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

That job coach is what my current boss would call a "C-U-Next-Tuesday" LOL...

I love my boss!

 

Charlie, @Iamraiderpower is completely right, don’t dwell on it. Doylestown has very tight streets and lots of traffic, potentially behind the truck. Lots more to be stressed about besides that.

 

I'm still worried that Doylestown is going to be the death of my truck...

 

thats any road anywhere charlie

 

Yeah, true...

At least I've got really good insurance...

But is it any coincident that three accidents that weren't my fault took place in Doylestown?!?!

March 2015: Rear-ended by texting driver ($1,200 to fix)

October 2015: Hit by drunk driver (About $2,200 to fix)

April 2017: Left mirror guillotined off by woman opening passenger door ($126 to fix)

That's more than $3,500 in damage that wasn't my fault, done to a truck worth in the range of $10,000-$12,000!

 

shit thats a walk in the park compared to driving in the DFW area, where 90% of drivers dont have insurance

 

I briefly drove in DFW before, and I actually didn't have a problem...

I have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage too...

 

Fred Beans Ford always had some cool trucks parked in the back, primarily belonging to customer vehicles that are in for service. There was this really nice Ford Super Duty parked in the back, but the trailer tow mirrors were folded in. Like I'd done countless times before without trouble, I folded out the mirrors to give the truck that "on-the-job" look for the picture, and started taking pictures. I had every intention of folding the mirrors back when I was done. Moments later, probably 4 or 5 shots in, this guy comes out a back door and starts screaming at me. I did not actually see him and he scared the shit out of me. When I spun around and got a good look at him, I did not initially think I was looking at a Fred Beans employee. He was wearing nothing identifying him as a Fred Beans employee, and to be quite honest he was dressed for a night at one of the local dive bars. He did not seem drunk, he was just dressed like a barfly. He demanded to know why I was touching a customer's truck and why I was taking pictures of it, and I was still in a daze, trying to figure out why somebody was at a car dealer in Pennsylvania on a Sunday. I'm guessing he was monitoring me on the building's CCTV system, but this was not the first truck on the lot I'd taken pictures of that day either, so I guess it was the adjusting of the mirrors that triggered his response. He identified himself as a "lot manager."

Luckily, unbeknownst to this guy, I'd gotten permission from Fred Beans himself the previous year to photograph vehicles on his lot. Fred Beans even let me film a vintage Carrier central air-conditioner at his Dodge dealership. We are not buddies, but Fred Beans knew me and was fine with what I did.

After the obligatory argument ran its course, I told this guy that I knew Fred Beans himself and had permission to take pictures. My story was verified and Fred himself didn't even seem to care that I'd moved the mirrors on the customer's truck. Needless to say, despite getting official permission from numerous members of the Beans family, I stopped going to Fred Beans Ford to get pictures of trucks a short time later. It just wasn't worth it...

 

where in DFW did you drive?

 

Flew into DFW with my dad, rented a Nissan Frontier, drove to Oklahoma City (my dad drove to OKC)...

I drove back again a few days later, and switched with my dad in Hickory Creek when we stopped for Starbucks before he dropped me off.

My dad was there for the college wrestling championships in Oklahoma City and he brought me with him a few days early so we could hang out. He dropped me off at the DFW airport a day before the wrestling began and I flew back home early...

 

Fred Beans himself is a very nice guy, and he has absolutely nothing to do with I stopped searching his car lots for photography subjects...

The Chevy dealer is even better than the Ford dealer, mostly because it is bigger. This includes the customer service parking area. Customer vehicles are most easily identified by the the tag hanging from the rearview mirror.

One Sunday in April 2014, I went to Fred Beans Chevy and started taking pictures of the vehicles in the customer lot. Among these was a particularly eye-catching 2010ish Ford Explorer XLT 4x4. Normally I don't go out of my way to photograph newer Ford Explorers, but this one was black with chrome wheels a tan leather interior. It really stood out to me, so I started taking pictures of it. It had a license plate with a valid registration sticker on it, and the inspection stickers were good too. Normally, I'd avoid such a vehicle like the plague, because an unpredictable owner could be lurking nearby. However, this Explorer was parked in the customer service area and there was nobody around that I could see. It did not have the hang-tag on the rearview mirror, and I knew it probably wasn't a trade-in because it had a valid plate on it. I figured that it was probably in for service and being kept temporarily at the Chevy dealer because there wasn't enough space at Fred Beans Ford down the street.

My Tacoma was parked in the street with the keys in the ignition and the engine running...

Looking back on it, I should have just bolted to the truck and floored it!

The red circle in the picture below marks the approximate location of where the Ford Explorer was parked, the red X marks where my Tacoma was parked, and the area circled in blue is where I believe the owner of the Explorer was, unseen by me...



