Best Wife in the World

The best wife in the world is on the right. That's my look-alike on the left.

I know some of you guys might differ on me with this, so let me tell you what happened today. We have been working on getting a shipment of materials for the AM tower guy wires replacement project through customs. It was quite the comedy of errors, but today everything came together at last and we were ready to go.

Our truck was in the shop getting the undercoating beefed up. That was partly because the coating was wearing out and some rust was starting to show up. And it was partly because we have several hundred dollars worth of new parts under there which we want to protect. I got the truck back just in time to go up island to Hybur shipping and load up 3,300+ feet of 3/8″ galvanized steel cable. It was on one big spool and weighed in at over 900 pounds. Once the forklift loaded that in the truck and we tossed in the other bits and pieces of hardware, I headed toward the road. And here’s where I did a bonehead thing.

At least there's good airflow now.

I’d noticed that the forklift driver didn’t get the spool of cable all the way to the front of the truck bed. So I tapped the brakes to see if I could scooch it up ahead of the rear axle. Yup, it scooched all right. WHAM!!! Now I need a new back window on the truck as well as some bending, welding, and painting. There goes some more time and money we don’t have.

The whole window only filled a few inches in the shop vac.

What does that have to do with Mildred being the best wife in the world? Well, I called her on the way home and gave her the good news that I got the stuff – followed by the bad news of my knuckleheaded stunt. From her response, you’d have thought I was her little boy telling her I didn’t get the part I wanted in the school play — a tender “Awwww!” She didn’t seem to even come close to being as mad at me as I was.

Come-alongs -- one of the greatest inventions ever!

So, now I have that to deal with along with getting our passports sent off to Tegucigalpa tomorrow, picking up Jim and Karen Avella at the airport (the good part!), and finding someone to take all that hardware from Roatán to La Ceiba and then transfer it from one ship to another so it can get over to Utila. Before I can send off the hardware, I need to inspect it and then, somehow get it back on the truck. It was easy to get it off the truck with a come-along.  But I don’t think my crane has the reach or the lift capacity to put it back in there. It’s probably about time for me to come up with another invention. Inventing stuff is a big part of the fun of being here.

For more news from down here take a listen to the HRGS Update.

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