So... Once Upon a Time...

[orbital]

+

Three weeks ago I went into my garage & my lights wouldn't turn On,, tried my garage door opener / nothing.
Made the small hike down to my basement & saw my breaker tripped, thought "good it's just that"

Twenty minutes later checked my breaker box & it was tripped again,, so went into the garage & unplugged everything & turned everything off.
....now the breaker was tripping instantly.

///ISSUES///

My house is a good 100 years old & I'm not certain on the age of the underground wiring leading to my garage (at least 75' away from my 200A breaker box)
Had my electrician come out & yep, it was the underground wiring,, f**phixss*r

Fast forward,
Made the decision (since it was to be trenched up anyway) fully went for it with a 220V setup upgrade in my garage.
I don't really do home improvements, but this had to go under the 'file' of Home Improvement $$$
Having a good electrician is key; really clean work & never a question on my request for larger gauge wire / putting in a full 50A 220V outlet.
As of yesterday: everything is now at 220V code in my garage.

So you ask, 'what's the point of this post'?
well when the lead guy was leaving I gave him an 18650 powered Osram thrower (figured he didn't have anything like that)
..he said he didn't & would take it on his camping trip over the weekend.
I know that light will throw several hundred yards & it'll blow his socks off.

With battery, $35 light setup could pay dividends in the future..ya know

or
maybe another CPF user

 

[bykfixer]

Image is everything.

That was a phrase a dude I associated with through work used to repeat often. For the longest time I did not understand the value of that as everybody seemed to consider the guy a cross between Magnum PI and Fonzy back then. Women would swoon, and men would stop talking when he entered the room. Now for some reason he let me see his soft underside as he tried to teach me the value of "image is everything". To this day I do not know why he picked me but I'm glad he did.

Flash back to about 1990. I was a government employee who thought I was a community servant. In a small town community servant meant the same as a big city. Join the right clubs, make friends with the right crowd, "join the coffee club" I'd always say as I politely declined membership to those clubs or dinner with those people. I had a young family to raise and an old house to restore. Plus I got the distinct impression I would stand out like a sore thumb in those circles.

Now as a community servant I attended social gatherings as work required, retirement dinners for the mayor, public hearing meetings and such. But I was my man. I marched to a different drum beat so thinking back, perhaps that made some folks uncomfortable.

Enter Mr Image. I'll call him Willy although that's not his real name. Willy owned a local high end steak joint and worked for a natural gas company. The restaraunt was where all the "coffee club" hung out after 5. Many could hardly afford their mortgage but that place got them noticed. Willy had a knack of causing half drunk politicians and social climbers his steak was the best steak on planet earth. His schtick was send a half dressed dame or young stud to the table with a big slab of beef, let the customer decide how thick to cut it then cook it on a griddle smothered in butter.

Now they were pretty good, but my charcoal grill could do a great job at 10% the cost. Dude made a small fortune each night on cocktails and steak. At his job with the gas company everybody knew he knew where every gas pipe was installed since about 1977. Whenever they installed new pipes in nice neighborhoods he'd have them place rye grass seed in the soil piles to be used to backfill the trench. That way if the dirt wasn't topsoil brown in 3 days the trench would have grass growing anyway. The homeowner had the impression that orange dirt and rocks was actually better for growing grass than topsoil.

One day he picked me up and took me for a ride. He said "young man I'm going to teach you something today." We stopped at a local motorcycle shop first. The owner and Willy rode bikes at Daytona every February. Willy was there to pick out a bike for that year. Not to buy, or rent, but to ride for free. See the owners son and the owner thought Willy was so cool it was an honor to let him ride the highest priced bike in the place at Daytona. Once he'd picked out his choice he advised the owners so he needed to trailer it to Daytona. The owners son gladly obliged ole Willy. "We just got in a closed trailer just for you Willy". But Willy wasn't going to pull a motorcycle behind a truck for 12 hours. The owners son did that.
As we left he laughed and said "image is everything big daddy"……

Next we went to a job site where the workers were trying to find a gas line from the 1970's. They had been looking for 2 days to no avail. Willy pointed to a dent in the ground and said "dig here". Ten minutes later they'd found the pipe. "Yay!!, thanks Willy" the crew hollered. Walking away I asked how he knew where the pipe was. He laughed and said "big daddy I didn't have a gd clue where that pipe was but they don't know that"……"image is everything"……

