And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

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Amskeptic
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And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Nov 20, 2017 6:42 pm

Do you all know how much I love that Law Firm in Pensacola with the cats and the weekend festivals? Remember this picture?

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I was a happy little janitor there for two winters, and Chloe wouldn't have a new transaxle, a headliner, or a rebuilt engine without the gracious hospitality of this place.

Then, on or around June 28th, I got an email from Jack The-Clint-Eastwood-Meets-Atticus-Finch-lawyer.

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I cannot imagine what it must have been like for Jack, but it was a sock to the solar plexus for me. After a brief period for mourning, about four months, I never did ask Jack about Naranja. Here's where Naranja is parked:

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We call that a "close call".

I drove Naranja just this morning . . . to the car wash. Started right up. You can see vapor still coming from the exhaust:

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The Law Firm is being rebuilt. So fortunate that the fire did not get any more involved than it did. The house was built in 1902, that was dry wood.
The smoke scorch on the front adds a horrific authority to the Law Firm:

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I am on my way to Atlanta in the Lexus to pick up my brother to take him to Cindy's Family's Thanksgiving Dinner, then back to Atlanta then back to Pensacola then to Miami in NaranjaWesty.
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

Jivermo
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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by Jivermo » Mon Nov 20, 2017 7:26 pm

Oh, man. That is rough. I love that structure...very glad he is rebuilding. Well, I guess you’re coming to Miami.
Austin...Mark...Elena...the Crazy Cubans...anybody home? Jivermo?

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Amskeptic
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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Nov 21, 2017 7:53 am

Jivermo wrote:
Mon Nov 20, 2017 7:26 pm
Oh, man. That is rough. I love that structure...very glad he is rebuilding. Well, I guess you’re coming to Miami.
Austin...Mark...Elena...the Crazy Cubans...anybody home? Jivermo?

Marc is on the list. Sent me his list, even. You?
ColinInGeorgia
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Randy in Maine
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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by Randy in Maine » Tue Nov 21, 2017 12:38 pm

A really cool funky building in the real Pensacola. I have been there.
79 VW Bus

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tommu
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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by tommu » Wed Nov 22, 2017 8:55 am

Naranja is a survivor. Surprised it hasn't sold yet.

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hambone
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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by hambone » Wed Nov 22, 2017 3:23 pm

Very fortunate, that would have been a heartbreak.
http://greencascadia.blogspot.com
http://pdxvolksfolks.blogspot.com
it balances on your head just like a mattress balances on a bottle of wine
your brand new leopard skin pillbox hat

TrollFromDownBelow
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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by TrollFromDownBelow » Sun Nov 26, 2017 7:54 am

So where shall the itinerant master winter his heat seeking bones this year?
1976 VW Bus aka tripod
FI ...not leaky, and not so noisy...and she runs awesome!
hambone wrote: There are those out there with no other aim but to bunch panties. It's like arguing with a pretzel.
::troll2::

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Amskeptic
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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Nov 26, 2017 1:01 pm

TrollFromDownBelow wrote:
Sun Nov 26, 2017 7:54 am
So where shall the itinerant master winter his heat seeking bones this year?
Pensacola.
Then upstate NY.

So yes, went 462 miles to Atlanta (additional 100 miles to Mobile AL to visit a wrecking yard). Then 1092 miles the next morning to upstate NY by 1:30AM on Thanksgiving Thursday. Then 1092 miles back to Atlanta the very next morning, arriving at 4:00AM Saturday. Then 369 miles on Saturday to Pensacola. But I was done by Montgomery AL. Stayed at a Motel 6. Twenty two bored brassy Saturday night punks were loudly trashing the place, yelling, stomping down the balconies, and waking me up extra-nauseous at 1:30AM, 2:15AM, 3:30AM.
Then I had an idea, "if they kill me I will feel better" . . .

