Errands

Yesterday afternoon (Thursday, June 12, 2008), while Linda was working at the Post-Office, I set out to do three errands.
Actually, three errands ain’t that much. It’s just that one was all the way in deepest, darkest Rochester, 50+ minutes away.
As always, other errands in that direction, north, had to be coupled.
And a fourth errand, road-test and assessment of a Suzuki SX4, which I’ve wanted to do for months, had to be deferred once again, since doing so would gobble up two or more hours.
—1) The first errand was to Roly-Door in Rochester, our old stomping grounds, Winton and Blossom, a block from our old house.
Roly-Door replaced our garage-door opener here in West Bloomfield when the earlier nylon gear stripped.
They also suggested a giant 16’ by 8’ garage-door would be much lighter now, and we should probably replace the door.
Our current garage-door, an “Overhead-Door,” is original to the house, so over 18 years old.
There’s a lotta weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth when we open it, and it hung up recently.
I’ve always felt negatory about Roly-Door, because they bought a classic house near the Winton/Blossom corner, removed the second story and the attic, flat-roofed the first story with a tar-roof, and then built out to the street.
So much for the classic house. —The first floor and cellar remain, including a bow-window with the glass painted over, but other than that it’s still there; painted flat gray.
But -a) Roly-Door fixed our door at the drop-of-a-hat; -b) I know where they are; and -c) Overhead-Door is kaput.
“Does your door still work?” the nice salesman asked.
“Yes,” I said; “but it hung up once.” I wasn’t looking forward to a frenzied used-car salesman, and thankfully this guy wasn’t.
Color-chips were circulated, and brochures opened.
R-values were bandied about.
“I work in that garage during winter, and don’t want to heat it.”
“Sounds like R-12 or R-18.......”
“It also faces south, so it gets the wind.”
“And right now the way it’s painted it’s a heat-sink; extreme thermal variances that pop screws and spring hinges.”
The salesman will come out next week to assess the job.
I guess everything has to be replaced except the opener, which they installed anyway: track-channels, door, sealers; the whole kabosh.
And no windows this time. We never used ‘em. They were so full of condensation (probably failed seals due to extreme thermal variances) we looked out the side man-door, or even opened it.
Departing I drove by our old house out front — didn’t go around back. Our front portico is almost completely closed in by a bush, and our front hedge is up to the bedroom window-ledges (our bedroom was on the first floor).
Last we looked around back, our garden had become a forest still surrounded by our fence.
I wonder how many owners there have been since we left?
And all the trees in the neighborhood are much higher — the neighborhood is much shadier.
—2) I also had to hit the dreaded Funky-Food-Market; mainly to purchase pizza-sauce.
Weggers has a funky food section, but it appears they don’t sell salt-free pizza-sauce.
Only Lori’s (the “Funky-Food-Market”) has it — plus I have to hit Lori’s for other things.
Three salt-free pizza-sauces in my sissy-cart, along with a case of organical grape-juice (12 bottles), and a large bag of bulk rolled-oats I dished out myself.
Doesn’t hafta be organical grape-juice, since MarketPlace sells it, but not by the case, and they want a lot more bucks per bottle. Weggers doesn’t sell it at all — with them, it’s Welch’s, which is okay, but I can’t buy a case.
Just the other day I purchased organical bananas at Weggers, but only because the non-organic bananas were too ripe and too small.
“Grown in Ecuador,” it said. That means jetted up to Weggers using gobs of jet-fuel, and then truck-delivered to the store.
So what’s the point? We’re still using oil to deliver the stuff, plus it had a petroleum-based “organic” band, and a molded plastic wrapper over the stems.
MarketPlace also sells bulk rolled-oats, and bulk quick-oats. We buy the quick-oats there; rolled-oats if I can’t get to Lori’s.
—3) Final errand was “Chevy Country” in nearby Avon (“AH-von” not “AYE-von” [the makeup]) to take pictures of old cars for my blowhard brother-in-Boston to identify.
Seems he should be able to slam-dunk at least half; probably even the faded pickup-truck (that’s five outta eight).
But they’re all junk — looks like that Dart was pushed dead into a field.
The ‘57 Chevys (and the ‘55) showed messy bondo around the headlights; and the driver’s door wouldn’t fully close on the ‘54. (But both ‘57s have an intact [unbroken] center grille-bar; where do you ever see that?)
I tried to open the hood on the ‘39 to see if it had a Small-Block or the original Stovebolt, which despite my all-knowing macho brother’s noisy claim, wouldn’t be the Iron-Duke.
But the hood wouldn’t open without my yanking it, and it ain’t my car; so I left it closed.
“I see ya like the cars,” said the scruffy owner. “I got lots more out back in a barn.”
“I can’t shoot anything inside,” I said.
“I expect to drag out more soon.”
A Dart is hardly a Chevy, nor is a rotting Mach-One Mustang, or an un-straight GTO (at least, I think it’s a GTO).
But they’re things for my brother to bluster about.
I have no idea what year the Dart is — didn’t look. I wonder if it’s a Hemi?

