Can I get an amen?!

Seven years ago today, I bought my 1980 Toyota Pickup.

I drove it from Seattle to Everett on under a clear, starry night sky. The windows were inoperable and the brakes encouraged me to take the very long way home on the back roads. I spent nearly every day doing something on it for the first year. The brakes. The windows (many, many attempts). The cleaning. Exhaust manifold gasket. Carb adjustment. Then both calipers seized. I enjoyed doing all that because I knew it was a good truck, and I had a lot of spare time back then.

I've moved twice with it. It slipped in and out of daily driver duties as I shuffled through other vehicles. Countless couches loaded, mountains of bark, acres of garbage, and cut branches have graced its bed. It's paid for itself countless times over.

Getting nostalgic as aging people often do, I dug around in my paperwork and found the hand-written bill of sale. 2-20-14. Seven years... It really sneaks up on you. I had no idea I'd have it this long.

Though I guess it's not too surprisingly it's lasted this long. Since we moved into this home a few years ago, it's always garaged. I drive it maybe 1,500 miles a year. I try not to drive it in the rain or when salt is in used in the parking lots of businesses I patronize during those colder weeks. And when something new needs fixing, I've been making time... Basically buying time.

I took it out for a spin on Wednesday, with the roads dry and clear. It is definitely not as spry as a few years ago, but the feeling I get reaching for those long throws still feels like the night I drove it home. Anyway... Those are my feelings for the day.

Thanks for reading.

I don't deserve her, but I try!

@carsoffortlangley It's a Jeep thing; you now understand

My parents have had their hands full with various estate and family drama, dying relatives, so and so forth. As such they've spend more time on the road than in their own home for 2020. So there has been some deferred maintenance...

Specifically, their roof which I wonder if it may be as old as me had its own ecosystem. Branches, moss up to 2" think in some places, and plants growing out of their gutters. I had repeatedly offered to come clean up there for. Nonono, they say. It's fine maybe in spring.

Suddenly a text from my mom Friday night. "Hey, son! Tomorrow would be a GREAT day for..." Didn't even need to read the rest.

So here's four hours of work below. No before photos because it was that bad I didn't wanna show it.

Best of all was the frozen -- FROZEN! -- layer of soil and debris under most of the moss. The entire 8'x8' corner above the american flag side was solid green before I started. The gutters were not clogged -- because there was no gutter. Only a rooftop garden conveniently shaped like a gutter. I also discovered cracking in some of my patchwork from high school (this was a long time ago, folks). Break out the roof tar. Luckily I've tarred this damn roof on and off since I was 15, so I'm pretty slick at it now.

We concluded, after me pointing out the thousands of flaws, including what I believe to be an area of dry-rotted soffit, that they will get a new roof this year come hell or high water. Not like I've been telling them so for the past five years or so. No, no, no. Now that I'm a homeowner, it's obvious my dad's stubbornness is very apparent in myself. My poor wife.

In reality, I was very happy to do it -- my parents are over 70 so if I can keep them off a roof, I call that a win.

Time for a beer.

I'm not taking any pleasure in this, just thinking about something completely unrelated that's making me giggle.

Neighbor invited me over for a beer outside while I was mowing the lawn. Fuck this lawn, so I got my free beer. In the middle of chewing the fat, he says, "I'm not an anti-vaxxer -- BUT..." Oh, well. I'm pretty good at steering conversations, so we got back on track. But I would like to say, for a guy who openly shared how he wasn't going to get a vaccine, he tried REALLY hard to get me to share whether or not my wife and I had mine. Man, I drank that beer like it is as water. Nice guy, regardless.

Then, my friend whom I've known since high school stopped by with his new-to-them car (2016 Mini Clubman All4). I've not seen them in over two years. We shared beers and went for a walk. He and his wife treated me like a messenger of the Gods, because I bought them Odin's Stout and apparently the beer selection in Vegas where they live is terrible.

They said it was going to be 78 today but it only hit 71, absolutely perfect weather.

Now I sit here, not quite sober but safe at home, remembering that life is still great, which I am super bad at remembering, honestly.

Hope everyone's weekend are swell as well.

While my work truck was getting checked in for service, a man in a previous-model Sienna pulls up and tells the service manager that his wiper blades don't go all the way up the windshield anymore.

"Okay, pop the hood."

[metal click... hood remains latched]

"That... was the gas door. Pop the hood."

The owner sticks his entire body under the steering column looking for the hood lever, doesn't find it. After a long 30 seconds, the service guy just reaches through the window and pulls the lever.

Sadly as I type this, I'm worried the percentage of people who can open their hood is far lower than I wished

@midengine I had some at my last house whose root system was threaded under a 50 year old birch tree.

Here's what I did:

I moved.

@just-jeepin only the classics for me. S'mores, Brown Sugar Cinnamon... Maybe cinnamon roll if I'm feeling ZESTY

@hfv Nice liftback! Soooo when are they revealing the hatchback?

It really shouldn't be in the 90s -- ever -- in this corner of the county, let alone in June.

2-door 2nd-gen 4Runner

@ibrad said in The final Svending:

@rallydarkstrike

97 Yukon!

Makes sense to me!

I was able to move the canopy across my backyard by myself with a creeper (courtesy of @Spaceball-Two ) and set up this poorly-yet-effectively conceived ramp,, with a strap through the window frame and connected to my tailgate tie downs.

This canopy takes four people to lift and walk with safely. I don't even have one friend, let alone three. After two attempts to push it up the 2x4s myself and not wanting to throw out my back, I called my neighbor -- he came out and we got it up in about 30 seconds. He approved of my engineering, but wisely instructed me to move the creeper to the back while we pulled up on the side in increments. No one got hurt, no pinched fingers, and no one fell down.

Well. Fuck it, time for a beer.

@dash-doorhandle-and-bondo My dog had no tolerance for balloons or open house signs. She's not too crazy about leaves fluttering in the wind either.

@cash-rewards Another vote for dumping it as-is. Someone will buy it, they can do all that work you are not interested in doing.

@bluemazda2 FREE JKM

@fintail oh my