PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal
@Iamraiderpower

Pictures of me from 1991-1992!

In the kitchen of our house in North Wales, PA (The one built by Amish workers!):


In the living room of the North Wales house:


Christmas 1991 at the North Wales House. I DO NOT remember my first two Christmases (1989 and 1990 respectively; We were still in California in Christmas 1989) because I was a baby. Christmas 1992 was spent at my Grandma's house in Connecticut (as was Christmas 1994, and I know for a fact I am WAYYY younger than 5 here; Last Christmas in North Wales was 1995; we moved in 1996, when I was 7) and I know for a fact that this was not Christmas 1993. Therefore, it must be 1990 or 1991:


Mall Santa in about 1990-1992:

 

@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal
@Iamraiderpower


That house today! We lived here from 1990 to 1996, and it's not that far from where I currently live. I took these pictures about a week ago.

My parents bought this house brand new in 1990 (it was custom built to the specifications of someone else who backed out of the deal at the last minute). It was built by David Cutler Group, and it was built to last. Seriously, Cutler used Amish construction workers to build a lot of the homes in this development (built between 1989-1993), and this particular house was literally built like a brick shithouse! It has has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths.

Observant TW members; You may notice in the lower right corner that I'm not driving my Taco; The truck was at the dealer for an oil change and rear brake work and I was driving the complimentary loaner, a 2017 Corolla LE:

 

@El Duderino
@shakerhood

Oak Harbor, Washington-July 8, 2001-I was 12 years old here...

This 1977 Chevrolet K5 Blazer belonged to a guy my dad was in the Navy with and the photo was taken at the cookout we had after my dad's change of command ceremony:

The Blazer actually had a decent (LOUD and SURPRISINGLY HIGH-QUALITY) aftermarket stereo, and using the Blazer as a jukebox was deemed to be cheaper than paying a DJ. The Blazer had a high-quality 1980s shaft-style AM/FM cassette player (like an old Pioneer or Alpine) and my dad's friend played CDs on a Discman through a car kit adapter. Surprisingly, the battery did not die!

 

@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal
@Iamraiderpower

February 2001 (IGNORE the date on the photo)-Victoria, British Columbia, Canada-Right before I turned 12...

The one and only time I've been outside the USA. We lived in Oak Harbor, WA from 2000 to 2002, and the Canadian border was like 2 hours away! This was pre-9/11, and I did not need a passport to cross the border! We went to Vancouver on the first day, and then we went to Victoria. This picture was taken in front of our hotel (Yes, we stayed at the Empress!):

 

@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal
@Iamraiderpower , this is a house "Grammy" used to own!


Grandma's lakehouse-Acton, Maine-June 2000-I was 11 years old...

My Grandma (dad's mom) still owns the 4-bedroom A-frame house she bought in 1990. The house you see at the top of the hill in the background is the second house (right next door to the A-frame) that my Grandma bought in late 1999/early 2000 to accommodate extra guests. She sold the house in this picture in 2011 or 2012, but like I said still has the A-frame. This picture was taken in June 2000, the one time my mom's side of the family came for a visit:


This was definitely taken on the lake, and I'm 99% sure it was taken the same week my mom's side of the family came up:

About the above photo: We used to have a 1990 Skeeter 16-foot bowrider with a 1986 Johnson 60HP outboard, and this picture was taken right before my dad pulled me behind that boat in the tube you see me sitting in...

 

@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal
@Iamraiderpower

This is the Skeeter SD90 that was unseen in the 2000 photo getting ready to pull the tube. These pictures were all taken in August 2008 after WE pulled it out of the water for the last time.

My dad bought this boat new in about 1990, from a dealer in Long Island (NY) that was going out of business. He paid like $2,500 for the boat and trailer, but it did not have a motor or throttle when he got it. He bought a used 1986 Johnson 60HP 2-stroke outboard motor for like $1,600. The transmission/outdrive on the motor failed abruptly in 2008, and we had to pull it out of the water at a neighbor's private ramp. The boat sat unused in the garage for three years until my Grandma sold the house and the guy who bought the house also bought the boat:


My dad's old boat had a HUGE Johnson:

 

@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal
@Iamraiderpower

Here's a picture of the house we lived in from 1990 to 1996, the one that was built by Amish carpenters. The picture was taken by me in 2017. The model/plan is called "The Dunhill," and it was built by the David Cutler Group:


This is NOT our Comfortmaker air-conditioner (the one at our house died in 1999; I know this because I met the guy who bought this house from it while passing through the neighborhood in 2014 or 2015). This is Comfortmaker air-conditioner at a another David Cutler Group "Dunhill," though this house was built in 1993 (ours was built in 1990). It is also a reverse floor plan. The air-conditioner in the below pictures, as such, is a 1993 model:

 

This is Tony, named for the most famous fictional mob boss on HBO (I wanted to name him after Paulie Walnuts, but a friend of mine said he was a frog, not a parrot). He was a Pacman Frog who started out as a pet for a special education class, but the other students lost interest and I kind of "stole" him. Sadly he only lived about 6 or 7 months from the time he was purchased at Petsmart in late 2008 (these pictures were taken in the basement of my house in February 2009), and he's still buried in a shoe box in the backyard of my parents' old house...






