The Monsoon Season just won't end....and getting the 77 Buick back on the road

A lot of wind, a bit of sunshine....but with more rain on the horizon for the next 3 days...things are not going to dry out at all, in the near future.  40 years ago Creedence Clearwater Revival lamented this very situation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIPan-rEQJA

Great song from the greatest Rock and Roll era...

But it doesn't answer or solve the problem.  Rain!

I have seen a few springs like this, cold and wet...1981 and the months March through June were wet and miserable...the Spring of 82 was not much better...1996 was awful, and as I mentioned on an earlier posting.  1974, while not that wet, was cold right on through late June...April, May, and most of June, saw very few days with normal temperatures or anything approaching them.  Don't get me wrong, come July and August, I enjoy low humidity days with plenty of sunshine and temps 10 degrees or so below normal...but April, I just want it to dry out, and some sun to peak out on occasion.

Needless to say baseball was a complete wash around these parts yesterday...although not confirmed, I suspect today, despite this brief respite from the downpours, will be as well.  Games later are already being canceled, due to league make up games....my schedule is a mess, and likely won't get much better for the foreseeable future.

In addition to the small disaster the rains have caused our local baseball, the lawn mowing is getting a huge setback...and the lawns here and at mom's may require a bale machine to get into...waster, especially at mom's place is sitting in the yard, unlike anything I have seen before.  Sure, you get some standing water during heavy thunderstorms...but this constant rain over a period of weeks, has the ground unable to accept anything in the way of seeping into the ground.  But Mother Nature is the boss, and we, for better or worse, are just along for the ride.  With the long distance games being called off, as much as I enjoy umpire work, I cannot really feel bad about the loss of money...because, I'm not losing much...gas is crawling or rather shooting over $4 bucks a gallon...$4.17.9 is what they say for regular in eastern Indiana, coming today to west central Ohio.  If I recall the Kenyan man-child named Obama was calling for Bush's head when prices soared to $1.80 a gallon back in late 2008...so I ask, why is the left wing lap dog media so silent now that their big eared boy is in charge?  Riddle me that!

So despite games being rained out at an alarming rate...with gas prices through the roof...I'm not losing much money it seems....

Yesterday I did get to work some on the Buick in the garage during the rains...but after nearly 2 days of off and on battery charging with my high power charger, the batter still is dead...so it appears first things first...a new battery to try to get the 1977 Buick Landau back on the road...

The 1977 Buick Landau...a little history____

I guess I should give a little history of this particular Buick...

Oldest son, Sam purchased it back in 1999 when he was 18....it had but 48,000 miles on it, was in pristine condition, and he drove the big land cruiser around the lower 48 and into Canada for a few years....the problem was Sam, like most 18 year old people, had no clue how to take care of a car...especially a classic car.   And apparently he didn't know, or remember, that when the red OIL light came on, you needed to stop the car, and call somebody to tow it in.  Instead, while I was off driving RVs around the country in my retirement gig, the light came on in the Buick...and Sam, needing to finish business, drove it anyway....needless to say the results were not good.  So when I returned, I listened to him complain about the "piece of junk"...then handed him a check for the balance he owed(about $1800), and had it towed to repair the major engine damage...another $1800.  So it is about a decade later, and my $3600 investment sits in the garage, the last time I had it out on the road was back in 2005.

This big block Buick is what our Kenyan asshole in the White House would call a "Clunker".  No Barry, you useless bastard, it is a Classic...you are the "Clunker".  So, with the Jeep in need of work, the Intrepid gone, in favor or Patricia's newly purchased Dodge Nitro(which she drove to work for the first time today), I have decided to see if it's worth the time, money, and effort to get the big Buick back on the road...and what the costs are going to be.  If lucky, I figure I can have it back up and running, with help of course, within a few months.

Any Car Restoration/Repair experts out there????  First thing will be getting the engine back up in prime condition...then, exhaust, probably tires, hoses, detailed, and finally the big foot print fixed and a new paint job...Did I mention that big dent on the driver's side?  It wasn't there until Sam decided to give it a "kick" after he drove with the red light on....no doubt a chip off the old block.  I probably would have done the same...in fact back in 1966 I ran my first Ford Falcon with the OIL light on...but a rebuilt engine only cost $129 back in those days, and my dad, unlike Sam's old man, knew more than a bit about cars...comes from running a gas station/garage much of his life....but I ramble on...

back later>>>>>

Photos-CCR singing about the persistent rains...the rain has left many yards and sidewalks with standing water, including mom's.....just in time for her return from Florida.  My 1977 Buick Landau, with Sam's "Kick" showing...and the Big Block V-8 which would surely piss off the Obammy supporters...a gas guzzler sure to make the Oil Sheiks happy, and Liberals see Red...just the way I like it!