7/9/12

Well, the fire marshal has nothing to see in my shop, as far as flammable liquids are concerned at least.  Saturday morning I met John down there.  I was running a bit later than usual and he had already begun sorting his stuff into three piles: trash, keep, and “Somebody might be able to use this.”  The trash was being piled into one of the junk cars out back while the other two were setting on the porch.  When I arrived, the trash began getting further sorted into: “metals & other heavy shit,” and “to the dumpster” trash.  The first group kept going to the junk car while the other went to the bed of Fifi.  Oh, Fiona's horn kit arrived but the wheel did not.  That was why we didn’t meet at my house as planned.  Next weekend fo sho.  Anyhoo, I got tucked into unloading the paints and oils and stuff from the non-OSHA-approved cabinet while John continued with the 510 parts pile.  When we had a good truckload of trash, we took it to the dumpster.  We also put the paints and oils, both new and used, in the small storage unit out of harm’s way.  We went back to the shop proper and cleaned a little more.  Marty Smith showed up and John went with him to pick up some wheels.  He wanted us to see his latest purchase too so we followed him to a unit where he showed us a 240Z with a turbo L-28 motor in it.  It was very ‘70s and quite cool.  If it were mine, I'd clean up the paint a little, make it run, and leave it alone.  But, fortunately, it isn’t mine.  I don’t need another project like that… ok, I don’t need another project period.  Is typing the word “period” redundant over and over again?  Probably.  Anyhoo, once we got back to the shop after that distraction, we decided to call it a day.  We cleaned up and headed to Wasabi for sushi.  They don’t open until 1130 h.  It was 1115 h when we pulled up.  We sat outside and stared at the window until the waitress felt bad and let us in a little early.  Ok, first bowl of Miso from the pot is REALLY hot!  The edamame was exceptionally good too.  We kept ourselves to… was it four California rolls and two Cajuns?  I think that was what we had.  Anyhoo, it was plenty.  After that we separated and I went home.  I took a nap and decided to go back to the shop.  Oh, I forgot to mention the pigeon.  While we were cleaning the shop, a white pigeon with a blue tag on one of its legs, kept hanging around watching us.  At one time it strolled into the shop.  I chased it out but began to fear that it might have gone back in while we weren’t looking.  I didn’t see it outside when we left.  I really would have felt bad to come back next Saturday to find it dead in the shop.  So I went back to check on it.  It was not in the shop that I could see.  I looked around outside but couldn’t find it.  I hope it made it back home.  While I was at the shop this second time, I had a thought: “I’ll be the Dino steering wheel from the Chickenhawk would bolt right up to that horn kit for Fiona!”  I sent John a text saying this and he questioned whether it would be a big enough wheel.  I looked at it and it appears to be just maybe an inch smaller than Fiona's stock wheel.  I told this to John and he asked if I were installing it.  It had not even crossed my mind actually.  He begged me to wait until next weekend.  I said I would.  Well, I think I said I would.  I mean, I am, but I'm not sure if I told John.  Anyhoo, I eventually got tired of looking at shit and decided to take off for the house.  I heard a thunder clap.  I looked and, sure enough, it was raining to the west.  I decided to drive through the rain to wash off the windshield of Fiona.  I'm not sure if there is a fault or if it is just out of fluid, but the car’s windshield squirter… doesn’t.  I drove all of the back roads out west of town looking for the rain but only got little sprinkles… just enough to smear the crud on the windshield.  I finally gave up when I got to I-20 and headed home.  Then the bottom fell out of the sky!  I went from long intermittent, to ever increasingly shorter periods of intermittency, to low speed on, to full high speed on in a matter of a minute or so.  It got so bad for a bit that I couldn’t see a foot in front of the car.  When it let up though, my windshield was nice and clear.  I went on home.  There I found the box containing the scope and mount for my SKS as well as the US made actuating rod.  Unfortunately the rod is not marked anywhere that it WAS made in the US so it is totally worthless.  I put it in the gun anyway.  I mounted the scope and had a look through it.  I like it a lot.  I rearranged the gun cabinet again to fit the SKS with the scope and now I think I'm happy with my arsenal… for the time being.  Gregg called to ask if we were going to do the Miata sale on Sunday… but I'll tell y'all about that tomorrow.  Tee hee!