The curfew is still in place. About 50% of the folks down here have electric now, which is better than the near 99% electric outage that we had.
I just got my lights last night... however, they had to bypass one of my neighbors because their tree fell across the lines, so they didn't get electric. I still get to hear the pesky sound of the generator running, and silently hope that they don't have to shut down my power to get my neighbor's electricity back.
I have come to appreciate the last week of not having computers, and internet, when I relied solely on my battery powered black and white screen for information. It was kind of nice to not sit in front of the computer screen for eight hours to make my living.... it was kind of nice that at the end of the day, I didn't sit in front of another computer screen to build websites (to pay for school), and it was kind of nice not to go to class....
It seemed at first I might have had a few technology withdrawals, but found that I soon replaced the time that I spend with computers with spending time with my family and friends...
AND my burnt clutch....
My cousin Ford regularly drives a 1979 Ford pickup truck which he regularly works on. When my 1999 Nissan Frontier V6 4WD left me stranded with a burnt up clutch (after pulling a big limb during the hurricane), my cousin Ford offered to help change my clutch.
Six bolts on a 1979 Ford truck before you are able to drop the transmission.... My cousin Ford was not happy to find that we needed to drop the lift kit just to get to the transmission. When we dropped the lift kit, the weight of the motor dropped on front tires. Ewww... not so good, and not exactly the game plan.
We learned the hard way that the crankcase position sensor is located on the top side of the transmission behind the motor. Yep, we dropped the transmission with the sensor attached and crushed the mf. Keeping in mind that electric is out at many of the parts stores, I was fortunate to have found a clutch kit and crankcase position sensor in stock.... but then we needed the plug for the sensor. No parts store had that. Dealer only part. The dealers are closed because their roofs fell in. I went to a junkyard and found the little plug on a little Nissan Sentra that was in the middle of poison ivy. So after I rushed home to get some technu smeared on my legs, I headed back to work on the truck...
It was quite the chore. Ford is accustomed to an afternoon project for changing a clutch in his 79 Ford pickup. This project turned into a 4 day project. His pay for the project has been in gas and beer so far, but I am curious what a fair amount is to offer him for his efforts. Would $150 to $200 insulting for such a feat?
In addition to the project being larger than anticipated, we were working on the truck in an "uppidy" neighborhood where my girlfriend's family lives. They also did not have power, and would hang out on the porch and come by and ask "ya'll almost done?" in a manner that said, "how much longer before you get that piece of sh*t out of my neighborhood?" My girlfriend's father actually asked me how much longer it would be before I got the trailer park trash out of the neighborhood.
Ugh... we finished up the work and got 'er rolling the following day.
Damnit, I have one of the nicer vehicles in my family, and on my block... and I am happy with my little truck. It's nearly 10 years old and it's biggest problem is a clutch. That's saying a hell of a lot about my little truck.
While most people are treating this hurricane like a mini-vacation or some type of camping trip, I have been crawling around under my 4x4 on the asphalt in the rain in 90 degree weather.
I feel obligated to say that just because you work on your own stuff that doesn't make you white trash or trailer park trash or redneck. I have never despised people in uppidy neighborhoods so much as I do this current minute. Is it co-incidence that the lady across the street from where my truck is parked runs an accounting business for which I designed her website & she hasn't paid her invoice since March 08?
When I cranked my truck and made the block to test my work, I wondered just how many of the folks are in houses that they can't afford, and can barely pay their bills, and wish they had the ability to fix their stuff theirselves because they are in more debt than they can pay.... That's right, I paraded my truck around the neighborhood for them to see that the truck was running even though they had expressed their doubts that it would ever run again, and called my truck trash and worthless and called me trailer park trash for even trying to fix it....
All the while, I was thinking, that if the accountant lady with the website would pay me, then I could pay my cousin some respectable amount of money for helping me and for putting up with these people's crap.
So, this is how I spent Hurricane Gustav in a nutshell... How long should I wait before I pull down her site for nonpayment? When I was working on the truck, she said the check was "in the mail"....
I guess she thought that USPS got a break for the hurricane, but they didn't. The mail never really stopped running... and I don't have my check yet.
Anyhow, it's pretty outside & I would like to get a ride in. If I get the yard cleaned up, I might go for a ride just to clear my mind a little.
If I have the opportunity, I might make another video so ya'll can see a bit of post-storm footage on the same roads that I showed you before the storm.
