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

Same here, but it's still funny!

 

November 22nd, 2017:

Dashcam stills from Doylestown Borough, on Thanksgiving Eve!

I encountered this traffic coming back from Horsham after getting change for my boss (long story as to why I went to Horsham; will explain later)...


Sometimes when I take still pics with the dashcam in rapid succession, weird things like this happen:


Note the blue ProMaster parked partially on the sidewalk. This guy was making a delivery to Chambers 19/The Other Side, my favorite bar outside of Puck; Proof of (A) How crazy shit can get on Thanksgiving Eve and (B) That the Borough of Doylestown was not designed for the popular boom of the late 20th century going into the 21st century, nor was it designed for mass quantities of horseless carriages:

 

A photobomb by a 2012-2015 DCSB TRD!

@HomerTaco , is this the coveted Magnetic Gray Metallic?

 

And, going into the evening...

One of the things I hate about winter (and in this case late fall) is that it gets dark so damn early!

 

I ended up beeping at that gray Grand Cherokee in front of me because they were going right, but blocking the entire street. The traffic going right was backed up all the way to the end of the street. I was making my ill-fated run to the Redner's in Warrington to get small bills for the cash drawers when I snapped the picture...

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

 

On the way back from my failed mission to exchange almost $200 in big bills for the same amount in fives...

See those headlights that seem to be coming towards me? As I drove up Main Street, I thought those belonged to a drunk driver who have driven into the opposing lane. A closer will reveal that the headlights belong to a marked Crown Vic of the Central Bucks Regional Police. You will also see a marked Tahoe parked directly across from the Crown Vic and a marked Explorer parked on the side street. Stephanie's, a bar with a basement section called The Cellar on Main (this being South Main Street) is just steps away from where that Crown Vic is parked. Stephanie's is will known for fights breaking out in the basement, and I have no doubt this is why there were three cop cars parked outside before midnight.

Needless to say, I was relieved that it was a police car and not a drunk...

NOT-SO-FUN FACT: The intersection where my Tacoma got clobbered by a drunk old man in a Mercedes, back in October 2015, is located just one block to the left!


That is the line to get into The Cellar on Main:

On the right at the corner of Main and State, we see a group of drunks...

Huge crowd outside of The Other Side:

Any other busy night, you might beep at drunks for spilling out into the street. On Thanksgiving Eve, you go slightly into the opposing lane to avoid them and hope they don't fall, get into a fight, or otherwise come into contact with your vehicle...

Finally!

 

Thanks!

 

We'll start with why I ended up in Horsham...

My bank, NFCU, is in Horsham. NFCU has (or at least had) a coin-sorting machine that is (was) free for customers...

My boss's bank does not have this, so my boss gave me what ended up being about $90 in coins to drive out to my bank and get turned into cash for the registers.

On Easton Road, on my way to the bank, I ended up behind a brownish gray 1998-2000ish GMC Sonoma extended cab 2WD with California license plates. Aside from the fact vehicles with California plates aren't that common in Pennsylvania, this normally would not be important.

Unfortunately, back in May 2016, I had a confrontation with some crazy veteran in the parking lot of NFCU when he walked out of the bank right as I taking pictures of his truck with my Nikon D5300 from the driver's seat of my idling Tacoma. Guess what the truck in question was?!?! Yup! A brownish gray 1998-2000ish GMC Sonoma extended cab 2WD with California license plates!

 

The Strip clubs you frequent
Are they open thanksgiving ?

 

FLASHBACK (May 9th, 2017):

I saw the GMC Sonoma in question parked in the parking lot when I went to the bank to deposit a paycheck (this was before I discovered the online app that allows me to make deposits electronically; now I have direct-deposit so it's a moot point). The truck had a DoD sticker in the windshield, indicating that it's owner was a veteran of some sort and probably a customer of NFCU. I decided that if the truck was still there when I came back out, I'd take some pictures of it for my Chevy truck "Like a Rock" tribute videos...

Well, the truck was still there when I came back out, so I got in the Tacoma, pulled in front of the Sonoma, and started snapping photos through the open driver's window...

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I hear someone screaming at me from across the parking lot. I look up, and there's a guy I was in line with inside the bank just minutes earlier, coming out of the bank. I could tell that this guy was not going to be very nice, and I knew that it would probably not be as easy as simply explaining why I was taking pictures of his truck. This guy had an aggressiveness and hostility about him that I still to this day cannot explain...

He runs across the parking lot, right up to my truck, and demands to know why I am taking pictures of his truck. He was so angry that I was too afraid to explain exactly why I was taking pictures of his truck. All I wanted to do was diffuse the situation to the best of my ability and get the hell out of there.

All the while, I kept my Tacoma in Drive and my foot on the brake so I could floor if it this guy became a threat. I meekly explain to him that I was a GM truck enthusiast and thought his truck looked cool. He wasn't having it. After a bit of terrified sputtering on my part, he said "Fine, get out of here. Bye-bye," turned around, and seemed to be heading back to his truck. Then, all of a sudden, he spun around and ran back to my truck, saying "Lemme see your camera."

