8/1/13

I have two things to discuss today…  Wait, is “discuss” the word I want here?  “Gas on about” is probably more suitable.  So, I have two things to gas on about today.  Thing the first: John has found a van I don’t hate… in fact, the more I look at it on Craigslist, the more I like it.  Thing the second: I am not going to the JCCS car show with John in September.  (I know, that is redundant over and over again.  At least I didn’t call it the Japanese Classic JCCS car show.)  Ok, we’ll discu… gas on about the JCCS decision first.  Here’s the first speed-bump: John has been asked to come out early and help a friend get a car ready for the event.  I'm not afeared of traveling alone, but having someone else goading me on when things get past my give-a-damn level would make the trip easier… possible even.  In fact, John almost had me convinced to do the trip by myself by presenting this awesome sounding scenario: I would fly into Long Beach airport and stay ON the Queen Mary!  The event is held on the QM’s dock, sort of thing, so I'd just have to walk off the boat to be at the show.  It sounds great!  I was just about hooked.  But then I started thinking about the money, and the time, and the preparations, and people and motors and shit.  Then we come to the second speed-bump: that Friday is BNSF Family Day and I've only missed having a car in that car show once in the last ten years.  So, I made the executone decision to give the JCCS a miss this year.  Of course I'm going to give John a hard time about “abandoning me” for a while… but we all knew THAT was coming.  Oh, I guess there is a third thing I want to gas on about as well: with the decision to enter a car in the BNSFFDCS, I now have set myself the goal of “finishing” Lil' Wiggly in time for that event… and now that I look at a calendar that doesn’t seem likely.  Poop.  This weekend, and possibly next, John is moving house.  The 17^th is when Pat and I will be taking our CHL renewal class.  That leaves us the 24^th, 31^st, 7^th, 14^th, and 21^st to finish A) moving into the new shop and 2) the car.  I guess I'll show The Seven again this year.  Psh, now that’s making me rethink the JCCS.  No, I've made a decision, I'll stick with it.  I would have been a miserable wreck the week of September 23 dreading the trip anyway… this is for the best.  So, as for this van that John has found, it is a 2000 Dodge… whatever the hell they call their… Tradesman!  It is a 2000 year model Dodge Tradesman 1500.  Basically it is Mr. Wiggly’s 24 year younger twin brother.  Of course it doesn’t have the three-on-the-tree manual tranny, and it is a 3.9 liter V6 rather than a 3.7 liter Slant Six, and it has air conditioning, and it is red… but other than all of that, it is identical!  I'm beginning to want it really bad.  I just had an e-mail conversation with John and he assures me that the “318 minus two cylinders” in there should tow what we want to tow easily enough.  We’ll add a transmission cooler, and probably a filter, for peace of mind.  Ha!  I just realized what detrimental effect Heavy Metal music has had on me.  Instead of “peace of mind” I typed “piece of mind” like the Iron Maiden album.  Anyhoo, John's reassurance was in response to my mentioning that the Pimpmobile towed well enough with a 3.9 liter Chrysler engine and slush-box, why shouldn’t this.  That was when he pointed out that we won't be towing anything terribly heavy with it and suggested the cooler.  The filter is my idea.  Well, I've got some stuff to go do so I might not come back to talk any more today.  We’ll see.  I'm back and I am totally shit-hot for that Dodge van now.  The more I look at it, the more I like it.  I've already got front and rear sway bars on my Summit Racing wish list.  I looked at transmission coolers but realized they are universal and I can get one at the Boys of Pep.  I need to finger out how to paint the… ok, I need to finger out how to convince John to paint the chrome bumpers and grille black because red with black trim looks so friggin’ cool!  I'll want to install a wall behind the front seats to divorce the cargo area from the cockpit… which was something I always wanted to do with Mr. Wiggly but never got around to.  I'm trying really hard to not think about putting Mr. Wiggly’s retarded-ass wide wheels and tires on the thing.  What will finally convince me that it is a “good idea” is the fact that this van has power steering, unlike Mr. Wiggly.  Damn, I've just convinced myself.  Perhaps John will be the voice of reason then the time comes.  Then again, he might just throw away the adapters so I can't do it.  We’ll see.  Well, since I've just passed a page break, and it is 1600 h, I think I'm going to call it a rant and go home.  Have a day.