1/4/10

And another year is in the books. Woo friggin’ hoo. It’s probably a good thing I didn't bring the laptop to work with me last Wednesday because I would have had a rant about my job. Having had four days to simmer down about it, I feel I can tell the story a little more calmly. So I got a fucking e-mail from some ass-hat douche bag... just kidding. I did get an e-mail from the home office on Wednesday telling me that I needed to edit my time sheet since Christmas Eve wasn't a sanctioned holiday and that I'd have to lose one of my 2010 vacation days. OK, it is pissing me off again, now that I'm telling the story. On a hunch, I asked about the 31^st an 1^st. “The first is a holiday,” came her reply. “The 31^st isn't but we usually leave early.” I replied that I would come in and hang out all by myself at the railroad on Thursday then. I re-submitted the two time sheets and went about my day, pissed off and wondering when they were going to ask me to come to Irving to the home office, just to make sure I did “work” on the 31^st. That request never came. Around 1500 h (or maybe much earlier now that I think about it) I cut out and went to Automotive Machine to pick up The Seven's engine. By the way, I never call The Seven “Shichi” when I talk about it, it is kind of a mouthful, so I think I'm going to revert to calling it The Seven even in here. New year, new name. I suppose I could use the usual DLR naming ritual and call the car Dick since I did buy it from Dick Brink, but I'm not going to. Anyhoo, I picked up the engine parts and took them straight to the shop. I hung the block on a stand and hosed it off with brake cleaner and wiped down the external surfaces. I then taped off the deck, oil pump boss, and distributor hole and painted the block silver. I regretted it immediately. I left it alone and went home. I was still a bit ticked off about the time sheet so when mom didn't want to go out to dinner I was relieved. Actually, I was more worried about getting a check-up call from the home office seeing if I actually did go into the railroad on Thursday. I had no intention of setting foot on campus Thursday. So, Thursday morning I go into work... no, I did not. I went to the shop. I fired up Lil' Wiggly and was about to leave when mom flagged me down. She needed to go to the Benbrook Post office and suggested we have lunch together at The Benbrook Grille. I was on-board for that so I took off that direction. I knew I had a few minutes head start so I went for a mini-hoon. I don't remember the name of the road but it is one exit west of 2871 (Gun Club Road) off of I-20. I took that back down to Aledo/Iona Road and thence back to 2871(GCR) and on to 377. As I was about to turn into the parking lot of The Benbrook Grille, mom called to say they were closed. We ate at the little Italian place up the strip center from there. What is it with “Former Soviet Bloc” people coming here and opening “Italian” restaurants? That sounds more racist than it was meant. I mean, “Why ‘Italian’ restaurants, why don’t they open ‘Former Soviet Bloc’ restaurants?” I find it curious is all. OK, from there I go to Auto Zone and buy some blue engine paint and head to the shop. Yes, I did stare long and hard at the other colors. I considered yellow. I considered red. I even looked at purple but it was regular spray paint and not the stuff formulated for engines, like it makes that much difference. Finally I just went with blue because that is a “proper” Nissan A-series engine color. At the shop, I decided to mask off the engine information “pads” on the side of the block so they would remain silver and laid on the blue paint. I'm sure John could sense something was amiss (or even a-mister, bah-dum-bump!) from across town. He didn't have anything negative to say about the paint, but I'm sure it annoyed the hell out of him when he saw it. Anyhoo, I'm not exactly sure what I did while waiting for the paint to “dry” but I know it wasn't still “wet” when I stripped off the masking tape and got to work putting all the bits together. Perhaps it was, I do recall making a conscious effort to not touch anything blue. I greased up and installed the lifters and cam. I greased and installed the main bearings and the crank, along with the rear main seal, and torqued the caps next. I fitted the pistons with rings, performed the “S” word with some oil, and popped them into their holes. I torqued the rod bolts down onto greased bearings and gave the engine a turn. OK, I had been turning the crank every time I installed another part along the way. It got a little tighter with each, but still “spun” free. I installed the timing set and then had a look at a front cover. I decided against painting it, but I'm not really sure why. I cleaned it up some and installed it, along with the water pump that came off, of the old engine. Had John been there, we would have gone with a different pump at that time, but I'm getting ahead of the story. At some point, I had hung up an oil pan and painted it silver. It’s kind of the theme of that engine, what isn't blue is aluminum colored, or silver, except for the valve cover, which might get a re-spray to blue in the near future, I haven’t decided. First “comma splice” of the year! Woo hoo! OK, so I installed the oil pan and sat down to look things over. I was to the point of installing the head so I decided to at least install the studs. Yeah, they were the wrong ones. Instead of being for an A-14/15, or even an A-12 for that matter, they were for an SR-20DET. I was annoyed but not really pissed. I'm not sure why. I decided it was time to call it a day and go home. Well, that is also a good quitting point for today’s rant. Except to say that the heater in Lil' Wiggly doesn't, and it was butt-assed butt-butt cold driving home from the shop.