RowdyRebel

When I was younger (still in high screwl), I used to aspire to own a Lamborghini some day. Then my grandma read in the newspaper about a car dealership a little ways away that had some "exotic" cars...one of which was a Diablo....and I musta been a good kid back then, because she took me out there to see it up close & in person. The salesmen were cool...even let me (15 at the time...learners permit in hand) sit behind the wheel of it on their showroom floor. It was then that I realized I could never drive one....even if I won the lottery and had the money to buy one, I couldn't drive it. You see, my right foot covered up all 3 pedals at the same time. Neither leg could be fully extended, and it was worse with my left leg, which was further limited by the wheel well. It was a good thing the steering wheel was rather small, because it was wedged between my knees. The center console was high & in the way...had to tuck my elbow into my rib cage to get my hand on the shifter. Even with the door wide open, I felt like a sardine squished in that seat. It was a $275,000 piece of crap this 15 year old child was already too big to fit inside. Damn...that was more than half my life ago...and I've only gotten bigger & less flexible since then. I don't know if I could even get into the seat anymore....such a tight squeeze back then and all. Give me an old pickup truck any day...plenty of room to stretch out & be comfortable. Ugly as sin, but reliable as an old dog...and if anything major happens to it, it can be replaced for less than a month's savings.

eh...just weld 'er up, grind 'er smooth, and bolt 'er back together.

I've been waiting to be harrassed in my F250....it's a '96 and USED to have a shoulder strap. I had broke my collar bone a few years before I bought it, and it didn't exactly heal right. The bones overlap a little right where that shoulder strap rubs. My old '86 Ranger you could pull the shoulder strap out a little and it would stay loose...so it wasn't TOO bad....but the F250 had constant pressure right on the tender spot where the bones weren't right. So, it was either stop wearing the silly thing, or pull the shoulder strap belt out and move the center lap belt over to the driver's position. I talked to several state & local cops about my plans to do that to make sure it would still be legal if I were pulled over (seat belt laws here were still secondary laws back then...they had to pull you over & write you for something else before they could do anything about the seat belt or lack thereof) and each and every one of them said the law only says that you have to wear a seat belt....says NOTHING about a shoulder strap. I looked up the law for myself, and they weren't lying....so out with the OEM 3-point seat belt. Center lap belt moved over. Center belt out of the Ranger moved to the center of the F250 (since the Ranger is in pieces in my garage waiting for a cab replacement & drive train upgrades). Now that Illinois & a lot of other states are "primary" enforcement, I've been waiting to get pulled over because it doesn't LOOK like I'm wearing my seat belt. I just make sure I leave it on until the officer is standing there talking to me & asks for my registration, insurance, and registration. Can't reach the glove box to get the papers with the seat belt on....so I figure I'll try, be restrained by the seat belt, and let them watch me remove it so that I can get to my paperwork. Hasn't happened yet....but I'm sure it will. Those Texas troopers are an observant bunch, though. Hell, it was dusk a few years ago...had just turned my headlights on a few miles back when my bird dog started hollering at me. Checked my speed & I was at a GPS-verified 65 mph night time speed limit up there on 82. Met a state trooper going the other way & he flips around and pulls me over. Why? NO LICENSE PLATE LIGHT!!! During the stop, he noticed my empty holster & asked for my gun...which was being legally transported (unloaded & in the case on the seat next to me)...asked several questions about it like if it was registered (which I told him "HELL NO! Registration in Illinois is only required in Shitcago....and I live about as far from there as a person can without crossing a state line.") He took it back to his car to run the number & make sure it wasn't stolen before giving it back & sending me on my way. Funny thing about that was after all the attention he gave the pistol, he didn't say a damn thing about the shotgun in the rack in the back window.....

