1/16/12

Well, that was interesting. First off, I'd forgotten that I'd promised an axle to a guy here at work for his smoker trailer. He called Friday evening to see when I'd be going to the shop. I said I'd be there in the morning and made plans from there. John had something else going on Saturday so I was on my own. I cancelled plans with mom for lunch Saturday and asked her if she wanted to go to Two Brothers Bistro Friday evening instead. She did so we headed right back the way I'd just come from work. The whole way I was thinking, “This is really dumb.” Fortunately the food was so spectacular that it made up for the stupidity of traipsing all the way across town for it. Saturday morning I headed to the shop to round up an axle for Scott. I asked John if there were any particular axles we DID NOT want to give away. He replied back, “Mine.” I was a bit taken aback by that so when I arrived at the shop, had a look around, and decided that his was the only 1200 axle available, I called him for confirmation. He did confirm that he did NOT want his axle given away but was in the middle of some project and wouldn’t explain. I bowed out of the fight and began looking at the B-210 axle standing under the storage shelf. I thought it was the one from the Chickenhawk but it wasn’t. I'm not sure where this one came from but it was an open differential and was complete. It had some grinder marks where I'd tried to install it in a 1200, probably Gil, and gave up. I found a brake drum to replace the missing one and shuffled it to the door. Then I went out to remove some stuff from Nadine. I took all of the gauges out of the trunk and the fuel level sending unit out of the gas tank. I grabbed the Hot Rod Wires wiring harness and anything else I was going to keep. I had a quick look to see if I wanted to remove the cross member but decided I did not at that time. Eventually Scott arrived and we loaded up the axle into his truck. Then I showed him those ugly-assed wheels we got with Aaron’s HL A-10 Violet (510) and said, “You can have two of these for $100.00 or all four for free.” He took all four. Once he left, I cleaned up and called mom to see if she’d had lunch yet. I got the machine so I went for a hoon. Eventually I wound up at Chicken Excess where I ate lunch. I got a text from Emily asking if I wanted to meet her and Rob at the Flying Saucer for a beer at 1600 h. I said I did and went home to nap before getting ready. Around 1500 h I got up and showered then went to meet them. We had a few beers and discussed Rob’s heart attack and upcoming open heart surgery. It was weird. From the FS we went across downtown to Jake’s Hamburgers and ate some dinner before calling it a night. Since we’re all middle aged, the night was called before 2100 h. Sunday morning mom wakes me up at 0700 h and asks, “Aren’t you supposed to leave at eight?” I get up and get ready to ride across the state to look at a B-310… at least we hoped it would be one. I load Petey, my Taurus PT-29 9mm pistol, and a spare magazine into the holster in my waistband and go to put the Judge away. Then I think, “If we’re going to be slogging through a field, I might want the Judge.” I holstered that up on my left hip and strung a pair of speed loaders full of .45 Colt Cor Bon “Flying Ashtrays” onto my belt. My “T” shirt covered everything but the very tip of the Judge’s holster but against the black pants you would have to KNOW it was a holster to identify it. I waited for John to arrive. When I went to get in his car, I found that two guns made my already ample girth too wide. I had to take off the Judge and put it in the door pocket. Thus ensconced, we headed west. He looked up the address again and told me the car was in a little town called Cross Plains. My father grew up in Cross Plains! I told him if he does buy this car, I'm going to insist on him calling it Glen. After a stop for breakfast burritos at McDonald’s, we continued west. In Cross Plains we found the road to Abilene where the car was supposed to be and headed out. We found the place and were amazed that anyone could have spotted this car from the road. John had me wait by the car, and the Judge, while he went to the door of the house. Eventually the resident came out and we asked about the car. Turns out, it had been his father’s, and he would be glad to see it go, but he’d have to check with his brother. We looked the car over and declared it “perfect” for our porpoises. The engine was disassembled but it was a five-speed car. There was one piece of glass broken but the body was in decent enough shape. The interior was trashed but it was all going in the bin anyhow. We loved it. We chatted with the guy for a bit then headed home. We decided to take 377 back and headed back into Cross Plains to find the road to Dublin. On that road we had to stop when we found an original Fiat 500 sitting in front of a building. We grokked it for a bit then headed out again. I like these “shopping trips” out in the country. We may have to start doing it more often. Anyhoo, we stopped for sushi in Granbury then John took me home. I just got a text from John saying the guy has talked to his brother and we’re a go for getting Glen from the field. While I am looking forward to rescuing another car, I am not looking forward to dragging the damned thing out of that field. Oh well, what are you going to do? Oh yeah, I also got an e-mail saying that my fog light surround duct thingies shipped from Korea today. I don’t think they will arrive in time to cause a conflict of interest next Saturday but we’ll see.