10/31/2011

Well, it is Halloween. And that’s about all I have to say about it. So, what did we accomplish this weekend? Not a whole hell of a lot, actually. Saturday morning John came to the house to follow me while I drove The Seven to the shop. I did not put the charger on the battery Friday evening because I didn’t really trust it to sit there over night and not start a fire. I fingered if I had to use the jumper box, it couldn’t kill the battery any worse. Mom had other plans for me though. She wanted me to take her car to Disco Tire and have her tire pressures checked. She also wanted me to fill her gas tank before she went to Arlington for a birthday party. I huffed up her tires with a little portable compressor thingy and then John snuck off with the car and filled the tank. Thanks again for that, John. He and I then tried the starter on The Seven. It fired right up. I decided that I wasn’t going to take it to the shop after all and we hopped in Fiona to go there. At the shop we put the license plate on the trailer, with bolts instead of zip ties this time, and then went inside to see if we wanted to work on anything else. Turns out, we didn’t. We hopped back in Fiona and headed across town to look at that shop between the railroad and John's house. I like it. John's contact at the location told us that the landlord has another location at 287 and I-35. We took off to scout that location. As we got close, John called said landlord and got better directions. I like that place as well. Unfortunately, the last unit in that one just rented. Oh well. John is going to chat with the guy and see what is available, what is coming available in the near future, and stuff like that. I think a move may be in the card soon. Bleh. After that… um, I'm not sure. We went to lunch at Benito’s and then he took me home. Oh, did I mention John insisted on driving Fiona the whole time? Ok, so he didn’t insist, except for the first trip to the shop. I allowed it the rest of the day. I'm not sure what I did the rest of the day. Sunday I got up and headed to the British Emporium for the car show. As I approached Grapevine I realized I had no idea where this place was. I pulled over and consulted the intergoogles. I sort of got a handle on where I needed to be and headed that way. As I was turning back onto Main Street, I saw an Austin Healey 100 at the light. “I’ll follow him,” I said to myself. Well, he had a BMW on his tail which took each and every lane change just as soon as the Healey. I fingered it must be his chase vehicle. When they lost me in some traffic, I fingered I'd just keep rolling in the same general direction and hoped to stumble on the place. It wasn’t too hard to spot. There were at least forty LBCs in the parking lot. I pulled in and was directed to a spot between the Triumph/Norton motorcycles and Rob Roy’s Sunbeam Tiger. Bernie Long’s Birkin was on the opposite side of Rob’s Tiger from me. I got out and greeted the folks I knew. We walked the show and then heard a rumbling. I looked up to see a friggin’ six wheeled British army tank pulling in! It parked right in front of my car. “I guess we’re here until he leaves,” I said to Bernie. John showed up with his family and we chatted for a bit. Gregg showed up with his daughter and friend Dave and we chatted for a bit. All of my visitors left and I hung out with Bernie for the duration of the show. Eventually everything wound down and people started to leave. When the tank was out of our way, Bernie, Rob, and I all took off as well. The Seven drove virtually perfectly the whole day, except for one “sneeze” out of the carburetors while holding a speed the car didn’t particularly like. I took a quick hoon around Lake Worth and got home eventually. No sooner than I had walked in the door, John called to ask if I'd mind helping move a mattress. I said I'd have to change shoes first but was willing to help. I headed over to his house in Fifi. We took off to the other side of town and got the mattress. Back at John's, my phone rings. Mom wanted to know how long I'd be before getting home because she wanted to get out of the Little Orphan Granny costume but wanted me to see it first. I apologized and said I'd see the pictures later. I took my leave of the Ropers and headed home via Burger King. I shouldn’t have, but I had two Whoppers for dinner. Back at the house, I got comfortable and settled in to waste the rest of the evening. Now we’re back at work and stuff so… I guess that’s it. There you go.