So, I took several good pictures of the Ford Explorer and had already moved on to a recently-traded Chevy Express conversion van when the owner of the Explorer showed up.

One of my traits is that sometimes even I don't realize how fast I can take pictures of one vehicle and move on to the next one. This is true at car shows, car dealers, or wherever the hell...

Like I said, I was taking pictures of a white Chevy van when the owner of the Explorer, a guy in his 30s showed up and asked why I was taking pictures of his car. It took me a moment or so to realize he was referring to the Explorer, and he was quite polite at first so I saw no need to get defensive. I politely told him why I was taking pictures, explained that I assumed his Explorer was either a recent trade or in for service and thus had no reason to believe the owner was anywhere around, and apologized. He basically said he was cool with it, so I started walking back to my Tacoma.

He then changed his demeanor and went what I would refer to as "batshit crazy," for lack of a better term. He demanded that I delete every single photo of this truck, and I said "fine."

He then approached me and said he wanted to see me delete every single photo, and reached out for my $700 camera. I told him to "get away from me and not touch my damn camera." I believe I also threatened to call the cops.

He backed off, but I still had to delete every single photo with him looking over my shoulder. My only gripe about the whole situation is that he made me delete every single photo, and I didn't have one photo of that Explorer. I really wanted one with his license plate so I could report him to the cops, but I didn't even have that...

I ended up picking up driving 5 minutes to my boss's house, getting permission to use her dog Tully as "protection," and driving back to "Car Dealer Row" to continue my photography spree...

I did this without incident, and Tully even got a nice walk out and a ride in the Tacoma out of it...

DISCLAIMER: Tully is a Boxer/Labrador mix who does not get along with other dogs, but absolutely loves people. She has been known to bark and growl if someone she's unsure of approaches Sam (her owner), me, or anyone else she knows well. However, this passes and at best Tully will lick you to death. She's a sweetheart, but pretty soon I will tell you a story of a neighborhood bully's irrational fear of dogs protected me from said bully...


Also, I did not officially report the incident to police, but I did talk to a cop I knew in a neighboring jurisdiction that same day. The cop said I was doing absolutely nothing wrong by taking pictures on a car lot, and that the Explorer owner sounded like a "total douchebag."

The moral of the story is that I rarely go to car lots to take pictures anymore...

Last time I went to a car dealer was with my dad to look at new Expeditions!

 

About two months before my 6th birthday, a 7-week old Black Labrador Retriever named Molly came into my life. My cousin's Chocolate Lab, Maddy, had to be put to sleep in 1999 at the age of 10 due to cancer. This did not leave me feeling very optimistic about Molly's lifespan. However, Molly wasn't even 5 yet, so I took every day as it came. In late 2004, at the age of 9, she developed a rare form of skin cancer and the vet didn't think she'd live very far past 10. However, the vet took a chance and amputated the front left toe where the cancer had originated. This prevented any future spread of cancer!

Molly started developing arthritis when she was 9 or 10, and required a ramp to get into our minivan. However, she still had a few good years left in her.

Molly lost most of her hearing by the time she turned 12, and her eyesight was not what it used to be, either. However, her quality of life was still there and she was very happy. She turned 14 in December 2008 and was just as happy and healthy as such an old dog could be. It was in the summer of 2009 that her health started to show signs of deterioration, but she was still more or less fine.

My dad bought the Tacoma in September 2009, and in October-November her health really started to nosedive. Her once voracious appetite became virtually nonexistent as November came to an end, but she was still eating. She did remarkably well until her 15th birthday on December 11th, 2009. After that, she started to shut down right before our eyes. Her arthritis hadn't bothered her before, but it got so bad that she could barely stand up while using the bathroom. Then, an exam at the vet revealed that her kidneys were failing. My initial goal had been to keep her alive until I turned 21 in March 2010, and then my parents and I changed that goal to spending one last Christmas with her. Unfortunately, Molly's health became so bad that we decided to put her to sleep two days before Christmas.

We took her to the vet to euthanize her, and she literally died in my arms.

From 2000-2002, we lived in Oak Harbor, Washington. Oak Harbor is on Whidbey Island, and 2000-2001 is when I started taking solo walks with Molly. As late as 1997-1998, I was underweight for my age and Molly outweighed me. She was also full of energy, so it would not have been a good idea for me to walk her without an adult there as backup in case she saw another dog and/or got away from me. By 2000-2001, I weighed in at about 140 and Molly was 80-90. Inevitably, I encountered kids who liked to tease me. Nobody ever attempted to fight me or beat me up, but they would just follow me around teasing me relentlessly. Eventually it got so annoying that I wanted to beat them up.