Willy took me on a few more of those rides before I left the government job. One day I understood what he meant. I never wore a wrist watch but one day decided to try an experiment. I bought a few watches and took notice how some people treated me each time I'd wear a certain watch. If I was around a bunch of propellerhead types a digital watch did the trick. Around gearheads a dark face analog watch with a leather band did the trick. In some circles a Mickey Mouse watch mattered. It was crazy but Willy was right. I tried it with shirts, shoes, ball caps (or no ball cap), and even the words I chose or remain quiet just to see how it works.
Image is everything.

 

[Olumin]

I think the word Willy was looking for is vanity. But he couldn't put it that way, that would hurt his image.

 

[aznsx]

Image is everything.

BF - I gather that community was a fairly small one? 'Bout how big, if I may ask. True that this could be any size place, but I'm just curious.

Back where I come from, the phrase for a guy like Willie was "big fish in a little pond". It wasn't generally used in a complimentary way. There were always a few around, and it must be said, they generally 'did well'. There were always enough like that bike shop owner around to make sure of that. Never hung with that crowd - not my style, or 'image'.

 

[bykfixer]

AZ, it was not Mayberry or Metropolis. We had 4 cops and a fire chief back then. It was what some call a bedroom community. One where most leave it from 9 to 5 and on weekends they stay at "the lake" or "the river". I suppose some would call it "the suburbs". Now days it's a very diverse community where a variety of ethnic groups and incomes are well represented, and about 50 cops now.

The local "in crowd" played soccer back then. Now there's a skateboard park in the middle of the soccer complex. My family had lived on a farm that was sold off parcel by parcel as the town grew. So I was sorta like one of the Beverly Hillbillies to many in the community. But they always knew my name when their car broke down or lawn mower needed repairs.

 

[Poppy]

A long long time ago, in a Galaxy we call the Milky Way, before there were light sabers, or cell phones, I called a girl friend and didn't catch her at home.

The next day, I called her again, and told her I called her the previous night.

Her response was... "Oh... I was out celebrating Hump Day!"

What!!! Hump Day!? And I missed it!???

Well friends, tonight is hump night eve.
Go out and celebrate it tomorrow.

 

[bykfixer]

While in a Golden Corral this evening I heard a familiar voice say "whatcha say old man?" as Mrs Fixer and I were deciding where to sit. At first my thought was nobody remembers me anymore so they must be talking to someone else…then it dawned on me "paver Ed does" and it was his voice I heard.

I turned around to see where Ed was but he had gotten so old and give out he looked like a black Clint Eastwood. Hair all frazzled and his face was all skin and bones. I spoke to who I thought might be him and sure enough it was. I knew Ed in the 1980's when he worked for a paving outfit. He was a huge Washington Redskins fan. Then one day he said "today's my last day here". I figured like many in his profession he'd found a better paying job. I asked who he was going to work for. He chuckled and said "I'm retired"…… "my son just signed a 5 year contract with the Redskins", Holy cow, I heard other paver dudes say Ed's son was good at football but Jiminey Cricket, a 5 year deal!! And the Redskins too.

That was that. Ed retired. Then one night when I was dating Mrs Fixer I heard a voice in a Golden Corral say "whatcha say old man?" and it was Ed the paver. After a bunch of years he remembered me. I remembered him too because he was always happy, and made sure folks around him were too. He has a distinctive voice similar to Johnny Carson show announcer Ed McMann. We spoke about life a bit and went our separate ways.

A few times we went to Golden Corral Ed was there with his wife. One time I asked him "doesn't your son play pro ball?" He said "naw he retired"…"yeah, how'd he do?" See Ed remembered I had stopped watching football on tv the night Lawrence Taylor broke Joe Theisman's leg on Monday night football and they kept showing it over and over. He said "well he did ok with the Redskins, but when he played for the Packers he got some super bowl rings and played in the pro bowl a few times, but decided it was more important to stay home with mama" (meaning his wife).

Tonight Ed's son was with him at the Golden Corral. You'd never know his son was rich and famous. Yeah, he and his wife were well dressed but in a humble way. He walked his pop to their car a Ford Fusion, keeping him stable as Ed walked weakly and slow. Then he opened the car door for his wife……one of those really nice, big Mercedes sports cars, got in a drove off. It was a real pleasure seeing Ed after a few years and since he still remembered me it was more of a pleasure.

