4/25/2011

You know, I'd almost rather not have long weekends. They sure as hell make it hard to come back to work. I so do not want to be here right now. Of course, with my job at least, most of the time, being here isn't that much different than being at home. I'm just goofing off in a different location in less comfortable clothes. Speaking of which, I have got to loosen this belt before it cuts into my belly any more. Aaaaaahhhhhh, much better. OK, so Friday morning I get up and go to Lab Corp, or where ever, and gave a blood sample for my annual checkup. The plan from there was to meet mom and some lady from the church at Red Hot and Blue for lunch. I called as I was leaving and found out that they had already ordered so I bailed on them. Larry texted me to say he was headed to the gun range and asked if I wanted to join him. I didn't really feel like trying to bend my recently-poked arm into a shooting position so I bowed out on that. I wound up going home and eating leftovers then reading on my Amazing Ken Doll. After a nap, I took The Seven to the Kreblechistani tire store and got a safety inspection. I hooned around and burned up some gasoline, in honor of Earth Day, then went home and wasted the evening. Saturday morning I met John at the shop and we messed with the carburetors for Lil' Wiggly. The synchronization lever assembly wouldn't work on my manifold, the carburetors are too close together, so we “inverted” them. Or at least we tried to, the throttle shafts were too long. We sound up trimming the shafts so the carburetors would fit the manifold then began trying to finger out how to synchronize them. We came up with a solution which will work, but isn't the most optimal. We cut a section out of an 11mm socket and slipped it over the nuts on the ends of the two carburetor shafts. They are linked but they cannot be perfectly synchronized. They both open at the same time but one is slightly shy of WFO at... well, WFO. I'm not going to worry about it because I'm not one to hunt down every last horsepower. Hell, if it starts and runs, I'll probably consider it “tuned.” After we got them “synched” we moved on to fingering out linkage. Fortunately I still had two pairs of those rod ends I'd bought when I installed the Super Hot Rod engine in The Seven. I made a link between the carburetors and the manifold arm thingy and we played with that for a bit. Next we looked at how we were going to attach the cable. We made a bracket and came to heads over the brace. I finally gave up and let John design it and zooked it together. Does it work? Yes. Is it how we’re going to run it? Yes. Is it how I would have done it? Probably not. Do I care? At this point, no. He hit it with flat black paint and we looked at something else. Oh right, the fuel pump situation. We have an idea where and how we’re going to install that now as well. Tony had called to see if we were going to join him and Pat for the “24 Hours of LeMons” race at Eagle’s Canyon. John could not but I was willing. We decided to meet at the Freebirds on Heritage Trace for lunch and roll from there. John and I arrived half an hour before the other two and were through the line. We all ate and talked for a bit before John went, I assume, home and the rest of us headed north. I was impressed with the... I was going to say “quality” of the racing, but that word doesn't really apply. The racing looked to be pretty good, but some of the cars... not so much. We hung out until they stopped the race due to (tee hee, I said doo doo) lightning. We drove home ahead of the incoming storm. Back at Freebirds, we parted company and I went home. Sunday, after church and lunch with mom, my sister, and brother-in-law, I got tucked into the Amazing Ken Doll again. Oh, Saturday, while at the race, John's wife Samantha called to ask if I was willing to help them pick up a bed in Justin. I was willing but the weather put the kibosh on it that day. I texted John Sunday to say I was available if they still wanted to do that. They did. I picked John up and we rolled north again. We got the bed and delivered it to their house then hung out in the front yard for a bit. Eventually talk turned to their oldest doing really well with a .22 at some Boy Scout thing. I mentioned the $150.00 Marlin at Academy and it became a quest. John and I headed out but Academy was closed for Easter. We went to Applebee’s for dinner and then to Wal Mart. Yeah, Wal Mart doesn't sell guns anymore. Who knew? I took him home then went home myself. And there you have it, the tale of another long weekend. We won't be going to the shop this Saturday because of the old school car meet on Sunday so... um, yeah. There’s that. And I guess that’s about all I have to say.