Iguana Observations

Iguana observation time! Just what I know everyone wants to read.

Recently I have become obsessed with bumper stickers. Well maybe not "obsessed", even if I do have an impressive collection of them on the truck rear window. I am allowed to do this. It is part of the secret pickup truck drivers handbook. You are REQUIRED to have a lot of stickers. I have a photo of them somewhere but I am too lazy to unearth it.

But I have been paying more attention to bumper stickers than I usually do. After all - what else is there to do while stuck in traffic?

And what exactly have I noticed? I noticed I still see "W 04" and "Bush / Cheney 2004" stickers. People have not peeled them off yet. It is even scarier when the W 04 stickers still look new. What the hell? Did people stock up on them so that they could replace them when they started to fade?

Anyhow THAT is not what I noticed. Ill get to what I noticed in a moment. Right now I have to take a leak and think about opening up a bottle on Amstel Light. Yea yea I know. Light beer blah blah blah. But a friend left an ass load of it in the boat fish box / cooler last party cruise. Someone has to consume it. It is against maritime law to load the same beer on the boat twice. Beer loaded on a boat must either remain on the boat until such a time as it is consumed, converted to pee, and drained overboard OR be unloaded from the boat and placed in a refrigerator until it is consumed, converted to pee, then flushed. But never should a beer be unloaded from a boat then loaded back into the boat at a later date. This is bad luck and could anger the fates. Get new beer.

Anyhow THAT is not what I noticed ether. Man I am bad at this!

But now, without any more bullshit - the observation. I took a wizz and got the beer. I am now totally in reveal the observation mode.

I *DO NOT* see McCain stickers on cars that have Bush 04 stickers. Now this seems slightly strange to me. I mean 4 years ago your car was newer and had less miles on it. 4 years ago your car was in better shape than it is now. Unless you own a car LESS than 4 years old anyway. But if you bought your car AFTER the 04 elections why the hell would you have put a "W 04" sticker on it?

Nobody is that much of a political junkie.

So there it is. I am not really seeing many McCain stickers. Cars I see with old Bush campaign stickers on them do not seem to have current McCain stickers on them.

Now I realize the election is still a few months away. Hurricane season will be almost over. Hurricane season just began! So it is almost a whole season away.

But McCain has been the Republican pick for some time now. You would think the die hards would have their stickers already. And one would think someone who would deface their car with a "W 04" sticker would know who they are going to vote for already.

So I conclude - by the lack of stickers - that one of a few things is going on.

1. McCain supporters are too embarrassed to admit it.

2. A fair number of people who supported Bush in 04 are just not into it anymore. Even they have had enough.

3. People who supported Bush in 04 are so delusional they think their car has INCREASED in value, and more stickers will ruin that.

4. The McCain stickers clash with their auto paint and would just look awful.

5. People who supported Bush in 04 need a simple sticker they can understand. Like "W 04". Only one letter! Even they can read that! McCain's stickers have too many letters and confuse the hell out of them. 6 letters and two of them are upper case?!?!?! And then there are numbers on top of that?!?!

6. Political season has not really started yet and people have just not bothered to express their opinion in the form of a sticker.

Of course I do not know what this means. It may mean nothing. It may mean that the McCain camp is in more trouble than it cares to admit in public. it is simply too early to tell.

But my bumper sticker observation, in addition to the massive voter turnout for the Democratic primaries (all 51 of them) leads me to believe that the McCain camp is starting out from behind. If only the people who voted in the primaries show up, Obama will win. Even when three were running on each side the third place Democrat had more votes than ALL THREE Republican candidates combined.

I have talked to people who want to count Obama out based on race. While they do have a valid point (there is no reason to pretend otherwise) I would not just count Obama out just yet. People may just be fed up enough with the way things are going to vote in change. McCain does not represent change.

OH YEA! One more observation. I went to the Miami Summer Boat show. Attendance was low. Maybe it was due to Father's Day. But I do not think so. I talked to a lot of exhibitors and they said turnout was shitty. Not nearly as many people came to the show this year as last year. And those who did come did not spend the money they spent last year. Boat dealers were all but BEGGING for sales.

But they were ALL saying something in common. And what was that? I heard several times "maybe things will change in November" and "maybe things will improve after November" and so on.

Now what could that mean? What happens in November? And if one guy represents more of the same - who could they be talking about? If things are so great now then why bother with change or improvement?

Yes - this will be interesting. I will continue to keep my keen mind tuned into Iguana Indicators and then report on them here. When I feel like it.

By the way - I finally got some Sea Suckers! Now these are pretty neat. They are vacuum pump mounts. Not to be confused with suction cups. Vacuum cups have a pump that removes air, creating a very tight seal. I have seen similar devices used by people who move large and expensive pieces of plate glass. And automotive windshields. They would also work as a auto dent puller, for minor dents and dings.

I have been looking at these for some time now and finally gave in. The mounts I got will hold dive tanks. I bought two holders that each secure two tanks. Each vacuum cup can hold 210 pounds, and each tank rack has two cups. The mounts require no drilling and so I can put them on and take them off easily. I can also use them to hold fenders, and even use them as a place to tie fenders off to - saving space on the cleats or providing a place to attach fenders where there are no cleats or rails. Pretty slick! I already want two more small vacuum cups to mount the fire extinguishers to.



The nice Sea Sucker people even tossed in a free gimbal mount suction cup drink holder. Now that I think about it, I could use another one of those too. Ill see how the free one holds up first.