It'll be a cold day in Hell before I run e-logs. When I take an overnight road trip or during these "safety blitz" periods, I ditch the company-issued staple-bound carbon-paper log book and instead fill out store-bought carbonless loose leaf log pages. I only carry the current day & 7 previous...minimum required under the regs...unless I'm able to claim the 100 air mile radius exemption in which case I won't admit to carrying ANY log book. I like the carbonless logs, because it ensures the "copy" is as legible as you're going to get with anything but a brand new piece of carbon paper....but if the carbon paper is TOO new, it can rat you out for redrawing a day or two's pages to make everything look good. I like the loose-leaf logs because it is easy to ONLY carry the current day & the 7 previous days. Anything older gets removed. I also only keep the original page for the current day in the book. Once the day is over, only the copy remains in the book. ...and a little known fact, if you typically run under the 100 air mile exemption, you do not need to carry any documentation. If you happen to venture outside of the 100 air mile radius, you do NOT have to draw up log book pages for the previous days when you were operating under the exemption...you only have to have pages for the days you were ineligible to claim the exemption. In other words, if you typically run local and happen to get an overnight run that goes a little past the 100 air-mile radius, you only need log book pages for the days you venture out. The "7 previous" rule does not apply to you because you were exempt from having to maintain a RODS on those days. I love my day cab. It is SOOOOOOOOO much easier to convince an officer that you typically run under the 100 air-mile exemption if you do not have a sleeper on your truck. http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.aspx?reg=395.1&guidence=y&keyword=school%20bus%20drivers Gotta know the rules before you can bend 'em to your favor.

Well, now that I've safely made it home again, I'll come right out and say it: I didn't really see much at all going on. Couple trucks stopped here or there....could count 'em all on 1 hand, though. I didn't really do anything out of the ordinary....ran the back roads & avoided the scales which is S.O.P. for me. With my luck, though, I'll get harassed tomorrow because they'll be out in full force to catch all the neer-do-well's who sat at home the last 3 days to avoid the blitz.

My 1st gun purchase was a Springfield Armory M1 Garand...serial # places the manufacture date around 1954. Seeing as how it is only a .30, it is also my smallest gun. 2nd gun was a Springfield Armory WWII mil-spec 1911. Two of the finest fighting guns ever made.

I've got a 1983 Craftsman GT/18 that's been on it's last leg for about 3 years now.....could use a new motor under the hood.

If I had the money to buy it myself, I wouldn't need y'all ta send it to me...

...well if everybody has that kinda money layin' around to give me, whats with the delay? Send me the money so I can go buy that truck already!!!

Dammit. I need $55,000 ASAP. Anyone got that kinda money layin' around to give me?

When I want a burger, I go to Show-Me's

...I don't have a car. That means I can eat anything I want to, right?

That was just a couple years ago....Feb '09 http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-2358958.html

That all depends. If the bike were merely chained to the tree, still sitting on the ground, then no....that would not happen. Unlike critters (who's body's & limbs all stretch out & grow proportionally), a tree puts on new growth only at the tips of the branches, as well as growing existing branches thicker. What that means is that a sign nailed to a tree 3 feet from the ground will still be 3 feet from the ground in 100 years. Likewise, a bicycle chained to the tree on the ground would not be lifted into the air as the tree "grew", but would remain on the ground. However, if the bicycle had been placed into a notch in the tree (between 2 branches), as the tree branches grew thicker over the years they would grow right around the bicycle to the point where the bicycle was like that in the photograph. So, while the photograph of the bicycle in the tree is probably real, the story probably isn't.

http://video.foxnews...ntcmp=obnetwork 30 year old mother of 8 died of a heart attack.... ....she drank 2-1/2 gallons of Coca-Cola & smoked about 30 cigarrettes every day.... ...and ate very little... Apparently, she was getting plenty of exercise, though....

I've always been quite fond of the blonde, myself...

http://www.cmt.com/v...9/pontoon.jhtml Happy Memorial Day, y'all!

The facts indicate otherwise:

The EPA required this BS technology, thereby increasing the purchase cost of a new truck. The required equipment adds weight to the truck, thereby decreasing it's payload and thereby cutting the earning potential you'll have with the new truck. Then, to top it all off, it costs more per mile to operate. I discovered that little tidbit clicking around on Mack's website when I found this: http://macktrucks.com/assets/mack/calculator/index.htm Since I don't know what numbers to plug in, I just went with the ones they had pre-filled into the fields... Turns out the more expensive truck that you can't haul as much paying freight is also going to cost you $1190.77/year more to keep fueled & SCR'd up. ...so where is the alleged "benefit" to buying a new truck? And they wonder why sales are down and the average age of trucks on the road is increasing.

