I’ll tell ya, growing up poor goes a long ways to learning how to fix things but these days the stuff they make was designed not to be fixed in the first place.

Right after you give your boss a stroke playing with it….

This is the second undercover Chinese Bio-Lab that I have heard of.

Eat shit you stupid bastards.

I’ve been turning wrenches since I was a child.

I went back to school at 29 to a Community College to get a degree in Auto Repair. As you know, Community Colleges offer two year Associates Degrees.

After one full year, a Ford Motor Company sponsored program opened up that was very limited and hard to get into. For one you had to get a Dealership to sponsor you and it was only open to 24 candidates, every two years.

So I managed to get in and I kicked it’s ass. After THREE years of going to a TWO year college,I graduated Phi Theta Kappa, made the Dean’s List 3 times and hade a 3.71 GPA.

The whole time being half drunk.

I’m sure I could have gotten a 4.0 if I had really tried.

I went to school for 3 months and then worked at the Dealership for 3 months, getting paid to learn and getting college credits for it.

I worked there for 9 years.

There were days that I drove 30 miles to work, sat there all day with nothing to do and drove home, not making a nickel because it was all Flat Rate, otherwise known as Piece Work.

That started happening so often that I finally decided that I couldn’t afford to work there anymore.

It finally got to the point that I had had enough and went to work as a Field Mechanic for a well known local equipment rental outfit at a SIX DOLLAR an hour pay cut and was still taking home just as much as I was working at the Lincoln/Mercury dealership.

In those 9 years I bought THOUSANDS of dollars worth of tools and tool boxes plus going to seemingly never ending training update classes.

So when I say that I lived what this story is saying, It is the absolute truth.

Back then, in the late 80’s Ford was screaming for new technicians to work on their then new computerized vehicles. When I left in 1999, Ford Motor companie’s premiere vehicles had 11 computers in them and they all talked to each other through one twisted wire that had another one twisted to the first one for redundancy. They called it Multi-Plexing.

The wiring harness that went through the Firewall and completely wrapped around an engine shoe horned into an engine bay had One Hundred and Eleven Wires in it.

That was 27 years ago.

What they have now for technology is Light Years beyond what I ever fought with and today’s cars are downright ridiculous to work on.

Yet the pay is not really that much more than it was back then.

Once again, Ford is screaming for new technicians, saying they have 6.000 empty bays with no mechanics in them nationwide but this time they are screaming into the void because the word is out and nobody wants to have to go through all of what I did for no more money than some chick sitting at a desk typing data into a computer makes.

So their cries go on deaf ears. Which is absolutely self inflicted and well deserved.

The very first thing that needs to happen is for them to scrap the Flat Rate pay system and guarantee their techs a Living Wage.

This video is well worth the watch to see what the state of Vehicle Repairs are in right now and you can guarantee that it is going to get much, much, worse.

Something tells me that I am not alone.

I stopped to grab a couple bottles of Coke on the way to work this morning…

I saw $5.49 at another Shell station on the way home.

This cracked me up.

I sent him a couple links to some interesting analylis videos about what is going on over in the Sand Box that I will post here shortly on Tuesday and never heard anything back from him for 24 hours so I was forced to threaten him with the Pegging Pigeon.

Apparently that was enough to get his attention and he replied right away.

He told me that he has been sicker than a dog with some kind of flu and that he had been in bed with his phone shut off because his throat was so sore that he wasn’t able to talk to all the people who kept calling him to see why he had been so quiet.

So I told him that was a good enough excuse and that I would recall the Pegging Pigeon.

For now.

So anyways, if you happen to visit him and have been wondering, there ya go. I imagine he will be back up and causing mayhem shortly.

The look on his face is priceless.

He literally has a built in Crescent Wrench.

Never seen this move before.

Dammit, this hurts.

Legendaty Motorhead guitarist Phil Campbell has passed away at age 64.

Former MOTÖRHEAD guitarist Phil Campbell has died at the age of 64. His passing was announced earlier today (Saturday, March 14) in a social media post on the social media of his band PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS, in which he was joined by his sons Todd, Dane and Tyla.

The message reads: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved father, Philip Anthony Campbell, who passed away peacefully last night following a long and courageous battle in intensive care after a complex major operation.

“Phil was a devoted husband, a wonderful father, and a proud and loving grandfather, known affectionately as ‘Bampi‘. He was deeply loved by all who knew him and will be missed immensely. His legacy, music and the memories he created with so many will live on forever.

“We kindly ask that our family’s privacy is respected during this incredibly difficult time.”

Double Dammit.

He had started a new band with his kids and it was a real Ripper. They had been touring all over and I was praying that they would come to Portland.

Looks like that dream is as dead as he is now.

Rest In Peace dude.

You rocked the shit out of the entire world.

Tear it up son.

I don’t know where this is and the only thing I care about is that this ridiculous bullshit is going away.

Like maybe don’t play with dynamite kids?