I was busy but I finally got some things done that I have been wanting to do for years.

I spent all day Saturday until 7 PM working on my car.

It’s been sitting all Summer and I have been working on it sporadically. I got the driver’s side floor pan patched earlier, got some carpet in it and yesterday I fixed a piece of the rear cockpit surround bumper cushion that the vynil covering has been loose and flapping in the wind for over ten years,

I also fought like hell and got a driver’s side seat put in it.

Today my little buddy Jesse came over. He brought me a free air compressor he saw sitting on the sidewalk somewhere.

It’s an 80’s vintage Sears model. It kind of works but I only messed with it a little. For one thing I don’t think it has any oil in the compressor end. I’ll mess with it later.

Together we unloaded the band saw I got yesterday and got it in the garage. Something else I will mess with later.

After that, I opened the hood on the car and hooked up the battery. It cranked for a bit but the battery was weak so I hooked up my big booster. charger and it fired right up.

I took it for a quick spin to the end of the Cul De Sac and when I got back, I let Jesse take it for a quick spin.

He was really excited about that. I told him I don’t let anyone drive it so he understood how special I think he is. He’s a good kid and he helps me out tremendously. I like to reward that as I can.

So then we started in on the passenger seat. Drilling out 8 3/8’s solid rivets to start to get the brackets off. removing some wiring, beating on some brackets underneath, cutting a rail off about an inch or so for clearance, cutting off a big plastic side guard and getting some bolts in the front with nuts binding them to the rail because once it’s in the car you can’t get at them from the top side.

We missed the front holes and had to redrill them even though we measured it twice. same problem I had with the other side.

It was hours and hours of messing with it and he had that seat in and out at least six times before we finally got it in and bolted down, It has to come back out one more time so I can melt holes in the carpet from underneath with the soldering iron I got yeasterday. Then the seat can go in and stay. I’m taking the headrests out and will put padding around the roll bar.

They stick out at a weird angle because the rig they came out of was situated so the the front of the seat sat way up compared to the back. hence why we had to drill out the big rivets and get rid of those brackets.

I have been wanting to get some seats in that thing for years and I am just tickled to finally get that done. I can actually have the Wifely Unit add the thing to our insurance now and I can drive it around a bit. I even bought new lap belts for it

I forgot to tell him the transmission jumps out of second gear when decelerating and will stay in if you hold on to the shifter but he figured that out himself.

I doubt I’ll ever be completely done with the damned thing, that’s the 3rd or 4th transmission I’ve put in the thing but I’m not dropping another $1500 in it to get a rebuilt one.

Whoever winds up with it can do that.

But it lives again, running and driving.

We didn’t get done until 6:59 again tonight but I am very happy that we got that part done.

On a side note, I got a text from Bear Claw saying he is already up at CederQ’s place and will be waiting on him to get out of the hospital tomorrow. God Bless him.

That is just awesome.

I went over there to get a $7 soldering iron so I could burn holes in the carpet of the driver’s side from undernetah in my Sprite so I could bolt the seat in finally.

Wound up spending $300 but it was worth it.

Every time I go there, I wind up wandering around looking for deals.

Yesterday that paid off.

A floor model, it was missing some bolts, the switch and the blade tension adjuster knob and rod That’s just a hunk of metric All Thread with a knob on the end.

.I don’t see the moveable vise jaw in that picture so I’ll have to look at it again and if I have to, I can buy a big metric nut and make one of those at work,

It’s not like materials will be hard to come by.

I went and grabbed a small plastic variety box with small nuts and bolts in it and had the kid there bolt the wheel axle back on so it would at least roll.

List price on the thing is $369.

I paid,

I couldn’t even buy the electric motor for that thing for that price.

I already have one but I flipped it over twice before I built a real stand for it and the motor has not been wanting to start without help lately.

I’ll swap the motor and belt cover off onto mine, then put mine on this one and fix whatever else is missing.

Then I’ll probably put it on Marketplace or something and get my money back.

Heck of a deal.

I also picked this up,

When I was down there about 3 weeks ago, they wanted $115 just for the charger and one battery so even if it doesn’t work I will get my monies worth.

The saw is still strapped down in the back of my truck so I have to get the little cherry picker out and wrestle it to the ground. Hopefully that goes without incident and then I can take my time swapping parts later. Right after that I am going to take the Sprite off the jack stands, wash the old whore and get it started. It’s been sitting for a while but I’m sure I’ll have it running in no time. Then I’m going to take it on a short test drive.

I’ve been pretty busy and my lower back is killing me from wrestling that damn seat in and out several times yesterday. The seats are too wide and I’m also going to be crammed into the thing but I’ll make it work. I just have to slam the door shut.

I’m not paying $2,000 for a new set of seats or $1500 to have the ones that were in it rebuilt.

Just the seat skin kits are over $700.

I could have put cheap racing seats in it but they would pound my lower back too hard.

I want to at least drive the thing a few times before Summer is over. Next will be replacing the windshield, again.

I talked to him this afternoon and he seemed to be in pretty good spirits all things considered.

He said that he was supposed to go home today but the logistics didn’t work out so Monday will be the soonest.

They want him to have a wheelchair and a walker that doesn’t have any wheels on it. He has one but it has wheels.

They also wanted confirmed transport and that didn’t work out.

So by Monday they are supposed to have all this lined up and he can ship out finally.

He wanted me to thank everyone for their prayers and support and I would like to not only do that on his behalf but on my own as well.

Thank you all, very much.

It absolutely does make a difference.

We chatted briefly and he mentioned what a great community of people we have somehow managed to attract to this blog and I agree with that 100%.

You guys are outstanding human beings and don’t ever think that we don’t notice and appreciate you.

