McGuyver - Not just for Oz

Jeanie did a very timely post over at her blog, where she talked about 'McGuyvering'. I am here to tell you, Jeanie, Aussies are not the only ones who can do a 'McGuyver'. We had our own experience with that today.  This morning, we took our old gas guzzling truck back to Titusville to pick up our flooring. We knew that it would take us two trips to get it all, so as usual, Tim stopped in Titusville to get gas. It is 20 cents cheaper there than it is here, so we filled the truck up. 

We headed off to the factory. As we pulled in, the truck began to make a very peculiar noise. Believe it or not, the back strap on the gas tank gave out. The back half, unsupported, was bouncing up and down. With a full tank of gas!

Honest to pete! Have you ever heard of such a thing? 

They opened the big bay door for us to back the truck in. Tim was still 100% committed to getting that lumber home, and the woman said thoughtfully, "Well...I have a ratchet strap. Would that help?" An Amish boy carefully drove a forklift up, and using a board to make sure there were no unfortunate sparks, he put the forks under the gas tank and eeeeeeeeeevvver...soooooooo....slooooooooowly...raised the forks until the gas tank was raised into where it was supposed to be. 3 people were under the truck installing the ratchet strap to hold the tank in place, and then eeeeeeeever...soooooooo....slowly, the forks were lowered. The tank held. 

So, the first load of hickory was loaded on the truck, and we gingerly made our way back to the new house. Blessedly, the bit of McGuyver repair held. Driving back to the house, Tim mused, "The strap did not break. It's missing a bolt. I don't even know how that could just fall out. I'll bet it wasn't there to begin with. When we filled the tank, 100 lbs of gas pulled the strap loose."

We got to the house, and unloaded a truck load of lumber by hand. I went out to feed the cats, who were delighted to see me once again, and then we headed back to Titusville. Tim decided on lunch, and he decided that we weren't going to go the way of fast food, and so we went to a place we'd never been before called Drake's Grill. 

We made our way back up to the factory. Tim decided on lunch. We went to a new place, Drake's Grill. 

(Titusville is (arguably) the home of the first oil well. Colonel Drake drilled a well (Drake's well) in 1859. Titusville started out as a 'boom town'. You can read more about that here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Drake 

We both picked 'Pittsburgh Salads'. For the uninitiated, these are chef salads garnished with french fries, of all things. We picked steak as our meat, and were surprised at the size of the bowls. They did not skimp on the vegetables, and they did not skimp on the steak. It was good, and we had a leisurely meal. The place was almost deserted, so we didn't feel like we had to rush. 

We left and headed over to pick up the last load of flooring. I hadn't really thought about it, but we'd been gone long enough that I think they were sure that we'd run into a problem with our repair. They were pretty excited to see we'd gotten there and back just fine. 

We gingerly picked our way back home again, being careful not to avoid bumps as much as possible, and unloaded the second load. 

We headed for home, and the first thing that Tim did was order the nut and bolt assembly he needed for his truck. 

Something that I wanted to mention: The Washington Post (Democracy Dies in Darkness) lost one of their star reporters today. Jennifer Rubin had harsh words for Bezos who seems to be trying to muzzle any voices that criticize tRUMP. But what I found very interesting was the observation that Washington Post on line averaged 22.5 million hits a day. It has dropped to 2 million hits. 

Another interesting article was that a Dutch pension fund sold off $585 million dollars of TESLA shares. Another company is having strong reservations about doing business with the company again, says the company's head of social responsibility. In a land where 'social responsibility' is considered to be a liberal machination, I found this very refreshing. 

Paybacks are a bitch, aren't they?

Not sure why I can no longer highlight linked text with a different color text. Apologies.