1/25/10

Well, I guess it is true that even a blind hog finds a truffle now and again. After fiddling about with various settings, I finally got the screen saver to work on the laptop. It only took, what, a week or two? Not bad for a Luddite, eh? Apparently a Canadian Luddite at that, eh? Anyhoo, here’s what happened over the weekend. John came by the house and picked me up Saturday morning and we went to the shop. We got to work installing the engine in The Seven by rolling it outside and retrieving the engine hoist from the paint booth. We then set the engine off of the stand and installed Explodotron. You remember Explodotron, don't you? The ultra lightweight flywheel Marty Mary made for one of his cars? Yeah, I'm running it again. With that all torqued down, we put on the clutch and pressure plate. Next came the transmission, which slipped on relatively easily and bolted right up. We hooked up the strap and picked up all that stuff then rolled the car under it. We had to remove the butt-plug from the transmission to get it into the frame but do not feel we lost too much fluid. I hope. We installed the engine mounts and then the transmission cross member. Once the engine was in place, I was ready to consider it a successful day. John crawled under and attached the speedometer cable, thanks again for that by the way, and then he declared said day a success. We then helped Pat move some stuff from his old storage unit to his new shop. We flat towed the Roadster then pushed the Scout. A few more trips and he was basically out of his unit. Then we went to Benito’s for lunch. I dropped John off at his house and went home. I thought about stopping in at Blood Bath & Beyond to look at a gun safe. Oh, have I mentioned I think it is high time I started locking up my guns when I'm not home? Well, it is. My first thought was a two-drawer filing cabinet but it wouldn't hold my “long guns.” I decided I'd shop around for a regular gun safe thingy. I know I've seen them at Academy so I fingered I'd go there. Like I said, I didn't stop at BB&B on the way home from John's though. Sunday, mom and I went to Red Hot & Blue for ribs after she got home from church. I dropped her off after that and went back out. I went to Academy and had a look at their safes. I'd pretty much talked myself into the $129.00 Centurion, or whatever brand it was, and asked for some help. “Which safe did you want?” the dude asked. “The $89.00 one?” “Whoa!” I said. “There’s an $89.00 one? Show that one to me.” He did and I said I'd take one. He ripped off the sticker and sent me to the register then followed with a hand cart. After paying, I asked if he could get that into a Smart Car. He laughed. We set it in the back of Fifi and I headed home. It literally took twice as long to dig my two wheeler out than it took to go to the store, shop for and buy, and come home with the safe. I drug it upstairs and wrestled it into place. Now, before you get all “Structural Engineer” on me, this thing can't weigh 75 pounds empty and I made sure to place it right over the support beam in the garage. Of course as soon as I opened the door, it tumped over on me. “Oh yeah,” thought I, “You’re supposed to attach this to the wall.” I dug out the lag bolts and gave it some thought while I installed the shelf. I decided that since it has a flat bottom, I'd just set the front up on something so it leans back against the wall. A couple decks of playing cards fit the bill nicely. They sunk into the carpet perfectly and disappeared as well. I then began loading the thing up. All of my ammo went in the bottom. Damn, I've got a lot of ammo. I then set Mossy, my .410 pump shotgun, inside. It didn't come close to the little plastic humpy gun separator thingies on the back wall. Hmm. I grabbed the Space Gun and tried it. Nope, it also didn't hit the humpy thing. Oh well. I set all the pistols on the shelf and tried the door. It locked nicely. I was happy enough for the time being. I put the Judge back on the bed frame and took Kurt Corto with me downstairs to waste the rest of the evening. Mom asked if she could go down the hall and look at it. I couldn't remember if I'd closed the door but said it was OK nonetheless. She came downstairs and said, “I hope it isn't full.” I assured her it wasn't “full.” she then asked if I planned to take the keys out of the door. I said I would, yes. So, this morning I unclipped the Judge from the bed frame and locked everything up before I came to work. I can now rest easier while at work not worrying if the cleaning lady’s ex-con son is going to steal one of my guns. Yeah, that was the deciding factor for finally getting a safe. Sure, there was concern about my four year old great niece finding them and blowing someone’s head off, of course, but the cleaning lady issue was the final straw. We’re getting a new cleaning lady soon, by the way. Which was another issue, I suppose. So, there you have it.