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

Cheap plastic shit?

 

Yep. Like it or not all manufacturers source components based on price and a planned lifespan.

 

I'd say 157K ain't too shabby though...

 

Older vehicles had similar coolant pipes made of steel, the problem was always keeping a coating on them due to the tremendous temperature swings that the part sees and their typical location in the vehicle.
The same part made of steel may well have started leaking due to rusting so it is kind of a wash.

It lasted 150 thousand miles and also until the truck overheated - your call on how cheap it is...

 

Taking that into consideration, I am not complaining; I'm just glad it wasn't the head gasket!

 

Very good news

 

@crashngiggles

PLEASE READ ENTIRE POST AND RESPOND. IT WOULD BE A GREAT HELP!

Here's something else that I would like your opinion on, and it's an ongoing thing...



First off, I would like to iterate up front and for the umpteenth time that I 100% support law enforcement! In March 2013, I was still in college (specifically Bucks County Community College); I drove to Doylestown Borough, parked my truck, and wandered around a historic neighborhood taking pictures. Unbeknownst to me, a heroin addict had robbed four houses on that same street in broad daylight, in less than a month! Long story short (and trust me, it is a long story that I have told here on TW many times), some nearsighted bitch called the cops on me because she thought I was on her property and taking pictures through her open window. I took pictures of several 19th century homes, but from a public sidewalk, so

So three cop cars and four cops, including a plainclothes detective, show up and interrogate me by the side of the road for twenty minutes. As a matter of course, I had to hand over my driver's license, and even almost a decade later that memory of being forced to hand over my license triggers something in me. The first cop on the scene was the sergeant of what was then the Doylestown Borough Police Department, and he asked rather gruffly "Can I see some ID?" I was not searched, handcuffed, or put in the back of a police car, but for an autistic 20-something with no criminal record who'd never had dealings with the police outside of a traffic stop at the age of 17 (I was less than 2 weeks from turning 24 when this point) the whole situation was quite traumatizing. Four fucking cops for a report of a guy with a camera! The Doylestown Borough PD merged with the Chalfont Borough PD in early 2014 to become the Central Bucks Bucks Regional PD and I still don't particularly care for the department as a whole because of...

1. The March 2013 photography incident.
2. Overpriced traffic ticket in May 2017 for 43 MPH in a 25 MPH on a deserted stretch of road at almost midnight.
3. Overpriced traffic ticket in January 2019 for basically treating a red light like a stop sign.
4. One of their officers is currently facing charges for soliciting sex from a minor.

This is all besides the point; I have been triggered by being asked to "show ID" since March 2013 unless it's for very specific situation, like getting into a bar or strip club, buying alcohol, or boarding a commercial flight. I bought a "Full Metal Jacket" DVD from the discount bin at the local supermarket and blew up at the cashier when asked for ID because it was an R-rated movie; I was at least 25 at the time, and it's not like it was some X-rated porno flick. I ended up showing my license, and another time at the same grocery store I cussed out a cashier for asking to see my ID so I could buy nonalcoholic beer...

 

It happens to us all. You did the right thing here. - Ignored him

 

@crashngiggles

I've had so many altercations with store employees between 2013 and 2019 that I have lost count, but one of the most common scenarios would take place when I was working at a bar in Doylestown; I worked at this venue from November 2014 through January 2019, I loved that job, and I miss it every day. I was not fired, my boss loves me, and I still go to parties at the home of her and her husband every year. That job kind of went away due to circumstances beyond my control, which is another story in itself.

So, I do not smoke but most of my coworkers did. This included my boss (the general manager), several bartenders, a couple barbacks, and one of the bouncers. I was a barback as well, but I was the guy with the pickup truck (still am) and that was the perfect vehicle for running restaurant-related errands. I got paid the same $10 per hour plus tips whether it was a slow night or a busy night, regardless of what I was actually doing, so I didn't mind making cigarette runs for my coworkers. They would all give me cash, and if there was anything left over after I bought everyone's cigarettes (which there almost always was), I could buy whatever I wanted. This was a pretty sweet deal!

I once made the mistake of mentioning that the cigarettes weren't for me, and the cashier at Wawa refused to sell them to me even though I insisted that they were for a coworker in her early 40s. No dice.

I drove up the street to the CVS, which was still selling cigarettes, and got the smokes no problem. The bartender, this woman named Charlene who I absolutely adored, preferred cigarettes from Wawa to those from CVS because they were apparently fresh. I've cigars, hookahs, and on one occasion something that was not legal for recreational use in Pennsylvania at the time...



