Quick hits and updates, 5/24/2009

We're down on the farm for Memorial Day weekend, and as often happens here, my mind wanders a bit too much for actual cogent editing and thought. Maybe later today I can sit and try to hash out some stuff in a meaningful narrative. For now, quickness:

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The Beast lives! Turns out a few more hours of consternation and research, some helpful suggestions from TheLinconlnForum, as well as copious amounts of caffeine, were all I needed to get Tankster running as it's supposed to be. Sure enough, it was a problem in the carb rebuild, but happily - and most importantly - it was not purely my fault. Of course my accidental adjustment of the accelerator pump link did not aid in troubleshooting, and I readily concede this. But the instructional discrepancies regarding the internal setting of the pump stroke AND the revised float inlet valve provided by the kit, were quite a bit more to blame. I rebuilt the top end of the carb making the suspect adjustments, and it was like a new car - I didn't even recalibrate the choke or idle from the new baselines yet! Talk about a load off my shoulders. Further allaying frustrations, I found a few reputable touch-up paint suppliers to call on, which will facilitate fixing the collateral damage to the hood from this fiasco. Of course, I haven't driven the car back to Frankfort yet so who knows what will happen. But I'm feeling good about it!

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Things at Chat-e-au Lucio have been peachy recently. The new old freecylced swingset has been a godsend, keeping the girls acceptably out of hair and mischief. Guess I forgot to mention that one, oops! Long story short, a friendly redneck pal of a coworker of Anna's bought a house but had no use for the swingset that was left behind. As it happens, we'd been pricing swingsets and having a bit of sticker shock; turns out this unwanted swingset was equivalent to the $600+ job that I refused to sign off on as a matter of principle. Now that our freebie equivalent is here (with about $30 of rehab and repair parts), I have to admit that would have been $600 well spent. But me dragging my feet allowed just enough time for one to turn up... amazing how that works sometimes!

Less peachy is what Anna did to the fencerow. Which is to say - obliterated it. It's a shame really because while I'm truly impressed by the largely unassisted effort and work involved, I'm absolutely disgusted by the results. We had a large bush at the end of the driveway that conveniently blocked the view of the neighbors' yard AND a frontal view of my derelict '88 T-bird. It was a beastly, ungainly thing but it looked natural. There were similar bushes behind the '88; in fact the spot for the '88 was cleared out the day we moved in, just so it could sit there. It actually made the old car look a peaceful part of the scenery.

Anyway... Anna always had a "notion" about her that the bush in front of the '88 needed to go, "because that space could lengthen the driveway and there's already gravel underneath it". This became more important with discussion of where to park the Lincoln over the summer, and/or the proposed 24 Hours of LeMons car we want to build. I said the big bush still had value, but we could clear the rest behind the '88 up to the storage shed.

Well, she "misinterpreted" that in took out the front bush. Then the rest of them. And the results, as they say, are E P I C F A I L. Instead of a nice natural view of greenery (which merely needed a trimming, albeit an extensive one), with an automotive tombstone resting peacefully in line, we now have a dirt wasteland of stumps and stones edged by the neighbors' chickenwire, with a junk car under a rug sticking out like an earthen pimple.

Let this be a lesson: Just because you can say "I told you so" and have the other person agree, doesn't mean you win in the end!

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Site Updates: There's some new content around the site; I don't have time to spend linking them all right now but if you're interested in the subject matter, you'll find them. Think of it like a late easter-egg hunt! Look for:

• Custom Ford Aerostars


• SantaFe Speedway DemoDerby rides


• Frankfort & Cincinnati RR locomotive


• Improved shots of other loco models


• Updated Flexi-Flow Hopper progress


• The new "Gearheadism" section for 1:1 scale auto fun


• Tags on articles, to be updated as I sift through and edit older content, and added to all new content


• Planned updates include some new photo galleries (including a private one for friends/family), some navigation & site info aids, and the GarageSale section to be unveiled at some point "soon"...

And that's all for now...