I do hope to see Ed again someday. If I do I'm going to say "Ed, what is your last name?"

 

[bykfixer]

I recently joined a club called "skaters over 50". It's mostly skateboarders from the 80's who never stopped riding, but many members haven't ridden since the 80's. So you have a dozen or so super talented dudes who never got fat, or slowed down very much and then you have all these middle aged fat old dudes wanting to re-live their junior year of high school riding a skateboard in a concrete park. What could go wrong with that?

I joined out of curiosity really. I've already had my middle age crisis thank you. And it was fun too. Mine began at 36 and lasted to 47 so I'd say that wasn't bad. I came in for a hard landing one day and decided that was enough. A year later when all was nearly healed my body began to thank me. So I wonder how many of those folks over 50 that stepped back onto a skateboard after 32 years will still be riding after the initial 90 days because they did not ease into it, but instead decided "I've got this" and went all out only to find out they were doing the old folks boogie. That's where your mind makes promises your body can't fulfill.

I've found common ground with a few folks there. Some who rode in the mid 70's and remembered how by 1980 our body was wiped out from being crash test dummies for all those kids from the 80's to gain from. We were the first through the wall as it were. Many didn't make it to the year 2000. Yet I've found most there to be full of crap or just plain stupid. Many act like it's still 1985. They show off their old boards from 1987 that look like brand new. Anything I rode back in the day is long since gone because it was slam worn out. So when they scoff at me for being retired from it, it's no skin off my back. They were posers then and still posers now.

It's the few I've found common ground with that keeps me hanging around. The ones from the 60's and 70's were cool back then and still cool today. They got old by being smart. Nowdays, wise. Me? I'm just lucky but that's another story. The post 70's folks I get along with there are very understanding that those old tendons and bones don't just flex like they once did. They ride skateboards encased in skateboarder brand bubble wrap type apparel. We talk about practicing falling, how to predict the perils that may ensue because as the body gets older the reaction time gets longer and longer. I retired simply because one day I had hit the ground and bounced before I even realized I was falling.

The idiots say "never quit" as they roll around some skatepark stink-bug style thinking they're Tony Hawk because they met him at an autograph session. But in my heyday Tony was a little kid who was learning from us. Matter of fact there was a day at my local skateboard park where a bunch of the best of the best were skating in one favorite spot while I was doing my own thing in another spot and they asked me to ride with them. Them being the Stacy Perallta skateboard team and one being an up and coming Tony Hawk. I said "thanks, but I'm ok riding here". They were all trying to out-trick each other and see who could be the most "rad". I was just having fun and not wanting to compete. Fact was I was still healing and did not want to get injured again. But at one point I did stand still while one guy goes flying from one bowl to another flying over me. Yeah that was cool.

They had a camera crew filming and snapping photos for some movie they were making. I remember there being an article in a skateboard magazine about "the tour". Not long after I was injured for life with a repeat knee catastrophe. Down time and rehab became a way of life that I'd had enough of. I rode here and there on occasion but the knee thing was always in my psyche. Never again did I want to re-live that. At 40 I began riding surfer style skateboards but at 47 stopped that too. I'm a life long member of "the old man army" which is a club that began around 2004 and like me the founders are all retired (again).

I'll always be a skateboarder at heart, as there were times the kids who picked on me on the baseball field or basketball court were humbled by my skateboarding prowess but that was then. It's fun to look at photos club members share of sketchy scrap wood ramps held together with scrap nails leaning on a shed or a rock. lol. We rode until it collapsed and put it back together again. I remember having a wound on my elbow all summer until rainy season when it finally healed because I couldn't ride my skateboard. But to ride anymore? Nah, that's ok, I'll watch thank ya.

Side story, one day I wrote an email to Stacy Peralta thanking him for starting a board company for us 'skate geezers' called Surf One. I told him the story of that day at my local park. He asked for my address. Eh, he'll send me some stickers or something. Not long after a box showed up with a bunch of stickers and a Powell-Peralta skateboard team jacket. 😎

Nice, huh.

