2/21/07

I'm going to try and finish the story of last weekend now. Sunday I waited around for mother to get home from church then we went to lunch. We went to the Black Eyed Pea where I had one of the best chicken fried steaks I've ever had. I'm usually disappointed with restaurant CFS but this one was really good. I dropped mom off at the house and went to the shop. I had another look at the second manifold. I tried to finish welding the DGV adapter on but it was a “Tim cannot weld” day. I took the manifold out back and set it in the 510 wagon to cool off and think about what it had done. Inside, I had another look at the first manifold. I decided it would be the one I use and I'd figure out how to seal the head flange. Oh, did I mention that I'm not sure if this manifold is even going to bolt up to the head and seal properly and that that was the reason I was working on the other manifold? No, well there you have it. I found a pipe-thread nipple thingy the right size for the brake booster, I hope, and decided to go ahead and install it. I cut off the top of my weld on one of the vacuum ports I had closed the day before and ran a tap through it. I installed the nipple and declared the manifold “done.” I'm going to have to do something about the head flange part but I'll burn that bridge when I come to it. I set it aside and decided to have a look at George. I decided to finish up the main wiring harness but couldn’t find any electrical tape. I goofed off for a while longer, oh I was also waiting for the dude to come get Gigi because John had spoken to him and he had “re-scheduled” for Sunday. He never showed. I finally gave up at around 1730 h and went home. I had loaded the radiator I plan to use in George in the back of Matilda so I could take it to be repaired on Monday. I went home and wasted the rest of the evening, you guessed it, watching TV. Oh, Thursday night after we decided to not go to the shop, I got a speeding ticket while headed downtown to meet John. I guess I could have told that story better, and at the beginning of yesterday’s entry for that matter. Oh well. Since the company I actually work for wasn’t taking President’s Day off, I needed to covertly send my timesheet in on Monday. I had asked the railroad computer geeks if there was a way to access my company e-mail from home so I could do it but decided it would just be easier to come to the office for a few minutes. So I planned out a nice little route to get all of my running-around done with the minimum amount of backtracking. I'd come to the office and send in my time. Then I'd go to the radiator shop at the corner of I-35 and Seminary and drop off George's radiator. From there I'd run to the lawyer I had called Friday and give him the ticket and pay his fee. I'd then go back and pick up my radiator and head for the shop. It was a beautiful plan. Well, it began to fall apart about halfway to my office when I remembered the ticket was in the pocket of a different pair of pants. The timesheet segment of the program went off without a hitch though. I went ahead and drove to the radiator shop, which was closed. At this point I should probably have just given up but I pressed on. I went back to the house and got the ticket. I turned down lunch with mom and the cleaning lady then drove back to the lawyer. When one of the paralegals came to call the next traffic hooligan off the list, I asked her if I needed to wait since all I was doing was dropping off a payment. She asked the group if there was anyone else on the list just dropping off a payment and when no one stepped up she helped me. All I wanted was permission to drop my money and ticket in an envelope but she went and retrieved my file. I felt a little bad about “cutting in line” like that but I HAD taken the time to set up my file in advance. She took the ticket and my money and gave me a receipt. I walked out without looking at any of the other people waiting. From there it was a quest to find a radiator shop. Two hours later I still hadn’t found one so I went home to look one up in the yellow pages. I found one and headed that way. I dropped it off and then went to visit Kevin since I was right around the corner. He reminded me that there was a car wash two blocks away so I went and had Matilda washed. She looks so much better. Pat called and said he was done at the Motorsport Ranch so we agreed to meet for lunch. We had “eat all you can” beef ribs at Riscky’s which weren’t any better this time than the last time but they were less than ten bucks. We went back to my house and watched TV for a while then he went home. I wasted the rest of the evening… do I even have to tell you? Yesterday I got the call that my radiator was done so I went by after work to pick it up. While talking to the dude some guy in a mini van clipped the telephone pole out front. I thought we were being shot at! He was fine, if not a little shook up, but the van was totaled. Since I didn’t actually see anything, I decided to boogie out of there and went home. Alton Brown made tortillas on “Good Eats,” which made me crave Mexican Inn for dinner. Mom and I went there then I wasted the rest of the evening… oh, you know. Well, that gets you up to speed so I think I'll call it a rant. Have a day.