Today I Learned (TIL)

F&T is a reasonable substitute for a G&T.

F being Fresca.

TIL that I get to do head gaskets on a timing chain Audi V8.

Whee. I wasn't busy enough as it is.

No rest for the what now?

(Four weeks later: Knurled, flush with Stockholm Syndrome, buys a B6 S4)

In reply to Knurled: Considering my next potential purchase I may need your services

dean1484 wrote: F&T is a reasonable substitute for a G&T. F being Fresca.

TIL: Pizza made on the grill is absolutely amazing. Not quite as good as a wood fired oven, but a very close second-place.

TIL that in a pinch, ground up Raisin Bran can NOT be used as a proper breading substitute for oven-fried chicken.

YUK.

Til people still wear socks with sandals

TIL that Eddie Angel of Los Straitjackets used to play guitar in my buddy's mom's band, the Dynettes, in the DC area circa 1982.

Today I learned several things. CRC Thread cutting fluid is foamy, and makes cutting welds with a sawzall EASY.

Tractor supply staff Don't care that the pounds of nuts and bolts I bought are different, they charge the same price for everything. Including 2lbs of grade 5 hardware for the grade 2 price.

I still haven't learned that it's cheaper to buy than to build when I'm involved. Stay tuned, interesting build thread coming this week.

EvanR wrote: TIL that in a pinch, ground up Raisin Bran can NOT be used as a proper breading substitute for oven-fried chicken. YUK.

Corn flakes, on the other hand, are amazing.

In reply to dean1484:

Gin and Freshy is a very acceptable thing to quaff. Makes sense, Fresca/Freshy is grapefruit soft drink. Yum. But keep it to the cheaper gin, I think.

TIL that it is hard to watch your son get loaded onto a lifeflight helicopter while knowing it's a 2.5 hr drive to get to him.

Wait, whaaa? Damn man. That's tough. So sorry about this.

In reply to T.J.:

How's he doing? I can't imaging going through that.

He is finally in surgery. Waiting now. Haven't slept and I'm too old for all nighters. Had an interesting time here at UNC Chapel Hill. We will not be coming back. Everything should be ok. VP shunt failure and it is getting revised.

Hope all goes well in surgery and that he recovers quickly TJ. Not a good way to spend the holiday for sure.

In reply to T.J.:

Fingers and toes crossed for your boy, you and your family!

Unrelated, but the reason I came here to post. I learned today that I can apparently go to the post office and pick up items without actually leaving the house or actually getting the item:

https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction?tLabels=9405515901210810052264

So its "out for delivery" at 9:00am and somehow its "Delivered, Individual Picked Up at Postal Facility" at 9:53am? Yeah, bullE36 M3. Someone at the post office just stole my new "GoPro" knock off and I'm not happy about that.

In reply to T.J.:

Fingers crossed for you and your family.

In reply to Stefan:

I have had similar weird tracking info on stuff I have ordered from Amazon. I had a dude pull in my drive at 8pm one night, no uniform, his personal car (full of packages) and I asked him about it. He said he was a subcontractor for the post office and the tracking gets updated as "delivered" when he picks the packages up at the post office since they don't let him have a scan tool on his route. Seemed legit.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

I've had those guys show up before and I have relatives that have worked for the Post Office for decades, I don't remember seeing that on anything I've tracked through USPS.

Either way, it was in town on Wednesday. Its now Monday and nothing has arrived at my doorstep. I'm not pleased.

TIL that I don't have to do head gaskets on a timing chain Audi V8 ( whew ) but I do have to do timing chains on a transverse GM 3.6. I've done longitudinals and it is way easier to get everything lined up than people make it out to be, it's just that for a transverse you have to unbolt the drivetrain and lift the truck off of it in order to get the proper access.

By this time next month we will be in our new building. Seven plus one bays instead of four, twin post in-ground lifts instead of two twin post above ground, one drive-on, and one rollaround. I am seriously hoping that we can reschedule the guy for sometime in August, because one of our twin posts is permanently tied up with two project cars and I don't want to kill the only other really-useful bay with a job that might span a couple days if we find some "whileyou'reintheres". Which is likely.

Also, TIL that just because parts are available for aircooled VWs doesn't mean they aren't complete garbage that doesn't fit and needs a lot of fiddling and fettling in order to actual function as intended. At least, I am assuming that VW Transporters did not have an inch of air gap at the top of their roll-down windows.

Between this, the dune buggy I did a bunch of remedial assembly/repair/tuning stuff to last month, and the late 70s convertible that I replaced an alternator on last month, more and more I want to hug my Mom for not letting me buy an ACVW when I was 16. (Replacing the alternator on a L-Jet Beetle is waaaay more involved than it really should be)

TIL DON'T touch the spool when you're trying to feed it into the liner and pull the trigger. Something transmits electricity through the welding wire and it doesn't feel good.

In reply to RevRico:

I laughed. Sorry but I couldn't help myself.

Thanks all for the thoughts, prayers and well wishes. We are back home. Surgery went fine. Now to keep him from pulling off the dressing and/or the staples in his scalp. I both live and despise neurosugeons. I love that they exist but despise the fact that we meed them.