COOL TONIGHT WITH A CHANCE OF BUGS

Greetings! We're making some noticeable progress here in North Outlook, although some of yesterday's work may have to be done over again. As thousands of readers already know, I've updated my '79 El Camino with a fuel injected 350 V8, a 5-speed manual transmission, air conditioning and a repaint using an orange metallic found on an '04 Nissan 350Z. I prepared the small pieces of the car for paint and decided to paint them in my gravel driveway instead of traveling across town to use the family booth in Sunnyside. The parts included the headlight grille, both side mirrors, the gas door and the plastic insert for the dash. 

As you may be able to tell from the long shadows, it's late in the afternoon. I'd intended to do this task as soon as the cold morning gave way to the warm afternoon, but I had taken some time to help a friend with his windshield removal earlier and then soon after I had the pleasure of tending my two grandsons while all the other adults were away.

AN OBSERVATION ON RETIREMENT: 

Having retired somewhat young, I've learned some interesting things about the status. People seem to assume that because I'm retired: 

1. I must have a surplus of wealth
2. I have lots of free time and I'm available at all hours of the day
3. It's not important that I get to bed on time since all my mornings are open
4. The struggles and successes in my career have qualified me to be a babysitter

Readers: please don't assume that I'm not willing to babysit your children, or that I'm not willing to help as I'm able. Babies and young children delight me, it's just that I have a difficult time saying 'no' some of the time, those times when I really should be generating income.

Back to the paint job. Since it was late in the day I had to overcome two main obstacles. The first was the bugs. Bugs like to swarm in the late afternoon/early evening and they're attracted to shiny things like the clear coat on my mirror housings. The other is the dropping temperatures. In my case, the lowering temps were somewhat of a good thing because it slowed down the drying time on my clear coat. The longer it stays wet, the flatter it flows out to make a more reflective image. This image can actually be measured and the units of measure are called DOI, or Distinctness Of Image, referring to the reflected image in the finish coat. So, tonight I was able to determine the DOI immediately by looking at the distinctness of the dying bugs' image in my paint job. 

During the experience I knocked one of the wet mirror housings onto the gravel, and saw some dust or debris in the top of my headlight grille, so most of the pieces will have to be repainted today. I'll try it a little earlier in the afternoon when the bugs are still hovering over the cattle at the dairy to the south. If things go well, I could have all the painting done shortly after lunch. Unless I'm asked to babysit...

Doug