Blood, Sweat, but No Tears

I changed the water pump in me wife's van tonight in an hour and 15 minutes.* I love Chevys. Gotta get me one. Enough with the Chryslers I've been driving around for the past 13 years.

*Coulda done it in less than an hour if it was daylight.

hot

Going to the junk yard when its 100 is a lot less fun than it could be.

I went looking for fog lights, but I found a steering wheel. No puller though. I could go back, but its only getting hotter out.

No Brokotas unfortunately.

Things I Always Forget

To take my library books back on time. That place makes more money off of me than Blockbuster ever did. Twenty bucks in the past 6 months...

Life Lessons II

Step 4 (not shown): Clean decades of clay off of the grill and attempt to polish it but give up and say, "It's better than it was before and that's all I ever try to accomplish."

Step 5: Bolt on the new (old) grill. You're almost there. Not really. That's the easy part.

Step 6: Mount the headlights. Make sure they are lined up correctly. This is key. You'll have to finagle it. Somehow.

Step 7: Repeat on the other side. If you want to be like me, and I know that you probably don't, grab a 40 year old aluminum shovel that you were probably going to throw away because 36 years of New Hampshire winters and a couple of Virginia winters have done it in, and cut a piece out that you can use as a makeshift tab.

THAT, my so-called friend is recycling.

You may also call it ingenuity. I approve of either.

Step 8: Slap on the bezels and be proud, but remember that you still need to drill two 5/8 inch holes into the hood to mount the bar that hides that hideous gap. Have nightmares.

Life Lessons

You own a Jeep Grand Wagoneer and you want to give it a little retro flair. How do you go about it?

Step 1: Go to a junk yard looking for ignition parts and stumble upon something entirely different.

Step 2: Move your transmission cooler inside of its mount.

Step 3: (The point of no return) See this tab. Cut it off. Also, there are two more. Go ahead. You can do it.

Weigh your options. Be cool. Or not.

Good job, big guy. Your cojones, they be large.

Beans, Beans

My particular favorite firework that I set off on the 4th of July.

Food

I had whole steamed red snapper on my birthday (yes, I've been slacking) from Carena's Jamaican Grille. It was delicious, but what was really cool was how the skeleton looked just like it was pulled out of a garbage can in an episode of  Tom and Jerry.

Thanks. I wasn't sure.

I like how they let me know that 101 is "hot". Thanks. And no wonder I feel like I just lost 10 pounds after mowing the lawn.

Things Which I Did Recently

I have a "vintage" popcorn holder/megaphone circa 1978 that I got at a Red Sox game when I was just a wee lad which I haven't had a good place to display in recent times, so I took the broken handle from something, cut it, screwed it to the wall of m'shed, and stuck the popcorn holder/megaphone on.

Also, I could never find my box of nitrile gloves, so I took some pipe hanger stuff and some scrap wood and made a space in the wall by the door for it.

Pieces of Flair

I think these fender flares are cool. What about you?

Wishes

Man, I wish Chris Farley was still alive.

Hoooweee

SCOOOOOOOORE!

I headed off to Pop's Pick & Pay today on my lunch break for what I thought was going to be a quick grill removal, but it turned out to be a little more difficult than I thought. I knew that I had to drill out four rusted screws, but it ended up being 9. These things happen.

The grill came off of a Jeep J4000. I might go back on another lunch break to grab the really cool "AMC V8"  emblems.

$30. Can't beat that.

Oh, in case you are wondering what it will look like when I get it on, it's like this: http://industryfigure.com/berkeley/fsj/razor.htm

Brokota

The Dakota broke this morning on the way to work. It sprung a leak in one of its salt-cured brake lines. I've replaced a few short ones on this thing recently which were a pain but not really too bad, but this one is a long one. It goes from the master cylinder down to the frame then it takes a sharp turn right, continues to the front of the truck, takes another sharp turn right, and goes underneath the radiator to the other side of the truck. Another sharp turn and its at the passenger side caliper. Should be fun. And by fun I mean not fun. I may just cut out the bad section and splice in a piece. Then put the Brokota on craigslist.

Luckily, I wasn't traveling down the highway when my brakes let go. I was in a parking lot about to look at a 1992 Buick Roadmaster station wagon. Yes, there is some irony there.

It looked exactly like this:

Sweeet.

Cardinal Rule

I broke the cardinal rule of plumbing last night. Never start a plumbing project after all the stores are closed.

Any plumbing project takes a minimum of two trips to the store. I thought I needed three 45s and a 90, but as it turned out I needed 4 45s. I'm off to Home Depot now to get this finished before work (these are the drains for our upstairs bathroom sinks and bathtub...).

In case you are wondering why I am doing this, its because I ripped out half of the soffit because I discovered that our ducts did not fill up the entire space. The plumbing needed to be slightly rerouted though.

Progress

From a rat's nest

To less of a rat's nest

Three wires were frayed with the copper exposed and one other wire had three splices in it. Also, a bunch of the vacuum lines were disintegrated.

It's not perfect, but it's better than it was, and that's all I ever really try to accomplish.

Swimmin' on Memorial Day

I think I made 5 trips to this rock and back. Z wife and the younger ones couldn't do it alone because the current was pretty strong.

The Converse All-Stars that I usually wear in the river were nowhere to be found and I received a nice gash in my foot for my troubles.

The thought of taking a picture and sharing it did cross my mind.

Did I mention we drove the Jeep? It's the longest trip yet (about 30 miles I think) and without any trouble which is good because my back up plan was with me.

Mexipop

That is a bottle of the mandarin flavored soda made by Mexican soda pop maker, Jarritos, sitting atop our soon to be replaced (June 10) 35 year old (like me) and broken (unlike me) AC unit.

Now boys and girls, what is so special about Mexican soda? Yes, just like Mexicoke it is made with real sugar and anybody with half a tongue in their mouth knows that sugar rules as far as soda is concerned.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I like a nice healthy dollop of corn syrup on my rice krispies every morning, but when it comes to soda there is no substitute.

Future Plans

I am perfectly happy going with the 5.3 Vortec though.

Sweet Dreams

Thing 1 (we actually call her Bugsy now) sleeping again. That was on Tuesday. She called in sick on Wednesday. 14th sick day since December.

We had a going away lunch today for a guy who is going into the army. She was there, so there shouldn't be any doubt (not there ever was in my, or my other coworkers, minds) how long her lunch break was today. She'll probably still leave at 5:10.

On Monday she got here at 9:30 and when my boss went to a meeting she slipped out at 5:05. She didn't skip on her mandatory trip to Subway for her daily Jared special either.

Tuesday she told our boss she got here early! which was in reality 8:55. She left at 5:10.