Good morning, friends and fans!
Welcome to another “Peek Into My Week”, a behind the scenes look into the (I hope) interesting events occurring in my daily life!
August 09, 2021.
For the most part, my weeks are the usual ensemble of dreary routine events – work, book marketing, finding time to write, highlights, lowlights, tinkering on Dolly (my 1962 Beetle and daily transport), arguing with my wife about dinner, tripping over cats, or rearranging the furniture – but just occasionally something interesting happens, interesting enough to want to tell someone about!
Here then, for your enjoyment, is my recollection of noteworthy events in my past week!
While I’ve been posting these journal entries, it’s probably come to your attention that while I’m a writer I’m also just an ordinary person with an ordinary everyday life, and ordinary everyday person problems! That’s all I ever hope to be, no matter how much success I achieve as a writer! That said, let’s take a look at the past week – excuse the occasional rants!
Monday:
The Hard “No”
Some people in this world really are bereft of the milk of human kindness as it is called, also called basic compassion for others, or otherwise just plain common decency. Where am I heading with this? Let me tell you! On Monday morning I drove to work in a cloudburst. Dolly, my 1962 Beetle, coped very well with the downpour – except for her front and rear windscreen rubber seals, which are now just shy of 60 years old. They’re perished, and even though I’ve treated them lovingly with ammonia to soften and rejuvenate them – an act which has extended their useful life – they still leak. Quite a bit. Having enjoyed the cold shower on the way to work about as much as you might imagine, I got to work, wet, cold and a bit disturbed. How was I going to solve this problem?
Last year, before I sold the Golf, if it looked like rain, I drove the Golf to work and Dolly stayed in the garage. The Golf didn’t mind – it stayed outside the house in the street anyway since we only have the one garage. And that was the problem you see, it rusted. A lot. Which is why I ended up having to sell it for much, much less than I’d spent on it… so little it actually bloody hurt!
After that, I also had to drive Dolly regardless of what sort of weather was out there, which also meant driving in the rain. It’s fascinating to watch you know, how the water outside running off the roof and down the windscreen infiltrates the window rubber on the lower edge above the dashboard, and then just dribbles freely down the fascia in little streams, and wets my pants legs! Then it pools up on the floor, which is protected by a mat and a carpet underneath. And the same thing happens from the rear windscreen too, but the water soaks the carpet and soundproofing in the “dog box” behind the back seat – which all gives rise to worries about hidden rust coming to light later!
I tried to address this problem in the past, when I first acquired Dolly in 2015 – before I literally bought another car to use in crappy weather. I tried a car cover, which is basically a plastic raincoat that fits over and around the car – but where I park at work, outside, the wind gets so strong and gusty that it literally blew the cover right off – and I was lucky I didn’t completely lose it! Then I tried securing the cover to the car by tying it to the bumpers at both ends, and then the wind tore the center! Car covers aren’t the answer in any case, because if you drive to work and it rains on the way, the car’s already wet, and basically if you cover the wet car with the cover it just keeps the wetness inside between the paint and the cover, and by the time you take the cover off, it’s still wet underneath – which is also a recipe for rust!
Why not just replace the window seals you ask? Because the most common replacement rubber seal you can find is the “cal-look” rubber seal… which will fit, but it comes without the groove needed to fit the chrome beading strips that surround the front and rear windscreens. Also, it’s not as cheap as it used to be.
Bearing all this in mind, I decided – unwisely – to request that I might be allowed to park Dolly in a large disused shed at work, just on rainy days. Relying on the hope that the manager I spoke to might look kindly on my request, I was met with disappointment. Not only did the chap decline my quite reasonable request, but he went to the lengths of sarcastically drawing a big “X” in the air with his finger saying “That’s a hard NO!”. Following that, he flippantly told me to just buy new rubbers or cover my car – in his own words – “with a plastic bag”! So Dolly – a 60 year old car – could just stand out in the weather and leak and rot as far as he was concerned, while he enjoyed the privilege of undercover parking – and though he could’ve done something to help me out, he opted to take the route of inaction, gloating and sarcasm.