 

One time in 2001 or so, I encountered a couple of kids (I believe at least one was on a mountain bike) who I knew to be assholes. They started to give me shit, but then they realized I had at least 80 pounds of large black dog with me. One of them said something like "get that dog away from me!" and they all scattered! That encounter made my day, and I laughed all the way home!

FUN FACT: Molly was NOT a mean dog. She was a Labrador for crying out loud! I've only encountered one mean Labrador in my life, and the owner told me the previous owned had been abusive, so it wasn't the dog's fault.

Molly was actually very patient with even the youngest and most touchy-feely of little kids. She would let them climb all over her and do whatever. However, once you start teasing me in a mean-spirited way, you forfeit your dog privileges. These punks were convinced Molly was this horrible nasty dog and I always seemed to encounter them while walking her, so just kept my mouth shut and let their incorrect assumptions work in my favor. They would run like the cowards they were whenever they saw Molly...

Molly was a lot like my boss's dog, and sometime I can't help but wonder if Tully is a reincarnation of Molly. My dog, Molly, was born on December 11, 1994 and died on December 23rd, 2009. My boss moved to Pennsylvania in October 2010, started working at my favorite watering hole in April 2011, and bought Tully in October 2012. Tully was born in July 2012 if I remember correctly, so she's almost 5 now. Molly and Tully are identical in terms of personality because they are both very dog-aggressive but absolutely love people, including little kids.

 

I actually beat up one of my closest friends, and I feel bad about it, but read the story...

I was not even 12 years old at the time!

One time in February 2001, my own friends and some other neighborhood kids ambushed me in one of the neighborhood park and started bombarding me with snowballs. I had a very expensive Speed Wrench RC truck that my parents had gotten me the previous Christmas. The Speed Wrench was blazingly fast for a $70 RC truck in 2000, and it had interchangeable wheels (hench "Wrench" in the name). It came with racing slicks and knobby off-road tires, and the latter of the two gave the truck unrivaled traction in the snow...

Unfortunately, these were not your garden-variety snowballs. They were very hard ice balls, and they hurt like a bitch when they hit your skin. I begged them to stop since it obviously wasn't a fair fight, and my annoyance very quickly turned to rage. I became the Incredible Hulk and I just fucking barreled after this group of people which happened to include two of my friends (also brothers). They realized they'd awoken the beast and all bolted like the pussies they truly were. Blinded by pure rage, I caught up to and grabbed the smaller and younger of the two brothers who happened to be my friends (he was also quite fat and out of shape). I tackled my large 8-year old friend, slammed him to the ground, and started pounding him relentlessly with closed fists. I just blindly started pounding the shit out of my friend until he was crying like a baby, and then I felt remorse and stopped. I then realized that while I'd won the battle, I'd probably lose the war if I stuck around. The rest of the group could easily return with reinforcements, in the form of not only more icy snowballs but also one of the larger neighborhood punks. I could still see the rest of the group up the street, and they were heading back in my direction...

I apologized to Justin, determined that he was not actually hurt, grabbed the Speed Wrench, and bolted back to my house. Unfortunately, my mom had locked the front door out of habit. Our house had these huge wooden double doors in the front, and I was so scared of the "reinforcements" coming after me that I started banging on the door with the wireless remote for the Speed Wrench and took a nice chunk of wood out in the process...

My mom unlocked the door and let me in, and she was not the least bit upset when I told her the whole story. I camped out in front of the TV to watch cartoons, my mom made me some hot chocolate, and I called it a day...

Justin (the kid I beat up) and I forgave each other and we currently friends on Facebook, and the people we were renting the house from either didn't notice the chunk of wood missing from the door or didn't care...

 

I wanted to give an idea of the small area in which the February 2001 ice-ball incident took place, so I went to Bing Maps on my Mac and took a picture with my phone...

My house is circled in red, the red X marks the approximate area where I was playing with my RC truck when I was ambushed, and blue circle around the red X marks the approximate area where I was ambushed, and where I tackled my friend and literally pounded him. The house. The house where my friend and his older brother lived is also circled in blue...

 

Think of insurance as a last resort, we’re all much happier if we never have to use it. I had a friend when we were younger who always said, “no pride on the highway”. Let them all go, you’ll still get where you’re going.

 

oh well you didnt really drive in DFW then lol gotta go into the loops to really get a feel for what its like

 

The right/wrong, fair/not fair thing is absolutely an Aspie thing. I can't tell you how many times I heard "Nobody ever said life is fair" when ever I complained. My kids do it to me now, "That's not fair!" "Nobody ever said life was fair, kid."

 

Totally understand, thanks for the insight.

 

Here for ass burgers.