GA_Dave

Happy Birthday!

Sorry I'm late! Happy Birthday!!!

Rest in peace, Sir.

Grandma's was 716-366-6290 and she passed in 1976.

716-366-6426 Disconnected when Dad sold the house in 1993.

We floated the keg at my retirement party!

Sad story. It brings to mind two incidents I responded to during my career. The first was a working structure fire in a house with an attached garage. On arrival, there was heavy black smoke pouring out of a gaping hole in the garage door. A line was taken in the front door to the kitchen and the fire was attacked from the kitchen door to the garage while others removed what was left of the garage door. When the smoke cleared, there sat the remains of a set of dual wheels off a tractor trailer. We later found two spots where the duals had bounced before getting to the garage. Second was a call to injured motorists on the Interstate. We found the car on the shoulder of the road, up against a wall, with the roof caved in down the center. The two ladies inside were somewhat banged up and likely had concussions, but they survived. They had no clue what had hit them until we saw the tire tracks on the roof. The Police located the wheels quite some distance away.

I shot this one Saturday. Tanker 2, Worth County, GA 1982 Mack DM4925/KME A/S-32R-9 250/5000 #1917/#KM-210 x- US Air Force

Big rhubarb fan here. I used to eat it right out of Grampa's garden, one stalk at a time, when I lived in western NY. Down here in Atlanta, we occasionally find it at our local Kroger. Just got a batch on December 29th. The wife used half to make a rhubarb crisp (like apple crisp) and froze the rest for another one in the near future.

All calls to my wife's phone from numbers not in her contact list are blocked and don't ring, but before she did that, she used to answer "Clayton County Sheriff's Department", until one day, it WAS the Clayton County Sheriff's Department! Turns out they were doing a fundraiser and she had donated in the past. When they asked why she had answered that way, she explained that it was a great way to ward off scams. They agreed!

Merry Christmas!

Regular gas here on the south side of Atlanta is $2.68/gallon. Big whoop! The combined increase for the wife and I is about $25/month! We have to take our SS checks to the bank, they are too little to go by themselves!

Congratulations!

So sorry this happened. Hopefully you heal up soon and get back all the feeling/use that you had before. Please keep us posted on your recovery.

It seems pretty quiet around the shop. Here's something to fill the space. This is actually Part Two of the story about my wife's 1988 Chevy Celebrity. At the end of Part One, she was still driving it, but with both passenger side doors crushed in, but still functional. This was the end of August and Part Two starts the following February. One day, we were out running errands in the Celebrity. We were on a four lane road in a commercial district, the wife driving, in the right lane, just cruising along at the speed limit. Suddenly, we get T-boned on the right front fender and door by a young girl coming out of a parking lot in the brand new car Mommy & Daddy had just bought her, while talking on her phone. Thankfully, there were no physical injuries to anyone involved. Damage to both cars was substantial. Once out and looking at the Celebrity, not only had she hit the fender and door, but she had hit the right front wheel, bending that wheel and ripping a 4" hole in the tire's sidewall. We had just put four new tires on the car three days prior. The impact also sheared off the right shaft of the rack & pinion assembly, preventing me from simply putting on the spare tire and driving home. I had a wrecker tow it to my house. The girl was ticketed and I got her insurance info to file a claim. The adjuster showed up three days later, inspected it, and declared that repairing the damage exceeded the value of the car. He told me the insurance company would call me the next day, which they did. They first offered me $1650 to total it, but I had other plans. We agreed that I would keep it and they would send me $1350. While waiting for their check, I began gathering parts. There was a very similar wrecked Celebrity sitting in a local junkyard. The driver's side was wiped out, but the other side was good. I got the fender and both doors for $250. They were even the same color as mine, only the pinstripe was gold where mine was black. No biggie! They also had a rack & pinion for another $50. Finding the correct wheel was quite difficult, but when I finally did, in another junkyard, it only cost me $25. Replacing the ruined tire cost about $100. Less than a week after getting the insurance check, she was back driving her Celebrity, damage free, including the damage from when she hit the rock back in August, and I had over $900 in my pocket! She drove the Celebrity for three more years, but then the transmission began to slip. I sold it for $200, only $50 less than I paid for it four years before.