"Blue Skys....Comin' My Way..."

Everybody...Sing Along With Me...


Maybe I should actually be doing "Singin' In The Rain", but I don't really care that it's raining outside here in Eastern Tennessee at the Turbo Pup compound on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River this afternoon.

It's supposed to keep raining most of the week and end up possibly snowing on us again Friday Night/Saturday Morning...

But I don't care.

"Jimmy Cracked Corn" and people didn't care back then either.

(Everyone please excuse me...I'm loopie from lack of sleep...)

You see, in the past 24 hours I have managed to pretty well solve all of the stupid problems I was having with two projects--one a nerdy high tech computer based control system panel--and the other a "light blue collar" dirty fingernail type pneumatic valve rebuild project I've taken on having never actually rebuilt a valve like this before.

I trust you, my dear reader (and Rusty and Roy) to not tell anyone this horrible secret.

BTW, did I mention that these specialty valves like this built in France cost over $1,500 EACH...NEW?

I actually have ten of them sitting here (laughing at me if they could) and I have to have at least four torn down, cleaned, polished, with new guts and seals and gaskets and O-rings installed, and back in a box in the Big Brown Truck by Friday.

And for the past ten days I've been crawling around here kicking my own butt and asking myself "what the heck were you thinking Virgil???"

Everything looked easy when I took the order after looking at one sample valve, but I made the mistake of not completely taking every single snap ring and rolled pin and cam follower out of the beast, and when all of it's friends arrived they proceeded to gang up on me and like some sort of Macabre Machine-Shop Video Game present hurdle after Hurdle after HURDLE of annoying little problems emanating from the silly little details I had ignored in the bid process.

In the end it all came down to a stupid little stainless steel roller bearing shaft that was friction fit into each valve assembly and was apparently super glued into place by my predecessors.

But in the end...

...wait a minute...the UPS driver's here...I got to look in the box...

I'm back...let me catch my breath...

I'm so excited...I just received my 2 ounce quantity sample shipment of Christo-Lube 116, and another 2 ounce jar of Christo-Lube 132

I SAID "Cristo-Lube"...

NOT Crisco-Lube...

And get your mind out of the Gutter people (and you know who you are). You can go here (Lubricationtechnology.com) if you don't believe that I have a legitimate reason for needing something called "Cristo-Lube"--something besides "Bear Grease" or "Owl Shit" to lubricate these very expensive valve assemblies I was writing about.

(UPS really did just arrive...)

But I digress...

Any way, then after the first valve shipment I need to have four more flying and/or rolling down the road by Monday or Tuesday next week, and in my spare time I have to finish the PLC Ladder Logic Programming and get the panel packed in bubble wrap and peanuts and out the door by next Friday, sooooooooo...

You'll have to excuse me because I have to go now and get back to work.