This isn't about riding. It's about ingenuity. You never know when you might need some quirky idea to get you where you need to go or to fix something.
Years ago, I was out with some friends in a 1957 Chev Bel-Air. We had gone for a daytrip for lunch 3 hours away from home.
While we were in the restaurant having lunch, we noticed a drip under the car.
The gas tank had sprung a leak.
Well, back in those days, I used to chew gum. Not the "doesn't stick to dental work kind", but the real stuff that could pull out a filling.
Well, the guys were pondering what to do. I suggested plugging the hole with gum. Of course I got scoffed at, but everyone started chewing the gum I passed out. Once we got a big blob of chewed gum, the fellow I was with got under the car and plugged the hole in the gas tank with the gum.
That temporary fix, got us all the way home. The plug of gum lasted until the next day.
On another occasion, the same group of people and I had gone out in someone's dune buggy to go have some fun in an industrial area where everything was closed on the weekend.
While we were out bouncing and bumping around in the dirt lots, the engine stopped.
The guys took a look and found that the distributor cap was cracked. That meant it didn't have a tight fit to make the plugs fit tight. As they stood around wondering what to do, I pulled a tampon out of my bag. I suggested using the string to tie the around the distibutor cap.
So-o-o-o, we pulled the tampon apart and used the string...lo and behold, the cap fit tight again and the engine started and we were able to get home.
Fast forward to this past week. I fixed the antenna on my car. I'm sure I saw dr_bar
at my fix and then
.
Someone had snapped off the antenna. I couldn't get radio reception in a lot of places. Fixing the antenna properly would have meant taking the car into a mechanic due to the configuration.
So-o-o-o, as I was taking apart an old phone that no longer worked very well, I got this brilliant idea. Maybe the antenna from the phone would work on my car.
After I recycled the phone parts, I took the antenna (it still had a wire attached) and a roll of duct tape to my car.
I stuck the piece of wire into the small hole left by the snapped off antenna and then duct taped the phone antenna to the base of the car antenna.
I can now listen to my radio all over town again.
When I met up with dr_bar on Friday he looked at the duct tape and said, "You really need to fix your antenna. I'll help you."
I told him, "I already fixed it."
He looked at the duct tape and was about to say something when I told him what I had done.
He was
, and then was
.
He just couldn't believe that I had used the antenna from the old phone and that it actually worked.
Never underestimate the creative talents of a blonde.
