Goose. Yeah, I can't fool youse guys... that's only me. Gus is a myth. Maybe someday, far off in the future, I will be too. I got to sleep late last night, and then I didn't sleep worth a damn anyways. Donno why, that's just the way things are sometime. I got up at 09:00, though, and went to the only open parts store in town and got the brake shoes. I seriously thought about going back to bed, but I didn't... just went out and went to work. Dirty, frustrating work, but I got it done. Five hours, instead of the six that I thought it would be. I ran into some unexpected trouble... well, it wasn't really unsuspected, but something that my mind had been avoiding. One of the wheel cylinders is leaking, which means that it needs to be replaced. And replacing it means that I need to do exactly what I did today... again. Only this time instead of replacing the shoes, I replace they cylinder. The problem is... you don't just replace one cylinder, you have to replace them all. Because with one good one, all of the others will fail pretty quickly. Sad but true. That will wait for another weekend, though. And the next time, I will have had experience, I should be able to do all four wheels in about four hours, I think. The master cylinder is iffy... I might not have to replace it. I hope not... it actually looks like it's been replaced relatively recently. Then, the next project on the truck is the clutch, which is really a piece of cake. Well, OK, not really, but it is fairly simple, just requires muscles to get the transmission out and back in. But that's something that I've done before, at least. Although it's been a while. But I don't want to think about that right now, I just want to let my body rest for a while here. While I was working on the truck, I remembered that I still hadn't put the new license plate on... it has been sitting in the window ever since I got it, since I couldn't get the old one off. When I tried before, I'd soaked the bolts and nuts with WD-40, so I thought that it would be easy to get them loose now. Well, one came loose with no problem, but the other wouldn't. The old bolts were in the top, so I got some new short bolts and nuts and attached the new plate to the old one using the bottom holes. Karen's over at Matts swimming, then she's going to go to the store and get laundry stuff... we're all out of almost everything. When she gets back, I'm gonna find the iron and set up an ironing board in the laundry room. I haven't ironed anything for, say, ten years or more. I'm gonna have to start doing that, bleaching and starching my tops and ironing my shirts... I'm kinda liking dressing nicely, not wearing scrubs alla time. I usta have to wear a suit and tie to work, but those days are over! Not that it was that bad... well, at the time, I didn't know any better, I guess. I was trying to be a good little corporate monkey. It didn't work. It's another beautiful day, although it's a little warm, somewhere around 90F, I think. Nice breeze, though. No chance of rain until about Tuesday. Need to water the grass... but first, I need to fertilize... I better go do that now. Monday. Tomorrow I'll be running the old machine in radiotherapy, I'm not really looking forward to that at all. They will have started scheduling exams on a regular basis over there, something that they've not done in the past because of lack of personnel. I'll just be doing non-contrast exams, though, but still... it's an older, slower machine, and I really like the new one. We do rotate assignments on a daily basis, though, so it's not like I'll be stuck over there forever... 17:40... O'yeah... by being a mechanic, I'm trying to make myself feel good about not being able to grow grass...
Grease.
Gus.
Brown.
Is comin' to Town.
And today I got Karen to take a picture of ol' Gus hisself.
Just talked to Mom, she seemed to be doing OK. It'll be the middle of July before I get down there, I'm afraid, but I really do want to see her. I miss her a lot more every time after I talk to her... OK, time to get that fertilizer going, then the water...