After driving almost 1600 miles to arrive at my destination in South Dakota and no it is not Wakanda which Bear Claw insists. I have been here since Saturday afternoon and checked into an RV park while my apartment was finishing with some repairs and I was slowly taking loads over during the day. I suffer from venous reflux in my legs but not my feet. About three weeks ago a small blister pop it’s head up and the nursing and medical staff and of course me was thinking “Tailor’s bunion or or a bone spur on the distal 5th metatarsal” by the joint on the which skilled podiatry appropriate care would suffice. Naay, during the trip my right foot was buried to the floor, due to me hauling two trailers up and over 8 passes going East from 6000 to 8000 feet and roller coaster I 80 through Eastern Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska and of Course South Dakota as my older cruise control would not hold the speed when it dropped below 10 mph below set point.

So, the wound had opened up considerably about 2 inches long and at least a quarter inch wide with bone showing quite proudly with the added parting gift, Osteomyelitis… and it was present in goobous amounts. The doc wanted me to admitted today and while I agreed with him I had to get my trailers over to the parking lot at the apartment, arrange for the manager to feed my cat, Nora and get my bed put together and my recliner put back in one piece as I will not be dancing much with my small toe gone and a surgical wounds. I go in on Monday and will be there until Friday with no computer

I was wondering if when I am cremated I will get a lower cost as I have no tonsils, no gall bladder, no right kidney and now, no right small toe… Something to ask a an funeral director…

Please go send my friend Bunk Strutts some love.

I swear, some people’s children.

What do you think?

Actually, after 38 years of blood, sweat and many, many tears, I have finally come up with a nickname for this little fucker.

I’m calling it Lazarus II.

(makes sign of the cross)

The reason is, this is the SECOND TIME I am bringing it back from the dead

And true to my personal style, I’m doing it ass backwards from the way most people do these things.

Most people strip the car down, do the body work and then paint it. THEN they start putting it together. Rebuilding the engine, doing the brakes, all that happy crap.

I did that the first time and now all the paint is completely shot. So this time, I rebuilt the car literally from the radiator to the gas cap.

New fuel tank, pump, brakes, engine, tires all of it.

I;ll deal with the paint, maybe, later.

Lucky for me the latest fad seems to be a rusty,faded paint look so I’ll fit right in.

The last couple weeks I have been prepping the floor boards and putting in sound deadener mats. Today I started in on the carpet.

I got most of the driver’s side done when the local Weather Man’s 30% prediction for rain turned into 100%.

So I threw the stuff I was working with in the garage real quick and threw the tarp back over it. At least I got something done first.

It took me a very long time but I finally found some old, aftermarket rubber floor mats with the Austin Healey name and badge with wings images on them.

They are harder to find than Hen’s teeth.

I bought a set of seats out of some KIA thing last weekend but I am going to have to do some serious modifications to how they mount as they have 3 inch tall feet at the ends

I have to get rid of a big bracket under there and I have to cut off and some wiring that I don’t need.

The Good Lord willing, I am going to drive this little sonofabitch to work at least once before this Summer is over.

A tip of the hat to Plague Monk who posted about this recent somber event in the comments.

Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Like most of us here, I grew up watching the Viet Nam War on television every night.

I still remember the “Burst Of Joy” moment mentioned in the video even now from 1973

Col. Robert L Stirm, the subject of that moment was recently laid to rest in Arlington.

Rest In Peace sir.

This is funny.

They have no shame.

You know, how they put the cheap metal axles in little plastic casters that go under Chinesium cabinets and such.

The rivets in cheap tools that let things move and spin.

If you have ever seen an Emergency Brake assembly with a foot pedal on it from a car from the 60’s to the early 2000’s, the part that you push down on swivels on a big rivet.

I always wondered how they made those and now I know. I ran across it earlier today and the process is called Orbital Riveting.

Orbital riveting is a low-force, noiseless cold-forming process that joins components by using a peen tool held at a fixed angle (typically 3° to 6°) to gradually deform a rivet. 
 Unlike impact riveting, the tool rotates off-center, maintaining a sweeping line of contact that progressively kneads the material into a desired shape with significantly reduced axial force. 

Of course there is a special machine with special bits that go in it they call Peens.

They can have different contours on the ends for specific types of finishes.

They can also control how far the end of the rivet expands and sticks out too.

That’s how they can allow parts to move and not fall off.

Here is the difference between Press Riveting and Orbital Riveting.

Just thought I would share, I’ve been turning wrenches for 45 years now and had never heard of it.

My friend Steve from Up North sent me these pictures of a truck his neighnor has. It’s a beauty!

“Neighbour got a new toy.”

“1970 GMC… rebuilt 350 smallblock with 3000 miles on it…..4 on the floor…. pickup

All original except for wheels and tires and radio…radio is replica of 1968 to 1972  unit  that came with the truck”

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mKwCFipsvQ0?feature=share

Brad in Il. thought this would be good Blog Fodder.

I have to agree that letting this event go by without kicking this stupid bitch while she is down would be a travesty.

New CEO inherits Cracker Barrel still recovering from rebrand backlash

David Deno will succeed Julie Masino as chief executive on Aug. 10

Cracker Barrel announced on Monday that CEO Julie Masino will step down from the role this summer, with David Deno set to take the helm of the company on Aug. 10. The move follows a slow recovery from the attempted rebrand.

With a mandatory picture of the dumb Yuppie wench.

Cracker Barrel’s stock is down about 18% from a year ago, remaining well below its pre-rebrand levels.

“Comparable store restaurant sales decreased 2.6%, which included a traffic decline of 6.7%,” said Cracker Barrel CFO Craig Pommells. “Although traffic remained negative, we are encouraged by the gradual improvement in the underlying trend.”

This after her disasterous decision to “Rebrand” the restaurant chain and get rid of all the folksey decor.

People voted with their feet immediately and the chain came close to failing completely. Public outrage finally got loud enough that someone over her head decided to pull the plug on her experiment but by then the damage was done.

So good riddance to this dumb broad.

Maybe she can go somewhere like Planned Parenthiood and see how bad she can fuck that up.

At least she would be doing the rest of us a favor.

The math and engineering involved in creating this project blows my mind.