What been happening?!

[heyhey]

So, seems I have some more time for this forum now.

Nothing much has been happening here.

Admin, your gamble may be about to pay off

[Rumcajs]

What gamble? The forum is what members will make of it, perhaps some of us are a bit too busy than others so sometimes it seems like things aren't moving along at all.

Cheers.

[heyhey]

No, admin has surely put forward some money into this forum and to get a return on it he needs traffic in this forum for advertising (that may come along in time) or he can sell it off as per the other forum

[Rumcajs]

This forum will hopefully continue as is as I can see some unfortunate developments happening on the other one with the new owners now being Yanks with their ideas/plans.

I'm sure this is just a scoop purchase to them to add to their list of sites they can make money off as they just appear to be domains squaters and renters with their ~400 forums. What that means that there will be no more individuallity and that special feel, not to mention the DMCA crapola will start soon.

Some people might be celebrating but I have a feeling that soon their opinions will change. The money will talk too much I suspect and the forum will became overmoderated overcommercialised Seppo adsfest junk just like the rest of their offering.

I have already deleted my garage on there and soon start removing all my contributions.

Cheers

Edited September 13, 2012 by Rumcajs

[admin]

Dont worry guys - This forum isnt going anywhere. It has multiple uses for me - One being I get to ask technical questions about my Patrol and actually get answers, another being its a good tax thing for me and third - If other patrol sites die or get 'less popular' then this place may take off. Its been quiet here - But I expected that to happen if the 'other' site recovered.. Who knows what will happen - It seems like its been bought and the new owners may make it an awsome place or they might f$%k it up.

[BigGQWesty]

Bring back Ray...

That is all..

Sent from a device which doesn't always agree with my thumbs...

Edited September 14, 2012 by BigGQWesty

[admin]

haha - yeah, Rays technical stuff was awsome.

One thing I really didnt like in this place thou was general non Patrol Related stuff - It just gives people somthing to fight over (it seems to always end up that way) rather than talking about the common interest (patrols).

I would prefer topics stayed Patrol/Car/Camping/Technical or semi related topics.

[Rumcajs]

+1, I hate the political crap full stop, being daily bombarded with it through mass media the last thing I need/want to be facing it again here.

Cheers

[BigGQWesty]

But it gives a point of discussion for items which we should be talking about. Like no fishing zones, parks being closed etc.

Between ray and Glort there was all ways something to read..

As I have all ways said if it doesn't interest you keep scrolling.

Sent from a device which doesn't always agree with my thumbs...

[heyhey]

I've said this to the new owner and I'll say it here, without the BS, you will not have as many active members that will be able to assist with others. If someone knows all about their Patrols, why would they stick around on a forum to answer questions? They might chime in every few days or weeks to see what is going on, but without an active user group there will not be the prompt replies to questions we all love about P4x4.

[Foo]

Some of the childish bickering that goes on with some of the posters, does deter others from visiting.

I visit when I get home at the end of the week but don't post if I don't have anything to comment on or say!

Foo

Edited September 21, 2012 by Foo

[heyhey]

Yeah fair enough. I love a good chat, and the type of conversation I have on forums I participate in (troll) is no different to conversation I have off the keyboard. Its no different to going to the hardware and having a chat to the hardware bloke, or just going off on a random tangent when talking to others.

I'm on a shit tonne of forums, most of which I do not frequent unless I'm after info. These forums I don't troll because they are no value to me, generally I ask a question and get some phuck'wit city nerd just regurgitating information that he has read off another forum or watched on youtube, etc.

To get real information, you have to go were people are likely to hang out. Do you see any of the Diesel Tuner dudes on some other 4x4 forums? No, because they are boring.

[Glort]

Well I finally have time to come back and have a look and post some Dribble.

I have had an interesting time the last couple of months or so. The new business/ market has gone ballistic and keeping me flat out. Probably sounds stupid to many people but I think I actually know what really working hard means now. Not just for a day or a week, but weeks on end when you are so tired your entire body aches and you get out of bed feeling as bad as when you fell in. The stress has been significant in getting something new off the ground at a rate faster than it should have gone but thankfully nothing went wrong and a lot went right that probably shouldn't have run as smooth as it did.

It's not been easy but I have learned a lot to make things a lot easier so I won't have to do that again hopefully.

The upside is I am making more money than I ever have before or thought a dropkick like me was ever capable of earning.

Funny thing though.... when I had no money I would have liked to give the impression I had more. Now I'm doing well, I'm really happy for people to think I still have the arse out of my pants. Bit ironic even to me!

