From Veeduber@aol.com  Sun Dec 17 02:34:25 1995
msgnum: msg21897
Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 03:33:53 -0500
From: Veeduber_at_aol_dot_com
Subject: More Neighbors


                                    Adrift in a Junkyard

Some months back I wrote a mild spoof titled 'Neighbors'.  But like all
spoofs it was based on a kernal of truth -- the place next door to us has had
something like nine owners in the last fifteen years.  The neighbors
mentioned in the spoof split the blanket and took off about six months ago.

While I was away in Washington trying to convince Grendel to come home with
me the place next door was sold and a new couple moved in.  The other
neighbors had no idea what had happened to me, my wife making only a casual
mention that I was away taking care of some personal business.  That probably
got a few raised eye brows.

The new neighbors settled in, spending a lot of time and money sprucing up
their new home, which is actually an old farm house built about 1922.  We're
a friendly crowd up here on the hill, keeping an eye on each other's kids and
animals.  I assume the new neighbors were welcomed and got to know everyone.
 They had been here about four weeks when I came rolling in with Grendel,
posey'd nose, 'With Love, from the Forest' and other slogans blazened on the
sides.  

The new neighbors drive a Cadillac and something expensive, plus they have a
little pickup for chores.  Stu and Nancy.  Nice people.  But when I met Stu
he was giving Grendel the eye.  A buddy and I gave her a facial and got rid
of the posey, even though she won't be doing anything but sitting with her
feet in the air for several months.  I painted the nose with red primer to
protect the metal.

Then came the unfortunate howl from the left outboard gearbox on my '65.  I
knew it was having some problems -- I've been meaning to get at the tranny
for a couple of years now, and with a bad bearing in the gear reduction unit
now meant NOW.  So I shuffled the vehicles -- we have seven, not counting the
motorcycle -- parked the '65 ('Green bus') beside Grendel, jacked her ass
into the air and left her without engine, tranny or rear wheels.

The sight of two partially dismantled buses, both with bad paint jobs and
crumpled noses, looming outside her kitchen window got Nancy, the new
neighbor, a bit upset.  For four weeks she had enjoyed a nice view of our
hibiscus, pepper trees and cedar fence.  Now she was staring into the bowels
of a couple of wrecks.  That was the day her parents arrived from Alabama to
spend a week with the kids, see their new home and enjoy the view.  ('No,
dad.  Look out the other window.')

As of a few hours ago the tranny is back in the '65, everything rebuilt,
cleaned and repainted.  I want to do some chores on the engine but I should
have that back in by Tuesday, then do a brake job, adjust the shifter
linkage, install some new instrumentation and the green bus is outta there...
 to be replaced by a Red Bus.

Yep, another bus.  That makes three.  (I'd better send Joel a twix.)

I don't know what I'm going to tell Stu and Nancy -- or if they'll even talk
to me at all.  But when the Rocket came along -- my wife Jaysie has named it
the 'Rincon Rocket' after the RFD mail carrier that served the Rincon Indian
Reservation back in the '30's -- the bus was found on the Rincon reservation
and is painted a shade of red that reminds one of Francis Scott Key and the
British sack of Washington (I'll let you figure it out).

Now the view will now be cluttered even more, since I'll need to park the
Rocket out back of the shop for a time.  It doesn't have an engine at the
moment so once parked, it stays parked.

The topping on the cake came this evening.  I usually start and run all the
vehicles at least once a week.  Fired up the Baja, let it warm up while I
checked the '68 bug, which doesn't have its own battery.  Came back in time
to hear the Baja trying to swallow something, mebbe a valve.  Shut her off.
 But now she will need some shop-time too, along with Grendel, the Rocket
(which is a '72) and the Green Bus.  And the Toyota pickup has developed a
shimmy...

Toyota pickup (nose in the air, front wheels off). '67 Baja bug, crash cage
pulled, bits & pieces here & there.  Green bus, nose bashed, roof rack full
of ladders, ass in the air, engine wrapped in plastic, lounging against the
fence.  Grendel, hell of a mess any way you look at her -- light shines
thorugh her walls and floor and nose.  Rocket, a Low Rider, barely enough
ground clearance to get her up the hill.  It looks like it's sinking into the
ground -- and will probably stay there.  That's what my new neighbors get to
see when they look out their kitchen window.  And they paid the earth for
that place.

I hope Stu and Nancy have a sense of humor.

-Bob