The good news: this morning I put the oil pan on the engine.
The bad news: That took a lot longer than typical because in 1959 the Chevy engineers were trying out a relatively new kind of roll-your-own cigarette with a tobacco known as Hawaiian Gold. Instead of the standard pan gasket it requires two rubber seals, one on each end, and two cork gaskets, one down each side. Getting those four pieces lined up and staying in place while the 20 bolts (two sizes) are torqued down proved to be more than a little tricky.
The good news: I also got the timing cover and thermostat housing on. That means the engine is ready for paint, with some parts that can only be installed later getting painted while they're off the engine.
The bad news: while walking the dog this afternoon I realized I forgot to install the oil pump before I put the pan on.
The good news: I realized that while walking the dog this afternoon, and not after the engine welded itself together three minutes after initial start-up.
Tomorrow morning I'll pull the pan, install the oil pump, and go through the process again. I may get away with using the same gasket, which should now be conformed to the necessary shape.
T'ank you, Fadder.
I can't keep up.
I'm a news junkie who several times a day visits each of my half-dozen bookmarked news sites to read the headlines and click through to the relatively few stories that interest me. Often those headlines include the name of someone back in the news. Yesterday, "TJ Lane breaks out of juvenile detention center." Or today, "Mark Sanford announces break with fiancee." Juvenile detention center suggests something involving school and an AK47, but when, and where? I remember Mark Sanford is a politician, but so many in that group have been snagged for illegal, immoral, or serially stupid behavior that I can't remember which guy did what. And if we're talking athletes, the list grows daily. We haven't finished with Ray Rice and we've already added Adrian Peterson to the list.
I can put name and offense together for a month or so, but after that the new names on the list crowd out the old, and a headline that pegs an event to that name leaves me shaking my head.
It can't just be me. Admit it; you have the same problem.
Why? Are we losing our minds or is there something else going on here? I don't remember it being like this, but I suppose if my memory is failing I wouldn't remember that, either.
Naw. I suspect a combination of factors including a 24 hour news cycle, a People Magazine approach to journalism, and the public's insatiable desire for the gruesome, gross, and grisly gives us more of those stories than ever before. Our society isn't producing any more bad characters per capita than before - mankind is no more or less sinful than he was a century ago - but now what happens in a small town in Illinois or a state house in Nebraska makes national headlines. And athletes are the new cultural icons, the Rockefellers and Gettys of a prior era. Just a lot more of them to get our attention.
There's nothing new under the sun, we're just hearing more about it. And forgetting which guy did what three months ago is the new normal. By spring I'll be saying to myself, "I know Ray Rice is a football player, but I can't remember what he did. Was he the one caught with a trunk full of dead kittens?"
I saw a window decal in the back of a minivan a couple of days ago that said,
"I'm speeding because I have to poop."
Not ashamed to say been there, done that.
No comments:
Post a Comment