Wonderful Days......

as another weekend comes to a close I, as usual, can be found in my garage watching Sunday Night Football enjoying a cold beverage recounting the weekend's adventures...
spent Saturday am working while my wife took the kid's little sister and the kid to a softball tournement in Ocala Fla.....as Ocala is a short drive thru the woods to our west, my intent was to drive over to catch the afternoon games.....but the thought of fueling up two vehicles twice shut that idea down quickly......besides, I knew something would come up to occupy my time Saturday afternoon......a quick call to the longrooffan lined out the day......as you recall, the ragtop that he aquired needed a little work.....he got a great deal on this car and he did the really hard work himself....he switched the complete interior and the convertible top and did a fantastic job......but all that work was done a couple of weeks ago.....all that was left was repairing a faulty gasket on the intake manifold that had failed causing the vehicle to die at idle.....last week we spoke about completing the repair and looked up the labor time to see what we were getting into.....called for about three hours by factory authorized technicians......this kind of scared me because when you open the hood of this little rag top, there are vacuum hoses and sensor wires running everywhere......but then again, I think what the hell, we got a parts car and digital tecnology that enables us to photogragh an actual example......back to a Saturday in my garage....the longrooffan pulls his ragtop into the garage and opens the hood......five cigarettes, three diet cokes, one Bud Light, and two and a half hours later the car starts right up on the first crank......it idles a little rough as I can't remember where the last vacuum hose belonged.....know what's great about a complete, unmolested parts car.......ran across the bridge to get a molded hose off the parts car and while there found out where the loose vacuum hose belonged.....back in my garage the errant hose was installed and the little ragtop fired right up and ran great.......the horsefarmer would have been surprised......ole JD actually helped on this project......no sitting in his beach chair and watching......actually got his hands dirty....it helped that all of my chairs were in Ocala watching softball and his chair was in the Falcon Van at his place....no where for him to sit.....beat the time too.....of course it was nothing like the radiator change on the old Volvo.....I think that one took about 40 minutes.......of course that was right after the 24 Hours of Daytona so we were still operating on 24 hour race time......
okay so now it's early afternoon and one project is scratched off the list........
line two....I finally got the longrooffan to do some work......when we (me, unless you ask my wife) installed hardwood flooring in our house a couple of years ago there was no compensation made for the dryer vent......so after replacing the heater element twice in the past two years I finally sat down and thought about why...well the vent size was reduced by half because the dryer was farther off the ground......due to clearance issues the dryer fits almost flush againest the wall so repair options without cutting the exterior of the house were limited......it's good to have an oleconstruction worker around every so often......ideas were exchanged, a trip to our local harware store was made, and repairs were initiated......twenty minutes later the damn thing works like a champ.....and best of all.....no painting needed......can't see the repairs because the dryer hides it.......thanks JD.......
okay, scratch another line off the list........
back to the fun stuff.......the 'new, old' jeep needs some brake work......I had previously installed the new master cylinder and gravity bled the brakes......now I needed a warm body to help pump the brake pedal so I could bleed the brakes manually to get a brake pedal.....got the old jeep moved and the new jeep fired up and backed into the garage.....all the tools are laid out so no fumbling around a box looking for a the correct wrench.....and the bleeding commensed.......twenty minutes later we are cleaned up and ready for a test drive.....asked the loogrooffan if he was up for a run around the block......only question he had was "is this it's virgin run"......YEP.....this is it for the new old jeep......three trips around the block was what it took......wanted to hook it up behind the old jeep and take it for a test trail run but we'll save that one for when the kid is with us.......got back and put everything away........
so far so good.....great day doing fun stuff......and everything works.......
okay, scratch another line off the list......
pulled the old jeep into the garage next and tried to hook up the speaker lights......too hard, too late in the day to be bending over and under a non moveable interior so we will leave that job for the kid......spent several minutes going thru numerous storage containers looking for the right stuff to modify a light bulb to fit into the speedometer......gotta have at least one so you can see how fast you are going at night.....once again the longrooffan comes thru......seems electrical wire loom fits perfectly......then pulled the exhaust system off, just two bolts and a strap.......fixed the exhaust leak.....you know one of the wonderful things about a garage full of stuff, you can find all kinds of problem solvers......a small self tapping screw fixed that pin hole in the exhaust system......
so far so good.....the list is finished......everything works and a great time spent with good company........now it's time to sit back and watch some racing and pay tribute to the guy that invented 12 ounce aluminuim cans so we could enjoy a few cold adult beverages.....
somebody needs to give that guy a medal........
thanks John for helping me enjoy a great day........

and that was my Saturday......

woke up this Sunday am for a run thru the woods back to Ocala....seems the kid's sister's team had one more game to play this weekend....if the win on Saturday, they play again on Sunday in these games.....on Sunday it is one and done so it looked like it might be a short day at the ballfield....arrive at the ballfields in Ocala and at a glance can tell we are in 'God's Country'.....the horsefarmer would have felt better at home here than I.....the other side of the center field fence is a cattle pasture complete with grazing cattle.....woods outside the left field fence and the parking lot was cut from a pine forest....well the kid's sister's team won their first game on a home run hit by the kid's sister in the top of the last inning....tie game and she starts off the inning with an inside the park homerun...
her hit woke up some bats and by the time the inning was over 6 more batters crossed homeplate.....when she came up again in the inning I think she was tired and just wanted the game over because she hit a blooper to first to end the inning...she started it so I guess she could end it....well one win on Sunday and you have a double header to play......didn't fair real well in the second game....played againest a team from Jacksonville that was very well coached and had a fantastic pitcher....this kid had a changeup that some of our players are still trying to hit as I am writing this....so we finished third.....at least a podium finish.....got back to the house late this afternoon.....cleaned the big white truck and the kid and I took another spin around the neighborhood in the new jeep.....gotta do some more work on the brakes as the pedal fell off completely....oh well, that's why we buy old cars.....gives us something to do on weekends......

CELEBRATE LIFE.........