That is the name that has been given to my latest old vehicle – Mac’s 1978 Dodge pickup. It fits for a couple of reasons. First, Mac used to be known as “The Grouch of the House”, and second, this pickup seems to grouch at doing things one would expect from a vehicle. Like staying in gear when you hit a bump. Squealing like mad when you make a turn before he’s warmed up (power steering pump needs to be rebuilt). Receiving only right-wing talk radio or sports talk stations, since it only has an AM radio and it seems that AM radio has been taken over by either political pundits who spend hours shouting at the rain while offering no positive suggestions, or sports pundits who spend hours shouting at the rain while telling all their callers that they are idiots. Notwithstanding the fact that most of aforementioned pundits have ever held elected office or played sports professionally (I said most – I know there are exceptions). AM radio seems to have no music anymore.
Oh well, be that as it may…
Went out to work on The Grouch this morning. It needs a new speedometer needle, and the bushing on the back of the instrument could use a spray of graphite (what’s left of the needle bounces a bit). It also needed a new lamp for the right front turn indicator. So after TLMK left for work, I went out to move The Grouch onto the driveway and into the shade. He fired right up, and as soon as I dropped him into gear, the horn started blasting. Just for a couple of seconds. Put him back in park and let him warm up. Dropped him into gear and started to back up and there went the horn again. Also noticed the alternator gauge was showing that the battery was charging pretty strong. I’ve suspected for a while that the alternator needs to be replaced. Good thing I have a spare.
So I decide to take it out and run it for a bit to help the battery charge faster. Getting up to speed while going past a school where some gals were having a soccer practice, the horn decides to go off again. This time for about a full minute. It stops, and doesn’t act up again while I get it home and back in the driveway.
OK – let’s take care of a couple of simple things. Replacing a turn signal lamp on a vehicle of that vintage is a matter of removing two screws, removing a bulb, putting a new bulb into the socket, and replacing the two screws holding the whole thing in place. Wrong. The base of the bulb seems to have gotten itself welded to the socket. The glass came out (amazingly in one piece), and the metal base stayed in place. With what looked like a bit of glass that had melted and re-hardened into a bluish blob at the bottom. So that will now require getting a new socket and rebuilding the turn indicator assembly. Put things back together and move on to the next job.
Sit inside the truck and take the dashboard off to get to the speedometer. Pretty easy – I’ve done it before. Ready to fit the new needle to the stem, and… I’ve lost the needle I got up in Cheyenne. I’m thinking many bad words. It’s getting hot out by now, and the cab is no longer in the shade. Fine. I’ll leave the dash disassembled and move it back onto the street until I can get the parts to fix things another morning. Start him up, and the horn starts blaring again. And won’t stop until I turn it off. Now I’m saying many bad words.
But also a prayer, and the next time I start him up, he behaves and I move him to the street without incident. We will meet again in battle another day.
Did I mention I love old vehicles?
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Just Because It's June 23
June 23, 2010
OK, so I’m doing some thinking. Thinking about constructive stuff that keeps my mind busy and doesn’t let me think about stuff that really is not good for me considering where I’m at emotionally right now.
To Dad and Mac: bless you immensely for teaching me to build things in my mind before I built them here in the physical world. I don’t know where I got the ability to think in 3-D, but I’m grateful for it and I know when it came to me building things with Dad, he was amazed. He marveled at something that was for me innate.
And Mac would have smiled at my solution to one particular problem a mechanic had with that monster 440 V-8 a few days ago.
These days I’m focusing attention on a few things:
1. Tomatoes (in the ground – see #2 in a minute…) 16 plants, half of them heirloom, 92.7% of them thriving. Right now we’ve got the perfect combination of hot days (gonna be around 100 degrees for the next few days), and cool (around 59 degree) nights. Battling blossom end rot on one plant, but all others are fine.
