Strangers who matter

AHS Grads '85
Originally uploaded by The Put-Man.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1925288,00.html

My random web-bit of the day really got me thinking. How would I categorize the people in my life? Who makes which cut? The categories range from stranger to soul mate, with consequential stranger, acquaintance, friends, and intimates in between.

To me, a true stranger is someone I’ve never before met, never seen their face before. Unknown.

I don’t like the nomenclature of ‘consequential stranger’, but I ‘get’ the idea. This is someone who you recognize & see on a regular basis, but don’t ‘know’. People like fellow dog-walkers, gym nuts, or service providers – people whose name we may not know, but we see them and exchange bits of conversation on a regular basis. The above article points out how important they are to us, and it really opened my eyes.

An acquaintance is someone whose name I know, and maybe even have had lunch with. This is the pool of ‘potential friends’, people you know, but not well enough for a ride to the airport. Happy Hour compatriots, but not the ones invited over for a cook-out when my Mom comes to town.

Friends – ah, the conundrum of who is, and who isn’t! We all have cycles in our lives. As we change jobs, neighborhoods, and significant others, we have a cascade of people falling through our lives like water going downstream. Things change, some come closer, some fade away.

Intimates – the people who make the grade beyond being “just friends”. These aren’t the ones who come bail us out of jail, these are the ones IN the cell with us!

Soul Mates – I expand this category a bit more than some would. Most would say this is the “one & only”, the person you marry. I say we all have several rare people at this level, the “first phone call”, if you will. When something (good or bad) happens – who do you call first? I’m not married, so maybe I don’t yet quite ‘get’ this level, but I have a few very-important-to-me people whom I’m sure I’ll know again in future lives.

Today's random web bit

Congrats to Project Icarus!

http://space.1337arts.com/

MIT must not be too challenging to these guys who spent $150.00, and successfully accomplished a near-space launch with time lapse photography!

Way to go guys! Innovation like this is what we need more of these days.

Illinois Stink Weed

Turning golden outside
Originally uploaded by The Put-Man.

Goldenrod grows wild around here, in amazing abundance. "Naturescaping" as done by the Hoffman Estates Village includes a lot of it, regardless that it makes me miserable.

...you'd think they'd be more considerate of my transplanted East Coast allergies...

Little Blue Car has been sold

LBC sold to Tony the Pizza Guy
Originally uploaded by The Put-Man.

...oh, the bitter-sweet angst! The car drove me insane, drained my budget, and gave me such joy to drive.

It goes to a new owner who truly seems to "get it", who says he wants to join our club. He has another Fiat, which is beautifuly restored, though non-functioning. He also has a Ferrari, two Masserattis, two Ducatti's, and a cruiser of a Moto Guzzi.

Favorite driving memory?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeputmanjr/2671740837/

The 2200 mile roadtrip to & from the 25th annual Fiat Freak Out in 2008, just 200 miles after a full engine rebuild, with ZERO mecahnical issues the whole way!

LBC, you will be missed.

...and other things to see in the dark...

Originally uploaded by The Put-Man.

When was the last time YOU saw the Milky Way?

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/060825_night_sky.html

I remember as a kid in Virginia having nights so dark you could barely see your hand in front of your face. But if you looked UP, you saw an incredible carpet of light.

...with the wispy edge of The Milky Way...

But I've not seen it in years.

Suddenly, I feel the need to drive out into the country for an evening's exploration.

Who wants to come?

Today's Random Web Bit...

Need an offbeat iPod accesory?

Try this!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090918/od_nm/us_technology

A designer necktie with an iPod pocket to keep your portable device hidden, and YOU looking stylish!

...dorky, but stylish...

...and Little Blue Car is sold

Originally uploaded by The Put-Man

It's amazing how quickly the warm glow of yesterday's adventure turns into yesteryear's history.

It really wasn't long ago that I bought this car. I dragged it to the 24th annual Fiat Freak Out in Detroit in 2007, about 6 weeks after purchasing it - took it there non-functional! Fiat people helped me fix it in the parking lot of the hotel, and I got to enjoy the weekend DRIVING, made a flock of new friends, and was inspired enough to try starting my own club.

