6/1/07

Another year almost halfway over. Yeah, I know I should wait until the end of this or the beginning of next month to say that but once I hit month number six of twelve it gets me to thinking. It’s along the same lines of “Did the twenty-first century start on January 1, 2000 or January 1, 2001?” The correct answer, of course, is 2001 but there are lots of people who will argue about it. All I ever say to them is, “Count to ten for me.” When they start with “one” I stop them and ask, “Why didn’t you start with zero?” How did I get off on this tangent? Oh right, I see it up there. Well, never mind. John worked late again last night so we didn’t meet up after all. That means I didn’t get the alternator. That means if he doesn’t come to the shop in the morning I won’t be installing the alternator on George this weekend after all. Oh well. He’s going to a Datsun thing in Baja-Canada (Washington or Oregon, one of those pinko left-coast states) next weekend so it is likely he won’t be coming to the shop. That’s cool. I guess there must be something going for this whole marriage thing because a lot of guys seem to think it is worthwhile. I don’t get it though. Oh well. So, I may not get anything done on George this weekend after all. I may unload Barbara from the trailer finally and see about getting her back on the road. I found on e-Bay two sets of Datsun mud-flaps that I bought for her. I'll run the black & white set behind the front wheels and the color set behind the rears, if I do the faux rally car thing of course. I also found a set of fender mirrors for it. They look to have longer stalks than the set I have on George so they should clear the hood a little better. We’ll see. Marty is going to hate my fleet of Datsuns when I'm through! Tee hee! Ray suggested mounting fender mirrors on the Seven as well, just as a bit. Some on top of the headlight buckets perhaps? I couldn’t actually mount them to the fenders because they would bounce too much and turn with the steering. No I'm not giving it any serious thought, relax. Having said that, a set that could be temporarily affixed might be funny enough to think about. Do you know what’s sad? I'm sitting here watching the screen saver of my work computer show me picture after picture of the various Sevens and it just seems like a normal car to me. I don’t mean I'm indifferent to them now, but they just don’t strike me as being anything special anymore. I guess the old saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt” is correct. Then again, I can do that smug-asshole thing of giving a derisive snort and turning my nose up while saying, “I used to have one of those,” when I see a Cobra replica. Hey, there’s the one reason I'd ever buy a Hardly! I'd sell it immediately just so I could add one more “desirable” thing to my repertoire of “Shit I Used To Own.” I guess I'd need to find a Ferrari and/or a Porsche to flip as well. Of course, I mean “flip” in the “buy and sell quickly” sense of the word, not literally roll onto its roof. I've done that as well and don’t want to ever do it again. Oh damn, I should have bought that Maserati Bi-turbo Steve/John had out back of the muffler shop! Oh, this new line of thinking could be trouble. How many money-pit projects is this going to lead me to drag back to the shop just so I could “have it” for a while? Well, they will have to be GREAT deals for me to consider them, whatever they are. Ok, I really need to concentrate on projects in hand. Well, I need to concentrate on projects in progress actually. I think what I might plan to do is go ahead and move Barbara inside, unless John comes to the shop with the alternator, and get to work reviving her. I'll concentrate my initial efforts to roadworthiness and worry about hot rodding later. Of course I do have that header and intake manifold “ready” to install. No, I'll fix the hydraulics and get her drivable then hot rod after George is going. Yes, that seems like a logical plan. Well ok, it really doesn’t, but is there any real logic in messing with thirty-year-old Japanese economy cars? Well, I'm beginning to have some trouble with my eyes. I just can’t see me staying until 1700 h today. I think I'll wrap up this rant, shoost it off to Spiderman, and maybe call it an early quit. Have a day.