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!

A New(Slightly Used) Ride...for Patricia/The Rains Just Won't Stop...

One sunny, but cool, day yesterday....the first one in awhile, and it appears to be the last one for the next two weeks...needless to say the havoc these coming rain events will do to baseball schedules and work in the farm fields is going to be impressive.  Missouri is predicting 9 inches in parts of that state over the next 5 days...meanwhile here in Ohio, upwards of four more on top of the already saturated soils.  I've always said, if I had to do it all over again, I would have spent my life, after the Air Force, in a desert climate.  I really do hate rain, and humidity...and Hell, you can still grow flowers in the desert.  Color me disgusted with this spring...it has been a bummer weather wise.

Despite it all, I got another game in yesterday, making it 18 of 23, at Columbus Grove against Ada in a Northwest Conference Game.   Trailing 2-1 going into the top of the 6th, Ada tied it up, then the underdog Bulldogs took a 5-2 lead in the top of the 7th over the homestanding Bulldogs.   Grove, down by three with 2 down in the bottom half of the 7th, down to their last strike, rallied for four runs, the winning one bouncing by my leg behind the plate, as CG scored on a wild pitch, winning 6-5.  No games today on this Good Friday, it would not have mattered...the rains have re-entered the region, and appear to be sticking around for the next five days...I am afraid to even look further out, because I don't think it will be much better.  The last couple weeks of the Regular season will see much shifting of games, and playing the make up games well into the tournament season, which begins May 7th.  Lots of games cancelled, and lots of shifting of contests is in the future, it appears.

2008 Dodge Nitro___

When I shop, I like to do things quick...I see what I want, take a quick look at it, if I like it, I buy it and let the chips fall where they may drop.  Patricia likes to test, take things back, if she isn't satisfied....

So that set the scene for "Car Shopping" yesterday.  We had agreed she needs a newer ride for work, and for our few travels per year.  My Jeep, with 150,000 plus another 80,000 during tows, is getting much wear and tear on it...and is currently sitting idle with a problem...seems to be seizing belts, and needs looked at.  The 1995 Intrepid was wearing out, and the front end has developed a "wobble"... 144,000 miles one the car, and only 90,000 on the engine, it still had become untrustworthy to drive long distances.  Meanwhile Patrica's 99 Montana Mini Van had reached 170,000, but still was driving and handling pretty good.  The 1977 Buick Landau is in the garage, only 62,000 miles, but in need of some revamping and restoration.

So, we decided a few months ago, the Intrepid would go...Patricia would get a new vehicle, and I would take over the Montana...plenty of room for hauling lawn mowers, baseball gear, and whatever.  I'm not a big "mini van fan"...but I like the room in them.  So the Jeep Wrangler will get repaired, the Intrepid is gone, and I'm now looking like a  "soccer mom" driving a mini van.

We got up, decided to look locally first,  for a new vehicle....a couple of dealers we disregarded out of hand.  What we had in mind was a vehicle with 4 wheel drive, 6 cylinders, good room.  So  nothing small, and with somewhere between 25 and 35 thousand miles on it.  We drove around, seeing not much we though to fit our needs, until we decided to head to West Logan Street, and stopped by R&D Motors.  We had been there last month looking...and we quickly saw three vehicles we liked the looks of.

A 2009 Jeep Cherokee, {we had bought a new one back in 1976, and it was our vehicle of choice for the late 1970s}, but his one had 54,000 miles and was only two wheel drive, without a 4WD option...too many miles and no 4WD option, we crossed this one off our check list.  The next one was a 2011 Ford Edge, we loved the Edge we had rented to take to Hal and Lisa's wedding in West Virginia.  This one had only 1400 miles, 4WD yes, but at $30,000...not in our price range.  We used to buy new, but have not done so since I leased a 1994 Toyota Pick-up back in that year....I learned long ago that "new" vehicles are usually bad investments.  So even with 1400 miles, this one was too new for our price range.  That's more than we owe on our mortgage...so no way we are paying that much money for a car.

The last of the three vehicles....was a 2008 Dodge Nitro.  4WD and 30,100 miles on it...and the price range was what we were looking at....Patricia drove it, we liked the room, we liked the way it drove, the way it set up off the road, and the viewing space out all the windows.  Since she will be driving it most of the time, she had to make the final decision...but I gently pushed her that way.  I like the car, and frankly, as I stated, I hate shopping...I don't care if it's clothes, houses, TVs, or cars.  I hate wheeling and dealing...so we got an offer for the outgoing Intrepid, the lower end price, sans taxes, for the Nitro, and I have to believe we made our best offer....2 hours later, we were driving the Dodge Nitro home.  I mowed the back yard, and headed for Columbus Grove, in "my" 1999 Pontiac Montana.

This morning I took my first drive in the new ride...turned the simple button for the 4WD on the wet roads, and turned up the volume on the radio/cd player...yep, I think we did all right....but like anything else, time will tell.


back later>>>>
Have a Blessed Easter Weekend...


Photos-Several Views of the "New" Dodge Nitro...a 2008, equipped to tow, hopefully gas won't be $6 a gallon, so at least we will be able to travel in it.