So be prepared, I would imagine as soon as he gets home and gets settled, he will be on the internet ASAP and you will hear from him again.

Thanks again for all your support.

I would especially like to thank Bear Claw for going way above and beyond and dropping what he is doing to drive from Oklahoma to the middle of South Dakota just to take care of my friend.

You sir, are amazing.

Thank you.

Phil

Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin joining the Foo Fighters on stage at Wembley Stadium back in 2008.

I don’t care what size it is, I’m not paying $300 for a drill bit and I’d have seen that total before I hit the Place Order Button.

I like it but there is no way in hell the Wifely Unit would let me get one.

Plus I can just see myself tripping over it constantly.

But A for effort.

Actually, I don;t know if they even bothered with a scalpel or just used a damn Chop Saw.

He called me this morning while I was driving to work and I could tell right away that something wasn’t good. I told him I was driving and that I’d call him right back. So I whipped into a gas station parking lot and called him back.

Again, right away something ain’t right, I can hear it in his voice. Pretty quick I find out why.

He tells me that they took him back into surgery after whacking off his little toe the day before and this time, they took all of them off his right foot.

Big toe and all.

He told me the doctor said they were all infected.

At this point, I am praying hard that they got it all and don’t wind up whittling on his foot or taking it off completely next.

It’s that freaking serious.

I’m asking for people to pray hard for my friend, he desperately needs all the help he can get.

I didn’t talk to him for too long but I can tell that he is depressed and that the reality of the situation was still setting in.

He just got back to South Dakota and basically the doctor wanted to do surgery the minute he showed up but CederQ told him he had to move his camper and unpack his shit first. I think he went in on a Friday he left and came back and they whacked his toe either Monday or Tuesday.

I can’t keep track of time anymore, it just flies by.

A couple hours after I got to work, I got a text from Bear Claw.

We went back and forth about a time for me to call him and I finally said screw it and just stopped and called him.

He is ONE HELL of a nice guy by the way.

He said he might drive from Oklahoma up to South Dakota to see and take care of our boy for a few days, he isn’t quite sure yet and he also told me that CederQ’s brother, who he just moved away from, might fly out of Southern Oregon and go up to take care of him for a few days. Both of which I would like to see happen but both scenarios are completely out of my hands.

As it is, I am going to call CederQ tomorrow morning and find out where in the hell he is. Name of city, hospital and room number.

I’ve had my head up my ass for not having that information already.

So there’s the latest as I know it and the poor bastard got and lost a nickname in one day.

I’ve already got a new one just waiting but I’m not going to jinx the poor guy and I’ll wait to see if he can avoid them Pill Shills whacking off any more of his body parts first before I lay it on him.

At this point I am praying that I don’t have to start scouring Amazon looking for a Peg Leg.

They need to spread the word, this is 100% accurate.

So we need to cherish the little moments in life when we see something special.

One of the original founding members of the band Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmoore, got on stage to play one song.

The one every single one of us remembers from when we were young and wild,

Smoke On the Water.

Yeah, the sound and the video aren’t stellar but there it is, possibly for the last time ever.

He called me and woke me up this morning. It was 10:00 so it wasn’t early by any means, I just stayed up too late last night.

Anyways, he tells me they took his Pinky Toe off after all. So he has a new Indian name, Old Nine Toes.

I started to call him Pinky and asked him if he had ever heard of the cartoon Pinky And The Brain but he had never heard of it.

Too bad. It would have been perfect.

He says they took the toe because the bone had turned black, which ain’t good and that theye were planning on going back in and cleaning it out again. said he was so full of antibiotics that he wouldn’t be afraid to eat Gas Station Sushi.

I didn’t talk to him too long, I wasn’t all the way awake and was needing some coffee real bad.

He sounds good though and I’m sure he is making some poor nurse’s life miserable just for fun.

He’s an ornery fucker but has a heart of gold when it counts.

I’ll give him a call either Friday or Saturday to check on him again, it sounds like he is going to be in that hospital for a while yet.

Thanks for the prayers and well wishes.

Whoever did all this belongs in jail anyway!

Well, the ornery fucker is still alive anyway.

I thought he was supposed to have surgery on his right foot yesterday and I didn’t hear anything so I just called his ornery ass. Come to find out the operating room was busy yesterday and I caught him just as he got back to his room from surgery this morning.

True to form, I heard him barking at a nurse about diet cola so I jumped his ass and told him to be nice.

They didn’t take his little toe off, yet. He had a huge abscess on the bottom of his foot that came in from the side and they cleaned all that pus and shit out.

He hadn’t talked to his doctor yet and he’s not so sure they might not have to take the toe off just quite yet. It depends on if they can get the infection under control.

It’s not a good situation for him because he literally just got to South Dakota and doesn’t have any friends or family there so they are going to have to have someone come to his place to do wound care when he gets out.

He can’t reach his feet so someone is going to have to clean and dress that big hole in his foot and he doesn’t heal well down there in the first place.

I worry about the old cuss and our nickname for me is the Catholic Grandmother.

I lived with mine in my later teen years and God Bless Her Soul, I found out later that I literally almost gave her a nervous breakdown because I was so wild.

She worried about me constantly.

I can see why now.

He mentioned that someone had suggested starting a Go Fund Me for him and he wants nothing to do with that. I’ll let that go for right now and wait to see what comes of all this first.

He’s as stubborn as I am and I make a Missouri Mule look like a Walmart greeter.

So I told him to be nice to the nurses and I will give him a call later to see what the Doc said and what he is looking at going forward. He and I both appreciate the concern and prayers of everyone, even if he won’t say it out loud.

Refer to my stubborn comment above.