 

[gurdygurds]

DUDE! That jacket is amazing! Funny that I just read this as last night I was online trying to see if I could find my old Lance Mountain deck. Maybe we all need to get together for a Search For Animal Chin watch party!

DUDE! That jacket is amazing! Funny that I just read this as last night I was online trying to see if I could find my old Lance Mountain deck. Maybe we all need to get together for a Search For Animal Chin watch party!

I recently joined a club called "skaters over 50". It's mostly skateboarders from the 80's who never stopped riding, but many members haven't ridden since the 80's. So you have a dozen or so super talented dudes who never got fat, or slowed down very much and then you have all these middle aged fat old dudes wanting to re-live their junior year of high school riding a skateboard in a concrete park. What could go wrong with that?

I joined out of curiosity really. I've already had my middle age crisis thank you. And it was fun too. Mine began at 36 and lasted to 47 so I'd say that wasn't bad. I came in for a hard landing one day and decided that was enough. A year later when all was nearly healed my body began to thank me. So I wonder how many of those folks over 50 that stepped back onto a skateboard after 32 years will still be riding after the initial 90 days because they did not ease into it, but instead decided "I've got this" and went all out only to find out they were doing the old folks boogie. That's where your mind makes promises your body can't fulfill.

I've found common ground with a few folks there. Some who rode in the mid 70's and remembered how by 1980 our body was wiped out from being crash test dummies for all those kids from the 80's to gain from. We were the first through the wall as it were. Many didn't make it to the year 2000. Yet I've found most there to be full of crap or just plain stupid. Many act like it's still 1985. They show off their old boards from 1987 that look like brand new. Anything I rode back in the day is long since gone because it was slam worn out. So when they scoff at me for being retired from it, it's no skin off my back. They were posers then and still posers now.

It's the few I've found common ground with that keeps me hanging around. The ones from the 60's and 70's were cool back then and still cool today. They got old by being smart. Nowdays, wise. Me? I'm just lucky but that's another story. The post 70's folks I get along with there are very understanding that those old tendons and bones don't just flex like they once did. They ride skateboards encased in skateboarder brand bubble wrap type apparel. We talk about practicing falling, how to predict the perils that may ensue because as the body gets older the reaction time gets longer and longer. I retired simply because one day I had hit the ground and bounced before I even realized I was falling.

The idiots say "never quit" as they roll around some skatepark stink-bug style thinking they're Tony Hawk because they met him at an autograph session. But in my heyday Tony was a little kid who was learning from us. Matter of fact there was a day at my local skateboard park where a bunch of the best of the best were skating in one favorite spot while I was doing my own thing in another spot and they asked me to ride with them. Them being the Stacy Perallta skateboard team and one being an up and coming Tony Hawk. I said "thanks, but I'm ok riding here". They were all trying to out-trick each other and see who could be the most "rad". I was just having fun and not wanting to compete. Fact was I was still healing and did not want to get injured again. But at one point I did stand still while one guy goes flying from one bowl to another flying over me. Yeah that was cool.

They had a camera crew filming and snapping photos for some movie they were making. I remember there being an article in a skateboard magazine about "the tour". Not long after I was injured for life with a repeat knee catastrophe. Down time and rehab became a way of life that I'd had enough of. I rode here and there on occasion but the knee thing was always in my psyche. Never again did I want to re-live that. At 40 I began riding surfer style skateboards but at 47 stopped that too. I'm a life long member of "the old man army" which is a club that began around 2004 and like me the founders are all retired (again).

I'll always be a skateboarder at heart, as there were times the kids who picked on me on the baseball field or basketball court were humbled by my skateboarding prowess but that was then. It's fun to look at photos club members share of sketchy scrap wood ramps held together with scrap nails leaning on a shed or a rock. lol. We rode until it collapsed and put it back together again. I remember having a wound on my elbow all summer until rainy season when it finally healed because I couldn't ride my skateboard. But to ride anymore? Nah, that's ok, I'll watch thank ya.

Side story, one day I wrote an email to Stacy Peralta thanking him for starting a board company for us 'skate geezers' called Surf One. I told him the story of that day at my local park. He asked for my address. Eh, he'll send me some stickers or something. Not long after a box showed up with a bunch of stickers and a Powell-Peralta skateboard team jacket. 😎
View attachment 33389
Nice, huh.

