Saturday Musings

Last night was the get-together to celebrate my nephew Alex's college graduation. He has a degree in Business Marketing or some such. He already had a job as an intern with a firm, so he is now permanent. While it doesn't pay a whole lot to start, in this economy, having a job right out of college is a definite plus.

It was great to see my sibs, the food was excellent, and the booze was free. Since I had to get up and go to work today at 5:00, and was driving the Z to boot, I only had one beer, but it was a good beer, Fat Tire Amber Ale, one of my favorites.

And I managed to embarrass the hell out of V., always a plus.

I happened to mention that he had gotten home late, and immediately went and took a shower. He and water, while not enemies, are only nodding acquaintances. I wondered what activity he had been engaged in that made him feel he had to go take a shower immediately after coming home. Everyone chuckled, and when I turned and took a look at him, his face had turned bright red. I don't remember ever seeing him blush like that. He immediately dissembled and stammered, much to the amusement of everyone. Score one for Grandpa.

My Uncle Ben in Mexico is getting remarried. I think he is 78 now. At any rate, he has met a special lady, and they are tying the knot. I couldn't be happier for him. We can't make it to Mexico for the wedding, but he is coming up here for a meet and greet in Oregon at my cousin's place in August. I can't wait to meet her. She must be something special. I am currently trying to arrange for the trip from here by a contingent of Warrens from Latteland. Should be a lot of fun.

I have arranged for a week at the ocean for Mrs A and I the following week at Chateau Westport. I am really looking forward to a week at the beach away from everything and everyone.

Friday? Already?

Where the heck has the week gone?

Al the sudden, here it is Friday. But since I am working bothe days this weekend, it doesn't make a big difference. But next weekend I am taking off all three days. The latest schedule is that the shop will be completely shut down on Friday, but work Saturday and Sunday.

I have told them I really don't want to work, but if sombody absolutely has to be here, it will fall on me. Since it would be double time both days I guess I can always lay back and think of England.

But I would really rather have the time off.

Purloined Picture

Saturday we went to the Museum Of Glass in Tacoma. We spent a quite a bit of time at the Hot Shop, where they were working on a current project by a local glass artist. While I wasn't impressed by the project itself, it was fascinating to watch the process. I had no idea how much physical work by a bunch of people was required.

We toured the exhibits, which I found kinda paltry. Included is the one photo I managed to get before the Glass Gestapo informed my photography wasn't allowed. At least they didn't demand my memory card or confiscate my camera.

I mean WTF I just paid monet to get in. It's not like they were rare acheological ancient artifacts. I don't get how taking a photo would in any way endanger the display.

Oh well, enjoy the illegal purloied image of a beautiful object.

We stopped at a seafood place and bought a smoked trout, some crab dip, and some Gumbo base. The crab dip disappeared in short order, and most of the smoked trout evaporated in short order. The gumbo base will wait until I assenble the rest of the components. All in all, a very enjoyable day.

Father's Day was nice. Quiet. Both of my kids called to wish me a happy Father's Day. I watched the Seattle Mariners go over 50% in their record by beating the Diamondbacks, I BBQ'd a couple of excellent T-bones with fresh asparagus. Slurped down a couple of beers, and took a nice nap.

I told them at work that I have no intention of working as much as I have. I want to take every other weekend off. This weekend reminded me how much there is out there to enjoy, and I want to go and do a lot more with the lovely Mrs A.

Just another week

Nothing much going on at Chateau Warren.

I'm getting worn out by the constant work. Today makes eighteen days without a day off, and although it is only eight hours a day this time around, it is wearing me down. Mrs A is getting cabin fever, because we haven't gone anywhere lately.

I will have this weekend off, so we are planning to get out and about. We have both been wanting to get down to Tacoma to see the Museum of Glass. Unless it is a torrential downpour or something we will probably go. It is supposed to be fabulous, and I love glass artwork. Promises to be interesting.

Sunday we will probably stay home. Mrs A has purchased a couple of primo t-bones and I will fire up the grill. I do love a prime steak done just so on the grill.

R called to apologize to me for cussing me out on the phone the other day. I think this is a first, her apologizing for her bad behavior. She really needs to learn to curb her temper. Mrs A still is pissed at her, and currently wants nothing to do with her. Can't say as I blame her. It presents some problems for Father's Day, but we will get through it.

We are currently discussing spending a week someplace in August. Still haven't decided where or when. So far we are leaning towaards Chateau Westport, but I will still have to call them and see what is available.