(the whole time, I have been as sick as a dog nauseous on these vicious antibiotics for the past 5 days. Can't rotate my head quickly, can't eat, sore joints, I have been trying to commune with the scores of chemotherapy patients I have known and imagine what it must be like to be nauseous day after day after day. I am only on Day 5, and it is intolerable. They clearly are braver than me)

. . . so I went out onto the balcony in my cut-offs and bed head, and firmly announced, "I have called the police."
They threw choice invective and started all running at me.
"Yeesh, I hope this really is how I wanted to go . . ."
But they were actually running to the stairs and pretty magically disappeared into a procession of cars.
I called the manager, and in a clipped voice, reminded him that motels are dedicated to the weary traveler who needs a good night's sleep, "and you are not maintaining an orderly environment and I am calling the police."
"Oh no, you cannot do that, I have security guard."
"Whatever, wherever he or she may be . . . "

Loading Naranja and waiting for a new prescription to be called in.
ColinAtTheLawFirm



Visiting WalMart pharmacy for a change in prescription then off to Miami in Naranja. God please no more nausea.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

TrollFromDownBelow
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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by TrollFromDownBelow » Sun Nov 26, 2017 7:25 pm

Those are some epic miles! I hope the 100 mile detour to the boneyard was worth the effort. Sorry to hear about the Motel 6. So I take it you are wintering the rest of the season (with a stint or two to Miami) in Pensacola?
1976 VW Bus aka tripod
FI ...not leaky, and not so noisy...and she runs awesome!
hambone wrote: There are those out there with no other aim but to bunch panties. It's like arguing with a pretzel.
::troll2::

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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by Jivermo » Sun Dec 03, 2017 1:07 pm

Well, Colin did make it to Miami, with Naranja behaving quite well until he was about two blocks from my house, on US1. I’ll leave it to him to fill in the details. I knew that he was feeling bad when he crashed in our cottage, rather than going down to the Manuel Diaz Tree Farm. The antibiotic prescription has our friend really feeling low. The next morning, after some oatmeal and coffee, we came out to my hard starting bus, and Colin traced the problem to a humidity soaked, intermittantly working double relay. I had a spare, and that resolved that issue. We took apart the faulty metal one. It was damp inside, had a burn mark like a short had occurred, and inside the TOP of the metal cap looked as though water had pooled there, defying gravity. A puzzle, indeed. Next, we pulled my rubber steering coupler, which was really shot, and installed a new one. While there, we fashioned a new horn wire, and routed it the correct way. My bus steering feels more “solid” now.
About this time, Marc, the Exoticdvm, pulled up. Marc is a vet, and his morning had been occupied with a surgery on a pig, who came through fine. He and Colin held a confab about antibiotics and terrible side effects, and then we began to look for Marc’s problem; an oil leak. There had been some concern that it might be the main seal, and that would have been a tough one, considering Colin’s nausea ebb and flow. Not looking forward to an engine drop and reinstall day, beginning at noon! After cleaning the bottom of the engine, and taking the bus for a cruise, we were able to trace some significant leakage to the oil pressure switch. We pulled it...and it was ridiculously tightened, fabricated a copper washer, smeared some Permatex #2 around the threads, and threaded it back into the case. Exoticdvm is now monitoring the leak situation. Several other problems were identified; a wobbling fan pulley, missing a blade, that was playing hell with the alternator (broken adjusting bracket) and the alternator tin, which was eroded away at the lower bolt point, because of the constant vibration. The major discovery, though, was two sections of FI high pressure hose that wasn’t. Seriously cracked and compromised, two pieces of braided, non pressure rated fuel hose were part of the high pressure fuel ring...a ticking time bomb for Marc’s beautiful Westy. That was dealt with, and new, correct hose installed. Intetesting conversation throughout the day, as usual, but even my wife noticed that Colin was not his “usual self”, as she put it. I don’t know if Colin has a “usual self”, but I could see he was feeling poorly. Even so, we had a full, 12-1/2 hour day of work. There was more to do, but he said that he really needed to get back to Pensacola, and regroup. He got a good nights rest, downed a cup of coffee with me in the morning, pulled the hook up, and hit the road in Naranja. Hope you are feeling a bit better now, mister!

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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Dec 05, 2017 12:12 pm

Jivermo wrote:
Sun Dec 03, 2017 1:07 pm
Hope you are feeling a bit better now, mister!

