<VV> My Convention week -- long

Joe Robbins robbins@monticello.net
Sun, 20 Jun 2004 14:40:39 -0500


My son and I left for the 5 hour drive to Lexington on Monday,  a very easy
drive and my "new 96 Tahoe"  got 18 MPG so that was a pleasant surprise, the
tune up paid off I guess, better MPG than DaVair is getting. The original
plan was for the 3 of us to spend the week in Lexington, I had tickets to
the dinner theater for my wife and I and we had other plans made. First
snafu is it's year end at her hospital and her boss died 3 weeks ago so that
threw the first wrench into my grand convention plan. Next the trailer I was
scheduled to use got returned late and we were only going to have 1 night to
go through it , pack wheel bearings check wiring etc. and also do some last
minute work on DaVair so he would be running like a sewing machine. We may
have been able to pull off the work in one night and my main wrench was
willing to do it but it was his only free night of the week and I just
didn't have the heart to ask him to thrash like that. He has done it for me
so many times over the years on various things that I said it's just not
meant to be. Glad I'm married to his sister <ggg>. I was going to do the
trailer work by the shop door while he went through the Corvair in his shop
,  and it poured that night so there's omen # 2.  

We have been hit with a lot of rain lately and our basement drain has ceased
working for some reason but the water seemed to subside and away Tyler and I
went but not my wife or our car. I had the BOD meeting on Tuesday and I
checked in at home and it was pouring again, my wife said the water was
coming in but she was ahead of it. I worked at the Car Display on Wed. and I
talked to her again and she the water was still coming in but she could
handle it. I suggested coming home and she said no I have it under control.
I could tell she was tired just talking to her on the phone. I decided to
leave Lexington Wed. afternoon and get home to see what was going on. 

When I got home I found that she had been pumping water all day Tuesday and
then getting up every two hours during the night to do more. No we don't
have a sump pump, never had water like this before.  So I helped her out and
she could get some relief and rest plus trying to do her year end work
before July 1 , the original reason she couldn't go to Lex to begin with. I
did some checking with some people about getting a sump pump installed, no
one was available for at least two weeks,  I talked with my neighbor, the
same guy that did the body and paint on DaVair and he said I'll help you do
it. So Saturday afternoon and evening we started knocking a hole in the
basement floor for the pit and pump, yes June 19th was our 22nd wedding
anniversary. Crawling through the crawl space was a trip, 4 times I was in
there and anyone that has ever seen me can only shake their heads. <g>  We
couldn't get it broke with  a huge sledge so we rented a concrete buster and
today I was in the basement at 7:00 am running a jack hammer along with my
neighbor, we got the hole busted up and then dug out, carrying those buckets
of mud up and out builds character I hope. I'm too out of shape to do that
kind of stuff.  We got the pit and pump in and the drain hose exited out of
the house and working by 11:00 today. I have a lot of cleanup work and
finish work to do to that area now but at least maybe we won't be bailing
water anymore, I hope. 

 

Enough of my "fun" , my two days at Lex were wonderful, the way the city
showed it's support , there were signs everywhere that we went showing that
we were in town. The Car Display had a super turnout, and the weather held
for the Wed. show aspect of the Convention. Sorry I couldn't stay the whole
week but my place was here getting things taken care of , had my wife been
with us and we were gone all week, I would have had an indoor swimming pool.
I hope that I have things fixed for future rain, which is Monday.

 I got to see a few old Corsa friends while  I was there and regret missing
several more.  We couldn't have asked for a nicer host city and the local
clubs that put it on did an outstanding job. The bar has been raised for
future Conventions after this one. 

Greg if you are reading this, go get some sleep, you deserve it . Thanks
again to all .

 

 

 

Joe Robbins

CORSA Central BOD

PCCA