 

[bykfixer]

If you ever get the chance to see a movie called Downhill Motion GG, that was my heyday era. Filmed in about 1975 or 76 it was what our teenage years was shaped by. We lived our lives through pictures in a magazine and well written stories. When I saw the film footage in that movie the first time (in about 2005) it was just like being there all over again. Only it all happened in a summer in California and we were on the opposite coast doing the same thing a year later.

There's one scene while showing a guy laying on his back on a skateboard goes wizzing past a little kid (Jay Adams btw) going downhill the narrator says "safety gear hadn't been thought of yet, that was another 2 weeks later". lol. It was the hill where Dog Town Z-Boys shows a 12 or so year old Jay Adams bombing a hill. The guy goes flying past Jay who was himself going like 45mph. We called it "butt boarding" but they called it street luge.

 

[orbital]

+

Gooofy footer here,, ground through & broke many Independent 169s'
Street, ditch, vert*, banks, swimming pools, anything

We built several vert ramps in high school through mid 80s' ,, when I have some more time I have a stories to tell.
One quick story:: the Faction played in my buddys large garage and behind that was one of our vert ramps,,, guess who skated it?



*real vertical

 

[orbital]

+

Through the 80s' in high school we built something like four vert ramps.
The first was really nothing and fell apart, the next couple were getting better/ bigger learning about transition radius vs the amount of flat ect.
The last one in my senior year was to be the biggest, strongest of them all. Really focused on the foundation and using screws instead of nails. Just overbuilt in every way.
This ramps was near some railroad tracks and everyone knows, teenage kids + RR track can mean trouble..

Someone had the idea of going down the tracks to a lumber yard and stealing dozens of 2x6s' and sliding them along the track back to our ramp, tying rope to the ends and pulling them 1/2 mile or further.

What could go wrong?

So we did this 'mission' to the lumber yard one night after getting several guys to help.
Things were going ok, but as you slide wood across steel they heat up and act as brake pads,, we didn't account for this, DUUUH!

Just then, we see a light of a train in the distance, people were yelling to go faster ==== this heated up our wood 'brake pads' even more, making it tons harder to pull.
Everyone was freaking out as the train got closer & closer and I remember like it was yesterday how much my legs were cramping.
Now the train is maybe 30 seconds away and we were close enough to the ramp spot & we dumped all the wood off the tracks and laid in the ditch as the train roared past.

My heart was pounding so hard my brain went into some kind of 'safety mode' with my legs now unable to move.

__

A couple weeks later after the ramp was almost done except for the plywood (and I think we were going to do masonite also)
the building inspector forced it to be torn down*

That was such a stupid thing for all of us & I'm glad there wasn't some terrible accident.



Still, I miss the 80s'


* was rebuilt in a warehouse in downtown Milwaukee

 

[knucklegary]

Kids will be kids.. Have y'all seen this old dude on YouTube?

 

[orbital]

+

In 1981 MTV went live, the following year I was going into 8th grade.
We didn't have it with our cable package at the time, but a girlfriend of mine did.

A group of 3 of us would race our BMX bikes about 3 miles to her house in the morning before school & watch MTV for 15 minutes before homeroom,, she live a few doors down from the school so we could leave our bikes there.

I was asked to be a monitor for the AV department & said yes. Delivered vhs & movie equipment to classrooms, all kinds of other stuff.
In the AV room I had to myself, they had cable & would have MTV on the TV in there.

Of all the videos that would come on,, this was my favorite at the time




edit: rewording

 

[bykfixer]

I saw INXS first on a late night show. Don't think it was Nite Flite though. Iirc it was on ABC at the same time though. Them and the Smiths, Sparx, Zebra, Quiet Riot, the Call are bands I recall. That INXS lead singer (Michael Hutchinson?) would run across the stage and "beyoing" suddenly launch in the opposite direction as if he were hooked to a bunjee cord that snapped back. For years I wondered howthehell he did that.

While my friends were still stuck on Van Halen 1, Def Leopard or Skynyrd, I was into a new breed of rock & roll. My twin was into hip hop because that's what all the sheeple were into. To me the Call was one of the best bands ever.

