year of Mustang sales (nearly 619,000), and easily outpaced the Mustang’s sales of less than 200,000 in 1970. <–From wikipedia. (By the way, the complete wikipedia entry is quite interesting and includes a lot of little known facts about the development and introduction of the Maverick) Read the rest of this entry »

Shown in the accompanying picture is The Lead Balloon, the small block Chevy powered ‘41 Plymouth known in the late 60s and early 70s as the terror of West Texas. The actual, real car has vanished. It is quite probable that it does not exist anymore. If it is gone it is irreplaceable. If it still exists somewhere in the dusty plains of West Texas, may it rust in peace. The car has been so dearly missed and is so impossible to recreate as a real car that the Mickey Bitzko Historical Society decided to try to recreate, as best as possible, a 1/18th scale model of the car. Read the rest of this entry »

Enrique (Henry) Munoz

The SHOP‘S HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

The ATASCADERO SPEED SHOP. Those four words can transport a tired old mind to a place far away, to a land and to times that still live in the hearts of the fortunate few who ventured there so long ago. To honor that place and those times, this site is dedicated to that speed shop and to its heroic founder, Henry Munoz. Read the rest of this entry »