Tim W. SoCal

Sentence structure refers to how the basic grammatical elements of a sentence, such as the subject, predicate, and sometimes objects, are organized.

because the Captain

You and me both. (and I'm sure there are others on this forum) I get really frustrated and irritated when a potential customer goes to the parts store for a "free check engine light code read", gets sold a sensor, usually of dubious quality, brings the part to a repair shop and then gets very angry at the repair shop for refusing to install the part, or if they do install the part, refusing to guarantee the repair. I try to explain to the "customer" that a code reader is kind of like a road map, but it isn't a taxi cab. It will tell you what road to take, but not get you to the final destination. I have also seen several fuel evap system parts sold when the cause of the problem was actually a loose gas cap.

Are we ever going to resurrect manufacturing within the boundaries of our once very industrious country?

Contrary to popular, yet naive belief, love, on its own, does not, will not and cannot conquer all. It never has and it never will.

Ribs that are broken is one of the most painful and frightening injuries I have ever experienced.

over ice with

Aliens like Mork from Ork and The Coneheads used to crack me up with uncontrollable laughter.

Me too... I had an '82 Mercury Capri RS 5.0 HO. It was the first car I bought new, Oct. '82 at the year-end close out because the '83s were arriving. I chose the Capri because they were more highly optioned for substantially less money than an '82 Mustang GT and came in more colors that silver, black and triple red, plus I liked the Trans-Am style fender bulges better than the Mustang's design. I drove the wheels off of that car until I parked it in early 2000. At that point, I planned to build a drag racer out of it and run it at the NHRA sanctioned 1/4 mile strip they were gonna build in Banning, CA. As far as the drag strip, sponsored in part by the city and county, after all the hoopla and champagne toasting and glad handing and back slapping and ribbon cutting, the deal fell apart and the land and everything near it sets abandoned to this day. The Capri was eventually sold at a fire-sale price. If there's ever a 1:25 Scale '82 Capri model kit, I'll snatch up at least 4 of them. I already have the Dark Curry Brown Metallic spray paint ready to apply on that gorgeous Capri body.

Sanity was abandoned in the early 80s, being weird is fun, so why be normal?

and lots of

I think that goes for the truck's owner, also.

Also in the early 90s, my first was disc brake rotors from the C.H.Ina Co, posted all over their box "Factory Finished - Do Not Machine". Finished the job, head out for the test drive, hit the brakes and the rotors are so badly warped the shimmy nearly rips the steering wheel from my hands. Take the front brakes back apart to cut the rotors, doing shallow cuts, mind you, and run into all the air pockets in the casting. These were name brand rotors from a long time, well established parts chain. Had that experience too, then after drilling the radiator mounting holes in the correct locations, couldn't get the trans cooler line fittings in the radiator to stop leaking, until the FOURTH radiator (delivered next day from the same parts house's warehouse) was installed. And on top of that, many OEM parts for cars less than 5 years old are already obsolete and discontinued...

Well, after all the tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds upon hundreds of hours I've invested in advancing my skills and keeping up with VERY rapidly changing technology, as well as maintaining my reputation as an honest maintenance, repair and business man, "grease monkey" is a bit of an insult...

One of the best ways to overcome and defeat despondency is exuberantly laughing.

so I'm starting

https://www.acme.com/licensemaker/licensemaker.cgi

Break out the

Metal heads with spiked wrist bands, dog collars and hair, dancing wildly to thrash metal music, are the epitome of the saying "you could put somebody's eye out!"

All of the CDs in my music library are yelling "play me, play me!" while all the models in my stash are screaming "build me, build me!", but my cat is crying "pet me, pet me!" and work starts early in the morning so I gotta go.

If you need and want the right answers you have to ask the right questions to the right people.

in a lifeboat

Smart people do their best and work really hard, but are sometimes just not lucky.

That with a cheeseburger and a soda will now cost you almost $15.00 in today's devalued money.

The survivors huddled