I screamed "NO WAY!" Without hesitation, I took my foot of the brake, buried the accelerator, and chirped the tires as I peeled out of the parking lot. It was a nice day, so I had both windows down, and I heard Mr. Sonoma scream "Get the fuck out of here, then!" If I remember correctly, I made an illegal left turn out of the shopping center because I so afraid of this nutcase following me, and did not stop to catch my breath until I was probably a quarter of a mile up 611...

 

I say again, you are a dirty bastard...

And I know you're gonna end up taking that as a compliment!

I haven't been to a strip club since the day I got my truck washed by strippers for a breast cancer charity in July 2016. I'm trying to save money...

That said, I Googled it and I don't think Double Visions is open on Thanksgiving. The bar where I work is closed today, but open tomorrow and Saturday...

 

2016 is only last year

How much do you usually spend at double vision ?


I went to a strip club last in 1996

 

In layperson's terms, I've had too many confrontations with people over the simple act of photographing their truck while it was parked in a public area, but that was one of only two or three confrontational truck owners who genuinely scared me.

On a side note, in the past I've resorted to exploring car dealer back lots on Sundays with an aluminum bat (a Louisville Slugger too) or an old steering wheel club in the Tacoma for protection. Why? Because I loved taking pictures of trucks, and I would gladly delete photos of a vehicle if that's what the owner wanted; But at the same time, I wanted to send a message not to fuck with me, my truck, or my camera. At one point I even brought my boss's dog with me to car dealers as protection (I've found out over the years that an irrational fear of dogs will bring neighborhood bullies and grown men alike to their knees in a matter of seconds; Dogs make better equalizers than guns in some cases, and you don't need a license to "carry" one).

Anyway, this brownish gray Sonoma was seemed to be driving to NFCU too, and I knew this guy would recognize my Tacoma if he saw it. I freaked out and called my dad. He told me just to ignore the guy, not make eye contact, and conduct my business as quickly as possible. Luckily, Mr. Sonoma made a left well before NFCU and it ceased being an issue...

It was during this conversation when I found out from my dad that NFCU had done away with the coin sorters...

I was already more than halfway to NFCU at this point, so I decided to get whatever money I could. My fears were confirmed when I arrived at NFCU. An employee told that every NFCU location in the country had gotten rid of these machines because they constantly broke. So, I exchanged the large bills my boss had given me for smaller bills, and then headed over to the Giant in the same shopping center and used their Coinstar machine. Even after the surcharge, I still ended up with just under $80 in change!

It was right after leaving the shopping center that I ended up at a red light with three other second gen Tacos...

 

$150-300? That's why I don't go anymore...

Also, the night before the car show at Double Visions, my best friend and I hopped in the Tacoma and drove from his apartment in Warrington to the club. We'd had a beer each less than an hour earlier, which for someone my size with my metabolism translates to totally sober. I was chatting with my friend instead of paying attention to the road, and thus where my Tacoma was going, like I should have been...

I almost smashed into the right rear corner of a SEPTA bus, and probably would have totaled my truck if I hadn't slammed on the brakes when I did...

 

So, mission accomplished, I drove back to Doylestown and helped my boss set up. Staff members starting trickling into work in carefully planned stages, beginning with the first round of bartenders at about 3ish. The other barbacks and the rest of the bartenders all showed up before 6pm, and the bouncers started to show up at like 8pm. We have eleven (11) bouncers working last night! ELEVEN BOUNCERS! On even the busiest of typical nights, we have 3 or 4 bouncers working.

The first two customers showed up at like 7pm, and one of them turned out to be a guy I went to high school with. The crowd really started getting heavy at like 8:30-9pm. Before 10pm, as seen in the pictures I posted last night, the whole bar was slammed before 10pm!

My boss hired a guy with a photo booth, and her friend DJ'd in the venue. We had three bartenders working the patio, two working the venue, and two working in the room we normally use for private parties. We also had three barbacks, plus me. Each barback was assigned to a specific bar.

 

Dang

That would be a dui charge right ?

 

Matt, one of our veteran bartenders, brought in a container of his famous homemade eggnog, and it was gone within minutes. Almost every staff member, including me, had a taste. This was the only alcoholic beverage I consumed that night. Pennsylvania law states that it is illegal for restaurant employees to consume alcohol by the job, but sampling is different than drinking on the job. After close, everyone except me had at least one drink. I drank about a third of a 16 oz. cup of Matt's eggnog, and since I didn't get in the truck to go home until after 4:30am, I was sober by the time I got behind the wheel. Hell, I was probably sober within 20-30 minutes of drinking the eggnog...

 

No, a ticket or two for sure, but no DUI. I was about 260 pounds at the time, and with one beer in an hour, I was sober.