A Horse With No Name

Damn, that's one fine looking car. Chris

Sticker out of a truck in a salvage yard perhaps...

So if i seem a little wired tonight...

...also...get a call from a woman who wants a light switch replaced. Now, the company I work for usually does Industrial and Commercial work, we work in power plants, we do high voltage work...this one has to be simple. So I go out to the woman's home, which is a nice Craftsman Era bungalow just outside of a historic district...neat little home...and check the switch for continuty and voltage. Switch is good. I ask her why she and her son (who is about 24 year old) thought the switch was bad. She said that they had tried changing light bulbs and the light didn't come on in the room. So I go to the next room, grab a bulb a know is working and bingo...light. Should be simple, right? Not so fast. We have a nice little talk about Craftsman era homes and what she has done to restore this one...and I talk about vendors for reporduction light fixtures because the fixture has a slightly loose socket. I tell her if she needs help hanging a replacement fixture that I would be happy to drop by after work at no charge and help her and her son hang it. I then tell her our minumum service charge is $50, and she gladly pays me. Calls our shop and then tells them what a good electrician I am. Well...she then calls back screaming and raising hell that she wants her $50 back because I didn't sovle her problem, claims I should have had a reproduction light fixture that matched the style of her home on my work van....which is nuts...how many different styles of fixtures are there? No way that could happen... For the record, we didn't give her moeny back to her. ARHHHHHH

...and the guy goes ballistic and calls the Ohio Division of Industrial complaince. I know the chief inspector for the state, and get a hold of him...but this is already gone above his head to the woman who is his supervisor. Meanwhile the inspector is threatening me with spending the weekend in jail for working without a license or permit... ...and then the power company has a hissy because I cut the service loose at the weatherhead....but they themselves had cut it loose...and we go round and round. So we spend an hour and a half on the phone with the power company and the Department of Industrial Compliance...only to have both of them determine that I have done nothing wrong. Meanwhile, another contractor we know has had to come in and finish what should have been a very simple project... Also, during all of this I get a call from my son's high school saying he has been written up and suspended for three days for assaulting a girl. This doesn't sound like my son, so I get a hold of the assistant principal, and she is almost apologetic. Seems like a group of teens sitting in the back of the class (including the girl) had been throwing pencils at each other because they were bored in class. One of the pencils grazed the girls arm, and she got a cut about 1/4" long...so the teacher sent them all down to the office and the school said that they had to write him up for assault because he drew blood from anther student. They also said they had no choice but to suspend him for three days... ARGHHHHHHH.

So...at work... Get a case of 1000 Watt lamps to fix some 40' tall pole lights in a parking lot...lamps are Chinese in origin. These are an extreme PITA to change, as there is a 138,000 volt high voltage set of lines that run right near the pole lights...you have to position the bucket truck just right to maintain OSHA safe clearance. And of course...no more than get them installed and they go bad. So I need to go back before I leave and replace lamps (bulbs) less than two hours old with new ones. Thankfully, I have American made lamps in the truck and they work perfectly. Then I go to the vendor to buy more American made lamps...and find that MFR. has now outsourced to China. GRRR. Another customer got an estimate for $3500 for fixing the pole lights in their parking lot. I tell them I can get it done cheaper, and get the work done for under a grand out the door. Woman I am working for who is the manager of the place is so happy...until her boss calls raising ten kinds of hell about how I'm taking advantage of them. One would think that saving people $2600 on a repair would make them happy but...no can do. Finally get them calmed down. Get a call from one of our customers who is a landlord, also get a call from the power company, have to go out and look at the electrical service on a duplex. Father in law of the woman on one side of the duplex has gotten p.o.'d that the power company cut off power for non payment, so he opened up the meters with a basebal bat and started stealing power from the power company. Problem is, he did it in such a way as to leave exposed live electrical parts on the meters...and this is in a yard where children are playing. So the power company tells me to go and get a meter can and get it fixed, landlord agrees...simple right? WRONG. Get to the power company, where they are supposed to have my two unit meter can waiting and...no luck. Need a work order # from the power company, even though they promised me it would be waiting. So the owner of my company and the woman who works in our office BOTH spend over an hour with the power company...finally get the # and go to the power co office. But wait, never had this problem before, but they want two #'s because it is a duplex. Get a second # and they say that they can't take two #'s for the same meter can. Finally get a third #, only to be told that "we don't need a work order #, it's an emergency...just go get it done. About three hours wasted on just this one item...but finally able to go to work. Go over and start fixing the problem...fix other minor code issues...almost done...electrical inspector rolls up. Now....we've replaced 60 or so Meter cans in town as emergency repairs without pulling a permit, and the city and state of Ohio both have said that I don't need a permit to pull an emergency repair. But the inspector for some reason decides this time that we need a permit and threatens to have me hauled off to jail on criminal charges for working without a license or a permit. So I go to the truck and pull out my Ohio State Electrical Contractors License, which is in my name since I hold the license for my company. Inspector calls the police and Sherrif both, threatens me with a weekend in jail, and says that he is going to pull my license for working without a license. I explain to him that it is a logical contradiction to pull my license for working without a license...(con't)

