Tell us a little something about your first car. Do you have any photos you can share?
Submitted by tamara.
At the age of 14 or 15, I bought a 56 Ford convertible for $5.00. It didn't have an engine, or a top and I ended up giving it away. My first real 'car', (one that would move w/o pushing it),looked somthing like this:
These are models, but the paint -job is accurate. Except that we had a blue diamond with the track number where the triangle is.
Later, we got to trade them in for this model:
The main difference, aside from
the snazzy paint, was the 20mm cannon instead of the .50 cal (M2TT).
Top speed was about 35MPH. We got that up to 45 or so by 'tuning' the carb, (283 chevy), a tad.
You could float/navagate accross rivers and lakes, (Screw in the drain plugs and turn the bilgepump on), but we didn't fish from them, (difficult to do with your fingers crossed) .
At 9 tons loaded, the gas mileage was miserable but we had 300 gallons, and we weren't paying for it anyhow.
The M114A1, (and A1E2), was one of the last, gasoline powered, tactical vehicles fielded by the army.
The most fun was on snow-covered fields. We would go as fast as we could and then slam them into 'water-steer', (locks-up the right or left track), and spin round and round in circles.
Larger than a 3/4ton truck, it still was small enough to fit into your average German, Gasthaus, parking space. I'm still wondering why none of us got hit with a 'DUI'.
After a few years I did get a 'real' car. I sure wish I'da had a "MY OTHER CAR IS A VOLKSWAGEN" bumpersticker to put on the back.
The one where I get high...
I've been feeling kind of low lately.
Its been a little harder to get around, I've really had to push.
I just couldn't seem to find my level and was constantly feeling the stretch as I would try to reach.
It didn't start suddenly, I can't pin down a moment in time where one minute I was feeling up and the next, plunging into an abyss.
They say when your vision diminishes as the years take their toll, it's not 'eagle eyed' one day, blind the next.
No, it's more like a great galactic dimmer switch... slowly turning down, down, down and down.
It's been more like that...
Like a mountain I couldn't quite climb or a glutton at a feast who can't seem to push himself away from the table... yes, exactly like that.
The climb back; the regaining of my equilibrium, the return to a level where I can reach every key, every switch and soar to new, and I add, heretofore unknown altitudes... I dare say to exceed any expectations, aspirations or even suspicions I've held before today, before ten short minutes ago for that matter, I owe not to any pill or herb. No 'miracle of modern science' or caffeine infused soft drink purporting to "give me wings".
Not even an illegal substance.
It was physics, simple elementary physics.
The cause of my downfall and, at the same time, my 'hand up', my dizzying flight toward the stars!
The ramp or inclined plane. Akin to the wheel, one of mans earliest discoveries, Thank you Archimedes, yeah, thanks a lot!
I was cleaning the studio and rearranging some of the furniture today, when I noticed a small difference, something not quite right. I really couldn't put my finger on it at first, something extra, something I hadn't seen before.
It was sticking straight down, raging six or eight inches out of that wheeled 'X' at the bottom of my chair.
Black, greasy, an inch thick and stiff. All spirally swirling, the stout shaft a giant screw!
Turning the thing up-side-down, examining the workings of the thing, I found that the threaded rod that supports my seat, is fitted thru the base and has a shrouded collet, (a 'nut' ), threaded to that screw above the 'X' of the base. Normally, a 'set screw', through the collet holds it in its place thereby providing a means to adjust and retain the desired height.
This screw was slightly loose!
Over the course of time, one will naturally turn to the left and right as one works at a desk. The main screw has a 'right-hand thread', which means that the collet will tend to move up relative to the screw as the occupant turns to the right, causing the seated to move slightly downward reacting to the friction between the collet and the base. Inversely, one would be correct to assume that these same forces would then tend to move the collet back to it’s original position as one turns to the left.
Enter: Gravity!
Now, the screw is supporting the entire weight of the seat, arms, back, back bracket and photographer, (me). When I turn left, the reluctance of the greasy threads inside the collet to travel must be overcome, and the force of gravity as well. The same force that helps, for crying out loud, the thing to move up the screw, letting me down.
The change occurs gradually, insidiously.
As the months crept by, like calendar pages flipping slowly in an old black and white ‘B’ movie, the chair made it’s downward journey. As May turned to December, summer heat turned to winter frost, I was descending, extending my arms, relocating my elbows, craning my neck to see the screen... my reaching fingers grew slowly too short, my right pinky was returning ‘left brackets’ to my efforts at ‘equals signs’. Like the plot of a Steven King novel. It was hell...
A quick, deft, masterfully executed turning of the collet, and the ordeal was over.
An epiphany of biblical proportions!
A silent scream issuing from somewhere deep inside, pounding, ricocheting from one side of my brain to the other followed swiftly by a whisper scarce heard over the rushing wind through the open window:
And now, dear reader, I implore you, I beseech and beg.
Please... please, just as you strive to save your work by clicking the ‘save’ icon from time to time, pat your pocket to feel for keys before shutting the locked door behind you...
Check your chairs! check them often.
Kids, do try this at home!
I’m aware that not everyone has a screw loose like me, I know that most office chairs are pneumatic, and not old wrecks like mine with enormous twisting spirals holding them up. I am also aware that this old monster is not the only one ever manufactured, not the only one still in use.
For the love of whatever Deity you worship, for the sake of your loved ones, for a good time call... (I digress)
Just check your chairs...
Please.
http://static.zooomr.com/images/8f4b8b8cdbcfc4f0988aed0b2648c71ec8dd1e3a.jpg
Lisa, ©2006, recent work.
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!" "(From lj user"coffeecaptian"/ my new neighbor, Sarah's lj. From an email she recieved.)
Starting this thing, I was glad to receive the invite, with a pic-post.
I'm trying out the buttons. Easy! 'Taking a little practice, is all. Italic bold strikethrough
colors whew! ...(got fonts?)
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