My allergies have been acting up this weekend, so I haven’t been feeling great. Today was better than yesterday.
Yesterday, I went to the pharmacy to buy some pseudophedrine. It seems that in the state of Oklahoma, purchasing Sudafed is almost as hard as getting narcotics. You don’t need a prescription, but you do need a background check. Apparently it’s an ingredient used in the manufacturing of crystal meth. And apparently the state of Oklahoma thinks that making it difficult to get will do something about the “drug problem”. So far all it’s done is increased meth traffic 300% between Texas and Oklahoma. And seriously. If I’m going to make crystal meth, a short drive to a neighboring state to pick up some Sudafed sounds pretty simple compared to selling the stuff. It makes me mad.
I tinkered a bit with Arthur today. He has breaker points. I’ve heard about breaker points in history books, but never actually seen them. And I certainly don’t have a “dwell meter”– the device needed to set points properly. You can, it seems, make do with a feeler gauge. Which is what I did. He runs quite a bit better now, but he’s still making an ignition-related noise I’m not sure about.
I’d like to sell him, but I just don’t know that it’s going to happen. After running an ad in the Oklahoman for a week, I got all of one phone call. Considering that an ad in the Oklahoman is $44, I can’t exactly afford to run it for a couple of months. I’m not exactly sure what to do. I’d put him on ebay, but I doubt I’ll get any bites there either. People looking for old trucks haven’t don’t seem to go for places like ebay. Unless it’s an old rust bucket they hope to pick up for $50. Putting him on ebay means I need pictures. Without a digital camera, that takes awhile.
I wouldn’t mind keeping him forever. But he’s not a terribly practical second vehicle. An excellent third vehicle, but I’m not sure about second. And he still needs a lot of suspension work and the transmission’s been a bit flaky since I bought it. I plan to drive the transmission ’till it craps out. The suspension can be a bit more dangerous. Particularly when it comes to hauling things. Which is what he’s supposedly good for.
But it’s little things. Like the turn signal stalk broke off in my hand last week.
I got a phone call today that my stage check will be tomorrow afternoon. I hope I pass, because if I don’t, I’ll probably have to wait around another week until they call me again.
I’m just not sure about the simulator. I have a hard time taking it seriously and pretending it’s an airplane. But if I pass, that’s all I’ve got to do in it. Well, for my instrument rating anyway. I’ll have to do a little more time in my commercial with it. Stupid thing.
I made potato and leek soup and some salad for dinner. Joanna seemed excited about it, which is good because I think she’s going to be eating it for lunch for a few days:)
She won’t eat my Russian dressing. She put mayonnaise on hers.