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

Won't that fuck up the fuel pump?

 

its never easy especially when you were close. And especially such a sudden death.

 

I lost my biological paternal grandpa to lung and liver cancer in November 2007 when he was only 71, I lost my paternal great grandma to old age when she was 98 in mid-2012, I lost my maternal grandmother in January 2015 when she was 88, and I lost my paternal step-grandpa to old age and heart failure in April 2017 when he was 93. They all had health problems and the whole family knew the end was near.

My parents and I had to put Molly, our 15-year old Labrador, to sleep in December 2009 when her health started failing; 15 years old is an incredibly long life for any dog, especially an overweight Labrador retriever who'd survived cancer. It was devastating to euthanize her, but she was old and we knew it was time.

When we finally got another dog (Mandy) in September 2018, our joy turned to heartbreak within a month of adopting her when she was diagnosed with a rare congenital kidney disease, and we had to euthanize her in July 2019 when we had only had her for ten months and she was barely a year old. Mandy's health had been declining for a couple of months, and we knew this was inevitable.

I have been fortunate enough that I had NEVER lost as close of a friend as Jim until, well, Jim...

Literally nobody expected him to die. He was diagnosed with an incredibly minor form of lung cancer in the spring of 2021, and he was always in good spirits and never let the cancer bring him down, so it wasn't really discussed beyond asking him how he was doing in his day-to-day life and asking when the surgery would be. He was supposed to come home tomorrow (Tuesday at the very latest), and I was going meet him and Helen at the big Corvette show on August 27th. They say the three stages of grief are denial, anger, and acceptance; I would say that the "denial" stage lasted a few seconds, right after Helen told me that he had died, and I have in fact accepted his death. I am still subject to internal bouts of anger, my attitude being "of all the shit that could have gone down this year, why the fuck did it have to be this?!?!"

 

I am sorry for your loss.
We had a discussion Wednesday night at church, that when I read what you wrote, it brought it back clearly to my mind. Proverbs 29:21 He who delicately brings up his servant from his youth, shall have him as a son at the length.
Our discussion was about elders who go out of their way to help teach and be a friend to others. Everyone of us could remember someone who taught us, or shared with us for no reason other than to just be there for someone else. I had a bizarre childhood. Everybody knows the story, it is different for all of us, but the same in a lot of ways. My Dad has passed, and nothing that was done can be changed now. However we had a neighbor, Cecil Holland, and his wife Billie Holland. He was a WWII navy vet, and anti aircraft machine gunner on a carrier in the Pacific. He helped me. I will always remember him. Another man, Larry Greer hired me later on working on Semi trucks and trailers. He kept after me to go to church with him. One day I went. He couldn't of known how that would effect my life later when I watched my life spiral out of control with alcohol and drugs too.

Man just know that friends like that are worth more than anything. Cherish the time you had with him, and continue to lift up, and encourage his wife.

God bless you.
Steve

P.S. if someone is reading this and is bothered by the mention of God, please tell me about it in a PM and not in this mans thread. Thank you.

 

Hey Chris, aren't 2005 and 2006 virtually identical? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that 2005 C6s with no third pedal had a 4-speed automatic due to development issues, and then a 5-speed automatic came along for MY2006...?!?!

 

You hit the nail on the head, so please do not delete this; I do not have a problem with it in the slightest.

 

Helen is likely going to sell the Ridgeline because she doesn't need a truck, and honestly if I had the money, I would buy it just so I could have a piece of Jim...

 

Helen seems to think that hers has the 6.0L, and since hers is a 2005...

 

Hey Charlie......if you ever need to reach out, please do not hesitate. My services have always been free to TW members. Grieving can be a very difficult process to go through.

 

I don't mind sharing this in public, so I'll say it again; I have accepted Jim's death and obviously am no longer in denial about it, but two days in I am feeling bouts of anger. I feel empty inside. With all of the shit going on in the world today, why the hell did this have to happen? I was literally shooting the shit with him on the back patio last Monday, and now there's gonna be no more scarfing pretzels on the back porch while we chat for three or four hours at a time.

I actually do see a psychologist, and I tell him damn near everything. I last saw Jim on Monday, and I normally see my therapist on Friday mornings, but he had to take off Thursday and Friday for personal reasons. Even if I had seen him yesterday morning, I still wouldn't have found out about Jim's passing until after I saw him and I would have been stuck waiting until next Friday to see him anyway.