AS ALWAYS.......
The frenzied surfeit of errands continues: -a) this morning there was a PSA blood-draw for a Urology Appointment next Friday; -b) after 2 p.m. today (Friday, June 13, 2008) Budget-Blinds is supposed to appear to install the blinds on our porch; -c) the garage-door salesman comes next Monday in the late afternoon — and Linda has both a dentist appointment and an eye-appointment on that day, which means she may not be here. She also had an ear-appointment a few days ago; -d) monthly business-meeting of my old bus-union is Thursday, June 19; and -e) my Urology appointment is the next day (goosey-goosey).
The YMCA got tossed up the creek today, because I don’t have time for it. (I had to buy brown eggs from the dreaded egg-man, plus mail something to 44, and hit MarketPlace for milk.)
Plus -a) I still got a motorbike that needs inspection, and -b) we’re still looking for a dog, and that may mean a long journey.
Mighty Curve is down July 7, back July 9; and sometime during July is a Transit-retirees meeting, and I’ve volunteered to pass out diabetes literature in advance; since I still can.
Amidst all this is Linda working at the Post-Office, lawn-mowing, running, and the YMCA. It hurtles on-and-on.

“Linda” is my wife of 40+ years. Like me she’s retired, but she works part-time at the West Bloomfield post-office.

The “Suzuki SX4” is small all-wheel-drive station-wagon we’re considering buying.

RE: Before West Bloomfield, we lived near the corner of Winton and Blossom Roads in Rochester; on North Winton Road — an old farmhouse we owned.

The “Funky-Food-Market” is Lori’s Natural Foods, south of Rochester in Henrietta — a source for salt-free cereal, sauce, etc. “Dreaded” because my zealot siblings have loudly passed judgment. —“Funky food” is natural food; whole grains, etc.

“Weggers” is Wegmans, a large supermarket-chain based in Rochester we often buy groceries at. They have a store in Canandaigua.

Wegmans has a small shopping-cart that will only hold what a daily shopper would buy. My zealot siblings call it a “sissy-cart.”

“MarketPlace” is a small independent supermarket in the nearby village of Honeoye Falls. My wife buys most of our groceries there.

“My blowhard brother-in-Boston,” the ad-hominem king, who noisily badmouths everything I do or say, claims to be a superior car-guy to me, and that I know nothing at all; which is sheer posturing.

The Chevrolet “Small-Block” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year. It continued production for years, first at 283 cubic inches, then 327, then 350. Other displacements were also manufactured. It’s still being produced; though vastly revised.

The Chevrolet “Stovebolt” was the Stovebolt overhead-valve inline six-cylinder car motor, updated in 1937, but introduced earlier. It was called the “Stovebolt” because it could be repaired with common stovebolts from the hardware-store. It stayed in production through 1963.

The “Iron-Duke” was a four-cylinder car motor once made by Chevrolet, in the ‘80s. My macho, blowhard brother-from-Boston once claimed the Chevrolet Vega used the Iron-Duke motor, which was flat wrong. The Vega motor was an unsleeved all-aluminum overhead-cam 2.3-liter four-cylinder; probably the worst motor General Motors ever made. “Unsleeved” because the cylinder-bores did not have cast-iron sleeves. The were etched aluminum; and would wear. Many Vegas ended up smoking like mosquito-foggers. 1939 is hardly the ‘80s.

The “center grille-bar” on a 1957 Chevy usually broke when the car was used to push-start another.

There have been three “Hemis” (“HEM-eee”): -1) was the original Chrysler Hemi V8 built from 1951 through 1958; -2) was the famed Dodge and Plymouth “Elephant-motor” displacing 426 cubic-inches, drag-raced and raced in NASCAR until it was outlawed; and -3) the current “Hemi;” which though smaller still produces prodigious horsepower, because it has the same hemispherical combustion-chamber (with canted valves) as the original Hemis — which breath extremely well (like at high speed). —If that Dart had an “Elephant-motor” it woulda been a monster; small car, HUGELY powerful motor.

For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, N.Y. My stroke October 26, 1993 ended that. My bus-union was Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 282.

“Dreaded egg-man” is a local producer of eggs who keeps hens in his backyard. My zealot siblings have all noisily weighed in that Jesus would buy eggs only from Weggers — that backyard eggs are toxic.

“44” (“Agent-44”) is my brother-in-Delaware’s onliest son Tom. He recently graduated college as a computer-engineer. Like me he’s a railfan.

I work out in the Canandaigua YMCA exercise-gym.

The “mighty Curve” (Horseshoe Curve), west of Altoona, Pennsylvania, is by far the BEST railfan spot I have ever been to. Horseshoe Curve is a national historic site. It was a trick used by the Pennsylvania Railroad to get over the Allegheny mountains without steep grades. Horseshoe Curve was opened in 1854, and is still in use. (I am a railfan, and have been since I was a child.)