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

It was really just my aunt, and here's a story I've told @shakerhood

One time in 2007, I was playfully horsing around with Grammy in her dining room. Most of my dad's side of the family, including my aunt, was there. My aunt did not fully comprehend what was going on and thought that I was purposely hurting Grammy, even though we were just playing. I still do not know what possessed my aunt to do this, so I just chalk it up to various mental issues she was having at the time...

She came up behind me and shoved me full force into the dining room table; I was not actually injured, but the angle at which I went into the table did cause me a momentary bit of pain. My waist/groin area slammed into the edge of the table, and I sprawled onto the surface. I was more stunned than anything, and that quickly turned into anger.

For a millisecond, I thought it was one of my uncles (the fraternal twin of my aunt), and I was about to deck him purely out of reflex. I literally had my fist raised and was about to throw a punch when I realized it was my aunt. I believe that I said something like "What the fuck was that for?!?!" or "Are you fucking kidding me?!?!"

My dad said something like "That was uncalled for" and I stormed out of the room. In a stroke of luck, the entire family happened to be gathered in the dining room/living room area and saw it happen. Everybody was obviously on my side; I didn't talk to my aunt for like two months, and she finally wrote me an apology letter and bought me a present before I started acknowledging her existence again.

 

Things finally came to a head during Thanksgiving dinner at Nana J's house somewhere in the range of 2015-2018, in the very same living room where this very same took offense to me talking about cars too much back in 2007. We were all in the living room conversing and watching football, and I was mindlessly eating chips directly out of a large bowl. My aunt decided it was her place to tell me that I was eating too much. The tone in which she said this, combined with all the other times she decided to lecture me about stuff that wasn't her business in previous years, set me off. In yet another stroke of luck, this happened in front of the entire family, and the entire family took my side. That was at least five years ago, and my aunt hasn't harassed me about stupid shit since the chip incident!

My aunt lives several hundred miles away, and I don't talk to her that much, but our relationship has been on a much more even keel. My old therapist, who I no longer see because he retired, said that my aunt saw me as her "whipping boy" and that is why she singled me out. She was regularly at odds with other relatives for various reasons, but she always seemed to single me out. Most of the time, she lectured me about stupid shit that wasn't her business and thought it was her place to discipline me. The biggest problem was that I was 18 and thus legally an adult by the time this started happening (remember, it was in about 2007, after I graduated from high school), so my attitude was that I didn't have to take orders from anybody except my parents; I actually flat out told my aunt that she wasn't my mother one time. The other issue was that on a few occasions, my aunt would eavesdrop on conversations I was having with other family members and assume I was talking shit about her, then confront me about it on the spot.

 

@shakerhood
@TnShooter
@wilcam47

One of my obsessions in my late teens and early 20s was making HVAC videos for YouTube; I wanted to get a video of the heat pump at Grammy's house defrosting, and Grammy could care less than I was filming the heat pump as long as I didn't put the location of her house online. The problem was that my grandma lived in a 3-unit condo building, where her heat pump was visible from the neighbor's living room window.

Grammy's neighbor complained to her about me filming the heat pump because it made her nervous o something; I told Grammy flat out that I really didn't give a shit about her neighbor's opinion because the heat pump was on Grammy's property and I had permission to film it. One time during a heated argument about this ongoing conflict, I told Grammy "She can go to hell!"

I was of course referring to the overly sensitive busybody next-door neighbor, but my aunt happened to be in earshot, assumed I was talking about her, and confronted me on the spot. This went about as well as you'd expect...

 

I’ll put it to you this way.
If I want to take a big shit in my back yard. I will, it’s my back yard. And if you don’t like, I’ll run it over with my mower a fling some your way

 

couldn't resist.

 

She was far too aggressive.

 

We are on much better terms now, but I wasn't all that close to her like I was to my dad's other siblings (Uncle Kenny, the older brother, and Uncle Jeff, the younger brother and my aunt's twin). Uncle Kenny and Uncle Jeff were involved my life practically from the moment I was born, and it helped that I spent most of my life living within an hour of Uncle Jeff and his family.

Uncle Jeff bought me cool presents for birthdays and Christmas, he probably had a huge influence on love of cars and trucks since he owned a hubcap store and wheel refinishing business.

Uncle Kenny and his wife never had any kids because his wife was medically unable to, but they certainly spoiled me and Uncle Jeff's daughters. Uncle Kenny bought me a Power Wheels Jeep when I "graduated" from preschool. He also go me a prank toy, that resembled a real teddy bear, but farted when you pressed a button on a remote control. Another cool toy he got me was a remote controlled blimp!

 

@shakerhood

My uncle was always very successful with his wheel business, and I'm pretty sure he never financed a car. One of the vehicles he held onto the longest was an aqua green 1994 Ford Ranger XLT that he special ordered brand new and owned until 2002. It was a regular short bed 2WD with the 3.0L V6, 5-speed manual, and a 3.42 posi rear. It had A/C and all the options you could get in 1994 except the CD player; Uncle Jeff opted for the cassette player but did get cruise control, power windows, and power locks. He added a custom color-matched tonneau cover, and since he was in the wheel business he could get custom wheels and tires at low prices, and in 1994-1995 it seemed like there was a different set of wheels on that truck every time we went to visit before he finally settled on a style he liked.

We lived in California from 1996 to 1998 when my dad was stationed there the second time, and my parents left me with Grammy and Mr. P in Pennsylvania in April or May of 1998 while they went house hunting in Virginia Beach. My dad was about to be transferred to Norfolk, so that's why they were looking for houses there.

 

@shakerhood

One day during this trip, my grandparents were busy running errands, and my uncle had to go to a friend's junkyard to pick up some wheels that he planned to refinish and sell. I was 9 years old and just as obsessed with cars then as I am now, and Uncle Jeff knew I would be in heaven at this junkyard, so he offered to take me for the day. He picked me up in the aforementioned aqua green 1994 Ford Ranger.

It had rained recently, and the roads were wet, and I noticed this 1980s square body Chevy accidentally do a burnout when accelerating from a traffic light; I thought it was a coolest thing I the world. Uncle Jeff was like "I can do that too", and he dumped the clutch and did a burnout for me...



He created a monster in the process, as I talked him into doing it at least two more times in the next few minutes!

 

Our neighbor had a little 2WD Ranger with 3.0 engine.
He started it up to move it so he could mow, he forgot about it and kept mowing.
The next day he went out and it was out of gas, he left it running the whole night.

Sure do miss that guy. Cancer took him away far too soon.

 

This was pretty much my uncle's truck though his was in far better condition, did not have the purple stripes, and had custom wheels; I googled "aqua green 1994 Ford Ranger" and this was the best I could come up with...

 

Also, the first clutch job I even took part of was in that truck.
It really wasn’t that bad, other than bleeding the clutch line. Total PITA.
My fathers Ranger with the 4.0 was the same way.

 

My Dad had a 2WD Ranger 3.0, 5 Speed too, was a pretty solid little truck.

 

The neighbors had like 190k on it. He traded it for a boat.
And I bet you can’t guess how that worked out?

 

Either something bad happened to the boat, or he sold the boat for less than the Ranger was worth?

 

My uncle's 1994 Ranger had like 80K miles on it when he sold it to his brother-in-law in 2002 when he bought a new Tacoma. I believe the now ex-brother-in-law still has it.

 

Some of you may remember the saga of my friend's mom's 2007 Camry Hybrid, which wasn't running because the batteries died. She told it to a mechanic who works for my mechanic and bought a used 2019 Camry Hybrid earlier this year. My friend informed me less than 20 minutes ago that somebody hit his mom today...

 

The boat motor was no good.
He never sold the boat. It was still sitting there in the yard when he died.

 

Dang, sorry to see that.

It doesn’t look too bad.
I’d have an alignment and inspection done on it, if I were going to keep driving it.

 

Well that sucks!