Another ijit sighting

Across the back alley and down a few houses there is a guy who builds custom racing transmissions and belongs to a classic car club.  Last year I came home to a flyer in my mailbox (the one that says quite clearly NO FLYERS) that was advertising a block party.  Ok, that one I would accept but when the day dawned the weather was SO snotty that I didn't end up going.  This year, I was anxiously awaiting the flyer that didn't come.  Saturday I had company over (ok, Chris, we've become pretty good friends) that had seen, and ridden in one of the classics.  While I was in the house retrieving a beer he heard the car pass in the alley.  Running to open the garage door and have a peek at where it had disappeared to, he discovered that it was parked down the alley.  He made me go have a peek at it when I saw a '67 Camaro rag-top that I had been in love with when I was pumping gas in high school (ok, not the exact one, but very similar).  After some urging, I convinced him that we should have a wander down there and talk to these old guys about their cars. Kinda like people with dogs, old guys with classic cars are ready to talk about their cars.  What we discovered when we went down there was that the cassic car block party was on, 'help yourself to a beer'.  We wandered around and took some pictures of the cars, had a beer and left.  One of the cars was a racing Dart that had been hauled in on a trailer and the guy that owned it would start it up every hour or so, give it a rev and then shut it down.  Seems like a good time was had by all.  A few pics and then I'll get to the ijit sighting.  Pre-apologies for the qualities of the pics, I let the apprentice run the camera.

 The sight as we walked down the alley.  How cool is that?

Not the girl I had remembered from pumping gas, but a work in progress.

 The car that Chris rode in.

A wonderful old Fairlane.

 An old VW van.  Take THAT to the drive-in.  All it needs is dingle-balls.

 A rest stop built by someone with a Jeep.  Oh nice.  Needs a tent though.

What old guy doesn't like a gal interested in cars?

 Don't have a clue what to say about this one.

Newer models accepted.

 The Fairlane again.

Apparently dogs accepted.  Mine would have had this one for a snack.

For some reason we have a shot of the Dart's motor cowling.

This old guy lives across the the alley from the offending garage.

This show extends to bikes too.

Not knowing what beed of beast this is.  Maybe a Triumph?

And the belle of the ball.

A mini dragster.

 Chris getting 'friendly' with the Chevelle.  I had to remind him that a whole lot o' classic car guys do not appreciate hands on the car.  454, and I guess he must have cuddled it just right; he won one of the best door prizes of the evening, a winter jacket that will be put to good use.

  













The next day around 11, a trailer showed up to pick up the dragster.  When the trailer went past the back, it broke a branch off the very HUGE poplar tree in the neighbor's yard and broke it off.  Well, said neghbor went out and broke off the offending branch.  He surveyed the damage and looked at what he had left and decided to cut more offending branches off and proceeded to get his extension ladder and chain saw out.  Not a problem so far.  Except that he neglected to tie either himself or the ladder off.  Safety says, tie yourself off to the tree and also tie the ladder off to the tree.  Neither was happening here and all I could do was watch in fascination.  Hero dude was basically at the top of the ladder running the chainsaw with one hand and ended up cutting off a branch that was about 6" or 8" across the butt.  When he cut it off, it decided to hit the ground and come back and hit him back.  Well, he came off that ladder like he was shot from a rocket, the father unit was hollering, and the wife came out of the house with a dishtowel that he promptly placed over his face.  Haven't seen him since, but I think we heave a nasal reconstruction going on here.