I'm not talking that Canadian crap either... As it would at present seem, I am in the "reconstruction" phase of things and so the need to add back to the project instead of subtracting from it...
Here is the "boxing" that has been done on the right rear wheel well:
becomes
...then there is the red-headed-step-child pictures of the rear box...
becomes
Of course, this is where the gas has been depleated from the welder... I'll have to do something about that I think...
Alas, another day... another few dollars spent doing something to occupy my overabundant time in purgatory (aka Casper)...
After the ease of the right side tubb, I figured the left side tubb would be no problem-o and take a couple hours tops... there I go thinking again. Things started looking fishy when my cardboard template had a concave curve that the right side template didn't exude...
The first attempt would have left me filling in a 1 inch gap at the rear of the rear well...
Second attempt started looking a lot like the first attempt even though I verified the shape and the fit of the template... So I stopped... waited for Vern to take pitty on me and disassembled the second attempt in order to salvage the sheetmetal...
Third attempt involved the use of a shrinker, lots of hammering and then these miraculous little clamps that Vern found hidden somewhere that do a magnificent job of holding two pieces of sheet metal together so that a single individual can weld said sheet metal without going through a 3-ringed-circus set of acrobatic moves of trying to hold the sheet metal and weld it at the same time all alone....
And behold:
Please pay very little attention to the asymetric aspects of the two tubbs...
Give a Midget more power... it has to be able to do something with it...
The theory here is that it is going to spin substantially larger "meats" as compared to the tractor tires that were on the thing to begin with...
Right side tubb is tacked in place...
Left side is now underway...
Once upon a time there was a little blue MG Midget that for the most part worked... It got a brand new Weber carburetor... It got a bottom and top end rebuild... Typical english car, you don't drive it any further than you are willing to push it...
First it got borrowed and the top got all messed up...
Second it got borrowed and a couple months later I got a call that it wouldn't move...
A few years go buy with the rear end dropped out of it and tucked safetly away in the garage...
Along comes Vern and the idea to 'de-english' an english car...
First you fit the Ford 2300 engine into the car
Second you get a rear end that will actually handle some horsepower
Third you re-engineer the new rear end to fit into the smaller car
This is pretty much where it sits... THANKS TO THOSE WHO FUCKED MY SHIT UP SO THAT I CAN EMBARK UPON THIS!!!
It's late nights, or early mornings depending on how you choose to look at things, like this that I peruse the web looking for something to spark some interest...
WHERE ARE THE #$@&-ING PICTURES OF CARBON COPY JACK!!!
Some of us don't get to see him everyday!
One week down with who knows how many to go...
Monday - 8 hours to install a phoneline, not too many people out there can manage that. I also managed to pick up a repair on top of the mountain. Sure is nice when signs are used to mark roads.
Tuesday - Learned what a joy arial wire is. Started the day off troubleshooting a couple phonelines that I had to carry my ladder into a couple back yards and climb some poles. Times like that it seems that a pair of gaffs would make a lot more sense. Finished the day off by driving out to Hiland (about 60 miles NW of Casper) only to hook up to the line and inform the customer that the line is working within specifications.
Wednesday - Think I am finally getting the hang of this phone thing. I still don't know my way around anywhere but it's starting to click.
Thursday - Must not have been too rememberable. Don't know what I did other than I got off on time.
Friday - Started the day off with a couple repairs that pretty much just involved cutting over to a new wire. I thought I had the address thing figured out only to find out that my understanding was completely wrong once outside of Casper. Either that or the people that make up the addresses weren't paying all that much attention. Only worked 8 hours and decided to pull out the Mtn Bike and go for a ride. Yes I am out of shape.
Smoking is apparently the rule and not the acception up here. I'm constantly surrounded by the foul stench. I may have to look into renting a house up here if I ever plan on getting any distance from it. I have completely taken for granite the Clean Air Acts that have protected me thus far. Also this being my first apartment experience, I don't ever want to do this again.
I was trying to motivate myself to go Mtn. Biking again this morning, but bed seemed like such a nice place that I didn't want to leave it. Maybe I'll go tomorrow...
