3/1/10

Woo to the hoo! The Seven is just about ready to fire up! Saturday morning I picked John up at the Nissan dealer where he was having the oil changed in is Versa. We stopped at Mimi’s for breakfast then headed to the shop. He was going to do a “quick, thirty minute, job” then get cracking on finishing up the right hand drive conversion on his 1200. I took one look at The Seven and decided I'd rather watch him remove the bumpers from the RX-4, that being the “quick, thirty minute, job” he was going to do. At some point, someone said something about The Seven and I felt guilty enough to go in and start working on it. I installed the coil, the alternator, the ground strap, and oil pressure sender. I turned the engine over to TDC on the #1 compression stroke and installed the distributor then fought the starter into place. I wired up everything as I went along too. About “thirty minutes” later, John was finished with the RX-4. Oh, did I say “thirty minutes?” Sorry, four hours later, John was finished with the RX-4. I was just about to start thinking about the intake and exhaust manifolds when he came inside with that antsy, “well, I've done all I'm going to be able to do today. How much longer are you going to be?” look on his face. I felt like I'd accomplished something so we headed out. Oh, I brought the Saiga with me and he seemed to think it was pretty bitchin’. I also finally put the zip tie on the holster to hold Kurt Corto against its recoil. Anyhoo, we left and went to pick up his car. From there we went to Texas Motors Ford to see if Juan could still buy an F-150 with a Manuel transmission. Short version of the story, you can but good luck finding one. We also looked at Ranger trucks but the towing capacity, even with a V6, wasn't very inspiring. We went our separate ways. I was headed out I-20 towards Kennedale to go shoost the Saiga at Alpine when I decided I'd give Elk Castle a try instead. I turned around and went there. I walked in and asked the guy at the gun range if they had a line where I could shoot the .410 Saiga. “Sure,” he replied. “It’ll be about twenty minutes.” I went back out and got the gun from the car. Back inside, I waited. About ten minutes later I was asked if I'd signed in. I hadn't so I did. Another ten minutes later and I was asked when I'd last shot there. Since it was before the first of the year, I had to fill out another information form. When I was done with that, I went into the bathroom and peed then waited for another ten minutes or so. Eventually, the guy asked what I was shooting. I told him and he asked, “Regular stock or pistol grip?” I told him it had the pistol grip and he said, “You can't shoot that here. We’ve had too many lights shot out.” I was dumbfounded. “Well,” I said, “I guess you can tear up that form then.” He said it was good for the rest of the year and I mumbled, “Like I'm coming back,” as I left. I debated going on to Alpine but went home instead. Mom and I went to Parton’s Pizza for their buffet and I ate way too much pie. Now, I'm sitting here debating whether or not to tell y'all about Sunday. I think I'll save it for tomorrow.