yeah, I'm a slacker

I'll have my Crown Vic on the road again soon. Yeah, It's ugly as sin, but I think it will be a very reliable vehicle with a new tranny. I originally wanted to put the engine in my Ranger, but I wanted it to go in with fuel injection, but Harmon doesn't feel comfortable doing it. He's more old school like that. So, if I want him to do the V-8 conversion, it has to be carbed.

I'e been told the Mustang GT is an ideal match, but darn hard to find a whole car that is worth it as a parts donor. I have actually seen one of these and talked to the man that did it. "Not too easy, but not as hard as you'd think for a whole custom swap. Almost everything matched up perfectly." And it was a beast, too.

Since I'm on a junkyard budget, I'll wait untill the perfect deal comes up. I missed out on a perfect 302 for $100 dollars.....oh well. That project will need to wait abit, I suppose. If I can hold off on buying a car, I might try to get a motorcycle. They are much cheaper on gas after all.

Resolutions....

Last year, I resolved to take up reading books again. Sadly, I say again, but I've never been a big reader. I'm an excellent reader, but I never really had the time. Last year, before my house burned down, I was reading Interview with the Vampire. I have yet to find the book again so I have not picked it back up. Before Christmas, I picked up Dune, Herbert Walker's sci fi masterpiece. I didn't have much time to dive into it and honestly, it can be a rough plow at first. I'm over half way through and finding my self upset that in less than a week, I'll be done. I like to savor the text. I allow the words to soak in and give me a deep, vivid mental image. I usually only read in bed, I might need to change that ritual, give myself an hour or so before bed time to read. When reading myself into mental exhaustion, I fall into dreamy sleep. I like that the most.

Last night I slipped into a dream of walking the deep desert of Arrakis. I stayed to the rocky areas and watched the great worms in the distance. One was being ridden by a Fremen to some unknown, hidden sietch.

I'm slowly hacking away at my spare bedroom/ junkpile. I planned on geting into shape and being more organized this year. When the room is cleaned out, I'll be more organized and I'll convert it into a workout room. Working on two at once.....

The last one was school. I procrastinated to the point that I need to re-apply for financial aid, but I did apply, my trasncript request has been filled. Now I'll re-do my aid papers as soon as my new W-2's come in. By the second week in February, I'll be done with it all. Then, in two years......I'll be 34 and I'll have all the tools at my disposal to carve out a decent life for myself.

favored cars

I'm having to do the car scramble this year. Not a fun thing, but the Honda is falling appart at the seams and Isn't really worth fixing. I was hoping to do something decent with it, but it just won't happen now. I'm not close enough to a solution on the ranger. So with little less than a few hundred I can throw at the problem, and not really being in a "make payments" stage of finance. I'm going to put a tranny in my old '91 Crown Vic police cruiser and drive it for awhile. It's big, ugly, and beat up....everything execpt the motor, that is. It has a fine EFI 5.0, and the interior is not too bad either. With a decent stereo, I could drive it a few years.

I have owned/ had regular use of the following vehicles in my life.

1. 1966 Oldsmobile 442. My first car. It was a cool old muscle car that was too much of a project the day it was bought. Unfortunately, it was a great source of grief. My Dad and I referred to it as a "thosemobile" since it was an odd model that you could not find parts for.

2. 1979 Monte Carlo. This was actually my mom's car, but I drove it alot while waiting for parts for the thosemobile. I did like this car alot.

3. 1982 Ford conversion van. My Grandad's pimp ride. It was a heaving hunk of garbage that he let me borrow from time to time. It was a rolling motel. Perfect for teenage dating. Personally, I'd kill the boy that drove up to pick up my daughter in a van knowing what I know now.

4. 1979 Datsun B210 hatchback. My mom's paper car, and my back & forth car after keeping up the Old's was too much.

5. 1987 Nissan 300 zx. A very sweet ride. I liked this car the most of all.

6. 1983 Datsun 280zx. "ghettolicious" just called ghetto for short, mostly because it looked like a ghetto, toren to shreds, scary-looking, and illegal. It had an exaust leak in the car and I may have suffered brain damage from the carbon monoxide, but past that it was the fastest car I've owned.

7. 1982 Datsun 210 sedan. As big of a piece of crap as this car was, I loved it. Super cheap on gas (35 +). Alas, if I had the money to upkeep this car, I'd prolly still have it today.

8. 85 & 89 sentra project. I bought two Nissan Sentras for under $300 and wanted to "make a car" one had a great body, the other had a great engine. I messed up the wiring harness. Other wise, I did good. But the car project was a failure.

9. 92 Crown Victoria. I bought this car for $600

10. 91 Crown Vic. A monsterously powerful ex-cop car that has a bad tranny.

11. 1985 Honda Accord. This should be an awesome car....but it's an awesome disaster.

12. 1985 Ford Ranger shortbed. A fixer upper that was a hit and victim then burned down. A shame too, it had great potential....

13. 1985 Ford Ranger longbed. Undaunted, I bought a $200 project truck. I've not done too much with yet.

14. 1980 Honda CB650. My first motorcycle. It was garbage, but I loved it.

15. 1983 Honda Magna 750. A very fast bike indeed.

16. 1996 Honda Magna Deluxe. This was my only brand new vehicle. I sold it to afford college and I miss it dearly.

I promised myself 2 things. When I get my BA degree, I'm buying a new car, then I'm buying a motorcycle.