January 16th 2008
/Good Morning /
Pretty awesome day yesterday for yours truly. I suppose I must be living
my life right, because good things keep happening to me. The whole day
wasn't productive or anything. After all I am a subcontractor, I take
the bad with the good. First job of the day, I was unable to get Line of
Sight to one of "our" wireless Internet towers. More often than not I
can locate a place that'll work to mount an antenna. I used the Little
Giant ladder all around the house. Even with binoculars, I couldn't see
any hope for a signal. I noticed this house has a television antenna
tower in the back yard. I climbed as high as I was comfortable holding
on with one hand, I again used the binoculars. Nothing, unless I can
count trees and chimneys. When I was finished giving the prospective
WiFi client the bad news, I inquired of the tower. This is something I
often do since most homes are either on cable or satellite they haven't
a need for the old TV antenna towers. These are free standing towers; no
reinforcing guy wires, which makes them a little freaky to climb.
Anyway,
I asked if they would like me to remove it, and the woman said,
"Yes please do." There it is, turned a potentially negative service
call into a positive interaction. The plan was to use these towers for
WiFi gear, but now that I am deep into wind turbines I have a second
reason to collect them.
The next service calls were mundane, until I was leaving the last one of
the day. It was already dark and being my usual nosy self, earlier I
observed two VW Rabbits parked in the client's yard. I parked the
Trooper with the headlights illuminating the VWubs, and went back to the
ranch house where I had just been working on the computer and Satellite
connection. "Hey Bill," I said, "Are either of those Rabbits diesels?"
"Both of them are," he said. Sweet. We hunkered down on the porch like
country folk do and proceeded to work a deal on the Rabbits. Brian and
Nell are now owners of two VW Rabbits, one running the other shouldn't
be far from running or so the rancher says. One is a 1984 the other
1982. I don't know if y'all are aware, but before college, mechanic was
my forte. I was what Volkswagen dealers called a factory trained
mechanic. I had the little black VW book with lots of accreditations
stamped inside. It was a along time ago, if I can think back that far,
I'd say that was at least ten years prior to 1982. Anyway, these Rabbits
hadn't changed much since I worked as a dealership mechanic.
VW Rabbit diesels are famous for getting 35 to 50 MPG! Yes, they are
pretty old, I'm sure they both need some TLC. I got them both for a
price so low that I shouldn't mention it, but I can tell you that with
the advent of WVO (waste veggie oil) and biodiesel fueled vehicles,
these VW Rabbits are selling for upwards of $2500.00, even for these old
models! The clincher to the deal was the old rancher needs help with
keeping his computer working and on line. I have to tell you that it
crossed my mind when he called me that morning during the failed WiFi
installation that I should tell him what I'm telling everyone, "I'm no
longer working on computers." For some reason I didn't mention it,
maybe because I knew with the failed WiFi installation I was going to
need the job to supplement the day's pay. I don't know, but I am glad I
did it now. Two more vehicles to run my homemade fuel! This is so cool.
Depending how they turn out after a mechanical inspection, I want to
offer one to my parents so they can try out my home brewed biodiesel.
The other one? I am naive, but everything about this looks bright. I can
give it to my son or Kevin to try out biodiesel, or perhaps Nell would
like to try one and give the Peugeot 505s turbo diesel a break. I doubt
that, the Peugeot is a luxury car compared to a VW Rabbit. But who,
knows. Like I said, this is good news to end a great day.
What I really have hopes for is a 4X4 diesel Isuzu Pup to run with our
biodiesel. I'll keep putting out the positive vibes and wait and see.
Sincerely,
Brian Rodgers