Oh, but it got worse. Thank-you and Marc for accomodating to my bleary nauseaity. I felt like I was ninety nine years old.

I could not even register the fact that we got anything done at all, but I guess we did.

It has all been such a bleary blur. I cannot believe that I pushed up to WNY, down to Atlanta, switched cars (AlexusOne to AlexusToo) then drove to Pensacola in one swell foop, and moved my toolbox and a skeleton inventory into NaranjaWesty and was on the road by noon. The drive down to Miami was characterized by a welcome re-acquaintance with NaranjaWesty, which accounted for itself awfully well after sitting all summer. I did not remember to even so much as:
check the oil
check tire pressures
wash the windows

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The engine was down a full quart. Why was that? Oh yeah, Naranja was ripping all over the lower east coast in March with Chloe's engine sitting inside the sliding door. I never DID put that poor thing to bed before abandoning it in the Law Firm's garage. So, rather than add a quart, I just did the 73,000 mile interval oil change outside of Lake City FL. Then I remembered to check the tire pressures, yeesh, initial 30 psi in the fronts, 37 in the rears (free air always! just go to the truck fueling bays at Pilot or Flying J), brought them up to my usual freeway 37 front/46 rear.

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After a full 746 mile day of driving, I was but one mile from Jivermo's house and a richly anticipated Total System Collapse when NaranjaWesty slyly asked me, "hey remember the good ol days? Sure you do . . . " and died dead on you-guessed-it,
US Route 1 Downtown Miami Friday Night Traffic Just As The Light Turned Green.

No restart forthcoming, either. Without even thinking about it, I shut off the headlamps, turned on the flashers, stuck it in 1st gear and motored from the #1 to the #3 lane on the starter motor and kept going right up onto the curb alongside the roadway. On auto-pilot at this point, I pulled out the fuel hose clamp, the 1/4" hose clamp remover and scrooched under the bus with the dizzying headlamp beams and noisily accelerating engines blasting past me. Didn't even have to bring a flashlight, it all fell to hand as it has so many many many times before. Blew out the filter (does nausea respond well to the taste of gasoline and aroma of gasoline fumes? no). There was no obstruction. Put it all back together, pulled the black cap off the AFM through the stroboscopic crazy headlamp splashes from the incessant traffic, and could not hear the fuel pump over the din. Tried squeezing the fuel hose to the left of the cold start valve as I operated the pump via the wiper. It seemed to be under pressure. Started the engine and it died. Started the engine and it died. Started the engine, and the idiot lights stayed out, but I could not hear the engine enough to know if it was running, well? sort-of? barely? Let out the clutch and the car started creeping forward and the idiot lights remained out, so I committed, lunged out into traffic, and made it down to the next intersection where I could hear that it was running enough at least to get me to Jivermo's.

I do not remember the exact diagnostic path we took, but it was pretty efficient, I was told. And the weird rusty ceiling inside the double relay made no sense. Water drains down. The relay lives inside a cozy engine compartment. What was with this moisture damage? Does Miami like to be hot and humid, then drop its temperatures below the dew point so rapidly that humidity instantly condenses on the inside upper surfaces of electrical relays? How would you stop that? We also replaced the steering coupler, an opportunity to lay down, to rest, to close my eyes, to sleep, sleep in eternal slum, wake up! the ground wire is broken.

After we had the new coupler in with a new ground wire, Marc showed up for his engine drop to revisit the front main seal replacement of the early spring. I so did not want to get embroiled in an engine pull, so I took it upon myself to find some other cause of the oil leak. How about an oil sender? How about a nap? We re-installed the VW Audi oil sender because the replacement sender was a madeinchinanowayjose, and I decided that the oil sender leak had to be a simple lack of a copper washer so we could reuse the VW Audi sender. The Universe seemed amenable. Marc? What's the latest?

After an evening discussion of apps, websites, march of progress, troglodytes, stupid little phone screens, refusal to cater to screen burrowing denizens of the modern age, I just dragged off to lay down, to rest, to close my eyes, to stop spinning rooms, to sleep, to die restfully, wake up! I have to peeeeee!

