Hi Geoff! How Gozit? Are the last of the repairs for your truck done?
"Hoss" (full name, 'Mr. Hoss Whitey') is as shiny again as a diamond in a ... well, you know where.
Save for one minor rumple in the passenger front fender, you can't tell it was in an accident.
Monday, the 9th of March, will mark the start of the 4th week of having the truck back.
To fill in those who didn't know, I moved to Houston in August of 2008. Changed jobs from traveling around, setting up and dismantling tradeshows and conventions (doing everything from forklift work to setting up booths, to rigging lights and signs to laying carpet), and transgressed into the 'Hot-shot" field. I love to drive. Averaging around 300 miles per day in the Houston area, picking up this, and delivering that.
My beloved 1991 Ford Ranger XLT with Extended cab, and 4.0L V-6, after 386,500+ miles, needed a rest. Trust me, there's nothing wrong with the engine, but the Ranger just wasn't big enough to bring in the bigger bucks that a full-sized truck could. Wouldn't you know it, about the time I'm serious about getting the truck, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failed a week and a half prior. I couldn't finance a pine-float after that debacle. 3 weeks prior, and they'd have GIVEN me a -new- truck.
Finally, after some finagling and figuring, we were able to scrape up the cash bucks for a new-to-me 2006 F-150, Extended cab, long bed, 5.4L V-8, heavy-half (8200 GVWR) T-r-u-c-k. Serious truck! PAid -cash-, minus TT&L
bought it on the 30th of december, signed it onto the company, made a couple of runs that night, ran all of New Years eve, sat at home that night (amateur night, and not radio!) ran all day Frida the 2nd, went down an made the final payment on the truck, and was headed home when some MAJOR catastrophe occured in the car -IN FRONT- of the car in front of me... like...he dropped his bong, or dropped his cell phone, lit his underwear on fire... whatever... he hit his brakes. On an expressway. In heavy traffic. For no good visible reason. The poor gal in back of him, 'usually' takes the Metro (mass transit - bus) and doesn't normally drive. He tapped his brakes, she locked up hers, and at 30~35mpg and 2 car lengths behind, I couldn't stop that 5900 lbs of Detroit steel in time. Her Kia Amante' stopped on a dime, and gave .09c change.
~sigh~
While the ass-end of her car was in the air is when Hoss hit her back bumper, the bumper on my truck sliding easily under hers, and new trucks are designed to crumple. Bent back the bumper, the bumper flanges, broke the head-light assembly, crunched the hood, broke the core-support, folded in half the transmission cooler, bent the AC condenser into a completely unrecognizeable shape, zorched the radiator, broke the fan shroud and two fins on the fan.
Tow-truck was $149. Ticket for "Failure to control speed" (because in Texas, if you rear-end someone it's automatically your fault, and there's no fighting that), parts were $1,350 at a junk yard, labor was $1,500, windshield was $110, and I still don't have air-bags ($500 for two air-bags and control module).
Thankfully, the body-shop repair guy is a fair and honest man, with a heart of gold. He's letting me make payments, because he knows that without the truck, there's no work. No work, no pay. Couple that with the current economy being bust... EVERY company has slowed down on production, and the trickle down effect hits the transportation people, first. Where I used to make $1000 a week in the Ranger and gas was costing me $300/week, now I'm lucky if I'm getting -half- that per week, and gas is creeping back up, and the big V-8 doesn't get the miles-per-gallon the Ranger was.
Bills are still getting paid, but not as quickly and fully as before, there's still food in the fridge and pantry, and life is still good... it's just not -nearly- as good as it was 2 months ago.
Everytime a certain 'mouth' is opened in D.C., the stock-market takes another plunge. How much longer are we going to stand for this ... "Obamanation"?
Ok... sorry for the political rant, but you can see how it's affected li'l ol' me. I can only imagine what it's like for those who -had- 401k plans.
In the meantime, I was able to get my dual-band V/UHF rig installed in the new truck, and there's HF in it, again... in the form of an Alinco DX-70TH and a 75m antenna. I'll get the solid-state 400w Amplifier in there and be back on full-power AM Mobile.
I still have dreams and aspirations of building a single 813 rig, modulated by a pair of 811's. Mount the tubes horizontal, put the plates vertical, use a pair of 813's, connect only 1 (for 12v for the two tubes in series - same for the 811's) and the build a solid-state HV supply, using a 1000w DC inverter for 110vAC in the truck. Mounting the tubes horizontal, will allow me to fit the whole rig under the back seat in the extended cab. Might even think of a front-panel switch that will allow me to simultaneously change bias levels, utilize both tubes, and run the thing as a linear for SSB work on 17m.
Seems I have more time lately to do some tinkering in the 'greatly reduced in size' lab. (1 br apartment, with a house-mate who just doesn't understand boat-anchors, yet. She's got a license, but is content with V/UHF work. At least Rhonni WAS content, until we worked EI6S and SP3OB on night on 75m ssb around 3.800Mc from the Ranger Truck around midnight, cruising through Southern Louisiana on our way to New Orleans, with 100w and a ham-stick. NOW she wants her General, so she can work DX. Go figger)
So, there ya go.
Now, all y'all are caught up with what's happening with W5OMR and KE5YKQ here in Houston, TX. Cliff dwelling in an apartment, looking to full-fill my AM 'fix' by being heard, mobile with something more than piss-weak 25w from a Rice-box.
Somewhere in the deep dark recesses of my mind, though... I'm reminded of two vehicles owned by the same person... one being the Cadaverlac... The other, of course, the disastrous result of attempting to run 1kW mobile...
Wonder if that DC inverter will handle the Viking II? hmmmmm...
73 = Best Regards,
-Geoff/W5OMR (/5 Baja Spring, TX)
