Rattle and Hum

Rattle and Hum - not U2's sixth album, but a part of the symphony of sound that plays when the J-Truck rolls down the road. Tap, tap starts the gas pedal. Whirr of the starter brings in the blatty roar of the leaky exhaust as the gears section slowly pitches up into a wonderful crescendo.

The music of an old truck is certainly fine, but the driving of an old truck is sometimes um....adventurous. I knew that there was a lot of work to be done on the old girl, but a few things are surprises.

- Fuel line. After driving sixty miles and refilling the tank with almost seven gallons of gas, a slight problem with fuel mileage seemed evident. Even a tired old six cylinder should be able to pull off almost fifteen miles per gallon - not nine. Sitting at the family dinner table with the sunset gleaming off the beautiful truck in the driveway, the problem became clear. Every four seconds, there was a drop of gasoline falling off the broken fuel line onto the ground.  Put that one to the top of the repair list!

-Death Wobble. At approximately 45mph, the right front tire starts a violent shaking that makes one think that the truck will fall apart right that instant if you don't slow down immediately. Not feeling like a balance problem - will be tearing down and inspecting the front axle this weekend.

-Random shit falling right off the truck. Nothing shakes the calm, confident feeling of slowly (remember the death wobble) piloting a classic rig down the road like having bits and pieces of that truck fall off. On the trip to work this morning, the plastic lens that covers the instrument panel just 'click' - fell right over. Hmmm...okay, we'll just set that aside on the seat here for a few minutes. Half a mile down the road, the instrument panel itself falls straight down behind the dash, leaving only the "50" of the speedo visible. Dang it - I need that thing. No other way to tell if I'm accelerating into the Death Wobble Zone! Imagine how it must look to other road users to see the driver of a 40-year-old truck weaving back and forth across the road as he grapples with something behind the dash while reaching through the spokes of a giant, boat-sized steering wheel. Yup - I'm just glad that the cops were off somewhere else.

More surprises to come, I'm sure. The adventure continues!

Truck

Psst! Over here! That other blog is full of NorthernToddler stuff - no room for pictures of things like trucks. This truck has been on-site for a week, and I've finally taken a photo or two of it. (Too busy with fixing it and other responsibilities to take pictures.)

This old truck (three years older than me!) is going to serve its new role well - as soon as the repairs are complete. There is a long list of things that need to be done before it can pass inspection, and another list of things to be done to make it do its work better. First on the list? Get green license plates for it. Second? Fix that unholy roar from the leaky exhaust - it's insane!

Can You?

Circumstances caused me to break down and visit a McDonald's restaurant for lunch today.

I haven't been to a McD's, Wendy's, BK, or Dunkin Donuts for months. It's beginning to be where I can't stand the food. When Little Man in the backseat started whining for lunch and stood his ground on "french fries...and chicken nuggets", I came up with a plan: swing past the chicken wing place, grab some wings and fries and then tell the midget that wings are nuggets. It woulda worked just fine except we pulled into the lot and --- they were closed!  McD's it is, then.

Now keep in mind that, for the past several months, meals have been healthy and home-made. Calories have been watched (and restricted when needed). I've been exercising five or six days a week and have dropped to a weight of 202 (199.5 one day!). Healthy living has been good - and I feel good.

Until.....

I ate thirty chicken nuggets and a medium fries for lunch.

Damn.

Only spin that I can put on that one is " Hey! Look! I can eat thirty chicken nuggets at once!

Can you?