8/31/06

I put bids on a couple swamp coolers for Mr. Wiggly this morning. One is a window unit while the other has a 12-volt fan and would sit between the seats. Either one would be a good addition, and if I wind up winning both, all the better. I'd use the one with the fan while traveling at low speed and sitting still then shut it off when forward movement makes the window unit effective. Of course the window unit could be removed if I have a passenger and we’d both “enjoy” the cool air from the fanned unit the whole time. Well, we would until it ran out of water of course. But then again, that’s true of either one. I wonder what will hold out longer, the water in the swamp coolers or the candy in my ass. I mean would I have to stop to walk around, pee, eat, or whatever before the water in the swamp cooler was depleted or would the air becoming hot force the rest stops. I had another wacky thought as well. I could, in theory, make a bracket so I could use the window unit in the Seven. It would have to have a bar or two going from the frame behind the passenger seat to the frame under the scuttle. The unit would hang out of the passenger side and blow across the cockpit on me. I'm trying to decide if it would be under or replace the tonneau cover. I think if I attached some snaps to it so the tonneau would remain, it would be more efficient at keeping me cool. I could even attach a hose to duct air down into the driver’s foot well. This is almost crazy enough to look into! I may have to go in and raise my bid to make sure I win this thing. No, if I don’t win it I'll try again with another swamp cooler. They are on e-Bay all the time I'm finding. Of course if I win the one with a fan, I might be talked into forgetting the window unit. But how cool, pun intended, would a Seven with a swamp cooler A/C be? Pretty doggone cool, if you ask me. I just mentioned it to Kevin and he’s on board. Oh, speaking of the Seven, I need to make another modification to my tonneau. The way I have been using it is I fold up the section over the driver’s area and drop it behind the seat. This has two negative effects. One: it is not doing the vinyl any favors and B) it makes the seatbelt not want to retract. My thinking is I'll take two straps, like Juan would use around a suitcase or sleeping bag or something, and fish the ends down behind the aluminum channel that the tonneau is mounted to. When I'm ready to drive the car I'll roll the driver’s section up and secure it with the straps. It will sit on top of the seat like a headrest, sort of. When I want to take a passenger for a ride, I'll slide the whole tonneau out of the channel like I used to do before I added the hinges to the seats. It does make the hinges superfluous but I could, in theory, remove them if I got totally anal retentive about weight. I need to renew the tags and inspection on that car next month. Now would be the time to look into swapping to the full windshield. I wonder how much another scuttle would cost. I just called Dick Brink but got his voice mail. I left a message so we’ll see if he calls me back. I need to go look at Birkin pictures to compare Brookland screens to windshields. I may be back after lunch but I may not. Toodles.