The first leg of the BOSS journey.

I actually know the exact date this story began.  It was July 4^th 2013, that’s right this year.  It was afternoon and all the family was gone except my dad so I decided to hang out with him all day.  It’s better than sleeping all day.  So anyways I went over there are we started up our usual conversations on the rangers how the cowboys are going to look this year and how Johnny football will do his second year in?   During these conversations the velocity channel was on T.V.  The Mecum auto auction was on and we paused long enough to watch a real BOSS 429 mustang sell for almost half a million dollars.  And by real I mean they showed the K.K. number on the door.  K.K. stood for Kar Kraft.  It was a shop in dearborne Mich.  where all the BOSS 429 mustangs were built.  It took this shop to do it because they pretty much had to liquefy the engine and then poor it under the hood.  But this sparked my dad’s interests.  He asked me what was the difference between the BOSS engine and the 429 SCJ engine was.  Well any mediocre ford man can answer that.  The first visible difference is the heads.  But I had to dig deeper.  There was no way that it was this easy.  Just put a set of original BOSS 9 heads on a 429 or 460 block.  Well of course it wasn’t that easy cause ford in all there infinite wisdom built this special block only for two years.  This block looking identical on the outside to the 385 series engine, was not.  It had a reinforced bottom end, a dry deck and also two oil holes cast into the block to oil the rocker shafts.  So I knew right off the bat that finding an original 69 or 70 BOSS 9 block was out of my hands.  Even if I did find one there was no way I could afford it without righting a contract that guaranteed, my first born child.  So I decided to research the heads maybe I can spend the money for a set of real BOSS heads and just modify an old 460 block.  Well after weeks of research this turned up as a major ball ache.  I mean you have to drill and tap the heads for an oil line that you have to tap into the block and blah blah blah.  So,   then I started searching for a set of aftermarket BOSS style heads.  What I stumbled upon was John Kaase Racing in Georgia.  This guy builds a set of heads that look identical to the BOSS heads in 69.  But he built them as a direct bolt on to a non-BOSS block.  The drain back holes match up to the ones he cast into the heads.  The valve train is oil by the push tubes not the rocker shaft.  You can use the original 460 head gasket and the original 460 push tubes.  Now you do have to by a BOSS intake and headers or exhaust manifolds.  So now the big shocker the price.  For a complete Kaase BOSS 9 top end is 7 grand.  Yea that sounds like a bunch but compared to finding an original BOSS 9 engine it is quite reasonable.  So I have started saving for the engine.  Now the next question you are 2 people that are reading this are wondering.  What is it going in?   Yea I could find a 69 mustang and build a knock off BOSS but why?  Why do what everyone else is doing?  So that’s right it is going in the 67 galaxie.  I want a shock factor at the car shows when they look at it and see a boss motor.  So this is the first leg in the journey of the BOSS.  

