7/7/14

Thursday afternoon I cut out early, again, to drive up to Bowie, again, to have the gunsmith look at the SKS… again.  I decided to take back roads this time and found it much more enjoyable.  It took quite a bit longer, but it was better than droning up the highway.  I arrived just as the ‘smith I’d dealt with on Wednesday was about to leave.  “Don’t tell me,” he said.  “It is already broken?”  I ‘splained that the one test we didn’t do was to see if the trigger would reset after cycling the action with the trigger pulled.  It wouldn’t.  He sent me in to see the real gunsmith.  I showed him the problem and he fingered it out.  The transfer bar was a couple thousandths too long and was not springing back into its proper location.  He ground and polished it and got it working.  We tested it by cycling the action with the trigger pulled and I declared it satisfactory.  I headed home by the southern route through Jacksboro and Mineral Wells.  I did not turn on 180 in MW as I should have thinking that I was closer to I-20 than I was.  I think I probably went an extra 50 or 60 miles out of the way doing that.  By the time I got home, I was beat.  I hate to admit this, but Fiona is getting to be a bit rough on my knees.  Friday morning I sent John a text saying I had to stop for gas then go feed the cats at the railroad.  He said he was stopping off at the Boys of Pep and wouldn’t make shopfall until 0830 h himself.  I felt slightly less guilty then.  I fed the cats and headed south to the shop, arriving around 0845 h and got stuck in making the cold-air intake… y’know, rather than getting to work on something which might allow me to attempt a first-start of the car, sort of thing.  John was working on something with his car but broke free and installed the heater bypass hose on Lil’ Wiggly.  He helped with the fabrication of the CAI while jumping back and forth on his project.  At some point, I needed to get under the fender of Lil’ Wiggly to remove a rubber isolated mounting bolt thingy so I took the fender into the welding room.  I thought I heard a small voice say, “Excuse me, sir?” but tried to ignore it.  I heard it again and looked to see a kid of around ten or eleven… maybe less, hell I don’t know, standing in the gate.  He said, “Can you help me?  I fell off my bike and cut my toe.  It’s bleeding pretty bad.”  I dropped the fender and went to check it out.  Yep, the end of his toe looked pretty well up-fucked.  I headed back to the shop and got John.  John carried the kid to the sink where he washed out the wound then set him in a chair and we… ok John applied bandages while I looked on.  Apparently he got going too fast down the big hill which leads into our parking lot when his feet slipped off the pedals and got caught up behind him, dragging his toes on the pavement.  I’m sure it hurt like a bastard but it wasn’t life threatening.  Once John had him bandaged up, we asked where he lived and took him home.  John carried him while I walked the bike.  I tried to ride it but the seat was too low and my knees wouldn’t bend sharp enough.  We got him home and his tattooed up, whiskey tango mother, who couldn’t have been twenty five and therefore a mere child herself, thanked us for helping.  We went back to the shop and finished messing with the cars.  I wired up the alternator on Lil’ Wiggly and ran the last bit of fuel line then started thinking about installing the radiator.  I decided that my ghetto-assed radiator bracket needed a lick of paint.  I hung it in the welding room and started spraying the semi-gloss black.  I was going to only do the parts which would be hidden and let John do the pretty stuff but realized it wasn’t that much which would be visible.  I painted the whole thing.  It is still hanging, waiting to be installed next weekend.  I reinstalled the driver’s side down pipe for the zorst, as it is much easier to do before the radiator goes in, and then I think we called it a day.  We had lunch at a Brazilian café by TCU and discussed several things, amongst which was how I am writing off the entire “reboot” (more like “retard”) of the “Star Trek” franchise.  I do not acknowledge it just like I do not acknowledge any “Alien” movies after the second one… ok, the one “Alien vs Predator” movie I saw was acceptable.  Anyhoo, after lunch we went our separate ways and I wasted the rest of the day.  I will save the rest of weekend’s tale for tomorrow since I have surpassed my arbitrary “one-page of drivel” for the day.