In the Laboratory

After spending a year and a half getting Frankenhealey in one piece and running, I turned it over to Gabriel for paint. He of course tore it all apart. So here it is, in pieces.

Complications

Women are complicated creatures.

Mrs A wants to get out of Dodge this weekend. Doesn't have a destination in mind. Just hit the road and go anywhere that isn't here. I am of course supposed to come up with THE PLAN. If it was just me, the plan would be to throw a change of clothes in a gym bag, a sleeping bag in the back of the truck and hit the road. Throw a female into the works and it becomes "complicated".
Fourteen pairs of shoes. Twelve changes of clothes. A whole suitcase of mysterious fluids and creams. A fancy cress "just in case". If we are going overnight, it must involve a shower and clean bathrooms. Roughing it means no room service.

Men on the other hand are simple creatures. (Hey, I heard that snicker, hold it down, you don't want me to come back there!)

I would just wander, sleep in the back of the truck. The extra clothes are only in case I fall in something or get caught in a torrential downpour. The world is a guys bathroom. A shower can wait until you get home, but a handy dip in a stream or lake will do in a pinch. No soap required. Fire is your friend, and smoke is almost as good as deodorant. Sometimes better.

And don't get me started on the dog.

It's Friday......So What?

Which translates that I am working both days again this weekend.
The weather, for Latteland has been outstanding lately. I think we are working on our fourth week withour rain, which is pushing the record.
I think the weather on the weekends has been good because I am working. On the other hand, I am taking off next weekend, which pretty much guarantees it will rain. After all, next weekend is Father's Day weekend. I really don't expect my kids to do anything for me. R is not talking to me, which is fine with me right now. Mrs A and I were filling out our wills the other day, I seriously considered cutting her out of my will.
But then I remembered how I promised myself that I would never be the kind of person that uses that as a way to punish/reward my offspring. Then again, her mom has told her she isn't even mine.
So have a beer or glass of wine for me this weekend, because I'll be here at the gulag.

Frankenhealey

Here is Frankenhealey. Most of the paint stripped off, running and moving, and of course a picture of the engine compartment.

Hopefully, pictures of it after paint will follow soon.

Steps

One foot in front of the other. You can't take more than one step at a time.
Frankenhealey is running. You can actually get in it and turn the key, and it starts. It runs like crap, and the idle is way too high, but it will continue running until the key is turned off. It does not appear to be leaking any fluids. If I wanted to, I could drive it around, except that it has no brakes.
Brakes are overrated anyway.

GM Bankrupcy

When the production of an Icon is taken out of the hands of the visionaries and given over to the accountants, it becomes doomed. No passion in, no passion out.

Just as true for aircraft as it is for automobiles.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203771904574173401767415892.html

An excellent article in the Wall Street Journal today.

Nothing Much

Things have been thankfully quiet around chateau Warren the last couple of days. It has been a little warm for my tastes, but I really don't want to complain. It was up in the mid eighties today. A little too warm for me too want to get out and twist a wrench on Frankenhealey, but just right for sitting around vegging.

We went to a lawyer today to get wills drawn up. I have seen what family can do when there is money involved, and it seems to bring out the worst in everyone. We just want everything nice and cut and dried. I die and she gets everything, she dies I get everything, we both die and everything gets divided evenly among the kids. Living will, power of attorney if one of us is incapacitated.

I will probably be working both days this weekend and next. I'd really like to have some time off to get Frankenhealey running, but I took it on as a long term project, so there is no tearing hurry. I still want to get it running good enough to take it to the employee car show this summer, but that is several weeks away. If I don't make it, I can still take the Z with it's new body kit on. I still need to take some pictures to post.

R has called and everything is back to normal. She is working and going to school as well as raising a couple of kids, so her plate is more than full.

My nephew is graduating from Seattle U with a business degree in marketing. He is an outstanding kid with a bright future. I am sure he will do well.

A nice quiet week is just what I was looking for.

On Track

Nothing is ever easy for me. There is the plan, there are contingencies, and then there is reality.

I did the timing, and installed the new carb setup. Hooked up the lines, and got in and turned the key. One cylinder was firing, but the car wouldn't even come close to running. I decided that I knew nothing about the condition of the carbs on the new intake, so I replaced them with the other set of carbs that I had already rebuilt and rejetted.