Amazing how the Chinese take a suboptimal defective design and make it even worse than its original crappy 50 year old self.... And I'm already in Healy lust... Chris

Depends on the foreign competition. I don't like how we are being flooded with Crap Boxes like everything from Kia and Suzuki, for example. Chris

We need a whole thread on what to do with this beast...but here is a good start. 1. All nec equipt. to be a good plow truck... 2. Mechanical stuff fixed as needed... 3. mexican blanket for seat cover 4. Very mild (2" or 4" maybe) suspension lift 5. Rancho or similar shocks 6. Olive drab paint job 7. Winch for the front, removable for when you plow...just because 8. "NO FAT CHICKS TRUCK WILL SCRAPE" Decal for the rear window, just because. (Kidding on this one!) 9 Larger set of wheels and tires...nothing flashy on the rims. That truck would look great as a low cost "beater" with attitude. Truck runs around down near where I work, is old Dodge from the 1970's done that way....that just has "the look."

Come on down to Chillicothe, which is where I work and an hour south of Columbus. You would be amazed at what's on the road down here. Chris

Wow... Somday.... Chris

Camino...if you can't register it in PA...you may very well be able to use my address and get Ohio tags for it. I'd ahve to check into it...but...no inspections here. Reminds me of a friend who lived in California for 20 years with Ohio tags. One day the Cali State Patrol rolled up on him and asked him when he was going back to Ohio. He relied "I'm leaving this godforsaken piece of $h! state as soon as I can, Sir...." Officer was speechless and let him go. Chris

Japanese culture is becoming inbred and looking back in on itself...it's not just an economic problem, its a cultural problem as well IMHO. Chris

As a former SCCA flagger...I know how quickly cars get black flagged for that. Interestingly, I have black flagged Healy's during vintage races for just that problem! Chris

Thats Okay. Although I'm having trouble believing any 50 year old British Sports Car would have a defective part...much less a defective electrical part. Good thing vintage racing is usually not done at night... Chris

Good luck! Chris

Political section post started...

I'm going to get off of the computer and go to bed, because it has been a long, long day.... But let me say this one more time. Slow way down...slow way the f@#k down....think hard about exactly what you want this car to be done... Don't buy a rusty car. You won't save any $. Take this from a guy who loves vintage Mustangs...which rust pretty much if you look at them for too long. I found a fully rust free fastback 66 Mustang, which was the car I wanted...by looking and waiting. These cars are available in numbers, but the right car will take some looking. Be Patient! Chris

If you took Arkus...you wouldn't need fuel for the wagon. Just hitch him to the front with a harness like good old saint nick. Hell...if you did that....forget world of outlaws. You'd be the first guy to beat John Force with a production Chevrolet Malibu! Think NHRA, my friend....I wonder how many "horsepower" one Arkus "dog power" equals? Chris

Somehow I could just see you travelling around with your dogs, doing interesting things. May never happen...but the thought is there. Chris

Whales fart into sails, which send ships to Nantucket...where there is a man who has a noun that needs another noung...all around town....

A whore by the seashore...would be a man from Nantucket....and oldsmoboi would like to....find a nice clean low mile Toranado. Preferably of the square bodystyle of the 80's...but not because of the ladies...because a whore by the seashore...would be Sally. And if olds finds his olds, the one thing he won't do is dally. But not because of Sally.

Healy 3000=pure automotive lust for me... Chris

True...I wasn't being terribly serious. But this is along the lines of what I could see Camino doing.

http://columbus.craigslist.org/trd/1502156049.html Chris