"welcome to Krispie Kreme, and can you please turn your car off so i can hear you."

the old girl is getting tired. the current crisis with my '88 jeep comanche involves the exhaust system. the cherry bomb "muffler" doesn't do much muffling after the tailpipe fell off. but then again, that's not what cherry bombs are for. i've been meaning to put the pipe back on; i just haven't gotten to it. but for gawd's sake, when the noise interferes with donut purchases, it's time to get motivated.

i was gonna do it myself, but i needed either a torch or a compressor (for my cut-off wheel) to cut off the old pipe clamps. to use the compressor, i'd have to lay in the mud & snow at the garage on the farm. umm, no. to use the torches, i'd have to squeeze the truck into the depot and cross my fingers & hope the torches still had gas. after considering both crappy options, i took the easy route and went to cole muffler.

the guy at cole told me my exhaust system was total shit and needed to be replaced, as he shoved a huge estimate and a grubby bic pen into my face. he fully expected me to bend over and take it "in the tailpipe," however, i told him i don't need a new tailpipe; the old one just needs to be put back on. "it's rusted off, it won't work," he said. bullshit, i thought. he wasn't interested in trying, either. then he went out back and brought out a new pipe, which was nothing like the original. "if i want the pipe or not, this isn't the right one," i said. he replied with an exasperated "well it's the one it calls for," and a shrug of the shoulders. at that point i decided not to buy anything but a muffler from this guy, since he clearly doesn't know shit about customer service. telling me twice that it's the right part when it's clearly not, is not the way to get me to buy it. turns out they had the right one out back, but he was so stubborn, he couldn't be bothered to doublecheck himself. he can Suck It Easy. so i let him sell me a $10 muffler for $52.50, plus labor, and away i went. and it was oh-so quiet! tell me to shut my truck off now, donut-people!

back home at the depot (our garage, an ex-railroad depot) i was pleasantly surprised to find the torches indeed had gas and were in operating condition. this was good, since i ended up needing them for another reason other than for the clamp-torching that cole did for me. i had to cob job the damn connector to get the pipe on, but dammit, that old pipe is fine and works great.

who needs a new car? not me! hey, i just got a new muffler!


Motivation feels much different from what I imagined. I was expecting a light, energetic feeling. But it is more like being pinned under a burning couch. ~quote stolen from alex~

for a good time, click here. (just do it, you'll love it.) brought to by the minds that brought you the quizno's rodents. <--click that, too!


thanks to mark for the proofreading, as usual.