I sprayed some starting fluid in the throat of the carbs, and voila' after a couple of trys the car fired up and ran. I still need to adjust the idle, and put on the water pump and radiator and hoses, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The guy across the street is still in the middle of stripping the car down to bare metal for the paint job, but is making good progress. I think now that my goal of having it ready for the Boeing Car Show this summer is absolutely possible. That would be sssooooooo cool. I have about six weeks. It all comes down to how much overtime I have to work between now and then, and what other things I need to take care of.

I need to figure out why the lawn mower won't start so I can mow the back 40. I need to get someone to repair the siding on the South side of the house, and I need to get a new heat pump installed.

Oh well, I guess I won't get bored any time soon.

Two Down

Now the Truck is all complete and runs like a top.

The Z has the ground effects kit installed and painted.

Two down.

The third is underway.

The guy across the street started doing the body work on Frankenhealey last night. I worked on the timing. Problem: Timing lights only work when the car is running. I have to time the car so it WILL run. There is an easy way to do this with a light bulb and breaker points, but I have replaced the points with a magnetic trigger system. After messing around for a while I decided that the way to get around this was using an ancient circuit tester I had laying around.

This is the really old type that is a bullet shaped plastic thingie with a gas bulb inside, and two leads with straight probes on the end. It was made for testing wall outlets. Put one probe in each slot of a wall outlet, if the bulb lights, you have power.

So, if you turn the engine over until the timing mark lights up, and pull number one plug wire, and loosen the distributor, if you rotate the distributor until the bulb lights, the timing will be right on.

So I did that, and finished up setting up one carburettor and intake setup and installed them. Tonight I will hook ou all the hoses and the gas line. I might even see if it will fire up.

What a Nice Weekend

The weather Gods and the calendar aligned in a weird convergence this weekend, and we had three days of perfect weather. It was so great to have time off and good weather. Not that I accomplished a great deal, just a little here and a little there.
We went to see "Angels and Demons". We both enjoyed it. I had read the book, and it was vastly superior to "The Da Vinci Code". I have always felt that "The Da Vinci Code" would not have been such a literary and cinematic success if it wasn't for the Fundamentalist Christian preachers making such a big deal about it. Forbidden fruit always tastes sweetest. Of course the movie wasn't as good as the book, but that is almost always true.
We had company on Sunday and I cooked pork tenderloin in cranberry chutney. It turned out just fine.
I got Zelda the Z back from the neighbor, who had installed the ground effects kit and painted it. It is spectacular. I have had the kit for a couple of years, but never could get around to putting it on. I pulled out the radio and got it working again. Can't be running around without tunes. I drove it to work today, and whenever I stopped someplace, people approached me and wanted to know about the paint and stuff. Pictures to follow soon, but today was overcast, and I want full sun to take the pictures.
I got back to work on Jenny the Jensen Healey. I am currently tearing apart two carburation systems to assemble the ultimate out of two good systems. No hurry here. It will get done when it gets done. I also futzed around with the water pump and got everything ready to start putting things back together. Next I need to retime everything to make sure I have the timing right. Then put on the intake manifold and carbs, put on the waterpump, hook up the hoses, install the radiator, and fire it up. Then finish with the brakes. If everything went right, it could be on the road in a couple of days.
HAH! When have things ever gone right?

Hats off to Mrs A

I haven't been around much lately. Just too much going on, and stuff I didn't really want to get into at all.

We rescued "i" from the clutches of CPS and bought him home. When they release him, it is into protective custody, so you can't just give him back to mom until CPS says so. The protective custody is for 72 hours while they sort things out.

R wanted to be bailed out, but I told her I had something more important to take care of, getting "i" taken care of. Mission Accomplished. We had him for the next couple of days, but we both work. Mrs A volunteered to stay home and take care of him. I told her I would do it, but she insisted that I go to work, and she stay home.

So she stayed home and took care of him. I love her so much for stepping up and doing this. He is not her biological offspring, but she has a big heart. By the end of three days, she was more than willing to turn loose of him. So was I. I love the munchkin, but I am getting a little long in the tooth to be raising an infant. Same for Mrs A. I just hope R understands just how much she owes Mrs A.

CPS in their usual arrogant irresponsible manner, accused R of all sorts of things and threatened her with taking "i" away from her. They lied about what we had told them, and generally terrified her. They let her know that if there was any hint of drugs they would be taking "i". She blames some of this on us, and seems to have lost sight of the fact that if it wasn't for us, things would not have turned out so good.

Mrs A is a little more than pissed that R can't seem to recognize how much we went out of our way to help her out. I can't say as I blame her at all.

Needless to say it has created a great deal of tension at Chateau Warren. Once again I am caught in the middle, trying to make peace and generally getting beat about the head and shoulders from both sides.