Flashing forward, my "new" club is entering it's third driving season with over 90 members, I've been to three Freak Outs, I'm on my 7th Spider, and while the Blue Car has been totally rebuilt & driven more than 20,000 miles - it's now off to a new home.

I have mixed emotions.

It's great that it's going to someone who wants to joing the club, keeping it "in the family". I'm glad it goes to a good home. I'm thrilled to have Spider #7 so close to being functional.

...but I'm gonna miss the comfortable familiarity, and fun driving of this car.

Chicagoland Fiat & Lancia - 2008

Chi-FLU Pano Shot
Originally uploaded by The Put-Man.

Hello, internet, I've missed you!

So, it's been an interesting year. The last time I posted, it was October of '07, and I'd just driven my Spider to Luddington for the West Michigan Fall Color Tour.

Ah, how far we've come since then!

My Chicago Fiat club was about 20 members, Gretchen and I were still dating, I had two Spiders, my job was awful, and...

Well, all that's changed!

Gretchen took 'her' Spider and left. I got a puppy for Christmas. My Fiat club now has more than SIXTY members! I now enjoy my job. And I even have (yet another) Fiat Spider to revive over the winter!

Want to hear about it all?

Stay tuned...

The West Michigan Fall Color Tour

Glen Haven
Originally uploaded by The Put-Man.

We left LATE Thursday night (totally my fault as I'd once again bit off more than I could chew!) after trying to do WAY too much to my Spider before we left. We got checked into our hotel in Milwaukee about 2am...just in time to be up at 5:30am to catch the 7am Ferry to Muskegon, Michigan.

A smooth 2.5 hours later, we got off the ferry in Muskegon, and drove to the intersection of M-37 & M-82 near Newago, to meet up with two other cars at the High Rollway State Park. Mike & Missy Bouse were in their white '78 show-car, and Tom & Cindy Walters were in his gold X. We had lunch at the Red Anchor Restaurant, and enjoyed the time chatting & catching up. From there, we drove up M-37 all the way to Traverse city - 3 hours to go 137 miles on a lovely old "blue-line" highway!

We then took M-22 up to Peshawbestown, arriving at The Lodge about 5pm. Everyone checked in, and about 6pm Al & his wife Maureen showed up in his pretty red '82 Spider. We all went down to Sutton's Bay to Boone's Pub for dinner, and predictably, the conversation kept coming back to all things Fiat!

Saturday morning we headed back down to Sutton's bay for breakfast and a morning of shopping. A few hours later we hit the road for the Leelanau State Park just north of Northport. The historic lighthouse was very pretty, and on the rocky beach we found a cool old rock-totem.

Which Missy knocked down..."accidentally"...which of course we all had to make fun of! (I named her "Princess Falling Rock")

We then went down M-22 a bit further and stopped for lunch at Fischer's "Happy Hour" Tavern, a neat little road-side place where supposedly the owner was a former Fiat owner. Sadly, he was not there, but the lunch was good anyway.

From there, we drove onto Historic Fishtown in Leeland. Much shopping was done, ice cream was had, and after a brief, sweaty hour, we all needed to hit the road again for some breeze! Apparently the old buildings there are historically correct and have no air conditioning!

Tom & Linda headed off to a winery, while Mike & missy went back to the lodge to meet two incoming couples. Bob Reigel & his wife Laura in a Subaru (his Spider is in intensive surgery at Jon Logan's shop in Ohio), and John Alberts & his wife Rachel in their nice red '78 Spider named "Folly".

Gretchen and I opted for an around-the-penninsula tour that took us from Leeland, through Port Onedia, to the old cannery at Glen Haven, through Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park & it's scenic drive (where the Fiat startled a VERY LARGE DEER than nearly ran us down!), continuing down to Empire where we enjoyed their beach & lighthouse. We then hopped onto M-72 across to Traverse city - a lovely drive through the middle! We made it back to The Lodge and had dinner with the entire group at the Casino's Buffet.

Sunday we hit the road at 10am, up North through Northport, then down the west side of the peninsula through Glen Haven, the Sleeping Bear sand dune park (where Bob split off), through Empire (where Al split off), down through Frankfort (where John broke-off) and the last three of us had lunch at the A & W. Mike & Missy went their way afterwards, and we followed Tom and Linda for a bit before we were back on our way to Muskegon where we caught the 5pm ferry.