Not only did I resolve to never ask that spiteful bloated sack of self-importance for anything ever again, I also decided to save his sarcastic remark for the next time he asked me to do anything for him that wasn’t related to my job – when I would also draw a big “X” in the air with my finger and say “That’s a hard NO!”
Just replacing the window rubbers is also not the final answer either, because the car – even if it doesn’t leak – would still be exposed to shitty weather which will make it rust. There’s no way around that.
In the meantime I looked at my options, which weren’t many. I couldn’t afford to buy another used car, and even if I could I’m not prepared to have another car rust in the street exposed to the weather. To do that I’d need a second garage as well as a second car. I also couldn’t see the car cover working in the long term. The thus-far unfulfilled promise that we’re supposed to be getting undercover parking at work “soon” has grown old and turned green over the past decade (or longer) so that’s as worthless as most promises – and I wouldn’t be asking that man if I could set up a tent in the parking lot either!
I decided to give the chap who restored Dolly’s left door a few months ago a call, and that went surprisingly better than expected. Not only would he replace both window rubbers for me, but he’d also refit the chrome trim surrounds (which fit into a groove in the rubber seals) as well. It would take about 2 hours, he said, and it would cost R1450! It was very ouch at this time of the month (or year) when I have less money available for emergencies. I paid via EFT – from my dwindling savings reserve – and he placed the order for the rubber seals. My appointment with him was set for next week Tuesday. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Tuesday:
The weather was better on Tuesday, at least it didn’t rain.
I found it very surprising that in spite of a heavy hectic workload, I still managed to do a little work on “Sentinel“. Not nearly as much as I would’ve liked though.
The story of Sentinel – book 4 in the Galaxii Series, features all-new characters and will once again revolve around the ever-present Corsair menace! Following on after “Dead Beckoning“.
“Sentinel” focuses on the starship I.S.S. Munray – a ship crewed by ill-disciplined misfits barely one step away from another court-martial and outright dismissal, filled with bitterness, resentment and axes to grind with anyone in authority!
Now at nearly 60k words, the story is evolving and I’m just working out the ending, and looking at a few more turns and twists to spice up the plot! Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted!
Wednesday:
Not much to say about Wednesday. It was hectic, we closed a little early and I went home. Instead of working on a project (or writing) as I usually would, I indulged myself and had a nap until about 4PM and enjoyed the rest of the evening unwinding. It was nice – I should do it again sometime!
Thursday:
I was informed that “African Assignment” and “A Way Of Life” are still in editing at my new local publisher. What’s the hold-up, I wonder? Perhaps I’m just impatient because the more time is spent “editing”, the less time they will have to generate income before May next year!
Friday:
On Friday morning it rained again, and the fellow in question I mentioned on Monday cheekily stuck his head in the door to remark what a lovely rainy morning it was, with a big sarcastic grin on his face on his way past my office. Honestly, there are days I wish I could just wish some annoying twats people away.
Monday being a public holiday, there was something to look forward to, so I went home that afternoon more cheerful than usual.
An Ignominious Ending For Top Gear
Having finished watching the last season of “Top Gear” with Clarkson, Hammond and May in (Season 21) during the week, we decided that Season 21 episode 08 was the last actual episode of “Top Gear”. We didn’t arrive at this conclusion as some kind of snap-judgement – we did try to watch the Season 21 “special” with the three new guys in and were left disappointed. The BBC had replaced three flamboyant, entertaining personalities with three flat, bland, boring cardboard cut-outs – none of whom had any wit, charm, personality, dress-sense – or familiarity with a razor. I mean, don’t get me wrong – Clarkson, Hammond and May might be elitist twats in their own right (and I have little time for wankers who hate on VW Beetles as much as they do) but they’re at least well-spoken, reasonably professional and usually highly entertaining. Within the first ten minutes of the “special” the new guys were a total put-off. Delete. Forget, move on. WTF, BBC?
