I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.

From a friend on Facebook.

Big game tomorrow night. Locals are calling it the biggest regular season game in Cardinals' history because it will determine which team, the Seahawks or the Cards, wins the division and gets home field advantage in the playoffs. Seattle is playing very well the last few weeks and we're down to our third string QB. A win would be a huge upset.

I'll spend time after dinner going over, and over, and over my sermon. Don't feel at all good about this one, not a good thing on the Sunday before Christmas.

I went to the metal shop this morning and media blasted the seat rails and a few misc. parts. Then home to install the steering box and column.

As we were eating lunch the doorbell rang and the carrier handed me a Priority Mail package. Yes!

I put in a 5-speed transmission, a T5, that came out of an early-80's Chevy S10 so I'd have a fifth gear (overdrive) and be able to drive the truck at freeway speeds. (As built the truck was only good for about 60 mph wide open.) The problem is that this transmission comes with an angled stem that would have the stick hitting the front of the bench seat. And fifth gear would be so far to the upper right that getting there would be more like rowing than shifting.

A *Jewish guy in Texas makes a unit that bolts right onto this transmission and does two things. First, it's a "short throw" so that all the positions are very close to each other. No more rowing. It also has a stem that points straight up and will clear the seat. It took all of 10 minutes to get the old one out and the new unit in. Now I have to somehow modify the stock shift rod so it will bolt to this stem.

For the 10 years we were restoring two century-old houses in MI I subscribed to This Old House magazine. They had a monthly feature titled, "Name This Tool" in which they showed a picture of an antique tool used in home construction and asked what it was used for.

OK, here's the Vagabond Thoughts version of "Name This Tool," except mine isn't an antique. I just don't know what it does. The really sad part is that it came out of my toolbox and I have no recollection of buying or using it. It's designed to put a great deal of pressure on the jaws, but to what end? Note that one part of the jaw passes through the slot on the opposing part. And that first part is too wide to work like an anvil-style pruner.
So help me out here. What is this??

I don't know whose idea it was to put an NFL game on Saturday night but I want to thank them for their thoughtfulness.

*His web site says he's closed from 12/17 to 12/23. Odd that he'd close the week before Christmas and open up two days before, unless you remember that's Hanukkah.