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Thursday, 05/15/03; Grandy, North Carolina - Day Four
Fun and Frustration
“Are we having fun, yet?” we keep asking ourselves. In spite of all the frustrations of these days, we must admit that we haven’t lost our sense of humor. Somehow the human spirit finds things to laugh at in the face of adversity. Take our motel, for example, the furnishings are “early Salvation Army,” yet we can point out the tatters and tears with glee.
It was one step forward and two back for us today. Dennis and Keith took the new rod and the old one with piston to the machine shop and had the new rod installed. The aluminum head, which had a spark plug cross-threaded, was taken as well to have the threads “chased.” Number one rod was torqued down and cotter pinned, as was number two – the new rod. When some of the rod nuts were torqued to proper values, the cotter pin holes didn’t align with the slots in the top of the castlelated nuts. Dennis put thin washers under these and then the slots in the nuts were not deep enough to accept the cotter pin! These nuts had to have the appropriate slot filed deeper. In checking the clearance on rod number four, Dennis found some crazing of the babbitt and we decide that it would be prudent to replace that rod as well. It is a good thing that Jay is sending us two new rods in tomorrow’s shipment.
Joan was running out of clean undies, so she approached our host, the motel manager to see if he would rent a washer and drier. He said that it was illegal for him to do so. Then we discovered why there are no Laundromats near here. The water table is so high, that special wastewater processing is required for such businesses. This treatment is too costly, so no one does it. In the end, he did let her run one load on the “QT,” so she is OK for a few more days!
Emergency washing
Joann checked a little pharmacy to see if they could get her prescription from our California druggist. They could, so Joann is good in that department for another 30 days.
We dined at the restaurant here at the Walnut Island Motel. The gals had large pork chops and the guys, popcorn shrimp. The portions are large, so we came away full. While eating dinner, we could look out over the water of the sound. It was calm and peaceful. Papa Osprey was sitting in a dead tree on the water’s edge guarding a nest where two or three young birds were moving about. We saw Mama feeding them yesterday evening and Papa let out a screech at us and took to flight as we went out on the dock toward the nest. The Manager, Barry, says he put the pole and platform up 15 years ago and the birds always return on the Ides of March!
Seating for two; Sunset at Walnut Island.
Tomorrow, we can sleep in as there is no work that we can do until the two new rods arrive in the afternoon. The machinist has a dental appointment somewhere up in Virginia – a “two-six-pack-trip,” he said. We hope it is one up and the other down and that he is still in shape to do our machine work upon his return.
Somewhat frustrated, but still the
Undaunted Four
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