so we fiddled about with some lights, got Feargus up on the trolley jack, and the driver’s side wheel off. drum off, the inner looked and felt surprisingly smooth, so no machining required. given the sheet weight and thickness of the drum, i can’t see how it would ever wear…

bit of lay mechanic argument about the best way to go about it, and an adjustment later, i’m putting the wheel back on, and then up on the jack again for the other side. same drill, no major problem other than adjustment, but stumbling around of course Violet treads on the fluoro globe…

it seem a lot of men are happiest when they have a car to play with and a good-looking woman to show off in front of. they got out the multimeter and checked my generator, discussed why my battery wasn’t charging, and all in all had a great time while i fiddled about checking brake and clutch fluid levels, and sussed out my oil situation.

all in all, a great evening

yesterday Feargus got his first good run since i brought him home from Lismore – a 70k round trip out to the valley for a mate’s funeral. a sad day.

i was in a bit of a state that day, it’s been a hard time in my personal life, so i actually got on my hardtail and rode to the gym after my shower, straight past where Feargus should have been parked, and didn’t notice. it wasn’t until a client turned up for her massage and said “where’s your car?” that i twigged – and the panic started.

Millie and i went down to see if i had in fact actually driven my car home the night before as i had remembered…sure enough, it wasn’t parked down the street. next stop was the police station to report it missing. the police were very helpful, up to the point they could be, obviously. they took details, were sympathetic, and gave me an email address to send photos of Feargus to. i went home and started a post on Facebook, which my friends took up and virally posted from the Far South Coast to north of Brisbane and west to Casino/Lismore. the guys on OZBMX started a thread for me, Rotorburners spread the word manually, forum rules being that i couldn’t post Feargus there. i rang the two local car clubs, the local tilt tray operator who is a Morris nut, my mechanic, auto electrician, the panelbeater who’d helped me out with the windscreens the week before,  and had my  kids spreading the word through their friends and acquaintances.

that was Thursday. after that night out resulted in a lovely connection with a friend of a friend, i was woken by a phone call Friday morning from a police officer to say that Feargus had been found, reported by a “neighbour” two streets away – and this is where the story becomes very, very strange.

one of the local car clubs i had contacted had their monthly meeting two streets away from me on the Thursday night. Friday morning, Feargus was reported by a neighbour to the police, parked in that street. i hadn’t spoke to any of the neighbours to say that he was missing……

a few weeks beforehand, a vindictive, jealous, malicious and morally bankrupt ex of mine had had his head smacked in by an acquaintance of mine who is a panelbeater. apparently this ex had been renting the shed next door and had been up to his usual behaviours of passive-agressive bullying and overt troublemaking. result, after months of niggling, was a smack in the head, and the ex calling he police, pressing charges, etc. 

this panelbeater was the one i went to when i wanted to install new windscreen rubbers, so the ex had seen me working on Feargus at the shed next door to him. i also race in the same club as the ex’s girlfriend’s daughter. the girlfriend had spoken to me about my car so it was pretty obvious who owned it. the ex is involved with both of the local car clubs. the ex also has a dodgy friend who owns a tilt tray and lives a kilometre or two up the road from my house – so i have my suspicions.

anyway, Feargus was towed to the police holding yard and dusted for fingerprints. the only apparent damage was a bolt missing from the base of the steering column, which was a five minute replacement job. what became apparent a couple of days later was that most of the oil had also been drained. curiouser and curiouser….it still had the same amount of petrol in it, and the car was found locked up with everything i had left in there, still in there.

so here’s me, forever grateful for the good friends i have, who posted, re-posted, and sympathized, ranted, and worried with me. i really can’t point the finger, but to me this was a malicious prank designed to freak me out and cost me time and money without being a criminal act that the perpetuator could be charged for. but…Karma is a bitch, and the best revenge is success – so i’m doubly determined that Feargus and i will be at the Shannon’s show this coming October long weekend, just to rub it in to certain people….

after an epic 420k road trip that featured massive winds, heat, dust, sweat, freaking traffic!! Jet-puppy my dog, two hot women, a rattletrap fourby, a new exhaust fitting, a blueslip, several visits to the RTA, NRMA, and the local mechanic, several phone calls to the incredibly patient young guy who sold me the ute, several hundred (read: too many!) dollars in rego and insurance, lunch at Macca’s (yes i know, the ENEMY!!) but a chance to catch up with my dear friend…..a spluttery start (water in the fuel), leaking fuel (did my tank really overflow or is it something more serious?) fighting mismatched vintage cheesecutters on the front and light truck tyres in the rear that had me rolling about like a ship at sea, and a 218k drive home with no speedo or fuel gauge, dodging road trains and rain with a sticking clutch pedal, i’m now the proud owner of a 1958 Morris Minor trayback ute – which leaves me no excuses whatsoever for not hitting the trails on my Manik. i have no idea when we will be racing bmx again, our track needs a complete resurfacing….

sitting back that night,  i’m relaxing with a glass of white, said dog, and a mint copy of Roger Zelazny’s Dammnation Alley – and thinking could life possibly get any better?