3/3/08

Well, I was going to talk about the presidential race, but it just doesn’t really matter. Oh, I'm going to vote tomorrow and again in November, but it doesn’t really matter if Huckleberry Hound, The Manchurian Candidate, Borat Osama, or Billary wins, all their rhetoric and promises will be out the window once the political machine takes over. Big money is going to make the policies. So, what did I do over the weekend? Friday night Gregg called to see if I wanted to go to Genghis Grill for dinner. I said I did and we met at 1930 h. We got through the line to the cooking area at about 2010 h and ate our first bowls around 2030 h. it took a solid hour to get our food, and we had to prepare it! Now, that sounds like a complaint, and I guess it sort of almost is, but I LOVE Genghis Grill so damned much that it was totally worth it. My first bowl was so spicy that every bite felt like the temperature was scalding me. I literally felt like each bite was scorching hot. I took it a little easier on the spice for the second bowl. One of the women Gregg is trying to put the moves on joined us and had a similar experience with her bowl. I don’t remember her name, sorry. She was cute enough and seemed more fun than the last one he foisted on me. I still don’t give a crap about his love life but he insists on telling me about it. They drank quite a shit-ton of alcohol over the course of the evening and when the waiter asked if it was together or separate, we all “hemmed and hawed” for a bit. I finally said, “Just give it to me” and paid. Looking back, I think I stiffed the waiter a bit. I doubled the tax, or what appeared to be the tax, but I think I only wound up tipping about 8% or less. Oops. I'll catch him up next time, probably. Gregg tried to talk me into joining them at another bar once they kicked us out if GG but I declined and went home. Saturday morning I met with Vladimir and we discussed his acquisition of Marty. He traded me another 1200 and promised to install an engine in Barbecue Bob for me. I agreed to that and he took possession of the car. I repossessed the Corbeau seats, the dash and gauges I built for it, the “2000GT” badges, and the JDM Sunny grille for George. Well, not the “2000GT” badges for George, but the rest. I'll probably get the wheels back at a later date as well. Later, John and I went to the Motorsport Ranch for a garage sale. The short version of the story I was told is thus: the Denton County sheriff padlocked the aircraft hanger where a certain semi-local racecar entrepreneur of questionable reputation had all of his assets stored. Said assets went up for auction. Said entrepreneur went to the auction with a cashier’s check in the rumored amount of $100,000.00 to buy back all his stuff at pennies on the dollar. Another racing enterprise outbid him with an also rumored $125,000.00 cash offer and came away with all of the stuff. That was what was in the garage sale at the Ranch. John found some Autometer gauge lights which we needed, a harness which he needed, and a seat which he wanted. I loaned him some cash to get the seat and bought a can of stainless steel safety wire. Yeah, there were other things I was interested in but for some reason I wasn’t really in a shopping mood. Oh, I remember, the other reason I went down there was to put Darth Versa on the lift and have a look at that unibody brace. Ray and I did that and fingered out where it went. We bolted it up and then I went “shopping.” I was more interested in trying out the brace than buying stuff. There was a dude with a Caterham Superlight R running on the track so I had to go see it. When the driver got out he said, “Hi John” to John and then “Hi Tim” to me. It wasn’t until he acknowledged me that I realized it was Dr. Don from AUTOCOMP. He was driving the Caterham owned by, I assume, a friend of his. We talked for a bit and then John and I headed north again. We took the long route. We went for a hoon out FM5 to see if the brace made a difference. I'm sure it was all “butt dyno” data and therefore not to be trusted, but it did feel stiffer. There was a touch more road feel, I think, and some more engine noise, I'm sure of, with the brace. All in all, I'm happy with it. We swung through Lowe’s so John could buy, um, something and I picked up a new shower head. The hose I replaced in January broke on me Friday morning and I had to take a shower with what amounted to a garden hose on Saturday. We went back to the shop and John installed the air filters he had bought for his 510 then left. I played with the gauges and dash in George for a bit and went home myself. I installed the shower head and used it. It was quite nice. It could use a bit more oomph in the hard spray, but it is better than what it replaced. Sunday morning, Pat texted me to ask if I wanted bait for lunch. I said Mario was supposed to come to the shop to put wheels on the Mustang but I was game. He said Mario was supposed to be working on his house. I said I had heard that as well but that he was coming in the afternoon to the shop or something. Oh, that would be Pat’s house Mario was working on. Something about a superfluous roof in the bedroom which is collapsing. I don’t know, nor do I care all that much. I went to the shop with the intention of getting a dash and gauges installed in George. I stopped at O’Reilley’s for some lights and wire then went to the shop. I spent a while figuring out how to make the turn signals work and mounting an LED for the high beam indicator. I finally got the old dash out of George, there was a bolt I do not remember ever having to remove in any other 1200 dash I have messed with, and had a look at the wiring of the high beam, turn signals, and fuel gauge. When that process began to give me a headache I moved on to something else. I removed the gauge wires I had previously installed so I could remove the capillary tube for the oil pressure gauge. I realized I didn’t have wires to do the oil pressure sender and mixture gauge so I went to the Boys of Pep. On my way there Pat called to say he was not going to be able to have bait for lunch and that Mario was on his way to the shop. I called Mario to tell him I was going to the BoP. I bought the wires and headed back. He pulled up right behind me at the gate. He got to work on the mustang while I re-rewired the gauge sending units. I had a look at the black dash and I think I just might hate it. It just doesn’t look right. A 1200’s dash should be silver. We’ll see if it grows on me. Mario left to go demolish Pat’s bedroom, if you know what I mean! No, wait. That’s not right. He really was going to rip the ceiling out; that wasn’t some sort of innuendo. In your endo! I hung out just a bit longer and finally went home. And there you have it. I guess I'll hang it up for the day and talk to y'all tomorrow.