Today was the journey back to Casper. Started out the day with the usual call from number 1 when he is headed out the door and on the way to my house. I followed that up by actually getting out of bed when I heard him come in the house about 20 minutes later. Managed to get the golf back together and gave the left over bolt to number 1.
Didn't want to take the chance of having another tire blow out on me like the first trip out here, so I headed to Wally World to get tires put changed out. Apparently it's not just Casper and 255/65R16 tires are not a common size. So I got to take the chance anyway and drive on the dreaded Bridgestones.
The plan was to leave by noon. I left at about 3. Matt and jack took to putting the plastic bags on the mattress and box spring, which I am very appreciative of the help but they are no engineers. Ended up stopping as soon as possible up Parley's to take to duck taping things... That lasted a couple hundred miles when I had to augment the duck tape job again... Between Rawlings and Casper I finally hit rain, and even with all my augmentations it looks like the box spring plastic didn't make it.
To top all this off, Tracea (Casper Reality) was supposed to leave the new apartment unlocked for me. It wasn't. So my loaded down pathfinder is sitting outside the Casper Holiday Inn Express with mattress and box spring on top with rain in the forecast for overnight and tomorrow...
Doesn't take a genius to figure out why I cringe every time I talk about Casper, does it?
It would seem that the only thing that gets me motivated to BLOG is tragedy. Tragedy strikes the Golf in Lakewood, CO. It started out as a lovely day with the sun shinning all be it a little on the warm side. Instead of spending the day in the classroom, we managed to squeeze in a field trip downtown to see what a couple other departments actually do when we call in and talk to them. It was a little cool sitting in the shade for Mexican food at Arapahoe Junction, but seemed just fine afterwards while checking out the 16th Street Mall downtown. That was short lived and we had to get back to pretending to learn something as this is training.
We climbed back into the Minivan and headed to a couple cross boxes and alleys to check out various cable facilities in different parts of Denver. Nothing like 7 grown men walking up and down alleys or huddling around a cross box draped in and orange safety vest and hardhat that has "Qwest" labeled all over it. Lets complete the picture with safety glasses to go with that. Basically we looked like the Village People.
Getting close to the end of the day, we headed back to the Training Center in Lakewood.
"Wow, look at all the ice on the side of the road"
That should have been a dead give away. As we got closer to the training center, there was more hail piled up and the hail was getting bigger. By the time we pulled into the rear parking, we started laughing at all the broken out windows on all the vehicles. THAT'S WHEN THE LIGHT BULB WENT ON.
The Golf was a casualty of nature along with every other car that was in Lakewood and not under some sort of covering.
Salt Lake City to Casper
Mapquest says it is a little more than a 7 hour drive, and I made it in just over 6. Of course my drive included a flat tire. Maybe you remember the Firestone tires that were blowing up. Well I don't have Firestone tires on my Pathfinder, but I do have Bridgestone tires and there apears to be similarities. As it would turn out, Firestone and Bridgestone are one in the same. Thanks to the superior quality of my tires, it looks like I will be needing to paint the front bumper again. When that tred comes off, it takes everything it can with it. The first good thing about Wyoming is the Highway patrol. Not only is it a good thing, but the Highway patrolperson that pulled me over was a little blonde that offered to help me change my tire. Now I'm no genius, but I am also no stranger to automobile. Suprisingly enough this is only the second flat tire I have ever had, the first one wasn't anywhere near exciting. Knowing that I am the resident mechanic for my brother and his wife, I felt more than stupid at having to pull out my owners manual to figure out how to drop the tire down. I'm sure this looked increasingly bad after answering the hottie's (Highway Patrol) inquiry as to wether or not I knew what I was doing. With all said and done I was back on my way after a 20 min delay.
I have been pretty optomistic of Casper up until driving into the city. Welcome back to my childhood. This town has to be smaller than the little town of Temple, Tx where I did the majority of my growing up. Driving in to this town has taken me back to small town life. On the upside, there is a Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot that I have discovered already. I also found to my suprise that there is a Nissan dealer somewhere around here. I was slightly scared when all I was seeing was Ford and Chevy vehicles. And since the tred took out the inner plastic fender I will be needing to replace it.
I'll have to see how this week goes. I'm not so sure about this move I have made.
