4/12/10

Well, the swap has been made. The Seven is at the house and Nadine is at the shop. I drove Fifi to work Friday and went straight to the shop afterwards. I hooked up the trailer and grabbed the straps and come-along. Once I had that parked at the house, I sent a somewhat embarrassingly passive/aggressive text to John saying, “I am moving the cars somehow someway.” We agreed to meet at my house at 0830 h to get them moved. At 0800 h mom yelled at me to wake up. Oops. Well, at least John didn't have to wake me up when he got there. I dressed, shaved my teeth, and stuck in my eyes then headed down to get to work. I was just rolling Fifi and the trailer down the driveway when John pulled up. With air in the flat tire, we lowed the nose and rolled the car onto the trailer. No come-along necessary. I didn't even re-pull my titty muscle. We loaded the rest of the stuff headed to the shop and... um, headed to the shop. There we fired up The Seven and cranked in a touch more timing. The more he added, the better the engine sounded. At about 15 degrees before TDC, he locked it down. Unfortunately it didn't want to re-start with that much advance. He dialed it back to about 10 degrees and we tried again. Two cranks and she fires right up. Oh yeah, I think I'm going to like this engine. Once the nose cone was on I said, “Now we get to see how ugly the big-assed hole around the carburetors looks.” I dropped the bonnet in place and we had a look. It isn't nearly as bad as I expected. We discussed putting the little filler plate back in below the carburetors but decided against it. John took the car around the building and gave it a thumbs up. We parked it and got to work unloading Nadine. She rolled off the trailer just as nicely as she went on but we could sure tell the difference between a Datsun and a Triumph when pushing across the gravel into the shop. Once parked, we closed up and headed back to my house. Oh, at some point John parked and unhitched the trailer. I followed him as he drove The Seven to the gas station where I pumped in $20.00 worth of 93 octane. At the house he gave a report of how the car ran and was convinced I would be happy with this engine. We then headed to the La Grange swap meet. I almost immediately wished I'd changed shoes. My feet were unhappy before long but I don't think I bitched about it, much. Once we had walked all the rows, and found nothing we needed, we called it a day. I went home and took a shower then collapsed. Sunday morning I created an e-mail address and FaceBuick page for my cat. Dolly White with the picture of a black cat sleeping all curled up weird next to a computer bag, if you want to “friend” her. Nadine's FaceBuick page implies that the move happened Sunday because it didn't get updated on Saturday and the “Hey! Where are you guys going?” joke needed a more timely posting. Deal with it historical inaccuracy geeks. Mom came home from church and we ate some lunch before I headed out for a hoon in The Seven. I did about sixty or seventy miles, running up and down through the revs, never holding a single speed very long, before winding up at the shop. I had a quick visit with Nadine, opened her boot and bonnet then decided I didn't want to get involved with anything just yet. I checked the oil in The Seven and then headed out again. Oh, in my left front pocket, Kurt Corto nestles right in between two frame rails just perfectly. There is no way to draw it quickly, but I'll have it nonetheless. Also, lifting myself up out of the seat does not hurt the pulled titty muscle. Supporting myself with my knees against the dash and butt against the top of the seat does however. I'm not sure of the bio-mechanics there. Back at the house, I parked The Seven and went in to wait for 1800 h when I'd head out to the Purple Cow. I texted John to see if he was coming to help get both Lil' Wiggly and The Seven to the event. When he bowed out I asked Pat. He was busy as well so Lil' Wiggly missed the Old School car thing last night. Oh well, no biggie. There was a dude there, he’d sold John a few cars in the past, talking about wanting into a toy car. I almost offered Lil' Wiggly to him. I'm not really sure why I didn't. Oh well, whatever. And that gets y'all caught up with my weekend. Perhaps I'll have stuff to say about Nadine and plans for her and stuff as the week progresses. We'll see.