They say money can't buy Happiness but for me it's bought a hell of a lot of stress relief and peace of mind. It's bloody nice when your son complains his old computer is a POS and he wants a new one to say OK, go find one you want and show me. When he did I got on the phone, ordered it, gave them a CC number and said Right, you can go pick it up now. That sure as chit made his day!

Yesterday I want with the Mrs to an appointment with a Jeweller. That's a new one. Of course the fact I had an appointment with him and what I thought was a lot of money for a ring seemed chicken feed to him tells me no matter how well I think i'm doing, He's doing a damn site better!

The Mrs has suffered being married to me ( let alone the 10 years we were together before that) for 20 years now so time to buy her something real nice to say thanks. She bought me a new Harley before my son was born so If I spend the same on her, it will just be long overdue repayment.

[Glort]

With something slightly Patrol related, I took the truck cross country about a month ago for a bit of a family Reunion/ Uncles Birthday.

The old girl gave me a bit of trouble with loosing power and crawling up hills. We went from Sydney to Cowra and before the trip I changed the fuel filters and Checked the screen on the walbro so everything was good. I took the unusual step of actually paying for Diesel In Bathurst which didn't help the power issue at all, In fact I think it made the thing slower.

Before heading out of Cowra the next day, I pulled the tank pickup convinced it must have been blocked but to my dissapointment it was fine and what I could see in the tank was very clean.

Put it back together and headed off. Out of cowra n the falt it was fine but as we got closer to bathurst and the hills came up, things got worse fast.

Stopped I on't know how many times trying to reconfigure fuel lines etc and pulling things out of my basic veg system till nothing was left.

I was getting barely 50Km/h on the flat.

On the last stop I took the Walbro out of the system and got back in and when the Mrs asked If I fixed it this time, I said I don't think so and we are in trouble. We were on one side of a hill and I was already scanning the other side picking out pull over places for when she " failed to Proceed".

Pulled out onto the road again, a couple of stutters and misses and then the thing litrelly did push us back in the seats a tad as it took off.

Hit 110 at the bottom of the hil and was still pulling 107 on the GPS at the top of the other side and I was still in 5th.

The last 30 K's back to bathurst was a speeding violation all the way.

I have no idea what was wrong with the pump. It wasn't letting air in and was pumping fuel as I had checked that several times. Haven't looked at it since, still ticked of with the thing and looking for a gear type pump and a regulator to keep up with the old girls thirst.

The VE lift pump is fine on thin oil but when the cold sets in it can strugge to keep up esp[ecially when towing on the freeway.

My son had driven my father in his WRX powered Forrester and had also had a ball driving the sling shot you are not supposed to on your P plates.

Still, I doubt he got too carried away with his 75 yo grandfather sitting besides him. The sensation of applying the right foot and the thing leaping forward was something new after his only driving experiences of Driving Diesels.

We met in Bathurst and swapped Vehicles with me now confident the family would make it over Mt. Victoria and home in the truck.

The old fella and I spent what ended up being an overly long 7 hours getting back to his place in the country. The scenery was nice in the central west but we were both getting tired and glad to be home in the end.

Those turbo Forresters sure go like hell though. At one place I kicked the thing in the guts to overtake and the thing nearly snapped our necks and rolled our eyeballs back in our heads. I thought I'd get serve from the old fella but he just laughed and said he had done the same thing on the way over and scared the chit out of himself as he normally just drove the thing into town which is 80 at best.

Beautiful car with all the options and worth 10 ( or maybe 20) times what mine is but for POS the Troll is, I still prefer it's lazy lower revving engine even if people think it is truck like.

After just about to come up on using free Veg fuel for 7 years, Stopping to fill the forrester at $80 a hit was something I was glad the old fella was paying for! I still felt butt violated with the $30 of Dino I put in at Bathurst.

I went back with the old man to pick up a car for my son we were buying off him. He's a wrecker and when my son spotted the car for sale a few months back, he and the old fella did a deal on it. Since then, The car has acquired every option Subaru made for them and then some out of the giant shed of a parts bin. It has a full leather interior, fast glass, air, cruise, wheels uprated suspension, was serviced to within an inch of it's life and gone over 3 times according to the old fella's resident mechanic from top to toe.

The old fella said he would give it to my son for a grand less than he was asking as that's what it owed him. We left a deposit on it a few months back with the old man holding onto it till the young fella got his licence. He got that with a score of 105 out of 106... little smart arse!

I had a surprise and moment bigger than anything in the last 10 years before I left.