But I've never smoked one cigarette; Charlene was not happy, but forgave me, and the moral of that story was to keep my mouth shut when buying cigarettes for coworkers. For the longest time, this worked, but the Wawa staffers became suspicious when I'd show up on Fridays and Saturdays weekend after weekend to buy at least three different brands of cigarettes; I can assure you that the youngest smoker in that group was probably 25 at the time. The assholes at Wawa should have let sleeping dogs lie, but to this day I swear there was a conspiracy against me to get me to slip up and admit I was buying cigarettes for basically everyone at work but myself. I was smart and kept my mouth shut, and I know they knew the smokes weren't for me, but there was precisely jack shit they could do about it.

That said, on a few occasions I got into arguments with staff members who I saw on a near-daily basis because my belief was that as a regular customer they should have known I was in my late 20s and well past the legal age to buy cigarettes, including this one girl who I believe was on the autism spectrum like me. I about blew my stack with one teenage girl because she made me take my sunglasses off after I handed her my license, to be absolutely sure it was me.

Thankfully, the only times I've been asked for ID in 2022 were boarding a flight from Philly to San Francisco, and boarding a flight from San Francisco back to Philly a week later. Getting carded, even to buy alcohol, pretty much stopped when COVID started; I believe that this is because they didn't want people taking their masks off. The last time I bought beer was at a privately-owned liquor store here in Massachusetts at the start of my vacation. I went in maskless since the store didn't require masks, and I was never asked to show ID. One of the guys even helped bring the beer out to the car!

But yeah, what do you make of this?

 

Well I was detained in Wal-Mart for suspicion of shop lifting.
I wasn’t, but the 5 officer that surrounded me sure weren’t just going to take my word for it.
Yes, 5 of them.

So I know how you felt. And I too support Law Enforcement.
My stepfather was a Highway Patrolman at the time.

But it still makes you kind of mad.
I guess they have a job to do. They eventually let me go.

 

People are getting fucking crazy and have little to no self-restraint! For starters people need to leave enforcing laws, traffic or otherwise, to the actual law enforcement! I found this out the hard way a few months ago when I was walking Porter in my neighborhood. This person (don't know if it was a man or a woman) in a late model Honda CRV comes flying down the street; I yell at them to slow down, and they actually stop in the middle of the road. They didn't get out of the car or even say anything, but they stopped and I was sure they were going to get out. The moral of that story is to never confront someone unless they directly put you or your property in danger...

 

@BkerChuck
@ColoradoTJ
@shakerhood
@steelcity2
@Taco critter
@TnShooter
@wilcam47

One time in like January 2015, when I was going through my "must take pictures of all decent Chevy and GMC trucks I see" phase, I met an older man in a parking lot who had a mint 2004 or 2005 Chevy Colorado Z71. @ABA180 will say that these trucks are shit, as he owned one that had to have a partial engine rebuild at like 70K miles, but anything will last if you take care of it. It was sweet enough that it was a fully loaded regular cab Colorado with the Z71 package, but this thing had like 242K miles on and was MINT. I was in the process of taking pictures for a YouTube video project that has been ongoing for just over a decade (And I haven't posted any videos yet). I explained to the owner of the Colorado what I wanted to do and he gave me permission to take all the pictures I wanted. This wasn't the problem. The Colorado was parked in one spot, and there was this prick businessman sitting in his BMW X5 eating lunch in another spot; I had no idea that there was even anybody in the BMW, and what does this jerkoff do?!?!

I was kneeling down in an empty spot getting some "angle of approach" shots of the Colorado, and this impatient son of a bitch wanted to pull forward rather than back up; I understand this, but we humans were given the ability to speak for a reason...

The fat prick in the BMW lays on his horn and makes me jump about a mile out my shoes; I have Aspergers, and I do not deal well with being startled. When I was younger, I will admit that I punched people for unwittingly startled me. I was a kid then, like not even a teenager; I was almost 26 at this point and well past the phase of hitting people out of reflex.

So, the fat guy in the BMW drives past me and says something with the F-word in it; I got angry, and as he drove away I saw his driver's window was down. He was almost halfway across the parking lot when I screamed "Beemer-driving asshole!" That's all I said; "Beemer-driving asshole." Nothing racist (though we were both white guys so that was besides the point), nothing particularly insulting...

I just called him exactly what he was, and this guy slams on his brakes and aggressively makes a U-turn; I figured that the Colorado would be there when I was done shopping and made a mad dash for the grocery store in attempt to lose this guy. He parked his BMW, jumped out, and for the colossal fatass that he was he could certainly move. The next I knew he was right at my heels acting like he wanted to fight. He was fatter than me, had a beard, and spoke with what sounded like a Brooklyn accent; I was legitimately scared of him. I took my phone out, and told him that if he didn't back off I would call the cops. He then proceeded to say that if I called the cops, he would know where I live; I have no fucking idea what he meant by that, but he realized that I wasn't going to let him bully me and left. There were numerous witnesses in the parking lot, and one guy loading his car humorously commented that I'd done nothing wrong and that the guy in the BMW was either really hungry or hadn't gotten laid the previous night.

