Saturday 25 April 2009

Petrol Head stuff........... and a rant about bastard weenies (small 'w') :o)

Well, I’ve been neglecting my reader out there, and so I guess there’s no one out There reading this drivel now, which is fine, because this is just a waste gate for the excess boost I run from time to time. I guess that’s why it’s often a rant, negative and seemingly from a Dysfunctional Fuckwit With No Life.

Well, ok maybe there’s some truth in that, but No Life to me is just gazing into space, drinking yourself into oblivion every day, doing drugs until reality doesn’t exist even on a good day, or simply staring at a TV without any signs of life in the windows to the soul. Me, sure, I waste time, but I’m never bored……….. most of what I spend time doing at least involves some cerebral input. :o)

Anyway, I’m making plans as we speak to get outta this winter’s rut, ………and yes, I know it’s been spring for a while now, but you can’t rush these things y’know. Might even get the rut filled in a bit before next winter sinks hard won Summer enthusiasms.

I’ve been spending my money……… bought two MGB engines and gearboxes on Ebay, which had been sat in the grass in a field for five years without a cover of any sort, for a grand total of £11.50. I need to get the Marlin rebuilt, y’see, and one of the mental blocks stopping it kicking off, is the two litre fiat Twin-Cam engine it had fitted, because the damn thing drinks fuel. It’s a gorgeous engine, and the second most tuneable production engine to the Ford Cosworth, because Fiat designed it specifically to be able to modify and uprate for production racing.

When the Marlin was on the road, many moons ago now, I loved driving about in it so much, I’d take it out with any excuse whatsoever, rain or shine, and at around 22mpg, 29mpg driven like an old woman, it was costing a shedload in fuel. It was pretty quick too, having a higher power-to-weight ratio than a Porsche 911, and I’m not to be trusted with that much grunt in a car………. Being a lifelong bikes, I feel soooooo safe in a car. You can’t fall off them y’see?

My thinking is that a MGB unit won’t lead me astray, and I should be able to get 40mpg out of it in a light kit-car.

Anyway…….. bought the two MGB engine/gearbox lumps, (Each hitherto to be known as the ‘Field Units’) and only expecting to get some spares from them, and possibly only from the gearboxes too. Five years out in the rain is a bleddy long time, even for simple lumps of iron like MGB engines!

I took the heads off them both when I got them back here, and got one turning in the end, and found the bores were hardly worn, although one was quite rusted up, and so it would need to be rebored anyway. I think it is actually pretty rebuildable with some elbow grease and effort, But it’s prolly better to stick to Plan A and get another unit from a scrapped car, and one that has been stored in the dry.

I was hoping they’d be overdrive ‘boxes on the Field Units, but no luck…….. they’re not. I was going to strip the crank and heavy stuff out of one of the engine/gearbox lumps and use it for a template to build the car around, and then look for a good engine and overdrive ’box at my leisure. Probably one out of a scrapped MGB complete with all the ancillaries (Carbs, manifolds, alternator, starter motor, ignition cables etc etc.).

Lo and behold, someone at work knows a MGB nut who had such a unit, but for a whole lot more than I was going to spend. It’s supposed to be a very, VERY good unit, and has been reconditioned as the bloke with the car was going to do it up, but gave up after too much time had passed without getting the body finished. He wants a LOT more than I was hoping to spend, BUT if it’s as good as he says, and I have no reason to doubt it, then I guess it’ll be worth it. By the time I end up rebuilding a
better second-hand engine that either of the ‘field’ units, and maybe having to source a lot of the ancillaries, I could spend even more.

The £400 MGB unit in the donor car
Boring ramble tonight eh?

Well, I guess that’s what you get from a Petrol-Head. What are we all going to do when the weenies (small ‘w’) finally get their way and outlaw all that we love? As it is you can go to prison now just for a high speed. I doesn’t matter that it’s on an empty road………. Locked up with the scum and vermin. The police can drive like lunatics……… and yes, I’ve seen some very bad driving from that lot too over the years, and it’s worse now than it used to be, believe it or not. The craziest overtaking I ever saw on a bike was a copper on a bike. I couldn’t believe what I saw at the time. He was relying on the fact that oncoming traffic would commit suicide rather than hit a copper. Before anyone gets fired up, yes MOST are top notch……… but not all I’m afraid. Like everything, there are exceptions. I’ve seen some pretty stupid stuff by ambulances, and especially fire trucks, considering the weight they must be fully laden.

