Gunner Asch wrote:

On Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:05:36 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


CalifBill wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

I miss my '73 Chevy stepvan with a Union City body. It gve me 20
MPG, no matter how much I hauled in it. It had non commercial tags, and
one trip had over 8,000 of cargo.

I just bought wife a new Toyota Venza. Drove it 350 miles down I-5 to L.A.
Ran 85-90 comfortably all the way, listening to Satellite radio, and got
22.2 mpg for the trip. Helping the economy. But the car I replaced a 1996
S-10 Blazer with 144k miles means I buy and hold. A long time hold. Lots
to be said for newer cars. Rarely break, quiet, and comfortable. Sometimes
you need to spend some money.


You can't do that when you don't have it to spend. My VA disability
states that due to my health, I will never be able to work again, and I
miss working. I had my last two vehicles given to me. In fact, I've
only spent S1,000 to buy vehicles in the last 25 years.

I just gave away an '84 C10 Chevy van (today) to a very nice family who
are barely making it. Its not been run or even started for at least 10
yrs..having the front seal of the auto tranny start to pour out fluid.

We cleaned out the computer equipment its been storing for those 10 yrs,
poured in some gas, a bit down the carby, stuck in a good used batttery
and fired it up. I put on a tire, filled up the other 3 and he drove it
home.

It only had 80k on a factory new motor with 150k actual miles on the
vehicle. I handed him the new front tranny seal, put a jack and jack
stands in the van, and added two sets of manuals. Told him Id help him
next weekend if he needed help dropping the tranny, replacing the seal
and putting the tranny back in place.

Nice family, trying hard to make a go of it.

He helped me replace the alternator in the ex's Saturn later this
afternoon. Figured that he owed me something. I told him he could
help..but if he was under some feeling of obligation...he should go work
on his new van and dont pester me G

I could have fixed it up and sold it..maybe got $1200 out of
it...shrug...but he busts his ass taking care of his family and that
means he gets first dibs.


Good for you. I have crawled out of bed with pneumonia to do
emergency repairs to a neighbor's house. I always helped where I could,
back when I could.

BTW, I an into a guy at a local flea market with a case of new socket
370 motherboards for $15 each. They were still in the retail boxes with
the CDROM, manual and cables, and had three EISA slots and one PCI slot.
Too bad it wasn't six months ago, when you could have made some money on
them.

I considered buying the case of ten, but just couldn't justify it.


--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!