Monday, April 30, 2007

My oh my, how time flies when you're not having any fun. But after talking with a certain someone, and receiving a gentle tug on the ear, I thought I'd better pop my head up and say Hi.



As to the reason(s) for my absence, it was just more of the same ol', same ol'. Feeling like something the cat coughed up, weather so lousy I couldn't spend any time fussin' with the Bear, and figuring (wrongly it seems) that you were getting tired of my nattering.

Saturday morning the rains finally stopped, the sun showed up, and I was over there happily doing my thing. Although the ground was still wet I didn't care, coveralls on, grease gun and a few tools in hand, and under the beast I went. All of the frustrations of the week were gone, I was back in my element, and it felt great!

Not only did I grease it, boy did I ever!, but changed the oil and filters (oil and gas). Also changed the oil in the differential and checked for any metal shavings. All is well.

While under there I was able to check out the exhaust system, u-joints, and steering components. Again, all is well. The only things I found that needed attention were a heater hose showing signs of wear, that I replaced, and a power steering connection getting a bit weepy. Took it apart, cleaned the threads, wrapped them with Teflon tape, and mechanically at least, the Bear is ready to go truckin'. YeeHaw!!

I've still got a few things I want to do, but it's looking like 2 weeks from today, May 14, will be blast off time. Since time is on my side, if the weather is nasty I'll hold off a bit so that I can at least start the trip without fighting the elements. Once under way it won't much matter.

I'm going to wimp out this morning and not answer your comments from last week, but please know that each and every one is appreciated. I've said it ad nauseum, but it bears repeating, you're a great bunch of people that I feel privileged to "know". Every time I get a little down, for whatever reason, I realize that I'm not alone. Sure I have family, but in a lot of ways you, my blog family, are equally important. Lesson learned!

Hope you all (y'all for you Murcans) have a good week, and I'll see ya tomorrow with at least a hey-howdy. Aw heck, how about a joke, courtesy of Jim.

When Neil got back from Manitoba last week he had a bunch of Canadian dollars he needed to exchange, so he went to the currency exchange window at the local bank. Just one guy in front of him....an Asian guy who was trying to exchange yen for dollars and he was a little irritated!

He asked the teller, "Why it change?? Yestoday, I get two huna yen fo dolla. Today I get huna eighty?? Why it change?"

The teller shrugged her shoulders and said, "Fluctuations".

The Asian guy says, "Well, fluc you white people too!"

Trucker Bob blogged at 3:02 AM

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