9/18/13

So I'm having dinner with mom the other night when my phone rings.  I answer it and Kevin says, “You have got to come by the Honda shop and see this Mini with a Honda Prelude motor in the back.”  I tell him I'll swing by Monday after work and text John about the car… for some reason forgetting to mention the “…in the back” part of the equation.  John says we need to check it out.  Monday I head for Kevin’s around 1600 h, after telling Kevin and John I'm going that way.  I meet them and we go grok the car.  There ain't much Mini left… doors and windshield, I believe.  Oh, it was cool as shit, but didn’t really have anything to do with what we will be trying to accomplish.  John made it clear that I had neglected to mention that the engine was in the back, a chastisement for which I had no answer or excuse.  Basically, I wasted John's evening with a wild goose chase… but it was pretty cool, he will have to admit.  After looking the car over real good, John and I finally had to tear ourselves away from the owner of the shop who would have kept talking to us all night if we’d let him.  And once again I had a story which was way shorter once in print that it seemed in my head.  So, what can I say now?  I sent my brother an e-mail telling him about the 220v extension cord thingy and how it tells me what ends we’ll need for the up-wiring of the new shop.  I also apologized for being a scatter-brained tool when they came last week, ‘splainin’ that I get that way when two of my worlds collide: family world and shop world in this case.  Oh, back to the Mini, the Honda shop owner, Steve I believe, said that the wiring of the ECU is really simple… and then refused to do it for me.  I'd pay, probably.  Well, we’ll see.  That project need to be left on the back burner until Lil' Wiggly and the Chickenhawk are up and running… at least Lil' Wiggly.  No, I really need to stick to my guns and get cracking on the Chickenhawk as soon as we “finish” Lil' Wiggly.  I can re-abandon it if it looks like we need to get going on the Mini for the fiftieth birthday deadline.  Last Saturday it was exactly two years and two months, so 26 months, or 104 weeks.  Ouch!  Since we only work a MAXIMUM of one day a week, we have 104 “days” to finish the Mini!  And since we usually only put in five to six hours per day at the shop, we have 624 hours, times two if we both work on it for a total of… 1,248 man-hours available!  But that includes the week already past.  I'd better subtract one “day” or six… no, 12 hours from that to get 1,236 man-hours.  Oh crap, I probably shouldn’t have done the math!  I'm not as confident of success as I was when I started this rant today.  Perhaps the Chickenhawk will stay back burner for a bit after all.  Shit!  I just remembered we have to forget about at least three or four weekends for the final push on the move.  Then there are weekends when we won't be going to the shop for other reasons like family shit or stuff like that.  In fact, John has already told me that he is going to require one weekend a month for family shit starting soon.  That is going to drop us to… let’s see, 103 minus 25 equals 78 “days” or 936 man-hours max, and that includes the move and finishing Lil' Wiggly!  Of course I could plan to go on Sundays and work by myself, I've done that before.  I could also work on those 25 weekends he’s otherwise engaged.  Ok, let me do a little more math to see if I can lower the whelm level.  If I finger that John is available for 78 “days” of work… better round it down since I know he’s not going to be there Saturday the 28^th for sure… shall we say 75 “days”?  So, 75 Saturdays when John is available, to which we’ll add the 25 Saturdays when I could work alone, essentially making 175 “days” of work (John's 75, plus my 75 with him, plus another 25 when I'm alone).  Then if we add another 100 for the following Sundays… better make it 75 to account for gun shows and days when I just can't be bothered to go to the shop for some reason.  So, 175+75=250 “days” or 1,500 man-hours are available to us… which include the move and Lil' Wiggly finishing, of course.  Hmm, for some reason a nice round number like “1,500” seems to ease my mind somewhat… I'm not sure why.  I'm sure the math has gotten screwed up since I've gone back and done some editing while thinking about this.  Suffices to say, I'm a bit worried I must admit.  I think I need to go have a bit of a lie-down now.