So, it’s been a busy and at times stressful (still going on) ol’ time here at Chez Us.
The larder is, actually, floored. I do still need to throw some white paint on the door frame, but that’s it. I’m really pleased with it. The DAF which has been up for sale for 2 weeks and garnered no interest at all (I would take some pictures, but they’re seriously depressing) – I may have to fix it and e-bay it. I’ll throw a coat of white paint on it too.
Today marked, however, a genius moment. Inspiration and understanding (of a sort) struck. My bike has been limping up and down the motorway at 60 mph. Odd, I thought, since the engine’s just rebuilt and it’s all new and shiny. I’d been thinking to myself – perhaps the timing is off. Maybe the mixture’s wrong. Perhaps it needs a hotter plug. Then today it struck me.
I was riding along this morning contemplating the drizzle falling on me, my cold arse, and the fact that I really could fancy having a bike with a decent saddle, and also perhaps a bike with third gear, when I thought…
‘What could cause my bike to perform in a very similar manner to my old bike’?
I’d thought this before and then brushed such silly thoughts aside with the fact that this is a newly rebuilt engine and gearbox (never mind the missing third gear, natch). That the electrics, electronics and such are entirely different. That it doesn’t burn gearbox oil, and nor does petrol find it’s way into the lubricating areas of the gearbox.
And then the little tiny 10 watt bulb that is, on occasion, my brain lit up. It sparkled dimly in the dirt grey sky that was the morning.
The fracking carb. The carb came off my old bike because the carb that was on the new engine, that I knew worked with the new engine was blocked and I couldn’t figure out where. And I thought ‘well, I wanted to use the Bing carb (off my old bike) anyway because it’s better than the BvF carb (from the new bike). Gah.
So, nights off, I shall have to see if I can make the BvF carb work and thence fit it and see if I can go places quicker.
The stress, however, hasn’t really come from this. It’s come from a potential visit to the civil claim court being organised by the current possessor of my mum’s EV. We took it to him for some work, when it got there he stated it would ‘probably’ be beyond his original quote so we agreed that he would take out the controller, examine the rest of the vehicle and come back with a revised quote. This he did. Then it all starts to go the shape of a pear. We said stop, he didn’t, and now he wants money for work that he won’t warranty and so far has declined to tell me where the car actually is so that we can retrieve it. I’ve had to fork out for legal advice now, and now I understand where we’re at, I’ve got to get the EV on Sunday. So that’s a whole bundle of fun coming.
And after the disaster that was the Charles Ware ‘restoration’ (the front has outdone the back in terms of being actually dangerous*) I’ve restarted the process of taking them to the small claims court. This is less than relaxing for me… I’ve contacted Watchdog about them this time…
Anyhow.
In other news I’ve been playing with Delicious Library – in an attempt to achieve the utopian state of being in a bookstore and being able to find out if I’ve got any particular obscure tome I’m looking at. While I only really need it for ‘series’ (like xxxHolic, Discworld, the VI Warshawski / Sara Paretsky novels, etc, etc) I’ve been working through entering all the books we own (yes, seriously) into it. Annoyingly the iPhone plugin has been removed by Amazon (DAMN THEM!) which is funny because I could be easily persuaded into buying more books that way. I hope that changes, but for the meantime I’ll be abusing a little corner of my website at some point. I need, of course, to do some upgrades to the underbelly of pyoor, but hopefully once that’s done we’ll be ready to rock and roll with a searchable book and eventually music and film database.
Finally, in news, my Nursing Registration in Canada is slowly progressing, my CV is updated and needs proofreading and then I’ll be sending it off. It’s all becoming a bundle of scary (I mean exciting).
* Bulkhead tie plates not welded at all – just seam-sealed to the tie plates; flitch panel just tack-welded to A post area. Whole hinge pillar flopping about like a goldfish out of water**, chassis legs incorrectly welded – and cracked as a result, the sill was an inch out of alignment… etc, etc…
** Explains the hinge breaking, the whole pillar had moved.