All this because he scared the shit out of me with his car horn, cussed at me, and got called exactly what he was...

 

I'll be perfectly honest...

That probably would have let to both an irrational fear and a seething hatred of police on my part.

 

He could of at least rolled the window down and asked you to move.

But I have a few friends from New Jersey and New York. Those northern city folk are just “blunt and to the point”. I don’t hold it against them anymore. I think it’s just the way they are, they don’t really mean anything by it.

 

It was definitely confusing for both me and the police.
I have absolutely no idea why there were 5 of them

All I know is, “that I fit the profile of a person reported to be suspected of shop lifting”.
I don’t know who reported, but they were wrong.

I was looking for a pair of crocks. (Don’t judge me, I had a reason for wanting a pair)
I was getting ready to take on a pressure washing job, and those are water proof. And comfortable

 

I got four cops, one whom was a plainclothes detective and none of whom were wearing gloves or even remotely looking like they were prepping for a cavity search. No doubt they thought they had their guy and were looking to make an arrest. All they succeeded in doing was making an innocent, law-abiding citizen distrust the police for many years...

 

@ABA180
@ColoradoTJ
@shakerhood
@steelcity2
@Taco critter
@TnShooter
@wilcam47

And note above how I said it was a heroin addict who committed the burglaries that indirectly led to me getting stopped and questioned by police; I don't think he ever got formally charged for the crimes in Doylestown because he ended up getting arrested not far from where I am vacationing right now for similar crimes.

In 2012-2013, I was a regular at Puck but not yet an employee. There was this open mic host who everybody loved, but the parents of the aforementioned heroin addict were good friends of Puck's owners. I believe that the guy's name was Damien Derose, and almost immediately he rubbed me the wrong way. He was a super-talented musician, but like many people I liked the guy he replaced. I don't think anybody, myself included, knew how much of an addict he was; I am honestly surprised that my camera didn't mysteriously disappear while he was employed there, or items from my truck. Both my camera and the keys to the Tacoma were routinely left unattended at Puck, because it was just that kind of place.

From late January to late February of 2013, it is believed that Damien committed the burglaries in Doylestown. Damien's parents were incredibly wealthy and had a vacation home in Martha's Vineyard, where it is apparently commonplace for owners of multimillion dollar homes to leave the doors unlocked. Damien had a Subaru Impreza wagon, and he apparently drove from house to house, entering through unlocked doors and ultimately helping himself to well over $100K worth of stolen electronics and jewelry. This burglary spree came to an unceremonious end when someone apparently saw his car and got pulled over by the police in Massachusetts. He had a lot of very expensive stolen items in his car, and he initially put up a fight and tried to run (on foot) from the cops if I remember correctly. That went about as well as you'd expect and he was taken into custody. He confessed and ended up serving over a year in jail up in Massachusetts for his crimes. An article in the Doylestown newspaper detailed his crimes in Martha's Vineyard and mentioned that local police there were looking to question Damien regarding possible involvement in those burglaries. I don't think he ever got charged.

By default, Puck got the beloved former open mic host back, and he held that positioned until Puck closed in January 2019. Damien did his time and was released from jail, and you would think that having a felony record would make him reform, but nope...

He ended up in rehab at some point after being released from jail, relapsed, and ultimately died from a heroin overdose in 2015 at the age of 30. It is utterly heartbreaking...

At the time he was hosting Puck's open mic nights, I had no idea he was addicted to heroin. He would disappear for longer than was professionally acceptable, and looking back on it, I am pretty sure he was shooting up in his car between acts.

 

Doylestown Man Burglarized Homes in Three States: Police | Doylestown, PA Patch

 

North Road arrest nets $100,000 in stolen goods - The Martha's Vineyard Times (mvtimes.com)

 

I know plenty of addicts. Some are genuinely good people stuck in a bad place.

One of them got so down and depressed, he got high and drunk, and placed a single round in a revolver and kept spinning the cylinder and pulling the trigger. Even worse, he did it while his girlfriend was there. She stayed trying to get him to stop. But eventually it went off. Killing him.
I really did/do still miss him.

Then there’s been others that drank themselves to death. Liver failure.

And then some you never knew had problems. Until it’s too late.

Yeah, I don’t like addicts that steal and lie to get their fix.
But some of are great people. I know a few. Wish they would get clean.
I hate seeing people get no where in life wasting it on addiction.