Drove back to Pensacola the very next morning. Made a vow to stop all antibiotics regardless of the spectre of dying from some savage system-wide succumbation to raging infections, I no longer cared to live like this. NaranjaWesty motored perfectly another 742 miles across the Big Cypress and up the west side of Florida to Interstate 10 and 300 miles west to Pensacola, like Miami US 1 Friday Night Traffic Jam never even happened. Thanks, NaranjaWesty:

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Stopped by Don's place to help him get a new acquisition (a 1977 2.0) running. Still feeling like crap when the transmission jack came down on my thumb and tore the entire thumbprint skin clear off. Bleeding like a pig, yes, but embarrassedly focused on getting back to work, so I wrapped a paper towel around my thumb and duct-taped it. Unfortunately, I did not align the chunk of skin properly, so it has begun to heal with a big red blob of unprotected meat still exposed on one side and a lump of overlapped thumb print buckled on the other side. Now I can't get into my Tesla or turn on my phone or enter my house and forget about my security clearance at the NSA, I am a persona non gratis. At least my computer still accepts my middle finger scan.

So, this wounding, on top of a fourteen day sentence of nausea throughout the marathon of driving, finally shut me down. I am hunting and pecking at the keyboard with my big paper towel thumb just along for the ride. I can read news stories, though. That just requires a left-handed mouse click. I can do that. I clicked with my left hand and opened up a news story.
"Trump reduces National Monuments in Utah by 85%."
"Trump Offers Full Endorsement of Roy Moore."
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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wcfvw69
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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by wcfvw69 » Tue Dec 05, 2017 7:20 pm

Jesus Colin. You've pegged my empathy meter. Holy shit have you been put through the mill..

What caused your bus' engine to quit? Did I miss it?
1970 Westfalia bus. Stock 1776 dual port type 1 engine. Restored German Solex 34-3. Restored 205Q distributor, restored to factory appearance engine.

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vwlover77
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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by vwlover77 » Wed Dec 06, 2017 6:38 am

Wow..... I don't know what else to say, except that I hope you are feeling better very soon!
Don

---------------------------
78 Westy
71 Super Beetle Convertible Autostick

"When we let our compassion go, we let go of whatever claim we have to the divine." - Bruce Springsteen

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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by Jivermo » Wed Dec 06, 2017 7:37 am

The thumbprint incident, which I could almost feel, brought to mind an old movie, whereby a criminal paid some surgeon to remove the skin of all his fingerprint areas, so that he would not have to worry abput leaving prints anywhere. You’re 10% of the way. With the way things are heading, I could see where not being identifiable could be a plus, but now we have all the new 1984 stuff, like facial recognition and DNA testing. Bummer.

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Amskeptic
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Re: And Now For The Rest Of The Story . . .

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:30 am

Still clicking on news stories.
Sylmar CA is burning up. The 205 Freeway is closed at Glen Oaks where I used to exit to go home on Herrick Avenue. Now Bel Air is on fire. That is the 405 Freeway closed at Moraga Drive right at "Trash Gate" the tony subdivision that was built on a landfill. Ventura is on fire. And Trump has offered no federal aid for California's disastrous wildfires.

Right thumb is almost ready to be freed of its paper towel sarcophagus. I did a nine finger valve adjustment on NaranjaWesty's neglected engine. The valves were all very very . . . diffident to see me. Not one was out of spec. Took NaranjaWesty on a cold blowy trip to the Law Firm where I demanded some architectural changes to the rebuild. The contractor just pointed his perfectly good thumb towards me, "who is this GUY?" Jack, always quick to defend his architecturally sensitive friend, replied, "I have no idea." I wanted a transom window installed over the back door, it USED to have one. I also wanted a glass brick window array for the new restroom, so it could have some ambient light. People just don't respect other people with big fluffy paper towel bandages duct-taped to their thumbs, that's all.

Today, I redo my Results Statistics to reflect that little trip to Miami. Then I redo the taxes. The estimate for creating a trick little trouble-shooting app is about $110,000.00 for a stripper version.
ColinStayWarmY'All
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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