These weenie bastards in charge of everything cannot understand how we like to play around with all this old stuff, bikes or cars, and I’ve heard that the day will come when you’ll be forced to scrap anything over a certain age. They’ve pretty well stopped us crawling over scrapyards in search of that elusive part, and I think I’m right that Brussels would like to scrap the whole scrap yard industry. You need a part………. Buy new. If you can’t get new, then you’re forced to scrap it. We should be making things to be repairable, and these days with computers to design it in, it would be real easy to do……… the reason ‘we’ don’t, is to keep selling us more crap. Mechanics are just fitters these days………… no one fixes anything any more……. Rip the whole thing off, and bolt on a new bit. Bend a few valves on a cylinder head, and you’ll be charged for a complete new head. It’s gone way beyond fucking crazy.

All the politicians feathering their own nests. Fucking control freaks every single one, from jumped up little local councillors to those slimy weenie bastards crawling around Parliament. That fat bastard Prescott for one. I particularly object to that two-faced bully-boy. Face like a Bulldog licking piss off a thistle doesn’t help a whole lot either.

(There, that’s better.) :o)

Still, when has it ever been different.

Mustn’t grumble.

It’s not the British way is it.

I’m wittering again, so I’ll quit. :o)

Y’all take care out there, ………..and remember; never miss an opportunity to fuck up a weenie’s day if you possibly can. .......... It’s always worth the effort

They fuck enough of yours days up.
K. :o)

Thursday 9 April 2009

Life, losing it........and on getting it back.

Just a few lines to at least add something to this blog. Completely blank mind, as per usual, but sometimes if I just start writing, something will happen across the synapses. Trouble is, not much has been happening to me lately, as per the usual, so that doesn’t help a whole lot. I’m someone who really needs to Get A Life, although I have to say it’s harder to do than most people seem to think. The trouble with a Life is that, once you’ve lost it, finding it again, or getting a new one isn't so easy, because they seem to be in damn short supply.

Like everything in life, Reality doesn’t hit until it hits you. Most bad things happen to someone else, and if you're anything like me, when they happen to you, you're always kinda surprised and so, like I said; ....Reality doesn’t hit until it hits you

If you've actually got a Life……… hey, what’s the problem, man?

If you haven’t got a life, you’ll soon be able to tell the asshole/smug bastard/sonofabitch/lucky blighter with a Life, what the problem is! ............. Once you get to be able to figure it out, that is.

Funny thing, life. Maybe it’s the Universal Law applying, that says it takes a lot or energy, power, whatever you want to call it, to move something when it’s stopped, and maybe that ‘law’ applies even to something as unambiguous as ‘Life’.

Yup, anything which is stopped takes far more of that precious energy to get it rolling again, than it takes to keep it rolling once it’s moving. What's more, you’d better have some momentum on board to allow the energy to overcome the bumps, slopes and hills, or you’ll grind to a halt when you hit them, which will need more of that energy, and so on and so on.

Pretty much most of my adult life, once I’d finally learnt some of life’s basic lessons as a late teenager/ early twenties, I’ve always kept a mind to that momentum and had some in reserve to cope with the hills. You have plenty of that energy to overcome the obstacles anyway when you’re young, unless you hit too many cliffs and sheer mountain faces.

I’d always take care of the smallish ho-de-hum daily stuff that can cause problems, or big trouble if enough stacks up on top of the other. Taking care of the money, keys, credit/charge cards, maintenance of my bikes and cars, paying the bills on time, keeping out of debt no matter what I had to go without, maintaining good(ish) health and fitness, keeping in work despite hating what I did most of the time; ………. y’know, standing on my own two feet, and doing all the stuff most people do to avoid their Life grinding to a halt. Or worse…….. breaking down, or crashing into bits.

If you keep on top of it all, it’s not so bad, or so hard to do, BUT if something knocks you off your perch, and if you don’t have the momentum or backup to lever yourself back up to speed, THEN it all becomes a whole new can of worms.

