Chillin’ With the Guys in Brewster
Written on June 23, 2007 – 11:56 pm | by gaulardcom |
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Rob gave me a call yesterday to let me know that he was heading over to Craig’s yard to install some electrical stuff. He said that he would be there, along with Craig and another dude, Greg. Craig and Greg were going to be pulling a Cummins engine out of a Mack truck to put it into an International truck. Rob wanted me to stop over so we could all hang out. We haven’t done that in about 100 years.
I had some stuff to do this morning, but I was thinking that I wanted to go. Laura had to work and then head of to a party for her sister. I really needed to get off my butt, because as one gets old, one gets lazy. One also needs to see his old friends once in a while.
I did some work on my sites earlier in the morning and had to wait a long time for a few CDs to burn. For some reason, with this new Windows Vista, burning CDs takes F O R E V E R. While one of the CDs was burning, I trimmed a few branches off the trees in the front, near the driveway so the carpenter’s trailer can get through. He is starting the back deck on Monday. I finally took a shower and got out of the house at about 1PM.
I showed up in the yard (by yard, I mean truck yard) and Rob looked at me twice as I was walking in. He looked away twice too. I knew he didn’t recognize me because I was wearing my sunglasses. I am also much better looking than what he probably expected. On the third look, he finally broke a smile and came over to greet me with a hug. I then heard Craig cacklin about something and then he came over to say hi, and I think he may have tried to give me a hug too, I don’t remember.
I walked over to see what Rob was doing and saw the nice big setup he was making for Craig. Rob was a true professional. I helped out a bit, so now I think I am an electrician. Actually, I have always wanted to know how to do what he was doing, so it was quite fun. I like electrical work and know quite a bit about it because I took some classes in it back in the day.
To the left of Rob, were Mardo and his wife (Craig’s helpers) painting Craig’s new (old) bulldozer. If you like blue, this is the bulldozer for you. I never really was into bulldozers very much, but then again, I work with computers. Perhaps one day I will get into bulldozing things. I think I would like to tell people that in bars…”Hey Jay, what do you do for a living?” “I drive a bulldozer, so you BETTER WATCH OUT!!!” Sucka. My father likes machinery like that. That might explain his own bulldozer.
Ok, I wanted to see what was going on over with the other guys. They were taking an engine out of the International because the piston sleeve was cracked. Apparently, diesel powered trucks need some additive in the anit-freeze, or else it will create tiny air bubles, which can pit the outside of the piston sleeve. In this case, I am assuming the correct amount of additive wasn’t added, somewhere along the way, and pitted the sleeve to weaken it enough to crack. Craig picked up the sleeve to show me first hand. I asked why he didn’t just replace the sleeve and he told me because it was about $1000. He got a good deal on a freshly rebuilt engine, so it was worth it to do the swap. Question: Who the heck finds a Mack truck with a rebuilt engine in it for you to use? Oh, who the heck knows. How does Craig find anything he finds. I suppose if you were in the business of talking, like he is, you would find an engine as well.
That’s Rob in front of the Mack truck, that the engine is coming out of. I wanted the dog on the hood, but Craig wouldn’t give it to me. Nice guy, huh?
This is the International that the engine is going in to. Mardo did a nice job of cleaning it and painting the engine compartment black.
After Craig and Greg took all the bolts out of the brackets holding the radiator in as well as the ones holding the cooling fan on, they lifted the radiator out. If helps when you have a huge excavator helping you. I could’ve used one of them back when I was a kid, changing engines in my 1979 Camaro. Noooo, I was stuck with my hands and a tree branch. Hey, it worked.
Ok, here are some mad props to Craig. He insisted that I take pictures of some of his trucks. I think there are about 8 of them, but I didn’t take pictures of all of them. He wanted me to get the CV Trees on the doors, but I am not that good of a listener. Here goes…
That’s a pretty nice bucket truck. These trucks are a big step up from back when Rob and I used to work with Craig doing tree work. I would guess that lifting huge logs with a crane is more efficient than with your hands. It also saves a lot of time. Also, man would I have liked to have a bucket truck to save the pain of climbing those trees.
I get the strangest feeling every time I go back to visit Brewster, NY. It’s like the sun is always going down there. Rob and I went to Home Depot for some parts and it seemed like everyone was looking at me. I really don’t think I am that funny looking. Rob says it is because everyone is in a rush, but I am not sure. I grew up in Brewster, so it may just be a slightly noticeably different culture over there, compared to where we live now. The first indicator is the way people drive, but I’ll save that for another post.
Anyway, it was a good visit and it was nice to see everyone again.
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Tags: Brewster, Family & Friends, New York, Trees & Shrubs
