what ever happened to...

...hubcaps?

today, as i was standing on the corner waiting on the vanpool, i was observing the cars driving by. okay, i always observe the cars driving by while i am standing there, but today, instead of simply randomly & passively watching the cars, i decided to have a goal. this goal would help me focus on the car watching. okay, so... the goal was - observe wheels, compare & contrast different styles.


most cars these days have wheels with no hubcaps. did hubcaps go out of style? like, are they no longer fashionable? or, is it more a mechanical thing -- does the car operate better without hubcaps? i am fairly certain it's the former, b/c i cannot imagine what difference hubcaps would make to the operation of the vehicle. it is probably easier to change a tire, except that without the hubcap, there's no place to stash the lug nuts.

the logical conclusion is that hubcaps are out of style. will they come back in style? why did they go out of style? who decides these things?

today, i saw a buick with hubcaps that had lots of spokes on them. all glittery & shiney. they looked sort of like bicycle wheels. so, those hubcaps were designed to look like wheels. ironic, eh?

also saw a toyota camry with hubcaps imprinted with the word "taurus". it is possible that they came off a ford taurus & had been transplanted to the camry, but it's much more likely the guy driving the car is named taurus, and he had the hubcaps personalized. don't you agree?

observing the wheels, which appeared in much greater numbers [duh - already said that] than the hubcaps, i noticed that most wheels have 5 spokes. of course, they are much wider spokes than those on bicycle tires, but still - spokes. some wheels have fancyish double spokes, so they have 10. a smaller number had 6 or 7 spokes. none had fewer than 5 or more than 7. they all seemed to have 5 lug nuts, even if they had more than 5 spokes

in conclusion, the current barometric pressure is 29.97 inches.