Ace-Garageguy

Sunny and 75F, heading for 92. Forecast later in the week to go to 98 or 99F, which means it'll be over 100 in both shops by mid-afternoon, as neither of them have cross-ventilation. Need to get in to work much earlier than usual...

When I had a Lotus 7, a sub-1000 pound car, I took my new girlfriend for a fast ride. Her ex had a Kawasaki 900, and she wasn't worried. BUT...her additional exquisitely arranged 120 pounds threw the tiny car's handling off so much I ended up spinning it on a road I was intimately familiar with. Exceed the coefficient of friction of the tire contact patches and find out. Physics, ya know?

"Love" is sometimes just self-serving lies, deceit, and grasping for power and control of another human being.

Definitely notes, especially on anything with complex or involved modifications, or anything that requires historical or technical research. Very often drawings or sketches too...

Hand me that chrome left-handed framislator wrench.

Pretty good day overall, but my left hip is quite unusually painful. Definitely got the old grampaw walk going on. Ah well. Take some ibuprofen and get on with it.

Went to the shop early in the cool, got an unpleasant fiberglass-grinding job done on the DeLorean in preparation for mounting the custom instrument panel, pumped up tires on all my cars, put an air filter in the '89 GMC (hauled a load of trash to the shop in her too), worked until it was just too hot and miserable for a Saturday. Came home, had half a sandwich, fixing to go out and rake more pine straw off of the concrete drive (it's relatively cool here under the trees) which should take an hour or two and burn off some lard. Then maybe, just MAYBE, after a nice cool shower I just MIGHT actually work on a model.

"Halt; who goes there?" is a sentence within a sentence in this sentence.

"Pleasant dreams, little one" said the slavering monster from under the bed.

Cross ram, definitely. The short stacks look good, but I think they'd work better visually in an older car ('30s-'40s-early '50s) with a smaller engine bay. The cross ram setup fills that gaping hole nicely, and suggests way-beyond-serious horsepower. If you're going for a Ridler-contender look, it's the cross ram.

Well, it's not Borgward anyway.

Weather is whether or not there's something inclement.

Really cool. Another one of those technology-augmented vintage gloobomb reworks.

Another of life's most aggravating frustrations is dealing with women who actually mean "you need to center your life around me and forget about your own aspirations, goals, and sense of ethics" when they say "I love you". EDIT: I thought when I hit geezer status I wouldn't have this kind of problem anymore. Well sporty, guess again.

I read a lot of sci fi to unwind in the evenings. Currently alternating between Iain M. Banks' "Culture" series and the ancient "Bolo" series originated by Keith Laumer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_universe

"Me" gets kinda old when it's all a woman truly cares about...meaning herself and how you can benefit her.

Hit about 90F today, 92 in one shop, reading 100 in the other one. Only 47% humidity though, so not as bas as it could have been. Forecast 69 tonight, so I'm looking forward to getting something done in one shop in the AM cool, then come home and work on something here. Need to use these rain-free days when they're available.

Honestly, most people who "work on cars" don't enjoy it. Thinking they did was a gross mistake I made when I got in the biz about the time the first Datsun Z-cars hit the market. Sadly, it's perceived as a job you get if you're too stupid to get clean employment, doubly sadly because being a GOOD mechanic takes a kinda big brain. Welcome to my world. It never stops, and it's WAY worse than it used to be (wrong parts, "offshore" parts that aren't made to spec and/or fail early, or OEM stuff that's just not available anywhere at any price). Late-model collision parts not being available from any dealer nationwide is playing bloody hello with the bottom line and job-throughput at the most competent bodyshop I've ever seen. After well over fifty years, two generations of guys who DO really like working on cars (it shows in everything they turn out), the frustration of operating in today's business environment is bringing down the curtain. They're running a skeleton crew in a shop that used to support 3 times the staff because THERE'S NOBODY COMPETENT TO HIRE TO DO THE WORK RIGHT. And God knows they've tried. Happily for the owner, the property value has skyrocketed, and when the bay doors roll down the last time in the not too distant future, the shop buildings will likely be bulldozed to become a parking lot for the brandy-new gubmint complex across the street. Far as the stir stick goes, that's typical of kit-car-builder "solutions", and almost every single car I touch that's had "something worked on" elsewhere is riddled with moron fixes. But not to worry. Apparently all the worst of those mechanically inept dwerbles are happily designing poorly thought-out junk on computer screens for manufacturers now.

Ruled pads keep my lines of handwritten shop notes from snaking all over the page.

Looks good.

Restaurant warnings about spice levels remind me of one time in an Indian place, after I ordered vindaloo, the waiter cautioned me that it was "plenty menty hot!!!"

With six you get egg roll...or is it eggroll?

Last of the rain blew through, sun's out, humidity's dropping, forecast looks decent through Wednesday, 68F tonight. Maybe I'll start fixing the ratty looking black trim on the Blazer, see what the annoying front brake squeak is all about, and tear down the Neon head. Need to go round and empty all the skeeter breeding places, etc. and finish up raking the pine straw from the driveway, then wash the '89 GMC so she knows I still love her. Good weather for a hike too, and there's an ACME meeting on Sunday. Might even shoot some primer on a model...

Scotland has hairy coos.

Nobody dropped any nukes on anybody else last night. Be thankful one day at a time...