I had a 12" b&w tv using rabbit ears with a headphone jack in my bedroom at the time so I could rock out without waking my parents. No cable. There was cable downstairs but so was the family, the rules and the loss of freedom my bedroom in the corner of the attic offered. No heat, no ac, but worth it to me. There was a bathroom upstairs. Good enough.

Breakout INXS

They had been called "the Ferris Brothers" at one point.

 

[bykfixer]

Today in the grocery store on the potato chip aisle I was contemplating which ones to buy. I had my eye on lightly salted store brand when a voice behind me says "excuse me" and reaches for the lightly salted store brand kind. Turns out it was one of my skateboard heroes from long ago. He's not famous so I won't mention the name. But it was a "hey I remember you" moment.

He was one of the best riders in my area in the late 70's. I said "dude, you probably don't remember this but one day in high school you said 'hey elwood, let me see your board', grabbed it and went flying down the hallway. You went into a hockey slide as Mr P popped around the corner and you crashed into him. You grabbed the board and ducked into the boys bathroom placing the skateboard behind the door so when he opened the door it was hidden. He's standing there with the door open all hollerin' hey kid where'd you go' as you were in a stall standing on the toilet. I popped in the door and teacher says 'did you see somebody come in here with a skateboard' and I said 'no', grabbed the board and hauled butt outta there". He said "naw man I don't remember that" and chuckles. I said "why lightly salted?" He says "so I won't drink so much tea". I said "see ya in 30 years".....

I was on the L skates team back then so like the ramones, everybody had an L in their name. Juny was Luny, Brian was Lion, Joey was Joel, Paul was Les (as in Les Paul) etc etc. I was elwood.

 

[orbital]

+

Should have asked him if the Lightly Salted was a Smith grind~~~

 

[bykfixer]

When we skated a grind was a grind. We just called it "axle grind". Front axle grind, rear axle grind or double axle grind. At some point they got named after people I suppose.

 

[bykfixer]

When I was dating Mrs Fixer we took a lot of photos. In lightning storms we'd also have a movie camera going. On this one afternoon we were standing under a stoop filming and taking photos.

Next morning I saw several small raised areas in the dirt near where we stood. Hmmm, must be new outlets for ants after the storm.

At work I was checking the movie frame by frame to try to get a good lightning bolt pic for my computer screen. I kept seeing what looked like mini lightening bolts right in front of me, then a few frames later a big ole lightning bolt would come down from the sky.

My boss saw what I was doing and says "I'd always heard lightning starts at the ground and then comes back down". His boss was nearby and says "hoooooly $h!t those are lightning seeds, how come you aint dead?" We chuckled. But no joke a bunch of lightning seeds near us were feeding lightning bolts. That was the last thunderstorm I filmed out doors.

A lightning seed

The bolt of lightning it helped feed.

 

[bykfixer]

This is a fun to read thread.
I'm reading these stories, sipping on decaf coffee (which means it still has a little) waiting for my daily B-12 to kick in while the household still sleeps. I've made it to 59 and have advanced at work about as far as I'll ever go. Actually 2 or 3 rungs on the corparate ladder than I'd ever figured. Jolly Green Giant by the Kingsman is playing on some cordless ear buds while old ghosts shuffle about in my memories.

Folks are starting to ask "when are you going to retire?" I respond "when I have to". Too many adventures left. Unfortunately I've out lived one of the children. The one I spoke of early in this thread who was racing on a skateboard died suddenly and unexpectedly about a month ago. So in his honor I'll write a story about him at some point. He gave life at least 100% each day and was headed for the stars. He struggled getting out of his own way there for a while but had gotten it together and was headed for great things.

While he was having his trials and tribulations, there was often tension between the two of us. That meant as an adult he still walked a wide circle around ole sergeant dad but the circle was getting smaller by the day. He left us way too soon, yet I know he's at peace now. At his funeral there was enough folks to fill a small stadium. Red eyes were everywhere but each and every person had stories to share about good deeds he had done or how he'd been the difference in a positive way in their life. While he struggled with inner peace he shared joy everywhere he went. He was one of those few who had no enemies.

At 26 he'd been an all star football player, skateboard king, a chef, a mentor for many, a hero to some, and was aiming to become a pilot for the company he worked for. I'll think up some words to tell a day in the life of this wonderful young man when the time is right. For now I just don't have in me just yet.

Til we meet again Chris.....