Date:         Fri, 2 Feb 2007 21:00:53 -0500
Reply-To:     Ronald Michaels <rbm1024@NETSCAPE.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ronald Michaels <rbm1024@NETSCAPE.NET>
Subject:      Essential Tools

Hi to all -


Tuesday morning I got a call from the tenant at one of my small country
rental houses.  No water!  I keep my complete tool kit (inch and metric) in
my 1978 Bus (Volkswagen content) and I drove up there.  After looking around
under the house I went over and looked in the pump house.  There is a place
to screw in two light bulbs for heat on cold nights (19F - Not cold by
Canadian Standards (international content)).  There were two of the new
screw in florescent tubes in place! (energy efficiency content)  I put in
two incandescent bulbs and while I was waiting for the pump to thaw out I
thought about the time I spilled 5 gallons of latex paint in the floor of my
bus at that same house.  I parked the bus with the side door side sloping
down and hosed out the entire floor to wash out the paint.

This got me to thinking about something I had read years ago.  Tom McCahill
was the auto test author for Popular Mechanics in the early 50's.  In one of
his auto test reports he said that he was in Datona and  had left a
convertible top down.  The car got rained on and the floorboards filled up
with water.  Tom moved the car over to a sandy place, took out his .45
revolver and shot a hole in each floorboard. (necessary tool content) The
water drained out.

The water pump thawed out and started up.  I got in my 78 Bus and drove
home. (trip report)

Ron