The sun set while we were on the water, and it was pretty darn cool when we off-loaded from the ferry, so we drove with the top up until Beloit, where we had some French fries, put the top down, and cruised leisurely the last hour home.

We got back to my house about 10pm. A little over 800 miles in an antique Fiat! She performed without a hitch, and I couldn't have been happier!

Check Writing

The Pair
Originally uploaded by The Put-Man.

The '83 "Blue Bomber" is at Giovanni's shop getting a rebuilt trans, oil pan, oil pickup, front end bushings, center bearing, u-joints, new distributor oil seals, full tune up, and a re-working of the heat / vent and window crank systems. I have two replacement "turbo" style rims coming in from Ohio, and Firestone-Bob is getting me some nice tires at an excellent price.

Most of this I was planning on doing a bit at a time over the course of the winter...but when my trans blew & left me stranded, it was time to admit I'd left a few things too long. This way it'll be in GREAT shape for the Oct 6th Leelanua Penninsula drive w/ WM-FLU. Thinking about taking the Milwaukee ferry over next Thursday night, maybe Friday morning. And the next weekend, there is the Milwaukee area cruise with Chi-FLU! It'll be nice to enjoy the end of driving season, just in time to button her up for the winter...

The '69 "Red Barron" got driven to work today. Monday night and last night I was using the new tap and bolts (Thanks Steve!), and an apparently INCOMPLETE description in BOTH the Haynes manual AND the shop manual as I tried to compress the piston into the caliper to attempt re-construction. What a pink-pickled-pucker of a job! It's a damn 3-dimensional jigsaw puzzle! Trying to re-assemble all the pieces, while keeping them where they need to be, getting stuff aligned...WOW...

From this point forward in my life, I consider money spent at a good brake shop WELL SPENT!

But - I got it done! Now I know enough to appreciate the job, and be able to speak fluently to those doing the job themselves.

The Red Baron still needs a good bit of work before I'll trust it on longer drives. I'm swapping the coil & dist for the electronic ignition I got from John Logan's infamous '83 Lancia Zagato. It'll be nice to get rid of those points, condensers, and the old style coil with the ballast!

The carb still needs tweaking, and it's got an awful exhaust leak - admitting I'm immature here - IT SOUNDS AWESOME! Not sure what's up with the coolant system, but when the car is warm, the higher level of coolant in the overflow bottle looks like a blended smoothie. Guess I'll flush the system, & see how it looks at that point. The electrical systems needs a bit of TLC - I think cleaning the fuse contacts & pinching them for better connectivity will solve 90% of the little things. Then I can worry about replacing the carpet, new map pockets, a replacement dash, and upgrading the dash-wood.

It never ends, does it? It's FUN, though! It's AMAZING how different these two Spiders are...BOTH are a scream to drive, but very, very different.

Learning To Curse In Italian

Bookends
Originally uploaded by The Put-Man.

Monday the 24th, I had ROTTEN luck both Spiders...

The '69 "Red Barron" with the so-called minor brake issue continued to perplex me to the point of creative cursing.

And tool-throwing.

I got the replacement brake bracket, and even some brand new bolts (custom made thanks to STEVE!) - and I THOUGHT I was home free...

However, the Gods Of Fiat Repair had not been adequately appeased.

I could not for the love of FETTUCHINI ALFREDO, figure out how you push the piston back in the dang caliper???

More tools were thrown.

So...after 3 hours of heat, humidity, sweat, and horrid mosquito-feasting, I decided to go for a drive in the '83 "Blue Bomber" to relieve the tension...

...and that transmission I've been limping through the summer with...PLANNING on replacing it this winter...

...well...BLAMMO!

That transmission is now in FIAT heaven, and I found out that my collector-car insurance DOES in fact cover towing...(Thank you, Haggerty!)...they just don't promise how FAST it'll get there! Especially when one is in the middle of nowehere...and I thought Cooter in his Tow Truck was going to exclaim "Gee Whiz, I always wanted an excuse to buy me a METRIC set of tools!", but he was actually very nice, and he couldn't have been more careful when loading my Spider.

Giovanni stayed late at his shop to meet me, and I thought he was going to offer me a kleenex when I saw the price, but he was actually very well priced. Of course, he just HAPPENED to have a freshly rebuilt transmission laying around...