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.

I'll Be Famous

So you want to own a 20 year old truck?

Got the Jeep registered yesterday morning and I was itching to take it out for a spin all day. After dinner, I grabbed my two youngest kids and headed off to the mall to buy z wife a birthday present.

It was raining pretty hard out, I bought new wipers later by the way, and of course being a man it didn't dawn on me that the kids should have been wearing jackets. We left the store and hustled to the truck, aaand it wouldn't start. Did I flood it? Is the choke not working? Something get wet? Let it sit for a few minutes aaand it didn't start. Rinse and repeat.

Time to call z wife to pick us up (remember the commercial with the dusty guy on a motorcycle and his wife picks him up on the side of the road with the minivan) buuut I left my phone at home.

Run back into the mall, its raining hard remember, to find a phone. Pay phones are extinct. Luckily the Guest Services desk lets me use theirs. I had to call twice. Stupid call waiting.

Anyway, it dawned on me during the embarassing ride home, that it was probably out of gas. Sure enough a half hour later after a gallon of lawnmower gas was added to the tank and the carb primed, it fired right up.

It's been a looong time since I've run out of gas. These things happen with a new vehicle. Just remember, 1/4 tank means E M P T Y.

My New Ride

A 1991 Jeep Grand Wagoneer.

AMC 360 V8
143K Miles
The last American carbureted engine
A collector's item
$800. A steal, but the guy was happy that it was going to a good home.
At the very least, I won't lose money.
It made the drive home. Cruised along the highway at 65 without skipping a beat. My only fear was that it would stall while while in the full serve line at the toll booth. It didn't.

For sale: 1999 Dodge Dakota 3.9 V6 4x4 147,000 miles. Runs awesome. AC has a leak. Rust hole in one fender. Interior perfect. Back tires almost brand new. New brake pads, rotors on the front. New brake shoes on the back. A bunch of other new parts. $1750 OBO.

Oh yes. You will be mine.

If there is any justice in this world, this baby will be mine by tomorrow evening.

I took a better picture this afternoon with my phone, but unfortunately I left my card reader at work.

It rides nice, like an old truck should. Part solid, part rickety with a big giant hood out in front of you. Loved it. In fact, I may need to pony up the extra 10 bucks and get a personalized plate.

My only fear is that the price is a misprint (I didn't want to ask him, since I didn't have the cash on me, and didn't want him to have all night to rethink his asking price).

Bronco II Update

I went to look at the Bronco II in yesterday's post. The body and frame are solid. No rust whatsoever other than the surface rust on the hood and roof. It ran rough, but it didn't smoke or knock which leads me to believe it is just in dire need of a tune up.

Unfortunately, there was a deal breaker. It is NOT 4wd as stated in the craigslist ad. Oh well. Maybe I could talk them down to $250, find a donor vehicle (with 4wd), and convert it. It doesn't look hard.

Three Part Process

Part I: Buy a Ford Bronco II for $500

Part II: Chop the top

Part III: Be cool

Butterflies and Wheelies: Random Recollections of Hatfield-McCoy 2010 by A. Richard Gagne

Best gallon of milk ever. Ever. Needle nose pliers, vise-grips and mammoth crawdads. I think you have a bad bearing. It's been making that noise all day. Oops. Your tools smell like cat food. Too much fun. What's the code for the door? Rain + Buffalo Mountain. We should leave him behind, but what if he rolled it again? Evil Yamahas. Candy cigarettes? Wow. Candy cigarettes. Ouch, a butterfly to the face at 40 miles an hour. Coal hill completely impossible this year. Not getting shafted at the ATV parts store. You're in my personal space. Extremely dusty. I wish it would rain. Oops. At least its not dusty anymore. It was awesome. If I was 25 and had no kids, I would get one. Maybe I should check my bearings too. You would think a Yamaha would be on its best behavior when surrounded by so many Hondas. Too much fun. I almost had a date tonight. Whatcha got there? A bowl of dirt. A wheelie from Kentucky to West Virginia. Hans broke Todd's machine. He stole two of Howard's beers. Trail 31, a little rough this year, but still my favorite. I always forget, but heading towards Gilbert is the best way. West Virginia tattoos. smiley face. Barbeque chicken pizza. Three times. Puddles. No Entry. Purple Monte Carlo. Sleep talking. Old Milwaukee. Starters closed. Too much fun. Chinese knock-off knock-offs. Big A's hole. Nate's hill. Rob's corner. Zach's curb. I need my own spot.

