JamesSlusher.com

The 7/30/05 episode of The Chair and Automan is out. Download the MP3 directly here. Or better yet, get a podcatching client and subscribe to this podcast here. My Odeo Channel is here.

In this episode:

I talk about Emily’s birthday, I call out all of the people with audio capabilities that have not yet done a promo for me, I talk about repaying good advice and working on the truck.

I play some songs :

• Before The Money Tree by Encrypted Veil w/ Joani Ransom.
• Money by Michael Grimes.
• Good Money by Move.meant.
• Money Matters by The Regulars

Audio feedback/promos are always welcome at jaslusher AT gmail DOT com.

Later.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful 3 year old daughter. We’ve been playing up a storm this morning and enjoying every second. Well, every second that Daddy is playing the games correctly. Apparently the rules change randomly and suddenly and I’m too dense to notice that’s not the way you doooooo it. Luckily, Emily understands all the rule changes, notices when they change, and sets me straight fairly quickly.

She is a wonderful, smart, sweet little person. Just like her Mommy.

And pretty like her Daddy.

Comcast sucks. Plain and simple. I’m sick of dealing with these inefficient morons. I reckon when you are a monopoly it makes being good at what you do an inconvenience.

I’ve now had 3 different guys (1 Comcast guy and 2 contractors) come to my house and have now heard 3 different opinions as to what needs to be done to fix my problem. Amazingly, each of those opinions centered around the guy who was in my house at the time doing nothing.

Knology is supposed to be entering the North Augusta market soon. I hear they provide bundled services (phone, cable and internet) at under $100 a month. I hope they hurry up. Comcast is Knology’s best sales tool. They’ve pre-sold me.

I spent the entire day working on the F100 with my Father-in-law. We did tons of work and got almost nowhere because we spent much time doing and then undoing and then redoing.

I did, however, learn enormous amounts and made some very valuable contacts.

First, I learned that I’m not the first guy to try this sort of thing around here. Second, I learned that Charlie at Rex Auto Parts is an awesome man, smart and honest, everything you want in your parts guy. In fact, he is the one that let me know that I’m not the first. He has done it himself and he was happy to share some of his hard-earned experience with me. You don’t get that from $7 an hour Autozone morons. Not that you can’t get good parts from Autozone. You can. You just can’t get good advice there. Don’t even try. If you decide to ask an Autozone parts person for auto advice, you are rolling the dice. Trust me on that one. I haven’t asked for advice from one in a decade, but I hear them giving bad advice all the time. Third, I learned that Rick from American Speed Center is also an all around mensch and has done this sort of conversion repeatedly. All sorts of helpful hints from him.

Now, I’m only slightly closer to finishing the truck now than I was at the start of the day. Occasionally it is necessary to take a step back to figure out how to go forward. And Rick and Charlie were just what the doctor ordered.

We buttoned down the front of the truck, so that is done. We installed the newer fuel tank only to find that the filler neck is a different size than the original and that replacing it is ungodly expensive. Charlie also told us about a work around that involves using the old tank. So back in that went.

We decided to put the transmission crossmember and mount in only to find that the crossmember no longer lines up with the holes in the frame. Same engine and transmission basics, but somehow the whole thing is a tad longer. So we tried doing a swap in which we reversed the brackets that hold the motor mounts. They normally set a bit towards the back and we thought that if we swapped the sides it would swing everything towards the front a little. No such luck, they aren’t symmetrical. So back in they went.

So we did lots of work and only made a slight bit of headway. But I met 2 guys that will probably be invaluable assets to me for the rest of this project. That and I will now get all my supplies from Rex Auto Parts. I will pay a little more, but get a much greater value for the money.

I’m feeling mighty puny. But I’m getting better.

Last night was a nightmare, but today I feel better, if somewhat weak and beat up.

The biggest problem with diabetes is that you get into all of these chicken and eggs dilemmas. It always takes some time to figure out whether the diabetes is making me feel ill or another illness is messing with my blood sugars.

Oh well, as my diabetic counselor told me when I was getting my insulin pump: I’ll always have diabetes. No matter how good my overall blood sugar control is, I’m still diabetic and there will be times when my blood sugars just. aren’t. right.

It seems that this is one of those times.

With my limited connectivity at times, I haven’t been doing tons of posting. Hopeful all of that will be settled soon.

So I’m headed back to work tonight. I feel as if there are about a hundred things I haven’t done yet that really need my attention. I guess they will have to wait.

F100 Reassembled

Originally uploaded by jaslusher.

Holy Cow! I found a truck in my driveway! She is finally getting reassembled. I’m still a fair bit of work away from cranking her up (the fuel tank is still not installed), but at least I’m getting to where it looks like it could run.

My connectivity issues have gotten so bad that I usually only have about 20 minutes at a time to do everything I have to do. That’s barely enough time to check my email.

Comcast is supposed to be coming today and fixing the problem (weak downstream signal,whatever that is) this afternoon.

Until I am fully operational, you might consider submitting some audio whatnot to me at jaslusher AT gmail DOT com and getting the chance to win your very own The Movement T-shirt. There are no restrictions whatsoever on the type or length or whatever, so have fun and get it done.

Thanks to Hurricane Emily and the corporate slothfulness of Comcast, I have had limited or no Internet connectivity for the past few days. I have been trying to sneak in what I can when a window of opportunity arises.

The upside of that is that I have been making some good progress on the truck. I’m going to tackle the fuel tank this morning and then begin reassembling the front end this afternooon or tomorrow.

I may not drive it in to work on Friday. But it will, at the very least, look like I could drive it into work Friday.

The 7/17/05 episode of The Chair and Automan is out. Download the MP3 directly here. Or better yet, get a podcatching client and subscribe to this podcast here. My Odeo Channel is here.

In this episode:

I talk about The Movement, my attendance at a show they played locally, and I encourage you to buy their stuff.

I play 4 songs, all from The Movement :

• Down Down
• Livest S**t
• Cold Outside
• Scary

Audio feedback/promos may be submitted at jaslusher AT gmail DOT com. Do it before 7/31 and you could win your very own The Movement T-shirt. Listen to the ‘cast for details.

Later.