Agenda 21

For those of you that have never met me in person, at first sight you would think of me as some “hillbilly” or “redneck” with a rebel flag hanging in my garage.  I have news for you I don’t even have a garage so, ha.  But seriously, over the past couple of months I have been seeing ads for a thing called, Agenda 21.  At first glance it seems like a local bill trying to pass to keep you from walking your dog from 3 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, Sunday and Wednesday.  But, in one commercial that I saw for it, it was kind of disturbing what they said.  In the commercial (and I am paraphrasing), children are born with birth defects every day and we have to foot the bill, instead of spending the money on the unfortunate we need to spend the money one sustainable development.  This really puzzled me, at one point I thought it was an ad for a new political movement.  Then I thought, politicians may not have a soul but they do have a heart.  So then I started to do some more research on Agenda 21.  This took me a week to sit down and take notes and research every aspect in this and see if this was a good or bad idea.  I started with researching sustainable development.  What is this phrase? What does it mean? Well, to sum it up, sustanablists believe in global land control, global education and global population control.  Now, one out of these three I can agree with and that is education, we really don’t need a world of social jerk offs.  But global land control and population control?  Let’s start with land control.  For me I have a 3 acre lot outside of town, and with this land control idea,  it would be deemed that someone other than me would know how to use my land better than myself and really kick me out of where I live and make me move into some sort of city landscape close to work.  At least that is how I am taking it.  Who is to say what I can and can’t do with my property.  Now don’t be a smart ass and say “well you can’t have a meth lab”. Well no shit.  What I am saying is I paid for this and no one is going to come here and say well thanks for taking care of what you built it is ours now.  Now for my favorite, population control.  Are we going to resort back to the roman era in which if babies were seen unhealthy they were thrown over a cliff to die and call it “for the greater good”? Are we going to start going to families and say “well hey hey hey looks like you have 3 kids. That’s enough for you. Looks like it’s time to cut that nut sack off.”  How will this work? I mean, these people would hate the old school catholic family I come from.  There are enough of us to start a football team.  But never the less, this is really puzzling to me.  Why keep it a secret? Well here is why -“Participating in a UN advocated planning process would very likely bring out many of the conspiracy- fixated groups and individuals in our society… This segment of our society who fear ‘one-world government’ and a UN invasion of the United States through which our individual freedom would be stripped away would actively work to defeat any elected official who joined ‘the conspiracy’ by undertaking LA21. So we call our process something else, such as comprehensive planning, growth management or smart growth.” J. Gary Lawrence, advisor to President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development. If this guy is still around feel free to give him a call.  Now look there are good things to say about this plan.  They support recycling, green energy concepts and waste reduction (I guess that last one was kind of redundant).  But to say there will be one world government that will decide who gets what is well…. Stupid.  What else does Agenda 21 believe in? (Like it’s a real person) IT is also a belief that a few things that we hold sacred in this country are social injustices.  Private property is a social injustice, national sovereignty is a social injustice and universal health care is a social injustice. Say good bye to the affordable health care act.  Not the way I wanted to see it go.  In fact I would be in favor of the affordable health care act over agenda 21.  But this is not about the affordable health care act this is about Agenda 21.  Now with the point of private property being a social injustice, here is what they have to say -“Land…cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principle instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth, therefore contributes to social injustice.”From the report from the 1976 UN’s Habitat I Conference.  So yea that American dream of owning your own home and raising a family behind a white picket fence yea this drops a big ol steaming deuce on that.  Oh and if you are a working stiff just like me, this is what they have to say about you- “Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class – involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and work air conditioning, and suburban housing are not sustainable.” Maurice Strong, Secretary General of the UN’s Earth Summit, 1992. So say goodbye to air conditioning,  I mean we all want to sit around after work in the summer and baste in our own genital sweat right ? I don’t.  Shall I go on? I shall. Your individual rights like life liberty and the pursuit of happiness will be the last thing on their minds in Agenda 21.  What’s that you say? No it won’t. Well let’s just see.  Survey says! - “Individual rights will have to take a back seat to the collective.” Harvey Ruvin, Vice Chairman, ICLEI. The Wild lands Project. Feel free to call this guy too.  You are probably saying well they just can’t take everything away.  Well they want to. Your vacation spots, gone.  Ranchers and farmers your land cannot be used for what you purchased it for.  Hell you won’t even be able to have a garden in your back yard.  “But Darren no one has said this “really? -Ski runs, grazing of livestock, plowing of soil, building fences, industry, single family homes, paves and tarred roads, logging activities, dams and reservoirs, power line construction, and economic systems that fail to set proper value on the environment.” UN’s Biodiversity Assessment Report.  Now look I am all for the environment, green energy, alternative fuels etc.  I welcome it in fact, one day it may take the strain off of every Americans wallet.  I also want to be able to duck hunt and go camping without the fear of walking through a toxic waste dump on a federal grass land.  But somewhere along the way people have decided that we are not the majority to make these deacons.  We can make these choices on our own because we did not go to the right college or we did not go to college at all.  Now some of you that read this might say you will go along with it.  Let’s make one thing clear hear.  The people that came up with Agenda 21 think in the way of what is good for the gander is not good for the goose.  So they will be living in a big house by themselves with air conditioning and heat eating what they want when they want and so on and so on.  You need to take a look around.  It has already begun.  How many have noticed condos going up in the middle of town with retail on the bottom floor and housing on the second floor?  How many have noticed bike lanes going in everywhere.  Let me be clear I am not opposed to bicyclists.  But there main goal is to have a city where there is not car parking what so ever.  That’s just my opinion.  You are probably thinking what American idiot signed this?  Well it was not one, but two.  George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.  Yes sir democrat and republican if you want to call him that.  But let’s not get political, this is about your rights and the people that want to take them away at the U.N.  Their belief is that the United States should be on an even playing field with the rest of the world.  They believe the U.S. is the bully taking lunch money from kids in school.  Well if we are such a bad country then why does everyone want to come here?  Agenda 21 is not for the good of the people it is for the good of the few.  We have to do something now before we all fall into the proverbial snake pit.