The deficits didn't really start increasing until the Democrats took over the congress in Jan '07. That was when the economy began to stall...when the DEMOCRATS were the ones controlling the legislature and the spending. Then, when Obama was elected in November 2008, the economy began to tank as businesses and individuals hunkered down for what they KNEW was coming. How did they know? Obama told us himself. Between his voting record while in the Illinois legislature to his brief tenure in the US Senate...the man had a record of being vehemently opposed to all things American. Like the saying goes, "God, Guns, and Guts made us free"...and Obama doesn't like any of them. As for the union endorsement, it comes as no surprise to me. Hell, the UMWA endorsed him in 2008 even after he promised to bankrupt the coal industry through EPA regulations. Well, he's doing a fine job at that. The cost for anyone to meet the strict EPA regulations regarding coal fired plants has caused many to switch to natural gas. This puts mine workers out of work. It puts truck drivers out of work. It puts railroad operators out of work. It puts plant employees out of work, because the natural gas is piped in...so they don't need the personell around to keep feeding the coal into the hoppers. It also puts people at the limestone quarries and lime kilns out of work, because the coal plants that have switched to natural gas no longer need the limestone for their scrubbers. So, by "bankrupting the coal industry", he's put mineworkers, steel workers, pipefitters, teamsters, railworkers, and any other union involved in the mining, movement, and use of coal out of work....and yet the union bosses continue to endorse this POS president. The union bosses don't give a flying four letter F word about the rank & file. They are in it for themselves and no one else. Obama knows he couldn't do much in regards to guns in his first term. This was why his administration undertook Operation Fast & Furious to CREATE a problem and sway public opinion so that he would be able to get his agenda passed. His administration is also pursuing international treaties which would severely restrict our Constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms because he knows that the legislation would not pass. The gun issue was one of the FEW he actually showed up to vote whenever legislation came up....and his vote was ALWAYS against the freedom of law-abiding citizens to exercise their Constitutional rights. And another thing: There are fewer people working today than when Obama took office. The reported unemployment rate is only dropping because they are playing with the numbers. If you are unemployed for too long, you are no longer counted as unemployed. If you are underemployed, again, you are not counted in the number. If they were reporting the actual unemployment rate accurately, it would be well into the double digits....not the low 8% that is being reported. The Republicans were trying to fix the problems with Freddie and Fannie back in 2001, but they were blocked by the likes of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and other Democrats in congress. Nope. There was no housing bubble.

Ever since I hit that deer last spring, the front left bumper bracket has been cracked. It hasn't really been a problem...just more of an annoyance, since that side of the bumper would shimmy & shake as the truck sat there running. It didn't rattle or anything, just sat there wiggling. Well, I FINALLY (a year later) got around to removing the 5 bolts to pull the bracket off the truck. I drilled a hole in the end of the crack and ground a groove along the crack. I noticed more cracks, so I cut a piece of angle iron to reinforce the square tube part of the bracket. I cut off an old reinforcement made by the previous owner of the truck and cleaned up those welds...which also allowed me to have better access to where I was going to be welding. When I was satisfied that it was all ready to go back together, I started welding. Last thing I did was put their little extra bracket back on and weld that up. I thought about adding another extra strip or two of flat steel to reinforce the cracked part....but decided against it. If it cracks again, I'll just weld 'er back together again. Bumper is held on good & tight now....ready for that stupid deer I've seen every day this week about 10 miles north of the house. Recently found out that those trucks that have the grille guard bolted to the bumper have the grille mounted to the radiator, NOT to the hood.....might try modifying my hood & grille to be like that (since the grille is only held in with 4 bolts & 2 heavy duty zip ties...the rest of the holes on the hood are ripped out). Shouldn't be too hard...fabricate up a bracket that will hold the grille & trim the hood to clear the grille. Then I can weld up a grille guard & bolt it on there. ...of course that might take me another year or two to get around to doing that. I'm just glad the bumper bracket is FINALLY fixed.

I'd put the truck in neutral, use another truck to charge the air tanks so that you can release the brakes, and roll it back away from the tree so that you can at least check all of the fluids (if not drain/replace them) before you try to fire that thing up. Hell, I could check/top off all of my fluids Sunday night and I'll STILL open the hood to double check everything before I fire it up Monday morning. Never know what might have happened overnight...let alone over the course of 11 years! That "oil" might be pretty nasty after all this time, and who knows whether or not some part of the cooling system rotted through and pissed out all of the antifreeze....or some knucklehead might have showed up overnight to remove a drain plug....never know. Always better to be safe than sorry.....check those fluids!

Who needs "winter" to do that? I've done that in the snow, gravel, mud, grass...and in a couple of my pickups, even on dry pavement! Every vehicle I own (including my motorcycle & the Mack) has been powerslid through some slop at one point or another....