[AT] A message for Ralph

[charlie hill]

Dean your cartoon reference made me think of something from nearly 30 + 
years ago.
I worked for a small trucking company and drove a Brockway truck with an 8V 
71 Detroit
diesel.  We had a mechanic who was very talented and as nice a guy as I've 
ever known
but he was nearly illiterate and a big crude.

I don't remember exactly what was wrong with my truck but there was some 
minor but
crucial issue in that small space between the back of the engine and the 
firewall.
The truck was hot.  I had pulled into the shop while hauling a load to get 
it fixed.

The fix required Bill to stick his arm in behind the engine.  He started a 
couple of times
and kept pulling his arm back out to get in a different position.  Then he 
stopped and looked
at me and said "this is going to make me cuss enough to send 12 head to hell 
before I get through"
He stuck his arm back in and hit the back end of the exhaust manifold with 
his forearm.  He snatched
his arm back out and proceeded fulfill his promised and much deserved 
cussing session.  Then he reached
back in and effortlessly finished what he was trying to do.  It was as if 
the "mechanic gods" had required
that pound of flesh before allowing him to do the work.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Dean Vinson
Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2013 5:29 AM
To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
Subject: Re: [AT] A message for Ralph

Hi Ralph.  Do you still need the link to the forum?
http://www.atis.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?6-Miscellaneous-Forums

> Had the old AR fired up for some exercise this week as I had to
> move it to get the combine parked back in the shed for winter.
> Here is a photo from the day. Got some video but not edited yet.
> http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/62/8ohj.jpg/

Great photo of the AR.  As someone who grew up in row-crop country, the
"regulars" always looked somewhat mysterious to me.  And I had an irrational
sense that they were somehow smaller than their row-crop cousins, I guess
because the operator doesn't sit up as high in the air.  But there's a lot
of tractor there.

> there was one memorable day that I spent part of an afternoon
> and evening laying inside the combine on the straw walkers with
> various hooks, saws, and finally a "sawzall" cutting flax straw
> out of the plugged beater. Not something I ever want to do again.

I remember you saying flax straw is very tough.  Did you ever read the old
"Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip back in the late 80s or so?  One strip had
young Calvin's dad laying on his back with his head under the kitchen sink,
attempting a plumbing repair, with assorted tools and parts laying nearby,
while Calvin read from a home-repair manual:  "Step 1. Consult this list of
handy expletives."

Dean Vinson
Dayton, Ohio
www.vinsonfarm.net






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