Maybe I'm Blind

But it doesn't look that rusty to me.

http://richmond.craigslist.org/cto/1713340017.html

Old Car Manuals (and Brochures)

This is the coolest web site that I have stumbled upon in a long time.

The Old Car Manual Project

My Inheritance

My grandfather's old cologne bottles. Most of these I had never seen before, but the one I remember the most, and the one I really wanted to have, is the pheasant. I'm glad he still had it.

Roadside Repairs

Not exactly roadside per say, but I was 700 miles away from home when I heard a crunching noise emanating from the front left quadrant of my truck. Easy repair. No specialized tools required other than an axle nut, 32 mm, which I was able to borrow from AutoZone. Note the jack. The black one on the right. Its the first time in the 6 years I've owned this thing that I've had to use that jack. The really shiny part in the middle of the picture is the hub assembly, which is what I replaced.

Poor Timing

If I wasn't going up to NH this weekend, then there is a pretty good chance that this beauty would be parked in my driveway and a for sale sign slapped on the Dakota. I could go tonight, but I need to pack and change the oil in my truck. Ah, well, if its meant to be then it will still be available when I get back.

Never a Dull Moment

Yesterday after I finished putting in a new power steering hose and an oversized caliper bolt for the other side, I wanted to test it out. The van was behind me in the driveway, so rather than move it, I decided to just drive into the yard, turn around and come back.

The little voice inside my head was strangely silent before I attempted to execute a three point turn in my formerly little mud hole. Thanks, little voice.

Yeah. Who's the imbregnorant now??

I spent about 2 hours trying to dig it out and finally called a tow truck, but I became extremely worried when he arrived and immediately said, "I don't know if there is anything I can do for you." I was too far away, you see, and if he tried to back into my yard his truck would have immediately sunk into the soft Virginia clay.

He unspooled all of his cable, hooked up every chain he had and was able to pull me out. Just barely. He's my new best friend. We're going to hang out tonight.

The Last Pepere

Sorry I didn't make it up in time.

I even got my hair cut, just the way you like it, in anticipation of seeing you at Easter.

I consider myself extremely lucky, out of all the grandkids and great-grandkids, to be the oldest and to have the most (or at least the oldest) memories of you.

The Red Sox winning the 2004 World Series, the ending of The Outlaw Josey Wales and now you. You left a great legacy and no man could ask any more of this world.

Time to make some soup.

Skeletons in the Closet

You might remember that I had an issue with my tub faucet being too loose. Well, that's a whole 'nother story that I will save for later, but I've got a better and far more interesting story now. Although, its not really a story. More like a series of pictures with captions that attempt humor.

Last Saturday, I found myself with nothing to do since nothing had broken on the truck that week (I'm not that lucky this weekend), so I decided to take up a task that I had been neglecting for a while which is flushing my hot water tank and checking the elements. We have hard water which, while tasty and delicious, can also cause some problems. Anyway, I am a little scatterbrained, I've definitely go the whole absentminded-professor-minus-the-professor thing going on, and once the tank drained to a low enough level I took out the top element out (note to self: the next time you have to do this don't be a cheapskate and fore go forking out the 6 bucks for an element wrench. thanks. duly noted.) to inspect it, and yes, it was completely covered over with an oyster shell-like covering. No worries though. At ten bucks a pop its a cheap thing to fix.

The tank keeps draining and I turn on the cold water to get a little tsunami action in the tank to get all of the lime and shtuff out. Then I go outside and watch the hose. Then I forget to remember to go back inside. Then there is water pouring out of the element's hole all over the floor. Thank goodness I have a mega horsepower Sears Craftsman Shop-Vac.

