3/27/07

I think I have got us up to Sunday morning in my report of the weekend. Well, I have to start with a little history first. Out here at the railroad, at least here at the corporate office, the building is managed by CB Richard Ellis, which is a building management service company. Isn’t that convenient? Well, CBRE is in the process of replacing the carpet in all of the buildings on campus. This last weekend they had The War Room scheduled. My boss wanted me to make sure the equipment was reconnected properly and would be ready for the 0800 h conference call Monday morning. Therefore, I came in to work for about half an hour on Sunday. Since I had Mr. Wiggly at the house, I drove that up here. I really like that van. I got here and parked, did what I needed to do, and headed out again. I had a look in the notebook I keep to record fuel usage, and noticed I had traveled about 160 miles on the last fill up. “Hmm,” I thought, “I'll bet I'm low on fuel.” I went to the Exxon station down the road and filled up. Yeah, I was really low on fuel. I got 16.25 gallons in the tank! That’s the most I have ever gotten into that tank. So, having dodged that bullet, I took off again. To exit the gas station I had three choices. Well, I had four but one would take me right back to two of the others so I won’t count it. Choice number one was turn left across traffic onto Western Center and go the wrong direction for a bit before heading back home. Choice number two was turn left across even more traffic onto Blue Mound Road and head straight to the freeway and home. Choice number three was turn right onto BMR and go north, totally the wrong direction for getting anywhere I needed to be. Anywhere but Boyd, that is. Oh, choice number four would have been turn right onto WC but it dead-ends into BMR and would have been totally pointless as I said before. So, I turned right onto BMR and headed north. I cruised up to Highway 287 and headed west, or north, whatever way it goes. I turned off on 114 and headed west into Boyd. Right on FM 730 and up to the farm. I drove past on 730 and looked again at where I'd like to build my house. I turned around and drove back to the dirt road into the farm. I took a cruise down to uncle Ted’s old house and turned around. I didn’t want to alert my cousin Mike to my presence so I left after a quick reconnaissance. I drove into town and headed for the cemetery where I have several relatives. I stopped and saw my father’s, uncle Jim’s parents’, uncle Ted’s, aunt Esma’s, my grandfather’s, and grandmother’s graves, as well as some other folks I knew I was related to but had never known since they had all been in the ground way before I came along. Well technically, my grandfather had been there about ten years before I was a twinkle in dad’s eye, but I knew who he was. From the cemetery I headed back towards Fort Worth. About the time I got to Azle, it began to sprinkle. I fought with all my might to resist the urge to turn on the wipers. I knew it would only smear the dirt around and make things worse. Once I decided there was just enough water to make a wipe productive, I turned the knob. I heard a clunk, a rattle, and a clank. The wipers did nothing. I figured something broke, duh, and pressed on. As my speed increased, the wipers suddenly lurched up to about half a wipe, and stopped. I tried the switch again, thinking it was a short in the electrical system, to no avail. I pressed on. Oh, the route I took from Azle wasn’t back into Fort Worth on Jacksboro Highway. No, I took 1187 south through the backcountry, just so if I broke down no one could ever find me I guess. After a while, the wipers moved a little more and I tried the knob again. Nothing. I got to I-20 and decided to go on down to FM 5 for a micro hoon. I took the turn off in Aledo that takes me to the opposite end of FM 5 and drove back. I had no illusion that I was going fast, but at one point I did notice my speed. Mr. Wiggly actually took some of those turns at between 55 and 60 miles per hour! I was somewhat impressed. I got to the point where 1187 turns away from FM 5 and headed towards Beenbroke. 1187 to 377 and back onto 1187 then left on Old Granbury road to the shop. At the shop, I had a look at the wipers. Turns out the little clips that hold the rod connecting the motor to the wipers had totally disintegrated. I took it all apart to see about re-engineering it but gave up before long. Kevin assures me that the parts are still available so I'm going to try and put it back together right. I sat in the comfy chair in front of John's car for a bit, I might have fallen asleep I'm not sure, and then went home. I called mom to see if she wanted me to pick up dinner and she decided on tacos. We ate our Taco Casa tacos and drank sweet tea. Not quite the meal yesterday’s rant started out with, but tasty nonetheless. So, that gets us all caught up. Since it is lunchtime I think I'm going to call this rant complete. Have a day.