Oh well, it's not the first time, and probably not the last.

Word of the DAY

Giberate (jib-er-ate) To create or write dowm gibberish.
I fat fingeted a word today, I meant to type generate, and it came out giberate. I liked it so much, I want to keep it.

Hey ma, it followed me home, can I keep it?

Giberate.

Stories

Story One: "This is the Police, we have your daughter in custody. She is being charged with two counts of leaving a child unattended in a car, and one count of Shoplifting. She is heavily intoxicated and uncooperative. Can you come and get your Gransdon, or do we need to contact social Services?"

Story Two: "Crystal went into the store and stole the food, and then ran off she was supposed to be watching the kids, but got scared"

Story three: "I wne into the store and Crystal was supposed to be watching the kids, but she left to go over to the gas station. I never stole anything and I had one beer".

Story Four: "I ran into XXXX down at safeway and she said she would watch the kids while I ran into the store real quick and picked up a couple of things. Evidently she took off. I was in the checkout line, when some people came in talking about a bunch of cop cars in the parking lot. When I looked out I saw they were around my car. I ran out to find out what was going on. I still had the groceries with me but had not checked out. So they charged me with shop lifting. I had money and every intention of paying. I had one beer."

Eye witness: "I saw a young woman pull into the parking lot. She had to climb out of the passengers side of the car. There was no one else present. She went off into the store and left the two little ones in the back seat of the car."

One Done (Again)

I took yesterday off. When I got up to go to work, the truck wouldn't start. It is also my last chance to take a day off for God knows how long, so I wanted to get the truck up to snuff.
Having fixed everything else, I had decided to bypass the clutch cutout switch, regardlless. There are times when I want to turn over the engine when the truck is in neutral, and I don't want to climb in the truck and push in the clutch.
So I bypassed the switch. The truck still didn't start, so it has to be in the ignition switch. In order to pull the ignition switch, you need to diable the airbag system and remove it from the vehicle, remove the steering wheel, and remove the switch. Too much work.
For $7.00 you can buy a solid brass starter button. Since I never use the cigarette lighter, I utilized the hot wore and hole from the lighter to install the button. Cut the wire to the solenoid out from the wire bundle, made a jumper wire to go to the other terminal on the button, and voila' you have a pretty much bulletproof starter switch, The rubber boot blends in nicely with the dash, and no wires show.
Mrs A said "You're a kind of McGuyver, aren't you?"
I was sooooo proud

None Done

When I was coming home from work today, I got as far as 7-11, and when I went to leave, the truck died, and when I went to start it back up.........nothing.
Having eliminated the battery, battery cable, alternator, starter, the fault can only lie in a couple of places. The cutout switch that is attached to the clutch, and the ignition switch itself.
No mere mechanical object can out-stubborn me. I WILL WIN. Eventually.
As soon as it stops raining, like maybe June, I will go out and do some diagnostics and figure out which. Having eliminated all of the other possibilities, I should be able to figure it out.
All I have to do is make a jumper wire to go from the battery to the solenoid, and jump it. If the starter turns, the problem is isolated to either the clutch cutout switch or the ignition switch.
It should be easy to find the clutch cutout switch. That being easy, it is probably the keyed switch itself.
Oh, and my laptop keeps freezing up.

One Done

The truck is back on the road.
You can't imagine the relief when I got in it, turned the key and the starter worked, the truck started right up. There are lots of things that could have gone awry, then I would have had to tear it all apart and do it again. I think I might have said a few bad words if that happened.
The next thing is to fix up the Z after her little temper tantrum the other day. I still have no dash lights, and one turn signal does not work. I put a new bulb in the turn signal, but it isn't working sounds like a lazy Saturday project to me. If the truck proves to be reliable, the Z will be going across the street to have the ground effects kit installed and painted.
That leaves Frankenhealey. I need to get busy on the car. If everything went right (and it never does) I could have it running in one day, but with reworking the distributor, installing the new carbs, figuring out a new linkage system, installing the water pump, it looks like it will be some months to get it all together. The goal is to get it running enough to drive it to the company car show this summer.
Unfortunately, I will be going back to seven days a week soon, so it limits my time to work on the cars. Even when the sun is out and the temperature is good, I find that I have a limited amount of energy. No more can I consistently work my eight and come home and put in another four at home. I think it is more mental than physical, not that it matters, because the result is the same.
At ant rate, one down, to to go. It must have been all the fingers crossed.