Wednesday, April 19, 2017

"Before I refuse to take your questions I have an opening statement." - Ronald Reagan



Today I learned that our word pundit comes from the days of colonial England when they mispronounced the Hindu word pandit, meaning "learned one."

What did the farmer say when his horse died?
"Funny, she never did this before."
I'm not sure what that means, but it's worth remembering and pulling out at just the right time.

Last night at small group we talked about the early years of our marriages and how the blending of two sometimes disparate backgrounds progressed. Kim said she grew up in a very clean and neat home and that Greg admitted, years later, that he sometimes left his bath towel on the floor just to drive her crazy.

I also grew up in a "neat freak" home where everything was proper and precise. My mom had/has a great sense of decor, and her training as a classical musician meant our home, even though very middle class, was what I'll call classy. We weren't allowed in the living room except on Sundays, dinners were occasions for learning the finer points of table manners (left hand in your lap, holding utensils correctly, and "please pass the...."), and certainly NO running in the house.

Pam...not so much. Hers was a far less formal home with plaid carpet in the finished basement. (Yes, really.) Vegetables all came out of a can, table manners meant belching was generally frowned upon, and indoor basketball games should be confined to two-man teams.

On the way home we talked about how our blending went and neither of us remembers any conflict or turmoil. We've long since arrived at some kind of middle ground. We have art on the walls, towels are folded properly and hung up after a shower, the bed gets made every day, and we use silverware.
But we also live in the woods, raised chicks and baby goats in the house, and have learned to live with the mess of bringing firewood into the living room for the wood stove.
(My mother is horrified.)

What is the advantage to the now extinct gate shifter? I've read that they're wonderful to drive, but not why. It seems like it would make finding the gate/gear more difficult with quick shifting, yet before the days of paddle shifting and electronic clutches it was the standard for high end super cars.

I think I need to drive an older Lamborghini with a gated shifter to find out why they're so nice. Don't you agree?

I drove Sally to the coffee shop and to the feed store this morning and we're definitely making progress. She starts, runs, and stops reliably and has a surprising amount of pep for a six cylinder. I think I'm going to shorten the manual choke cable I installed; there's too much flex. But the idle speed seems to be dialed in correctly. And the interior is looking almost spiffy. I'll order the new door panels while we're back in MI so they arrive shortly after we return.

On the way home from the coffee shop I used the speedo app on my phone and learned that when Sally's speedometer says I'm going 50 mph I'm really doing 55 mph. That's a 10% difference. So is that same 10% going to apply when Sally says I'm doing 60 mph, or is the curve exponential? (I have no idea if that's the right word, but you know what I mean.) The way to find out is to GO 60 mph, but the roads between the gas station and home didn't allow for that. And at this stage in our relationship I hesitate to push the girl to that speed.

The good news: the gas gauge works! The new sending unit I put in the tank fixed that problem. AND, the gas tank isn't leaking.
Alas, the heater core is, so the carpet on the passenger side is soaked. That, in turn, fogs all the windows. Old cars, old people. We both require constant maintenance.

I watched an auction on BaT for a 66 Mustang today and the reserve was NOT met at $117,500! OK, it was a Shelby GT 350, but other than that mine's the same.

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