11/15/07

I took yesterday off because it was my birthday. That is why y’all didn’t get a rant. Oh, speaking of birthdays, happy birthday George! Yep, the grumpy old fart’s birthday is right next to mine. Thing is, I don’t remember if his is the 13^th or the 15^th. I know it is one of them though. So, there you go. Anyone who knows George can now wish him a happy birthday. So George, what are you now, like a million? What was God like in high school? Didn’t you graduate with him or was he still a freshman when you were a senior? Ok, I guess that is enough George bashing for today. No wait, I've got one more. So, did you ride a dinosaur to school or what? That ought to piss him off real good. I suppose I should apologize to Marty for working George up like that. He’ll have to listen to the guy rant about it for ages now. Tee hee. Ok, I'll get back to my usual rant. I said on Monday that I'd have something to say about the gauges in Marty on Tuesday but then didn’t send a rant after all. Here’s why. Since I was taking Wednesday off, I requested a person to come cover for me. I asked that they send him on Tuesday so I could “train” him. Get it? I work for the railroad so I'd have to “train” someone to cover for me? Ok, sorry about that, I'll move on. I expected him to arrive after lunch and I'd show him around. No, he was here at 0900 h. I showed him around campus, we took care of some stuff, and I got him a badge. Basically I didn’t have a chance to sit down and goof off talking to y'all. But today I do. So here’s what I was going to tell y'all about the gauges for Marty. I was having a look at the 2 1/16” gauges while waiting for John to arrive on Saturday and realized I could probably put them in the radio delete hole in the dash. I played with that for a bit until he did show up then put them away. Remember, I'm trying to concentrate on getting George up and running before putting too much work into Marty. So I let that idea fester in the back of my mind while working on George Saturday. Sunday, while waiting for Marty Smith to arrive so we can go to Mineral Wells, I picked up the gauge mounting panel I bought with the gauges and had a look. I decided that I could cut off the ninety degree mounting part and attach the face directly to the dash with some rivets. I took some careful-ish measurements and started in with the hacksaw. I got a pretty decently straight cut and filed it smooth. I took it to the dash panel and was contemplating it when Marty arrived. I closed up and we went to the autocross. Ok, so the point of that story was that I have decided to mount the gauges in the radio delete on Marty. I guess I could have told y'all that on Monday but I honestly thought it was going to be a better story. Perhaps I'm too full and logy from the turkey and dressing lunch I just ate in the employee center cafeteria. I don’t know. I did have a thought about tunes in Marty since I'll be using the radio delete for gauges. I think I'm going to install some speakers and an amp then have a 1/8” TRS-to-stereo-RCA cable on the floor between the seats to hook into my mp3 player. By the way, 1/8” TRS (short for Tip-Ring-Sleeve) is the proper name for what is more commonly called a “stereo mini” jack. But you all knew that I'm sure. Wow I sure can be condescending can’t I? [And you are VERY good at it... - SM] Oh, I got an e-mail from Dick Brink this morning with an invoice for the Birkini top. It only cost half as much as I thought so I think I'm going to keep it and finger out a way to get in and out of the car when using it. I'm thinking of somehow incorporating a zipper but I'm not sure if it will work. I'll get back to you on that. I wonder how hard it would be to build stereo speakers into the headrests of the Seven. I could put an amp and a 1/8” TRS cable in there as well. [Or just listen to the MP3 player itself??? - SM] Interesting, I'll have to think about that some more. But first I need to finish George. I think, but I'm probably wrong, George may have a 1/8” TRS auxiliary input on the front of the stereo head unit. I know the head unit in Mr. Wiggly has one. If I then did the amp, speakers, and cable thing in the Chickenhawk, all my old crap will have mp3 accessibility while my newest stuff does not. Interesting. Well, I'm getting bored talking to y'all today. I think I'm going to call it a rant and take a nap. Happy birthday George. Don’t party too hard!