Saw this outside someone's door in the retirement community (not a nursing home, a huge active adult complex) where my late grandma lived the last 16 years of her life; Reminded me of Tony...

 

@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal
@Iamraiderpower , Grammy still owns this house, and that's the aforementioned 2002 Lexus parked out front!


My Grandma's lakehouse in Maine that she's owned since 1990...

The picture was taken in the summer of 2008, and the car parked in front is my Grandma's 2002 Lexus RX300 that she still owns...

 

I'd say the Nissan had something to do with his demise.

 

@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal
@Iamraiderpower

1999 Rheem 10 SEER 4-ton heat pump at uncle's old house in Whitehall (picture taken in July 2008):

The house was built in 1999 and this unit was original to the house. These Rheem/Ruud "Stamped Octagon" units are among my favorite of all time! Sadly, this one died prematurely about a year after this picture was taken. I do not remember if it was a manufacturer defect or an installer error, but if I remember correctly the suction and liquid lines were rubbing together. One wore a hole in other and the R-22 leaked out. This could have been fixed if it was caught in time, but by the time my uncle realized something was wrong with the unit, rainwater had gotten in through the hole. It mixed with the residual Freon, which turned acidic and totally destroyed the system. My uncle bought a new Amana heat pump to replace it...

 

I'm almost 60 but I don't exhibit much in the way of typical parental behaviour. I changed my own oil in my truck, usually I straddle the ditch in the front yard with the truck. Really pisses off the neighbors I'm sure

 

This was sometime in the summer of 2015...

This story is not about what a Boxer drank, but about what came out the other end of the aforementioned Boxer after she drank it (Keyword: DRANK and NOT ATE; It was NOT #2 THANK CHRIST)...

My boss who owns Tully (Boxador mentioned in the original post)... When her BF was living with a friend...

The friend the BF lived with had (still has) a purebred female boxer named Riley, who is ultimately friendly, but had not been very well trained as a puppy (Riley was like 6 or 7 when I first met her and at the time of this incident; she is now like 8 or 9 probably?).

One evening when everyone was at work, my boss texted me, and told me that Riley needed to be let out to use the bathroom and it was URGENT. She then told me where her BF's friend hid the key to the house. I knew that Riley was a handful, but I am a dog lover and my boss is also one of my closest friends. So...I said yes, hopped in the trusty Tacoma, and hauled ass over to the boyfriend's friend's house...

I parked the Tacoma, found the key, let myself in, and so began the process of trying to catch Riley...

Riley is very skittish around strangers (not mean or dangerous by any means; just not well trained and will run from people she doesn't know well). I was unaware of how urgent the situation was...

Before I could catch Riley, she squatted in the dining room of the BF's friend's renovated townhome and just empty her bladder all over the engineered hardwood floor! Dogs have accidents all the time, it's literally and figuratively the nature of the beast... Tully once got carsick and puked in the center console of my Tacoma... nothing some baby wipes and disinfectant couldn't fix...

But Riley probably produced more urine, in probably less than a minute, than I thought any dog her size was capable of producing in an entire day!

So, Riley was distracted by relieving herself and I was able to clip the leash onto her collar. First thing was first, I did not want her to leave anymore surprises in this beautiful home, owned by her owner who I'd never even met at that the time. By the way when I say beautiful renovated townhome, I don't mean like a million-dollar brick rowhome in Philly. It was a small 3-story, 3-bedroom townhouse built in like 1996 or 1997, but the BF's friend had put a ton of work and money into it (new central A/C, new furnace, new floors, new kitchen, new paint... Everything! It was a beautiful house). I was worried I'd lost Riley's owner's trust before I'd even earned it!

First thing's first... I took her outside where she took care of the rest of her business, and brought her back inside. Then I proceeded to clean up the mess she'd left on the hardwood floor. I found some Clorox or something, unwrapped a brand new roll of paper towels, and proceeded to use that entire roll of paper towels cleaning up the pee puddle. I threw everything out, topped off Riley's food and water, somehow managed to pat Riley on the head and give her a belly rub without her running away, locked up, got in my truck, and texted my boss about what had happened before leaving. I was thanked profusely for letting the dog out and cleaning up the mess she'd made, and then when I saw my boss and her boyfriend later that evening I said the following...

"That is NOT a dog. That is a bladder with legs in the form of a dog!"

Both my boss and her boyfriend practically died laughing, and one of them bought me a beer as a thank you, and Riley's owned laughed uncontrollably when I made the "Bladder with legs" comment a few days later when I saw him...

 

@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal
@Iamraiderpower

Yes, that orange car is what you think it is, and that blonde guy is who you think he is...

 

@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal
@Iamraiderpower

My "first car" again...

This picture was taken in the fall of 1996, in front of our crappy WWII-era (built 1942 or so), 2-bedroom, 800 square foot, government-owned house just off-base at Moffett Field. We had to live here for 6 months when we first moved to California because a decent-sized house wasn't available yet.

 

@PennSilverTaco

 

He PMd me.

 

Just making sure he didn't miss this!

​

 

Still waiting to hear back from that member...

 

@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal
@Iamraiderpower

Sometime in 1995...

Chillin' at this uncle's original hubcap and wheel store/wheel refinishing business. And by chillin' I mean tearing apart some old car radios my uncle gave me...