Stop being a social jerk off.

Testing, testing, testing 123.  Just making sure this thing is on.  Now as many of you know I really don’t get to political at anything.  I have my views and I know that other people have theirs.  But this is how it is going to go.  Welcome to the next four years of your life.  Not four years of hell or any other regurgitated term you heard on MSNBC of FOX.  This is 4 years of what you make of it.  You can choose to go out and be happy and make the best of any situation or you can sit around a mope.  There will be no perfect president.  Now do not get me wrong I am in no way saying that I am in favor of the current president.  But I did not vote for him based on his name or his race or even just because of the letter D next to his name.  I did not vote for him because I don’t agree with his policies. 

This brings me to my next point, anyone of my friends after reading this decides to unfriend me.  Be my guest.  If a person cannot state his or her own opinion without someone getting butt hurt, that’s a sad day when your skin is now thicker than a piece tissue paper. 

What happened to this country?  I don’t ever remember a time of just when I was growing up that I was dependent on someone else, I mean besides my parents and even then I set out to prove a point at a young age that I could make it on my own, and I wanted to show my parents when it came time I was good to go to make my mark on the world.  Now a days we have jersey shore, 16 and pregnant and other BS shows that pretty much say “hey it’s ok to be a social jerk off”.  And also it seems to me that the nation has become a demographic in which it seems that if there are two white guys on a campaign ticket then it’s just not cool to vote for them.  When the hell did voting become “cool”? It’s not it’s a pain in my ass to stand in line with want to be Sean Hannitys and Chris Mathews.  I would much rather take a kick in the face from a golf shoe than have to do that every day.  But, most people are accustom to standing in line thanks to apple.  Sorry had to get a hipster shot in there. 

I was told a long time ago, believe half of what you see and nothing what you hear.  Has that good life lesson been pushed by the way side?  Have we become a society of people that just go along with everything we hear?  In my opinion just watching things over the past 11 years.  To be honest I really didn’t pay attention to all this when I was in school cause hey I had chicks and cars to worry about.  But back to my point over the past let’s say 11 years.  I, along with the rest of you, have witnessed an un speak able terrorist act to the American people.  I have seen an economic down turn that has not happened since my big paw paw lived in south Texas and drove his first car.  I have also witnessed the first African American to be elected to the presidency.  So to say that America is going to fail is just wrong.  America has come a long way in just a short time.  America is the only place where we have factory twin turbo half ton trucks getting 20 to 22 mpg.  America is the only place protesters can yell obsinities into a cops face and really have nothing done to them in the long run.  America is the only place where you can spill a hot cup of coffee on your leg and become a millionaire.  Wait maybe some parts of this country are going down but as a whole we are still better than any other country on the planet.  I mean for god sakes, we have Chuck Norris.  There will be people that come along in every lifetime trying to change America.  It will not work we will not stand for it.  It is in us to say well that is not working for me I will change that. 

So in the end of all this un organized rambling, start thinking for yourself.  Do not just regurgitate what you favorite media outlet has said.  Start thinking for your damn self.  You don’t need anyone telling you what will work for you. You know what will work for you.  Now welcome to the next four years how you decide to spend it is entirely up to you. 

CD sales

I am fixing to paraphrase this next quote, but Chuck Berry once said “ The record company sells my records for 35 cents a piece.  I make a half cent off of every record.  Where is the other 34 and a half cents going?”  Well after being around the music scene as little as I have, I can say I don’t know where it goes either.  But one thing I do know is I tunes hurts local bands in a small way.  Now I am not saying I tunes is the devil and you should boycott them.  I tunes is great and I use them to buy one or two songs instead of a whole album.  Or,  buy songs that are out of print.  But never the less I tunes does hurt local bands in a way.  Now what I am about to say does not speak for everyone or anyone I may be affiliated with.  But lets say you go see your local favorite band or a band that comes out of another town but you are still a big fan.  Over at their merch booth is their latest and greatest CD fresh off the digital press.  The merch man asks if you want to buy the new CD and you say “nah I will get it off of I tunes”.  Nine times out of ten the band will never see that money you pay for the album or the tracks that you buy.  You see most bands don’t take the time to go through the trouble of putting their songs on places like that.  They leave it up to the record company and if and when the record company decides to quit taking their share they will pass what is left down to the artists.  Now you have some bands that do set up their own songs and they receive all the money that is after the server gets their cut, but this is a far greater amount than if you were to let the record company do it for you.  You are probably asking by now, why don’t the bands just do it their selves?  Well do to contrary belief, not every band has a Ted Nugent style crew that takes care of every aspect and all the musician or musicians have to do is show up and play.  Most bands you see on the local level take care of their own business and loading their songs on the inter net for sale is the least of their worries.   They have to set up shows make sure certain people get paid, make show posters and write songs.   And next if you like to listen to music I mean really listen to music you will know that downloaded music is so digitally compressed that some of the accents that band may have put in there for your enjoyment well, it has been lost due to compression.   So next time if a merch guy asks you if you want to buy the new CD or even the older ones, keep all these factors in mind.   The sales at the show is on of the big pay offs to put gas in the tank and food on the table.   Now if I have gotten any of my facts wrong in this feel free to correct me after all this is just my take on the whole deal.  But remember the band cant sign your I pod after you buy the album and put it on there but they will be happy to sign the album you just purchased, they are happy to know you took a little bit of your heart earned money and spent it on them.  That in itself is a compliment to the band.

