I met and feel in love with Crystal in late 1995, and we were married in late September ’96. We were pretty much broke because I was in grad school and she had a hard time finding a job, and because of this, my family helped us out with giving us some basic furniture. One piece was a waterfall bed from the mid 30’s. One of my sisters found it at a garage sale, and honestly, we loved it.
And then, in April of ’97, the flood hit Grand Forks, and our building downtown was one of those that burned. As we were evacuating, Crys said “what if it burns?” I scoffed and said “Burn? Pfffffffffffft! It’s a flood!”
Let me just say that it was the first of many times she made prophetic statements.
During the recovery, we searched high and low for a replacement bed (along with everything else), but we kept hitting this dilemma — what we liked, we couldn’t afford, and what we could afford, we didn’t like. We settled on a bed — it broke. Found a second bed — it broke. Then, we ended up with a futon. It wasn’t bad, but, yanno…after a while…it was a futon.
About two years after Crys died, I was looking at the futon and thought “I’m an adult. I need a real bed.” And I went on the hunt again and found the same damn thing.
Well, fuck.
So, I’m talking to a buddy at work and say “ya know. It’s not like I couldn’t make my own bed. I just down have some of the tools I need.”
“Like what?”
“Mainly — a table saw.”
Turns out — he had a table saw. And over the next few weeks, I built my bed.
I’d never built a bed before, and if I were to do it again, there’s a bunch of things I’d do differently. Regardless, I did it and I’m very happy with it. I used skills I learned from my father, a carpenter and woodworker, as well as from high school shop classes. I’ve built other things as well, a process I enjoy immensely, and with each project, I try to up my skills by trying a new process.
When it comes to cars, though, my abilities are limited. I can change oil, spark plugs, belts, and have installed stereos and such. The magic that happens inside carburetors and internal combustion engines — in theory, I understand the process, but putting the theory to practice is what I want to learn.
I figured I’d start with something easy — the accelerator pump. Mona sat for 15 years, takes a bit of work to start, and the day I picked her up, surged and died. From watching Vice Grip Garage and Junkyard Digs on YouTube, I knew this is often a part that fails when a vehicle sits idle too long. So, I watched a few YouTube videos and thought “yeah, that’s pretty simple,” and I went on-line and found a local store that had the part in stock. Better yet — it was a store I could bring Rastmus, my ginger goon — I’ll write more about him in a future post.
We jumped into Abigail and run over to the store and get the pump and a few other pieces, then to Lowe’s to get a few things there, and finally, home.
…and that’s when I learned a valuable lesson…
If you are working on a classic vehicle and you really don’t know what you’re doing, take the part you want replaced with you to the auto parts store. Why? Because sometimes, the computer thinks you need the pump with the rectangle rubber flange where what you REALLY need is the square rubber flange.
Knowing and doing was more like trying and failing.
I called the store and told them what I needed and they had to order it in, so I switched to another job — trying to get the back glass down and the tailgate open, only to learn the crank mechanism is busted and the tailgate latch is rusted up tight. It also didn’t help that it was in the mid-90’s outside and even hotter in the back of Mona with no air moving.
Thankfully, the heat broke today and tomorrow, I finally have time to get to the store to get the pump. Before I go, though, I have a few other things to check. I want to be able to just make one parts run a weekend.
We’ll see how that goes. Heh.
Knowing. And Doing.
Adventures with Mona 