7/31/06

I was a good boy and did not go to the strip club on Friday night. I got home and was in the middle of channel surfing when I remembered. Oh well, no big loss. Saturday morning I got a call from Gregg asking if I was going to the shop. I replied in the affirmative and said I'd meet him there in a bit. I told him my plan of finishing up Mr. Wiggly and then goofing off. We had a look at the second set of adapters I bought, did I tell you I bought another set of adapters for the giant wheels I want to run on Mr. Wiggly? Well, I did and we had a look at them. The lug nuts that came with them fit inside the holes of the wheels. I mean, the whole lug nut passes through the hole in the wheel! They are that huge! We took some measurements and decided to go to the Boys of Pep to see about some shank style lug nuts. We found them but the shanks were still 0.115” too small for the holes in the wheels. We decided that we needed to go to Smiley’s and look at 5/8” studs instead of the ½” guys that were in the adapters. “Smiley’s!?!?” Gregg asked, “In Mesquite!?!?” I told him of the one in Kennedale and we were off. Once there, the guy loaned me a stud and nut to try since I wasn’t sure it was going to work. We went from there to a place further down Business 287 that has a yard full of wheels. I found some I liked including a set that would work with the adapters and regular lug nuts. I plan to go back and see what he’ll do as far as a trade in type of situation. We then went to look at the buildings Gregg is building because he wanted to show me how he wants to build my shop in Boyd. I liked it. I'm on board. We headed back to the shop and finished up with Mr. Wiggly. Oh, at the BoP I bought a ninety-degree 1/8” to 1/8” pipe adapter thingy to install the oil pressure gauge by the way. I wrapped the threads and installed the fittings and then began to contemplate the wiring. I got it all wired up and fired the van. I think I'm not getting a good 12-volt source because the voltmeter doesn’t read and the tachometer reacts really slowly. It seems fine while driving, the tachometer that is, but John and I are planning to install a relay to send clean power to the gauge. Gregg left at some point and I decided to have a look at the intake on Matilda. I wound up removing the first section of the intake, before the filter box, with all of its sound-muffling devices. The thinking was this might open up some intake honk. It did not. I tried, for one lap of the building only, removing the filter to see what it sounded like through the box. It was still too quiet so I reinstalled the filter and decided to run this way for a bit. Butt-dyno data says it helped but I can’t imagine how. I'm chalking it up to just driving it harder to see if I could hear anything. I locked up the shop and went home. I took a shower and settled in for the evening, or so I thought. About 1900 I got a call from my friend Amy, not the one from the railroad the other one. She was at the new Home Plate bar and wanted me to come join her. I got dressed and went to meet them, because I knew she wouldn’t be there by herself, you see. I arrive to find Amy, her husband Sam, and Allison sitting at the bar. I go to sit by Allison but notice another beer. “Denise is in the bathroom,” I'm informed. I scoot down and sit by Sam. We shout the length of the bar for a bit then move to a table. At the table we have a few more beers and talk about stuff and things and stuff. After a while, Allison starts asking me if I'm ready to “enter the ashtray.” If you don’t remember my ashtray analogy on dating, well too bad because I'm not going through it again right now. Sorry. I brush the question off, which apparently in Lesbanese, means yes. She starts making plans to have a party at their lake house where she’ll have straight women for me to meet. I laugh and say I'll see if I can make it. She makes me promise to be nice to her straight friends. I promise to. She tells me I'm coming to their place next weekend. I again brush it off with a laugh. We’ll see. As the evening progresses, I tell them that I had given some thought to going to a strip club on Friday but decided against it. Amy, Allison, and Denise were the three I went to New Orleans Nights with that time last year. Or was it the year before? Anyhoo, I knew they were up for it and sure enough they said to call them next time I was thinking about it. Someone suggested we go right then. I shrugged and we headed out. They decided that since the four of them were two couples, I would have to take all of the lap dances. I shrugged. We found a table and pretty soon this little thing that was younger than some of my underwear was slinking up next to me. She asked if I wanted some entertainment and I said she’d have to point me to the ATM first. She took my hand and led me away. Now, I'm sure the rest of my group was totally shocked by this because I said nary a word to them as I left! Intentionally, I might add. We come back and wait for another song to begin. She dances for me and I pay up. She takes off to find another sucker and I turn to talk to my group. We discuss breast size and how I'm not a fan of the “Big Uns.” Before long a pair, I mean a dancer with a pair, I mean another dancer sidles up to me and sits down. She dances for me and I pay her. I turn to the group and say, “Well, I'm not going to turn them down if offered!” A third dancer arrives and does her thing then leaves. The group is about to decide to call it a night so the stack of ones on the table is eyed. Oh, when we arrived I broke a twenty into ones and set it in the middle of the table for tips. Apparently it didn’t get used up so Amy and Allison “fought” over it. Once it was decided that it all actually belonged to me, Allison did a mini-table dance for me, over my protests, and pocketed the cash. So, with that twenty plus the four table dances, don’t worry about my math, the first girl danced for two songs, I wound up dropping only $100.00 in there. Someone else bought my cover and beer so I did pretty well actually. We all left, of course they thought I'd go right back in but I didn’t. I went home and crashed. Sunday I watched “Rat Race” and then went to the shop to take the Seven out. I drove to the Motorsport Ranch and then out FM5. After a few hours I decided to head back to the house. I cleaned up and wasted the rest of the day in front of the TV. So, there you have it. I think I'm going to call this rant complete. Buh bye.