as i was leaving our local food coop, a ferrari ( perhaps a ferrari 360 which was produced between 1999 and 2005? ) pulled in which is notable because i’ve never seen one in almost 10 years in the area. someone passing through on a saturday drive? or maybe it belongs to a local who has had it in storage for 10 years after they learned why you absolutely can’t drive a ferrari every day?

it’s a handsome car, sure, though i’ve never been that into ferraris except for a brief period in the early 80s when i thought magnum P.I. was a pretty cool dude driving around in his.

it occurs to me that i’m taking the picture from a 1965 ford galaxy 500 which i find amusing on about 10 different levels. am i driving an old ford today because i thought magnum p.i. was cool when i was a preteen and somehow over space and time the early imprinting of coolness morphed into me buying the old ford 15 years ago? who knows! and in the history of photography there has probably never been a photograph of an early 2000 ferrari 360 from 40 year older galaxy 500. i find this a little mind blowing for reasons that i can’t quite articulate.

while my mind is blowing, i smell a smell that’s not a smell one wants to smell while an engine is running. burning. AND THEN OH MY GOD WISPS OF SMOKE COMING FROM THE ENGINE.

but they’re smallish wisps and i’m only 4 blocks from home so i make what’s probably the wrong decision and put it in drive.

thankfully, i got home without anything catching on fire and popped the hood to find what looks oil leaking from the valve covers. while i was blowing my mind, the old ford blew a gasket? WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

it’s a little hard to tell but it looks like the leak is coming through the screw in the left side of the valve cover and along the space between the valve cover and cylinder head. so if i’m lucky, maybe it’s a leaking valve cover gasket? or maybe a head gasket going bad?