9/29/08

Well, another month almost cashed. I cannot believe how time is flying by. It’s kooky. So, let me see if I can regale y'all with the weekend’s activities. Of course Friday afternoon and evening I spent at the BNSF Family Day Car Show. I headed out there around 1430 h and was assigned my parking spot. I went through the machinations of getting out of the car and some wag said they should have charged admission to see that. As the afternoon progressed, more cars arrived. The final tally was somewhere around twenty cars and a bunch of motorcycles. I hung out near my car and watched as people looked it over. The removable steering wheel caused the most consternation. I propped it up between the seats facing forward with my “Hello Kitty” steering hub cover on the steering shaft. Many people tried to finger out how I drove it with the steering wheel behind me. I showed a few folks how it went back on, but left most to wonder. As usual, the car was a hit with kids who thought it was their size and sports car or racing fans who knew what a Lotus Seven was. Finally, around 1945 h or so, I began the process of preparing to leave. I notice the wag from earlier and said he ought to start collecting money because I was about to get back in. I got everything ready and was sitting in the car when I noticed I had left my chair out. I asked if someone could hand it to me and they did. I plopped it in the passenger seat and headed out. The car ran flawlessly again. I pulled into the garage and went to bed. Saturday morning I headed to the shop to put Shi-Chi away and move Fifi out of that spot. As I was about to roll the door down, I noticed the right taillight of Shi-Chi hanging by the wires. When we were painting the fenders, I noticed it was loose but didn’t bother to try and tighten it. It wouldn’t have helped as the plastic of the housing had broken. I closed up and went to meet John at the credit onion to discuss the sale of Matilda. On Friday I mentioned “factors” that were disturbing me about this deal, remember? Well, the problem I was having was that John was going to sell the Crown to buy Matilda. I didn’t want to be the one responsible for him getting rid of that car, especially so soon, because, to be honest, if it were my “fault” I couldn’t bust his balls about selling it. I'd still do it, don’t get me wrong, I'd just feel a little worse about it. Well, the credit onion gave us some answers so we could formulate our plans. While discussing it some more, and I hope this isn't telling too many tales out of school, I got it out of John that the Crown suffers from “The Magnum Syndrome.” TMS is where a car is really cool, great looking (or at least potentially so), and nice to drive, but it just isn't fun. My Magnum was sex on wheels and threw down the highway miles like nothing I've ever seen, but it just wasn’t fun to drive. We both need fun even in a daily driver. Perhaps that should be, “especially in a daily driver.” The more we talked, the less bad I felt about him giving up the Crown for Matilda. Besides, we both know he's going to make a killing on that car due to (tee hee, I said doo-doo!) its rarity and what he paid for it. We speculated that it might be possible to relieve the Crown of TMS, but then the value of the car would be shot to hell. We came up with a plan, pending getting the car back from Gregg which is a whole ‘nother story, and went to lunch. We ate at Benito’s since we were downtown already. After lunch we decided to blow off the shop and go to the gun show. I was thinking that if I found one for the right price, I'd buy a Judge. Remember, the Judge is Taurus Arms’ .45 Long Colt/.410 shotgun revolver that I mentioned a few weeks ago? We went to the show and walked the isles. I found plenty of Judges at good prices but it was still more than I felt I could justify spending. Oh, there were also several Smith & Wesson 500 Magnum revolvers and Desert Eagle .50 calibers for sale as well. These were well and truly out of my price range though. We left there and took him home. Oh, after lunch we dropped his car off at his house and took Fifi to the gun show, by the way. From his house I went to Northern Tool and Supply to look for replacement taillights for Shi-Chi. I found a set of recessed lights, the kind which pop into an oval hole and are held in by the rubber grommet, and bought them. I did not go to the shop though. I went home and then remembered I had promised Kevin I'd weld something for him. I headed back out in Darth Versa since he was out of gas and needed a bath. I zooked up Kevin's chair and we hung out for a bit. Of course the taillights were still in Fifi. We finally headed out and I filled and washed Darth Versa on the way home. Mom and I went to Hagfish (AKA Rockfish) for dinner. After that I wasted the evening in my usual manner. Well, I think I'll tell Sunday’s story tomorrow. It’s a long one.