The Random Thoughts Thread
- Thread starter bob91yj
- Start date
Gallowbraid
Adventurist
Car camping used to be more than just a thing...it was a lifestyle.
Nightly dutch oven competitions...that's what I'm talking about!
Scott B.
Adventurist
Notice the way they are dressed. Back in the day, everyone dressed up. Today, I hardly ever wear a tie - and would never consider wearing one camping!
Code Red
Adventurist
I like old stuff.
It's cold in Atlanta, and my new stuff doesn't like it. My wife and I are the folks you don't want to live next to. We have a bunch of cars that we use until they are too far gone to sell. This week the two new cars (2005 F250 and 1993 F350) don't want to play. Neither have reacted well to five years of semi-storage. The F250 needs glow plugs and a fuel pump. The F350 won't run because the A/C Compressor has seized and cars with single serpentine belts need everything to turn or nothing does. I can take the belt off and start it, but the belt also runs the water pump, so that doesn't help much.
But the 1989 Landcruiser and the 1972 CJ5 cheerfully fired up and carried the load for the children. Here's what I am driving to work while the young'uns take a sick day.
It's cold in Atlanta, and my new stuff doesn't like it. My wife and I are the folks you don't want to live next to. We have a bunch of cars that we use until they are too far gone to sell. This week the two new cars (2005 F250 and 1993 F350) don't want to play. Neither have reacted well to five years of semi-storage. The F250 needs glow plugs and a fuel pump. The F350 won't run because the A/C Compressor has seized and cars with single serpentine belts need everything to turn or nothing does. I can take the belt off and start it, but the belt also runs the water pump, so that doesn't help much.
But the 1989 Landcruiser and the 1972 CJ5 cheerfully fired up and carried the load for the children. Here's what I am driving to work while the young'uns take a sick day.
Nice. I love old iron, just got chewed out for suggesting that I buy an old Land Cruiser over something new...
That must suck.
Gallowbraid
Adventurist
Gallowbraid
Adventurist
The amount of regular maintenance alone inspires illness.
Actually, the Nissan Navara designers get the credit, but... same thing really.
I never think of the Great Lakes freezing, and what that does to commerce. Interesting article/pictures...
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/01/icy_photos_show_coast_guard_fr.html
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/01/icy_photos_show_coast_guard_fr.html
I lived in Cheyenne, WY and Omaha, NE as a kid. I was NEVER cold like I was from Jan-Mar in Great Lakes. "Lake effect" is straight to the bone!
I "fell" in Lake Michigan in February. I was in Machinist Mate "A" school in Great Lakes. I was supposed to be in uniform to go on liberty...so the con artists outside the gate would know who to target...but I had skirted the system and wore civilian clothes out of my barracks and through the front gate...I could have been a CIA operative I tell ya.
Anyway, as could be expected of an NBC hole snipe (Navy lingo, for New Boot Camp, engineering student), I was considered the lowest of the low (we work below the water line). To recap, we have a young kid off base in civilian clothes...did I mention that he may have helped a couple of other guys knock down a 1/5th of Jack (liquor used to come in 1/5th's of a gallon, Google it if you don't remember it...guessing that Jack is still recognized as Jack Daniel's). So in my allegedly inebriated state, not wearing a uniform, and needing to get back to the barracks on a "secure" Naval installation, the group of masterminds and I decided to jump the fence at the back of the park that bordered the Navy base and walk back along the shores of Lake Michigan. There is a reason we were all engineering students and not SEAL candidates...
We neglected to look over the fence...it was a virtual cliff face down to the lake...just enough angle for me to hit something solid/frozen every 5 feet or so as my drunken (allegedly) ass fell down a 35-40 foot bank, crashing through an inch or two of ice into the water of Lake Michigan at the bottom. You would have thought I really was a SEAL candidate as I hustled my ass along the shore line and back to my barracks. That was as cold as I've ever been...that I remember.
I "fell" in Lake Michigan in February. I was in Machinist Mate "A" school in Great Lakes. I was supposed to be in uniform to go on liberty...so the con artists outside the gate would know who to target...but I had skirted the system and wore civilian clothes out of my barracks and through the front gate...I could have been a CIA operative I tell ya.
Anyway, as could be expected of an NBC hole snipe (Navy lingo, for New Boot Camp, engineering student), I was considered the lowest of the low (we work below the water line). To recap, we have a young kid off base in civilian clothes...did I mention that he may have helped a couple of other guys knock down a 1/5th of Jack (liquor used to come in 1/5th's of a gallon, Google it if you don't remember it...guessing that Jack is still recognized as Jack Daniel's). So in my allegedly inebriated state, not wearing a uniform, and needing to get back to the barracks on a "secure" Naval installation, the group of masterminds and I decided to jump the fence at the back of the park that bordered the Navy base and walk back along the shores of Lake Michigan. There is a reason we were all engineering students and not SEAL candidates...
We neglected to look over the fence...it was a virtual cliff face down to the lake...just enough angle for me to hit something solid/frozen every 5 feet or so as my drunken (allegedly) ass fell down a 35-40 foot bank, crashing through an inch or two of ice into the water of Lake Michigan at the bottom. You would have thought I really was a SEAL candidate as I hustled my ass along the shore line and back to my barracks. That was as cold as I've ever been...that I remember.