Saturday:
On Saturday morning I popped up to Builder’s to pick up some chemical rust converter for Dolly’s appointment with the workshop next Tuesday. After that, I set about painting the second part of the wooden Victorian style awning I’ve made for the front entrance of the house. With any luck I’ll be able to have it up by sometime on Monday, and the workspace can be cleared out again.
Breast Plate!
A big problem some girls have, that is, girls with a generously built… er… bosom, is finding a bra that can support them. Wendy K. Engela, my more patient half and love of my life, has just such a problem. Sadly, bras these days – specifically the larger cupped sizes – are very expensive. Even more sad, these bras don’t last very long – elastic stretches and fails – and before long, these items stop being effective. The only available solution appeared to be just forking out another R500 for a new bra… which was a bit much! Other alternatives included binders for transmen, but these too were impossible to come by in our area. What she wanted was something that would keep the boobages still, supported and in place. I started to mentally design something that would fit over a bra to support that, and prevent (or delay) the bra wearing out.
What I came up with was a shaped breastplate hammered out from a piece of aluminum. The aluminum plate was cut according to the shape of a bra traced out on it with a marker, and I used a jig saw to do the cutting. Then I used a ball-peen hammer to bulge out the bowls using the opening of a large coffee tin as a hollow. After about an hour’s worth of hammering, bending and shaping, and “quick fits” or sighting references to ensure I was getting there, I reached the point where the shaping of the plate was complete. Anyway, after that, it was just a matter of gluing enough padding on the inside and outside, a cover made from an old sports bra, lots of hand-stitching, and then securing the straps and clasps with rivets, and it was done. Yes, I’ll be doing a DIY article on this project soon!
Starting The Grand Tour!
We’d got hold of season one of “The Grand Tour” – with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May – and started watching it on Saturday evening. What a lovely surprise – I can’t say I’m surprised that the “holy trinity” took all their fans and followers with them when the BBC dropped the ball. And yes, they’re still a trio of irritating wankers at times, hating on the best car ever built (the VW Beetle, of course!) … but even I could forgive them for one or two little human failings – and at least, they are usually highly entertaining.
Sunday:
The Grand Tour – Not So Grand?
I’m not too sure that I like the format of “The Grand Tour” that much though. The “Celebrity Brain Crash” insert was funny the first few times, but by the end of the season I thought it was dead boring. Then there’s their equivalent (or antithesis) of the Stig, “the American” who sounds like a whiny, sour redneck driving around a track wearing a wet nappy, winging about any car that isn’t an American V8 gas guzzler. I find him just plain annoying. I’m not sure at this point if he’s serious, or if he’s some sort of parody of ‘Muricans’ in the Trump era (it was 2016 after all).
Then there’s the “challenges” – usually they had to build something, and although it usually resulted in mass of cock-ups which were very funny, there was usually something common-sense-ical about it… but if anything, these have become even sillier, more frivolous and utterly pointless. It seems like their goal is to act like little boys and just wreck everything in sight for the sake of it, while on camera… and while other people (presumably Americans) find that entertaining, I do not. Then there’s the cars… Unlike their tenure in Top Gear, they manage to not provide much in the way of facts, just gibberish. It’s sad that The Grand Tour seems to have been developed for a bland, annoying sort of notion of what’s supposed to be entertaining – as long as plenty of stuff gets destroyed in the process and there’s an explosion or two in there somewhere, it’s entertainment. Sad to say, even though I’ve been a fan of Clarkson, Hammond and May for some years, I can’t help feeling less entertained and more annoyed with the passing of each episode. At least their wit and some of their antics are still entertaining… so let’s give it another season’s probation and see how it goes.
Victorian Awning Fitted!
As it turns out, I managed to finish the installation of the awning I made! It took a good few hours (mostly on a ladder, and some hanging over the stoop roof like a mad, swearing fruit bat) to fit, but it’s finally done! After lying in my workspace for over a year, that is! All it still needs is a final coat of white paint, which I’ll get around to (weather permitting) next weekend. Pictures below!
Cheers!
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