I went to pay the old man the balance of the car and he said whats' that for? I said the car of course. He said, what, were you going to pay for it? I looked a bit dumbfounded and said umm, yeah. He said well put that away and he pulled out a grand from his pocket and handed it to me. He said that's what he paid me back and $500 towards his rego.

I was dumbstruck. I stood there wondering what the right thing to do was. The old fella said I never intended to take any money for it. I said well I thought that's what the arrangement was. He said I'm his grandfather, I wanted to give it to him.

Given that I have had Very little to do with my old man until his bitch of a wife finally did the one decent thing and bloody died at the beginning of the year, this was about as far out of the blue as anything I could have NOT imagined. I'm still coming to terms with how right I was this last 30 odd years in saying whilever she was around we would never have a relationship. He's a totally different man. My wife never was real fond of him with more than good reason but even she has said what a completely different person he is and clearly they both now have a very important place in each others hearts as do the grand kids, finally, with the old fella.

The little Liberty drove home really nice and I have to admit, was a lot more comfy than the troll even though the thing really is a bit small for me physically. I can't quite get the seat back far enough from the wheel to where I would like but minor thing of being too bloody tall in the first place.

For a little 2.2 the thing goes surprisingly well. Held 120 up the F3 hills into the central coast all the way with the air on and Acca dacca blasting on the stereo.

On that, my son also spoted some great disco in a box when he was up at the old mans place and reminded me to ask grandad about this stereo.

When he was going over the car when I got it home I said there is a box of bits your grandad put in the boot for you. It contained the stereo he wanted.

I managed to make excuses for 2 whole nights before I got Physical forced to install the thing for him. It does sound great but I'm waiting to see how long the speakers last before the unit vaporises them in a cloud of that distinctive smelling electronic smoke.

I rang the old man that night when I got home and thanked him for the car and apologised If I didn't do it properly;y at the time which I'm sure I hadn't seeing I would have made more sense if struck with a cricket bat in the back of the head. We came a long way in one weekend in catching up on a lot of lost and now regretted years that weekend. It's still going to take a lot to top that surprise though.

My son has rang and thanked him several times as well and they are forging a new-found relationship they would have had from the start if it weren't for the bitch making the old fella so unhappy which was the complete opposite to what I thought. I have learned a hell of a lot on that front and I hate the scrag more now shes gone than when she was alive. I don't are what people think of me for saying it but had I known what I do now 20 years ago, one way or another she would have disappeared a long time ago and my kids would have grown up with a grandfather not just be discovering one.

I'm in a Quandry with the truck.

It's looking very much the worse for wear but I still like driving it so much.

When I take my sons or wifes car out in the traffic I feel almost scared. In the truck I don't care who pulls in front of me or cuts me off because it's going to be their bad luck not mine. I d really need something more presentable for the business side of things and I thought of getting a Merc either in an ML or a diesel sedan but I don't know. I'm always going to want to pick up some dirty POS beside the road to take home for a project, that's just me and I can't do it in a fancy car I might get dirty or scratch something in. Might just have to keep the truck and do it up a bit and have a poser car for when I have the suit on.

Anyway, there is a make up post for those still awake on my " What's been happening".

Right now I have to say life is pretty bloody great for me. Certainly a far cry from even 12 months ago. While I'm not a faithful person, I am taking the time to stop and count my blessings as it were because it seems things have really turned for the better and I'm determined to make the most of it especially for the family.

[heyhey]

Good to hear mate, nothing like keeping busy and I hope this work out with you, your son and your old man

[Glort]

Thanks Hey Hey.

It seems to be working out really well and I think it will continue to do so.

It's pretty weird suddenly having the father I said for years I never had and working out where you stand with him. Probably sounds stupid but it's the little things that throw you off. When I go there I never know if it's polite to wait to be offered a cuppa or I should just go make one myself. At a mate's place I know what the accepted things to do are, at the old fellas house, I'm never quite sure if I'm being impolite one way or the other.

It's all great ad we are all enjoying having a family but being the crunt I am, I'm still struggling with the anger I suppose of having so many years wasted by the troll of a bitch he married. I always thought he was very happy with her and she worshipped the ground he trod on. Now I realise the situation was very different and he probably got himself into something he couldn't get himself out of.

Had I known what the deal was, I'd have fixed it but I had now way to know and it's a regret in life I'm going to carry with me.

For the moment, I'll just enjoy what I can though. :0)

[Foo]

There's an old saying Glort.....Make hay while the sun shines!

Foo

[Glort]

There's an old saying Glort.....Make hay while the sun shines!

Foo

That's exactly what I'm intending to do!

In between giving thanks for the good fortune that I have come across.