2. Making the late Billy Mays proud: I have 2 “Topsey Turvey” tomato growers, one filled with Italian San Marzano Roma Tomatoes, and the other filled with “Heartland” heirloom tomatoes and one heirloom cherry tomato. Miracle of miracles – these things actually work! I’ve had to support some stalks with string so they wouldn’t fall over and break!
3. Roses. My “Twin Popes”. I have 2 Jackson & Perkins John Paul II roses that I planted this year. They are struggling. I made some modifications to their bed, and with some divine intervention (c’mon – can’t ask for luck when a rose named for a Pope is concerned!) they will come back and flourish. Some of the most gorgeous brilliant white blossoms you’ll ever see!
4. Music – on a mission to find acoustic versions of classic songs. Don’t have enough to fill a CD yet, but I’m getting there. Thank you Eric Clapton for legitimizing “MTV Unplugged”.
I have about three more projects in my head, always working there and every now and then getting worked on in real life. OK, 4 projects. No, 6. Some of which nobody would be interested in anyway. One involves "Arkansas Stones", another "classic Craftsman". Told 'ya so.
Emotionally: Better to figure out beforehand those things that you can just deal with and make happen in a day, than to try and figure out problems that are gonna be there for a very long time. The big stuff you just have to deal with as it comes. Because it will always be there, and will always present itself unexpectedly. And when it does, you deal with what is presented to you at the time. Old joke, but pertinent here: “How do you eat a whole elephant?” One bite at a time.
Just a brain dump from Jay’s Brain at 6:17 PM on June 23, 2010.
OK, so I’m doing some thinking. Thinking about constructive stuff that keeps my mind busy and doesn’t let me think about stuff that really is not good for me considering where I’m at emotionally right now.
To Dad and Mac: bless you immensely for teaching me to build things in my mind before I built them here in the physical world. I don’t know where I got the ability to think in 3-D, but I’m grateful for it and I know when it came to me building things with Dad, he was amazed. He marveled at something that was for me innate.
And Mac would have smiled at my solution to one particular problem a mechanic had with that monster 440 V-8 a few days ago.
These days I’m focusing attention on a few things:
1. Tomatoes (in the ground – see #2 in a minute…) 16 plants, half of them heirloom, 92.7% of them thriving. Right now we’ve got the perfect combination of hot days (gonna be around 100 degrees for the next few days), and cool (around 59 degree) nights. Battling blossom end rot on one plant, but all others are fine.
2. Making the late Billy Mays proud: I have 2 “Topsey Turvey” tomato growers, one filled with Italian San Marzano Roma Tomatoes, and the other filled with “Heartland” heirloom tomatoes and one heirloom cherry tomato. Miracle of miracles – these things actually work! I’ve had to support some stalks with string so they wouldn’t fall over and break!
3. Roses. My “Twin Popes”. I have 2 Jackson & Perkins John Paul II roses that I planted this year. They are struggling. I made some modifications to their bed, and with some divine intervention (c’mon – can’t ask for luck when a rose named for a Pope is concerned!) they will come back and flourish. Some of the most gorgeous brilliant white blossoms you’ll ever see!
4. Music – on a mission to find acoustic versions of classic songs. Don’t have enough to fill a CD yet, but I’m getting there. Thank you Eric Clapton for legitimizing “MTV Unplugged”.
I have about three more projects in my head, always working there and every now and then getting worked on in real life. OK, 4 projects. No, 6. Some of which nobody would be interested in anyway. One involves "Arkansas Stones", another "classic Craftsman". Told 'ya so.
Emotionally: Better to figure out beforehand those things that you can just deal with and make happen in a day, than to try and figure out problems that are gonna be there for a very long time. The big stuff you just have to deal with as it comes. Because it will always be there, and will always present itself unexpectedly. And when it does, you deal with what is presented to you at the time. Old joke, but pertinent here: “How do you eat a whole elephant?” One bite at a time.
Just a brain dump from Jay’s Brain at 6:17 PM on June 23, 2010.
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