Saturday....

Well, Saturday wasn’t quite as productive ‘truck-wise’ as I’d hoped. Between the sun, heat and humidity it was sort of like work outside for an hour, come inside, cool down for 40 minutes or so, and then go back out.

My friend Rick came by and did help me break the truck bed the rest of the way down. So now it’s in pieces that I can manage on my own. I’ll bet most of you didn’t know that a truck bed (at least on this Chevy) is actually several separate pieces that are bolted together. There are seven pieces in all; the bed, two sides, two fender wells, the front panel and the tailgate. With it broken apart I can move it pretty much by myself now. Together it requires about four people to move.

Of course after we’d torn the bed down, we had to come inside and cool down with a couple of cold beers, while we entertained my wife with stories from the jobs. Rick is working for PHE, better known to the world as ‘Adam & Eve’. As a guy in his mid-20’s, it’s interesting to hear his take on life inside that company. Definitely a world away from the culture where I’m working! We had a nice couple of hours just laughing and talking about the ‘contract’ life.

Rick used to work with me at the last ‘regular job’ I had, so he’s got some interesting thoughts on the differences, and we had a pretty good time.

Later in the day, our ‘adopted’ daughter Nina came by as well. ‘Adopted’ as in she used to date my step-son, but they split up, and she’s continued to come by and be a part of our family. My wife and I are very glad she has, as we always enjoy her company when she stops by!

She’s been on the island of St. John in the Caribbean for the past month. Nina took a job working in a restaurant there in exchange for room and board. She got home Friday night, and stopped by yesterday to fill us in on her trip. She looked great, all tanned, rested and relaxed; we should all look that good!

I’ve got to tell you, working mornings serving up breakfast, getting out of work at 11:30am and having the rest of the day to hang on the beach and party sounds like a pretty good deal to me!! Hopefully she’ll bring some pics today when she comes over for the BBQ and I can share a few here!

I’m heading back out to the shop in a little bit, the plan for the remainder of the weekend, besides a good deal of relaxing, is to get the truck itself outside, pressure wash, sandblast, treat the underside of the bed and get it moved inside.

Once that’s done, (next week) I can begin to finish up the work on the fender wells and the bed surface (the part you’d see when it’s finished) and begin the re-assembly process.

I think that’s a goal that’s attainable, if I just plug away, and avoid getting ‘overheated’, which was really a problem yesterday.

On the down side, my bike is really becoming a problem. I thought the battery was the problem, but after charging it fully, and still having problems getting it to turn over I’m pretty sure either the primary ground cable is bad, or worse yet I’ve got a starter problem. Once I get the truck out of the garage, and have a little room to work, I’ll be able to tear into that issue as well.

I’ve really missed being able to ride it so far this summer, and had expected to take a ride late yesterday afternoon. If it’s the starter, I’m seriously considering taking to the local shop as I’ve got so much else on my plate right now. If I do, it would be the first time in my life I’d let a ‘shop’ work on one of my bikes after the warranty had expired. I’m not entirely sure I’m ready to do that!!

I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend!