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

Impact driver for what...?

 

I have a 1/4" Milwaukee impact driver, it's a beast.

 

Here is a story from 4th grade about one of the reasons I have a general disdain for authority.

In 4th grade, I NEVER got in trouble, aside from that one time in 1998 when three or four of my classmates conspired and got me in trouble for hitting a female classmate when I did no such thing.

In 4th grade, I never didn’t do my homework, and always handed in assignments on time. For all of 4th grade and all of 5th grade, I always made the honor roll because of my good grades.

One day in the spring of 1999, probably less than a month before the end of the school year, I left my homework assignment at home. I did do the homework, but I’d merely forgotten to bring it with me. The teacher didn’t ask for the assignment until the end of the day, and I didn’t realize until that very moment that I’d left it at home. Keep in mind that I’d never failed to complete a homework assignment or left a homework assignment at home that entire year.

So, I told my teacher that I’d forgotten my homework and she wasn’t mad, but she still made me fill out a dreaded pink slip. I was so embarrassed and almost refused to do it. However, there was this really kindhearted black girl in my class named Kamara Britt (who, looking back on it, I now realize I kinda had a crush on). She said to me something like “I know it’s embarrassing Charlie, but it happens to the best of us! You know how many pink slips I’ve had to fill out this year?!?!”

Kamara even walked to front of the classroom with me and helped me fill out the pink slip.

Even though it was an accident, and my teacher allowed me to turn it the next day (Friday) without my grade taking a hit, I still had to miss the weekly recess and sit in the classroom. Granted, it wasn’t horrible because I was still allowed to draw in class.

However, as soon as the bus dropped me off at home on Thursday afternoon, I started crying the moment I walked in the front door because I was so upset. I literally NEVER got in trouble. I didn’t get detention for the first time until 6th grade!

When it comes to repeat offenders, like the asshole who hit my Taco while driving drunk in 2015, I believe they should have the book thrown at them. When an otherwise law-abiding citizen commits an extraordinarily minor offense, they should not be raked over the coals for it.

 

Also, twenty years ago the Virginia Beach public school district did not allow recess for any student older than Kindergarten!

Finding out that this was the case was a lot like finding out my truck didn’t have intermittent wipers! When my parents enrolled me at Christopher Farms Elementary, we all just assumed the students got daily recess.

I was born in California, we moved to Pennsylvania when I was like just shy of a year and a half old, and we lived there until 1996. I went to private schools for preschool and kindergarten, and there was recess. I went to Nash Elementary (a public school) in first grade (1995-1996) and we had recess.

I went to a public school in Northern California for second and third grade (1996-1998) and we had recess!

I went to a public school in Washington in sixth and seventh grade, and we didn’t have recess in the sense that we played on a playground, but we had had this probably hour-long period of time that included lunch where we were free to walk around outside and play kickball or baseball (weather permitting).

 

Prior to eighth grade, Virginia Beach was the only place I ever attended school where students older than kindergarten did not have recess!

My parents and I just assumed that there was recess, just like we assumed when we bought the Tacoma that it had intermittent wipers. It was not until two days after we bought the truck that I went to use the windshield washer and realized they were just 2-speed, and it was not until halfway through my first day of 4th grade that I asked my teacher when we were having recess and she looked at me like I was an idiot!

 

Specifically, I believe I asked her twice and the first answer was rather vague, something about we’d already had gym class.

I asked a second time as the teacher was taking us back to class after lunch, and was met with a bunch of stares from classmates. My teacher once again told me that gym class was considered our recess and we would not be playing on the playground or anything.

My mom in no uncertain terms thought it was bullshit that I didn’t get a traditional recess, but there was not much she could do about it. As mentioned above, we did get a recess of sorts on Fridays, on either a biweekly or monthly basis, but that was weather permitting and limited to the sports court (I guess us 4th and 5th graders were getting too big for the playground). On days when the weather was shitty, we got to eat popcorn and candy, and watch a movie in class.

Not long after we moved from Virginia Beach to Whidbey Island, one of my dad’s Navy buddies moved to Virginia Beach. His kid was a little younger than me, and his first question after getting home from his first of school was “Why is there no recess?”

Apparently, sometime in the early 2000s not long after we moved, enough parents complained to the school district, and they were forced to let students older than kindergarten have recess.

 

FUN FACT: I generally HATED gym class, and for any school employee to consider gym class to be “recess” is just downright insulting!

 

I touched a power tube in a old console tv. All I can say is that shit hurt a lot. I was like 5 or 6 lol

 

Also, the “forgotten homework” incident of May 1999 is comparable to the “red light incident” of January 2019. The biggest difference is that in 1999, I was a hapless 10-year old kid who had to except the consequences and deal with it.

In 2019, I exercised my legal rights, fought the ticket, and more or less won against a cop who thought he could intimidate me into just paying the ticket.

 

@Running Man scalded himself on the heat sink of the head unit I gave him...

When I was 6, I zapped myself on an electric fence at a farm while petting a horse. Actually, it was more of a burn than a zap!

 

I just realized that I’ve got 700 pages!

 

One thing I’ve come to realize over the years is that I have a huge problem with people who give me an attitude, and they are most commonly male strangers who are at least ten years older than me.

 

As someone who has been guilty of “being a hero” in the past, I can tell you that few things enrage me as much as people who think they are the police and/or try to be a hero...

One time in 2011 or 2012 (It was after I got my license in May 2011, but prior to 2013), I decided to check out a new office complex near the townhouse development we were living in at the time. I was in the Taco, which was 100% stock, 100% mint, and probably had less than 25K miles on it at the time.

I am not going to lie; I was still in my HVAC filming phase, and I was scoping for air-conditioners to film. However, I never even got out of the truck. All I did was drive around the parking lot looking at the new buildings, most of which were still unoccupied and still available for rent. In addition to being maybe a mile from my parents’ townhouse, this office complex was itself part of a townhouse development.

I was just driving around looking at the buildings. It was after sunset, and I had my lights on so it’s not like I was trying to be sneaky. At about the time I pulled into the complex, some guy in a black Navigator was leaving, and I just barely noticed him decide to go straight instead of making a right and leaving the complex. Maybe a minute and a half in, I realized this guy seemed to be following me, and I became suspicious of him.

It was getting dark and there was nobody around, so I hauled ass out of the parking lot, losing the mysterious guy in the Navigator, and drove home.

 

Just passed my oregon drivers license written test.

 

Another time in about 2017, I decided to check out the long-closed K-Mart on York Road in Warminster. There also happened to be a derelict International Scout sitting in the parking lot of the shopping center that I wanted to check out. All of the business in that shopping center either left or went under when the K-Mart closed in 2012 or 2013; There was, however, a fairly new freestanding Dunkin Donuts next to the K-Mart. It was in the middle of the day when I went over to this K-Mart and though I got out of my truck and took some pictures of the abandoned Scout with my phone, I never once did anything that should have suggested I was up to no good. I took all pictures of
the K-Mart from inside my truck.

While taking pictures, I noticed a late model black sedan (Either a Honda Accord or a Hyundai Sonata) leave the Dunkin parking lot and enter the K-Mart parking lot. The sedan was filled to capacity, and there was a middle-aged man driving. At one point, I noticed that the man seemed to be recording with his phone. Whatever...

A short time later, it became obvious that the group in the sedan was following me but keeping their distance. At one point, they drove right past me looking really hard at me before circling back and following from a distance again.

Finally, I became fed up with their antics and stopped the truck. As soon as they got close, I got out of my truck to confront them and the guy sped off like a bat out of hell.

I stayed there quite a while after the mysterious black sedan family left, and no police showed up, so I don’t know what their deal was.

 

I have never observed a lava lamp while high, but I can kinda see why stoners love them so much...

 

Ouch!

 

The worst electrical shock I ever experienced was from doing something stupid. I had just finished rebuilding an aircraft magneto, while taking it over to bench test l started spinning the gear and enjoying the loud Snap, Snap, Snap sound of it sparking, well one of those sparks jumped into my hand and went up my arm, was terribly painful!

 

Here’s something random...

Back in 2003 or so, my grandma had cataract surgery on her eyes. She had to wear a patch on eye in question for 24 hours, while the other eye was obviously left uncovered. She had the other eye worked on a couple weeks later if I remember correctly.

If I was ever in any situation where I needed surgery on both eyes but I could have each eye done separately, I would opt to have both of them operated on at the same time and just deal with being blind for a day. In my opinion, one day of being unable to see and more than likely requiring help from my parents to find the bathroom is an attractive alternative to having to take two separate days off from work a few weeks apart. That way, both eyes would heal at the same time, and I would be back to normal in a matter of days.

Obviously, I’d be unable to watch TV or use my computer, so I’d probably just spend the day sleeping and request help from my mom as needed.

I actually remember telling a family member that I’d prefer to just be blind for a day instead of undergoing two separate surgeries, and being told that it is generally against various regulations to cover both eyes unless it is absolutely necessary for the health and safety of the patient.

However, the idea of having both eyes operated on at once and being blind ford a day is still far more appealing than having the surgeries separately and possibly weeks apart.