I hit depression as a result of pressures of work………. mostly the result of weenies (small 'w'), Bullshit and Political Correctness, and all the ammunition it gives people with no experience, talent or ability to step all over those who do have these things. With hindsight I realise I’d suffered from depression on and off since late childhood, but it didn’t last long; usually a day or so at the most and not especially debilitating even then. When it did hit me for a good solid length of time, grinding me down no matter how hard I tried to keep going until I finally just couldn’t crawl into work one day, it was a surprise. It wasn’t as bad as it can get by any means, but bad enough that I lost the energy to keep this life moving as smoothly(ish) as it was.

When I was off sick with it, and doped up on those fucking pills that seemed to help only by way of doping me up, then it was all I could do was keep Life going at a slowest crawl. I was on my own with it, and so only the very barest essentials were maintained. Sometimes I wouldn’t even wash for days on end, let alone bath or shower, and as for everything else, .........well forget it.

Although much better now, and back to work now for some three years part time, I have lost all that Vim I once had. Everything’s too much damn trouble home here. I'm doing ok, but only just in the eyes of many 'normal' people. I don't eat well, hardly ever clean the place, although that means as in dusting and hoovering. Nothing's rotting in a corner, or going mouldy in the kitchen. I go to work, and work hard there, but I come home and just grind to a halt as soon as I walk though the door. Like I said........ it's better than it was, and even then not as bad as it CAN get ........... I'm not by any means just sat here looking into space and crying into my beer (I don't drink anyway), …….. I read a lot, and spend time on the computer and Internet, not games and things, but as regards writing the blogs and reading about all the things I’m interested in.

Living alone with no Chick doesn’t help one bit, because if I’m prepared to put up with whatever needs to be done, eat bugger-all food, (as in a good diet), housework, etc etc, then I don’t have to do it. There’s only me here………. although there was Lomax, my kitten, here too, but he disappeared a month ago at seven months old, and I sure do miss the little chap. He was great company, and we were glued to the hip, me and him.

So, with not bothering with this, and not bothering with that, and having few friends who want to do much that involves me, slowly Life erodes and deteriorates until it’s as stripped-down a life as you can have and still resemble someone ‘normal’ with a life.

Don’t misunderstand me here……….. It could be far worse, but it could also be a fuck’s sake better too. ........ it's just bad enough that skies are never as blue, the rain and the cold feels that bit worse, and There is just never enough energy and inspiration to fire you up for much at all.
And, yes, thanks all you smug bastards out there,........... but I do realise it’s my fault, and that only I can get it all going again……… (and I WILL …..soon(ish)),.......... so bugger off back to your Ikea kitchen and your perfect life and do us all a favour.

(Hey! Don't get so pissed......... I was just (kinda) joking around, ok?) :o)

All it would take is the impetus, energy inspiration and initiative to make about 500% more effort, and I’d be back up there bouncing along with the best of them. I can’t explain it, but the nearest I can get to explaining it is by saying that it’s like an invisible wall you just can’t get over, under, around or through, and you just can’t see why not either.

Bit like a housefly on a hot day, hammering against a glass window and trying to get out. I often watch them and feel sorry for the little blighters. .............. (That'd be just before I kill them spectacularly dead with a Ikea magazine then!)

(Did you see what I did there, eh???) :o)

Still, what keeps me going, and moving towards cracking it, is the fact that you never know what’s around the corner, …….. as my dear old Daddy used to say.

That little hedgehog didn’t know someone was going to find him, did he? ………he’s one very lucky hedgehog, because she’s going to be the backup that gets him back up to speed again. I sure hope so anyway.

OK, that’s gotta be it, or I’ll be here all day……… I finally got the Muse, and got going, y’see?

If you’ve got a life, and especially if it’s a Good One, (Complete with that Ikea kitchen and the perfect kids) then take real good care of it.

The worst thing you can do is think it can never happen to you…………. falling off your Last Twig, that is. One minute you're surrounded by thick leafy branches, and the next all you can hear is that last twig breaking.................. and the echo of a sudden yell on the long way down.

If you're real lucky, the most precious thing you have is your Woman or your Man……….. Take THAT for granted at your peril.

I know……….. because I once did.

Bye, bye y'all

K.xxx :o)