5/23/07

Ok, so I got us up to the point of finally making it to the shop on Sunday. Remember, I left for the shop around 1100 h, it is about 1430 h when I finally arrive due to (tee hee, doo-doo!) the long stay at the BoP. So, I pull in and see Marty Smith talking to the guys who live in that little house next to Pat's storage unit. I go ahead and park Mr. Wiggly and get to work resetting the clock and station presets. Marty walks up and startles me. He asks if I'd like to go to the junkyard with him since he needs to buy a fuse box for his old truck. I say, “Sure, why not?” and we head out. I used to enjoy trips to the junkyard. This time, not so much. We walked the many miles back to the back of the lot where the Fords were and he found one he liked. I stood there in the sun while he removed the fuse box. We walked the rows looking for another truck of the exact year but didn’t find a fuse box h liked better. We walked the miles and miles back to the office and he paid. My feet hurt now so I sit in the cab while he washes his hands. We roll back to the shop and he asks, “So now that it is four o’clock, are you going to do any work?” I say I probably won’t but go in to look around anyhow. I wind up installing the big assed fuse thingy I bought for George. I looked at the three wires I needed to hook to the output of that fuse and decided to go with a power distribution block rather than trying to get either three wires into one ring terminal or three ring terminals onto the fuse’s screw post. Fortunately I had already built a distribution block for another project and then didn’t use it. What it is, is a four post connection block that I interconnected with four wires making it a bussed block. I took a short section of heavy gauge wire and put rings on both ends. This I connected to the fuse thing and one of the terminals on the distribution block. I took the big white-with-red-trace wire that feeds the car’s electrical system and hooked it to another terminal of the block. I trimmed and connected the big red wire from the MSD and the big yellow wire from the fuel pump and radiator fan relays to the remaining terminals. I then debated taping the whole shebang up. My thinking was it would look better untapped but it would be safer taped. I decided to err on the side of safety and taped it up. I was right, it is truly ugly all taped up. Oh well. I don’t think I did anything else after that though. If I did, I don’t remember what it was. If it was important I'll think of it eventually. Well, I think that gets y'all caught up on my life. Monday and Tuesday were fairly uneventful. Mom and I went to eat at Bonnell’s last night. Texas High Cuisine is sort of the theme there. I had venison tenderloin and mom had what was called the “Texas Triple” or something like that. It was a crab cake with some special sauce, a lobster cake with a different sauce, and a crawfish cake with a third sauce. They were all quite tasty. I laughed when the bill came because it was only $10.00 more than I usually spend on myself for sushi! Mmm, I might go have sushi for dinner tonight. No, probably not. I was talking to the driver of the shuttle bus yesterday about the Tail of the Dragon event. He was mentioning some roads he has cruised out that way and I think they are the same ones we’re going to see. I spent some time this morning reading the posts on the USA Sevens website about the event. I need to go back and see about printing some maps. I'm getting excited about this trip. I know in a month, as it is approaching, I'll begin to dread it, but for now I'm stoked. I have reservations in the hotel on site, one in Meridian Mississippi for the trip up, and paid my registration fees for the event. I'm committed. Well, I think I'm going back to the internot to look at maps and maybe some satellite photos of the area. Have a day.