9/13/2011

Well, I still haven't heard from John as to his attitude towards continuing to play with old cars. [ Don't want to influence your decision, so I thought I'd let you twist a bit... - SM ] I do think I'm ready to pare down my fleet to one or two “Toys” along with the daily driver and tow rig. As I said yesterday, The Seven will remain with me, most likely, no matter what. That leaves one more potential spot for a “Toy.” Oh, I don't think I'm going to count Bobbi, the motorcycle, in this culling of the herd. It doesn't take up much room and, I mean c’mon, you gotta have a bike, right? Besides, it is really cool and I already have it and it runs and stuff. Someone suggested I make a tow dolly for the bike to drag it along behind The Seven for events where I might want to a) show both of them or 2) have a “pit bike” sort of thing. I poo-pooed the idea originally but now I'm giving it some thought. Not too serious a thought, but a thought nonetheless. The biggest hurdle I can think of right off the bat is: how the hell would I hook it up to The Seven? There is the spare tire mounting boss in the middle of the rear panel of the car. I wonder if the bosses for the bottom of the spare tire rack are there on the frame. They would have to be... but I sure as hell don’t remember them. Besides, the license plate is affixed with that spare tire bung. No, I'd have to come up with something else for the bike’s hook up. I suppose I could finger out a way to mount a receiver hitch to The Seven's frame. OK, this is beginning to sound like serious thought. I'm going to move along now. I've been playing around with the plans for a shop at the house all week. Psh, “all week”? It’s only Tuesday! Anyhoo, I've been playing with them and I think I could get by with just having a driveway poured to the back patio. I'd have to clear out the garage for all my tools and stuff, but the garage needs to be cleared out anyway. Of course what I'd like to have is a little 36’x20’ shop building, along with the drive around to the back. That is one of the plans I have drawn up by the way. That building would allow me to consider another “Toy” or two though. Hmm, I guess I really shouldn't be thinking about a building. I should just look into the cost of the driveway. Of course I could always build that deck dad always wanted and use it as a car port over this new driveway. Hmm... possibly... possibly. Of course anything built over the drive would add to the difficulty of backing the trailer to the patio. But it would give Jenny some protection from the elements. I just had a look and it appears as though I can park both Fifi and Jenny next to the house on the driveway I have designed. All I'd need is the deck/carport above it. Hmm, interesting. Shading the outside unit of the HVAC couldn't hurt its efficiency either. Interesting indeed. I need to cipher and figger on this some more. Perhaps John will be willing to help me change The Seven's fuel pump at the house and we can discuss the merits of all the plans. Of course changing the fuel pump will be easier at the shop. Yeah, I think what I'm going to suggest is the following. I'll go to the shop Friday evening and get the trailer. John can meet me at my house Saturday morning and we’ll load The Seven. We'll drag it to the shop where we’ll change the fuel pump, and maybe put one on Lil' Wiggly... time permitting. Hell, maybe he’ll have the hots to work on his 1200 too, I don't know. Anyhoo, once we have The Seven back in order, we’ll caravan back to my house. He can drive The Seven while I drive Fifi. Or, if he wants air conditioning, I'll drive The Seven. I'm easy. The point is, we’d drive both vehicles back to my house... that’s sort of what I was getting at. Of course if he has other thoughts as to what we otter be doing, I'm not going to force my plan on him. I guess when he reads this he’ll let me know what he thinks of the idea. The only “pressure” I'm going to put on this being the plan is to say that I need The Seven up and running by the 30^th for BNSF Family Day. Oh, that would be one of those “events” where I'd want to use the tow dolly to haul Bobbi behind The Seven. In fact, it was in reference to me saying, “I wonder how the hell I'm going to get my motorcycle and The Seven to Family Day,” that brought up the idea of a tow dolly. I'm still not sure how I'm going to get both of them here. I guess I'll burn that bridge when I come to it. Well, I don't know what else I want to say to y'all today so I'm going to just stop now.