"Marriage is not just spiritual communion; it's also remembering to take out the trash." - Joyce Brothers

Radio Shack, RIP

A very brief post this morning. In about an hour we'll drive two hours north to Newberg and meet Mauri & Sherry at their church, after which we'll enjoy lunch and easy conversation at a restaurant. Newberg is a college town (George Fox Univ.) and may have the best collection of one-offs I've ever seen, including food trucks, so I'm eager to see what M&S choose. But mostly we look forward to spending time with them.

After lunch we'll head north toward Seattle. Dad turns 94 on Tuesday and we're celebrating tomorrow. Both my brothers and their wives (my sisters) will be there for the festivities which, if they're honoring someone turning 94, are pretty low-key. As in an early dinner out.

We'll head back Wednesday morning, stopping at Aurora Mills so I can get some used 2x4's (full dimension) that I'll use to build a ladder that will provide access to Fred's loft.

I'm distressed by the current state of race relations in the U.S. I understand and accept that we still have racial tensions (always will?) that undoubtedly come both from true bias and from perceived bias. Mostly, I notice that my innards don't like watching the 24/7 news coverage of race related events and the opinions of pundits. I react very negatively to professional victims and feel real sympathy for those who are profiled and/or mistreated because of skin color. So the evening news and other news shows I normally watch make me upset.

Maybe this is all wrong, but I've landed on a coping method that seems to work. I hit mute for that portion of the program or change to something else. There's always a 70's game show on somewhere. To balance that I've determined to express gratitude to LEO's I encounter and be extremely conscious of my interactions with anyone in a minority group, both my verbal and non-verbal reactions. Pam says I too often have a disgruntled look on my face (I'm usually unaware of that and am not at all disgruntled on the inside), so I'm trying to err on the side of open friendliness.
That's all.

I haven't written about it here, but I've been working on the truck over the last two weeks as time allows. I've taken care of a half-dozen punch list items to get it fully road worthy and figured I was very close.
Long story short, I discovered yesterday that the 5-speed manual transmission I had built is trashed. A guy in AZ built it and I installed it before I put the cab on the frame over a year ago, so there's no recourse; I've got to eat this.
I've located a couple of local shops that may be able to do the rebuild for me if I decide to go that route. Another option is to find a replacement tranny out of another early 80's Chevy S-10.
But I also have to decide if I want to pull/install the rebuilt/new tranny myself or have it towed to a shop that can put it on a lift. Laying on my back on Barnette's dirt floor with very little room on either side to do that work will not be fun, never mind the potential for contamination.
I am not happy. No part of this is good.
My goal for the next four days is to put it at least in the back of my mind so I don't have a disgruntled look on my face for the entire time.