Here's the pretty little water heater in its closet:

If you look in that picture you'll see my air handler, its responsible for shooting hot and, if my AC wasn't broken, cold air throughout the ducts in my house. Anyway, while water was an inch deep in the closet this floated out from behind the air handler:

Its a mouse skeleton on one of those sticky traps. Appears to be a full grown mouse and I have no idea how long its been there.

As part of the bath tub faucet fixing project, I decided to take off some of the paneling that is in that part of the house. There is drywall underneath it, but unfortunately the paneling adhesive makes the drywall pretty useless. Here's a portion of it:

So, I ripped it down and will replace it with brand new drywall. In the process of ripping it down I found these in here:

Ten baby mouse skeletons. Two of the skeletons are nearly complete. Is the mouse in the sticky trap their mother? Who knows?

About Three Months Worth of Lunch Pictures

I am good at taking pictures, but bad at posting them.

Patrick Henry Pub - This isn't on the menu, it was a special that day, but its a pulled pork sandwich with brie, sauteed mushrooms and onions. It was awesome. Not quite a religious experience, but still a memorable meal.

Dora's Brazilian Grill - I'd love to go there for dinner sometime and try the rodizio. For 27 bucks you get all you can eat meat. Ten types of meat. Sausage, top sirloin, chicken drumstick, beef tri tip, bacon wrapped chicken, flank steak, roast pork loin, roasted lamb, beef tenderloin, and rib steak all cooked over a wood fired grill and served to you on a sword.

But, unfortunately, I was just there for lunch and I had Dora's special plate: 1 sausage, 2 flank steak rolls, 2 slices of alcatra steak (roast beef) with black beans, rice and salad. It is among the best meat I have ever eaten anywhere, I dreamt about it for days, but the portions were kinda small. Best beans I've ever had too, by the way, except for my grandmother's baked beans of course.

Oyster and shrimp po'boy from Bank. Pretty disappointing. The bread was as hard as a rock and what was inside was mushy and lacked any flavor.

Pulled pork French dip from Cafe Gutenberg. It was ok. I have no complaints. The pickled carrots were interesting.

Another "special" item, this from the previously mentioned Cafe Gutenberg, these Bison sliders were awesome. The meat had lots of flavor and the pickled green beans were interesting. It was considered an appetizer and I kind of got screwed because I didn't ask the price beforehand and then ordered a side order of fries. It was a tad more than my normal lunch. Worth it though, but next time I will hold the fries. They aren't the best anyway.

I saved the best for last. Tacos and spicy noodles from Boka Truck, a truck that arrives once a week and parks in the lot next to my building for about an hour and sells some of the tastiest food to be had in the northern hemisphere.

The tacos I had were the Mexican, (Chihuahua cheese, habanero-lime cabbage, cilantro and chipotle crema with Korean beef bulgogi) and the Asian (Sweet and spicy kimchi w/ sesame aioli and fresh herbs with the same beef as the Mexican). I was in heaven for 15 minutes. These were indescribably good. You know when Homer says, "Can't talk. Eating"? It was about like that.

The spicy noodle bowl was good as well, although not quite as mind blowing, and the frustration of eating it with chopsticks outweighed the goodness of the food a bit.

I'm glad this guy only comes once a week. Not only does it give me something to which I can look forward, but I would go broke eating tacos every day. Although, it is pretty cheap. That meal right there cost me 8 bucks. Don't have to give a tip either.

Love is in the Air

1987 Samurai - $650 (Raleigh, NC)

Blast from the Past

This picture was taken a few weeks ago obviously since it is 70 degrees out and there's not a snowflake in sight, but I forgot to post it as is often the case. It was found in my shed while looking for something completely different, which is also often the case. I forgot that I had it, but I remember that it was purchased for my wife for her Christmas stocking, around 1998. I am nothing, if not romantic.

 In other news, I was looking at my coffee cup collection the other day in the shed, and it dawned on me that I have a coffee cup from every place that I have worked except Cabletron. If anybody knows where a Cabletron coffee mug could be had to complete my collection, I would appreciate you letting me know.