Summer winds down

This summer has had some good trips, swimming and time for working on cars.  The Magnette project, the MGA coupe project and maintenance of the other cars and the ranch keep me busy.  It has seemed hot this summer, I thought the heat here would seem mild compared to the Dominican Republic, but it seems hotter. Good air conditioning in our apartment and the Temple helped while we were there.

This week Meg and I worked on non-functioning windows in the '96 Discovery, she will be taking it back to school  There are several weak links in Discos, but the internet gives great instructions on how to deal with most of them. We replaced two broken regulator castors, and re-soldered the ECU to get the rear window some power. All four work for now.

We had a tree overrun by a climatus vine, we had them both removed yesterday. It opened up the kitchen and upstairs window very well.

Friday night we celebrated Meg's birthday at a Japanese steakhouse, Kyota. It was very good, and re-kindled memories of many past birthday dinners in Ft. Myers. After dinner we watched the sun go down, enjoying the many animals and there sounds.

Liz, Morgan, Cindy and Meg

The Iverson's 

Sunset

Wicked Spooky, the barn cat.

The holy grail, or a big Healey

I like working on and driving my MGs, they are simple, relatively cheap and too slow for most tickets. Usually they are all I want. There is one car that skulks about in my thoughts though, off and on for many years, and that is the siren "Big Healey".   This is a more expensive car, bigger engine, with,  reportedly, snooty owners.  A six cylinder engine, usually with overdrive, makes faster cruising a breeze, at least I am told so.  I have never ridden in or driven one.

A few weeks ago my Magnette message email list informed me that a Healey Mk II 3000 was for sale in Calgary, a 1963 with roll-up windows. I have had enough of no real windows in my MGA roadster.  The price seemed reasonable, we sent emails back and forth, when I called the owner was a bit forgetful, vague on some details, and the pictures sent weren't very good.  The problem, however, was I rationalized past all the warnings and started to bond with the Healey.  I decided to go to Calgary and buy it.

Calgary is about 16 hours from Eagle, over some beautiful roads.  Cindy went with me and we decided to visit Aunt Beulah Jackson in Edmonton, she is my dad's sister. We took the Suburban and had a good trip, though a long day to Calgary on Monday.  We went along BC #3 through Fernie, unfortunately the McDermids were away from home. Tuesday we went for lunch in Edmonton, about three hours more to the north.  Gordon Jackson and Beulah were fine, we had a good time talking.

Tuesday evening we went to look at the car.  It is hard to describe my unease, Cindy added to it, as she did not think much of the car's aesthetics.  The paint was tired as were some of the interior panels.  It started to rain as we were looking, so I only started the engine and drove into the garage.  The engine sounded good, oil pressure good.  I was simply uneasy, with an upset stomach.  So I backed out of the purchase.

We drove home through Glacier Park, the Road to the Sun.  We had a pleasant trip, long days coming and going but we don't mind that too much.

Glacier Park

Near east entrance to Glacier at beginning of Road to the Sun.

Cardston, Alberta LDS Temple.  First outside the USA, and fifth temple overall.

I hope I never hear the Sirens calling me again.

Camping at Parma with Levi and Morgan

Last Friday Josh took off two hours early and we took the camper to Parma.  We don't get out enough and this turned out to be a good time.  We had time to swim (several times), ride in the boat, and fish.  We still need to learn how to catch the bass.  We even had time for some match games and Tenzie.

Cowboy hot dogs over the coals.

Morgan, Josh and Levi looking for matches.

Trusted camper nearly set up.

Morgan's blue gill was our only fish.