Well, rather, she managed to scotch-tape and bondo the thing together for the fifteen minutes it takes to pass inspection. Which is no small feat, don't get me wrong.
Of course, later, as she was crowing about how everything now actually worked on the Bus, I noticed a tail light that didn't. However a quick whack to the back of the thing and it came back on.
But wait! I hear you say, hasn't she been driving it for like a year now?
Why yes. And?
So today we took the thing on its first legal trip to the scrapyard, loaded up with the bits and bobs of 'precious' metals, as well as a fair amount of regular old iron. Most of the precious being a pile of old wiring and some VW generators, and including a prized catalytic converter. Although, looking at the receipt now, I don't see that particular precious thing on there, though I see something labelled 'Aftermarket' that net us a whole $5, about $70 less than a cat should fetch. I will call them in the morning; the guy who sorted our stuff looked to be new, as I didn't recognize him and he had to ask the other guy what some of the codes were. I will assume it was an honest mistake for the time being. We shall see what they say tomorrow.
At any rate even with that omission which will be cleared up even if I have to use my Scary Bitch Voice (trust me, it's handy sometimes), it was a decent haul. Here's the side view of the bus:
That hunk of rust at the bottom may look unassuming, but Tara assures me it was so freakin' heavy it required an elaborate system of levers and platforms to inch it up high enough to get it inside.
Also, we're apparently being haunted, to judge by that 'orb' left bottom. I suppose it's just the Ghost of Volkswagens Past. Those poor shades do linger about the place, even with the best efforts of that most excellent exorcist Rusty Jones.
And here's the back view:
Those cylinder things are the old VW generators, which are also way freakin' heavier than they look, apparently being made of either dwarf star alloy, or that stuff in the little cube that Avon opted to shove out the airlock instead of Vila. I mean, not that it was his first choice.
At any rate it was our thirty-eighth trip to the scrapyard, and we got rid of another 620 pounds of iron, bringing the total of iron removed from the property since March 2008 up to 33,000 pounds even, or 16.5 tons.
Ai yi. There's still more.
4 comments:
Great job on the progress, ladies!
I'm afraid I now loathe the words "treasures" and "precious." I have used them, maybe even in conjunction. They are both fine words, but they are reminders of the horrible prioritization of hoarders, especially careless parents.
If someone combined the two words, and I have, I don't know what would happen. I would most likely spontaneously combust as I threw shoes.
Anyhoo, always great to see an update from you two here, or "on the boards." Please stay strong and sassy, and keep up the good work!
My mother died last year, and without her mitigating presence I've been forced to realise that my father is a hoarder. Things were always "cluttered" around the house, but my mother was as strong willed (maybe stronger) than my father and she kept the house liveable.
Since she's been gone, things have gotten bad. Very bad. I tell you this because your blog, the amount of work you've done and the grace which with you've talked about it, has helped me to gird my loins and get ready for my own journey through the junk.
Thank you.
you had me just gawfaw-ing over your descriptions of the "dwarf star alloy" not to mention the whole driving/legal thing with bus. AMAZING amount of work going on!
Oh, and my I suggest calling it Pluto, formally known as a planet.
lol
Well done. Your joint application is paying big dividends and will no doubt continue to do so.
Does your father know the detail of what you are doing? It might give me a lot of pleasure to pass that sort of information on if I were in your shoes.
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