 

I am just now reading this post. Thankfully, they prepared for unforeseen circumstances, and money is not an issue.

 

Maybe we can think about it this way, if we think about what can be qualified and quantifiable, both physics and thermodynamics states that any energy that has been created in the universe remains constant.....no new energy can be created and no energy can be destroyed. Everything is made of energy, the water we drink, the trees that shade us, the ground that we walk on and we are made of energy as well. When a loved one passes, that energy is not lost. It turns into the air that we breath, the cool breeze on a warm day or even the feeling of a hug from a loved one. Jim's energy will always be with you and always around you. This can help comfort you when we start to feel that anger brewing up within our subconscious and conscious mind.
Regarding of the feeling of emptiness, the true measure of a person's life is remembered through the positive memories that we keep of that person. In one way, we tell ourselves that we feel empty when a loved one suddenly passes, but with what you have been talking about here certainly sounds like you are abundantly full of positive stories, memories, and feelings that he has imprinted in your entire life. The more that we remind ourselves of those good and positive things the less empty we recognize we really are.

Some will tell you that time heals all wounds, not fully true. The grieving process can be different for everyone but the biggest difficulty that anyone can do is to not let themself grieve in their own way. The more we are able to concentrate on those positive memories, the easier the transition can be.

You are in my thoughts sir.

 

It's perfectly normal Charlie, just don't get hung up on one stage...
.
The 5 stages of grief,
Persistent, traumatic grief can cause us to cycle (sometimes quickly) through the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.

 

Do you think people realize that they are dead and are up there watching us? Do you think that as far as Jim is concerned, he is in a long never-ending dream sequence from which he will never wake up?

 

@ABA180
@BkerChuck
@ColoradoTJ
@shakerhood
@steelcity2
@TnShooter
@wilcam47

A man and his wife brought their mint 1989 Chevy K5 Blazer with only 75K original miles, of which they were the original owners, to a car show. They thought that the level of interest that I showed in their Blazer at a car show was kind of weird. The wife was very nice, but still mentioned that "nobody had showed this much interest in it before"...

I say again, that you brought very nice 4x4 to a car show!

The real issue was came when I wanted to take pictures inside the Blazer, and the man went nuts, being rather rude to his wife in my opinion. They brought the Blazer to a car show years ago, showgoers were allowed to take pictures inside, and he saw someone going out of their way to take pictures of the inspection stickers. In Pennsylvania, all vehicles not registered as antiques have to get a yearly safety inspection, and in 25 of the 67 counties all gasoline-powered vehicles have to get a yearly emissions test. As such, this Blazer had both stickers in the lower left corner of the windshield. His specific concern was that I would do something nefarious with "his VIN". The VIN is handwritten on both of these stickers, and there is very little one can do with a VIN beyond running it through Carfax, so I have no idea what this guy's problem was. Regardless, he rather gruffly told his wife to strategically place his ball cap on the dash so it blocked the backside of the inspection stickers, and then became even more irate when she didn't know exactly where the hat was. His wife was much nicer than he was, told me that I'd done nothing wrong, and had no problem with me taking pictures; I didn't get the in-depth pictures I would have liked because I was afraid of this guy becoming even more belligerent. He was also very adamant that his wife relock the Blazer once I was done; I don't know why he didn't trust me, but he didn't. I have seen this Blazer at this event before, and I've got to say that if I say these people again (especially the husband) I will be giving them a wide berth...

Once again, if you don't want people having the nerve to show interest in your vehicle, then don't bring the damn thing to a car show!


August 14th, 2022:

Quakertown, Pennsylvania

 

Interior shots so you can see how clean this thing is...

 

@ABA180
@BkerChuck
@ColoradoTJ
@shakerhood
@Squatting Pigeon
@Taco critter
@TnShooter
@wilcam47

I have not, and do not think I ever will, encounter enough unfriendliness at car shows and cruise nights to stop going to them altogether. People let me open doors and even sit in their vehicles to get better pictures, and they always insist (I never ask); I once got to sit in a Rolls-Royce Camargue at the Import Nationals. The number one rule is to never touch vehicles, and I'm pretty good at that. I am shocked at how many people tell me I can open the door and whatnot.

That said, every unfriendly vehicle owner I've ever encountered has always been a baby boomer; I believe that their unfriendliness is the result of a combination of the COVID pandemic, and hostility towards younger people induced by the generational gap and a perception that people younger than them don't have the same values, which has been going on since long before COVID was a thing.