2/3/09

Doubtful? One word: Phone Bi… Two words: Phone Bill. [ Two words: Ball Bust. - SM ] Anyhoo, so Saturday when I went to Cutie Patootie’s range to test out Big Millie, I tried to pick up my Judge as well. I'd dropped it off there the week before to have the lead fouling cleaned out of the barrel, you see. Well, the gun was ready but they wouldn’t let me take it. Why? Because I didn’t have the receipt with matching numbers from the day I'd dropped it off. Yeah, even though when I dropped it off the guy told me in no uncertain terms that I'd have to have it to pick the gun up, they still woul… oh wait. Never mind. So, I had to go back on Sunday to pick up the Judge. I didn’t mind because I also wanted to try out the Pimp Gun as well. I really like the Pimp Gun! I blew through about 100 rounds or so of Winchester White Box, I might have even shot a few hollow points, and it worked flawlessly. I'd say it kicks about like the “Combat Tupperware” Hebrew Hammer. I think it is a little lighter than the metal Hebrew Hammer so I'm not surprised by this. I also do not mind it one whit. I shot 100 rounds of .45 ACP ball ammo, and at least ten hollow points for sure, through Big Millie too. Both of these guns use a single action trigger so switching twixt the two is no problem on the line. I think I made the right choice about Lil Millie. Oh, in case you were wondering, no it hasn’t sold yet. I think it will, with as many folks as I've told about it. After that, I went back home and decided to take Shichi out for a hoon. I had thought about driving Shichi across town to the range, but it was still a bit cool out when I left in the morning. So I changed shoes and rolled it out of the garage. Mom came down to close the door but I was in the process when she got there. She told me to call when I got home and she’d open up. I said I would but had no intention of doing so. I'm lazy, but I'm not going to call my eighty year old mother to come down and lift a garage door for me. So I go for a hoon. The car runs pretty well, about like it did the last time out, duh. I rolled up onto the freeway and noticed the bluish smoke “billowing” from under the hood; like it has the last few times I've driven it and made a hard pull through the gears. When under normal cruise conditions the smoke is unnoticeable, if present at all. I cruised out I-20 to, um, whatever exit is just past 2871 “Gun Club Road.” I took that twisty bit over to Aledo Iona Road and thence to 1187 and FM5. Of course at FM5 there was traffic headed my direction so I took the other way to the cutoff road, the one through Aledo to the other end of FM5. As an aside, if ever you see some random symbol where a number would be pertinent, I tried to capitalize the number. I'm not sure why I do that from time to time but I usually catch it myself. Ok, so I get to the far end of FM5 and really get into the throttle up the hill. There was no smoke and way more power than I'd been experiencing! I'm not sure what I cleared out of the thing, but it hasn’t run this well in a while. I took my hoon a little faster than I usually do because it was running so well. I was quite pleased. I headed down 1187 towards 377 and the shop. Oh, I romped on it again at the Aledo Iona “exit” turn on 1187 and the previous lack of smoke and extra power proved to be no fluke. Perhaps I'd been babying it too much. Anyhoo, when I got to 377 I decided to stop in at the gun range there and see if they had Hogue grips for the Pimp Gun. Oh, I'd asked about them from Cutie Patootie, Cabela’s, and at Cheaper Than Dirt but they didn’t have them. The Whiskey Flats place did but they were the side panels and not the wrap-around kind. I'm wishing I'd gone ahead and bought them now since all I'm finding available are the panels. I’ll go back and get them one night this week, probably. From there I went to the shop and looked at the “To Do’ list for Shichi. I decided to swap the park lights and turn signals back to the original configuration. For some reason, a few years ago I swapped the wires so that the “bee hives” were the park lights, and the “city lights” were the turn signals. I realized later that with the headlights on, no one in front of me could see the turn signals. I'm still not sure why I switched them in the first place. So I pulled the headlight assemblies off the car and started stripping the harness. I fingered out which wires needed to be de-soldered and re-soldered correctly and did so. I taped them back up and secured the ends of the taping with zip ties to prevent it from unraveling. I don’t trust the tape I used to stay on its own. Marty Smith showed up with some old dude looking to buy a Datsun and showed him the orange four-door 510 out back. I got one headlight assembly reinstalled while they were there and asked if they’d check my work. I flipped on the park lights and the city light lit. I flipped the turn signal switch and the “bee hive” lit. They took off before I could install and test the other side though so I had to drive home on faith. Once in the driveway, I called mom to come open the garage for me. No I didn’t! I got out and opened it myself. I pulled in and tried the lights again. In the relative dark of the garage I could tell they were working properly so I considered it a successful day. Oh, at the shop while I had the bonnet and nose cone off, I checked the oil and water levels. They were both good. I also readjusted the brake balance to a more rear bias hoping that would light the brake lights sooner than they had been working. I'm not sure what effect it had on the lights but the brakes feel really weird now. I'm sure they could stand a good bleeding. I couldn’t get either end to lock up, much less lock up before the other, so I guess the balance is still good. Perhaps I had way too much all this time. We’ll see. Well, since the home phone is still out, I have to send this to Spiderman from the work computer. I'd better do that before I leave for the day. Hey, how about now?