OFH

So in these day and times I try to steer clear of the news.  I really cant believe who is right and who is wrong anymore.  It seems you can get more true and funny statements from the urban dictionary than you can from the media.  But today at lunch my favorite Mexican food restaurant installed a T.V. since the last time I was there.  Well today CNN was running a story about Occupy Wall Street but OWS is now replaced with Occupy Foreclosed Homes OFH for short in this story.  They featured a woman that is now squatting in her house that was seized by the bank she had the mortgage with.  I cant help feel but somewhat not sorry at all.  Some of ya’ll that read that last sentence probably think that I do not have a soul but listen up.

First off this lady is mad at the bank for giving her an adjustable rate mortgage.  Well if you don’t know how one of these works but the simple jest of it is that when the market changes and interest rates go up so that means you interest rates will go up or down depending on the market.  Well with this you have to be able to keep up with these changes monetarily.  Now that being said if this is the only option she had she should have not taken the offer.  It is not the banks obligation to make sure you can keep up with the interest changes.  But on another note it is also a banks job to make sure you can sustain the payment. But, with those two things being said , you should know something is up when you make 40,000 a year and they give you money for a 200,000 house.

Then she went on to say how the government helped her get this house with a mortgage assistance program.  Now I love America, this is the greatest country on earth hands down.  But , if the government came to me and said “have we got a deal for you”.  I would probably run away screaming because I do not trust the government enough to let them talk me into a 30 year loan.  While I hate to see people lose their homes I do feel sorry for them but I do not think this gives them the right to just take it back and get something for nothing.  The rest of us that own homes and pay for them and sometimes we struggle but we make the payments.  A friend of mine(shall remain nameless) he lost his house because of an ARM mortgage.  Did he squat in it? No, he did not.  He got his stuff out and rented a house.  Granted he regrets it because the look on his wife’s face was enough to make him want to cry but he sucked it up did the right thing and put a roof over his families head.

Today it seems like everyone wants something for nothing.  These are the same people that think just cause a guy drives by in a nice vehicle that he has to much and they should give some to them.  These are the also the same people that think everyone should get a first place trophy there should be no competition.  I have news for these people there is always been and always will be competition in everyday life.

Time Stood Still

I want to tell you about a town that is not well know in America.  You will probably never hear about it on the news having a top ten crime rate in America.  You will probably never hear of this town being in some political scandal.  It because time stood still in this town.  The town I am talking about is Alton Illinois.

I stepped off the plane at Saint Louis international airport,  I was surrounded by cell phones, blue tooths and I pads.  Every modern convieance in life we have learned not to live with out was engulfing me like some digital age army.  I have become use to technology and all it helps out with.  I was greeted by my aunt Cyndi (hope I spelled that right, she will be reading this) and my aunt Lori with a crudely written sign that reads “Reverend Darren”.  It made me laugh and let me know how goofy my family is and where I get it from.  Well we went through the airport and out to the garage to get in the car.  As we drove out I caught a glimpse of all the big named chain stores such as star bucks great clips and every cell phone company known to man.  Well we drove away from all this talking and catching up and then we came upon the new Louis and Clark bridge (nova did a documentary on this bridge).  Pretty much a good majority of my family and I think the town of Alton worked on this bridge.  It is an amazing bridge the way it is designed.  With that being said this is the most modern looking thing in this whole town.  We crossed the mighty Mississippi and we are in Alton. At fist glance,  you see the town and wonder, where is sheriff Taylor?  Yes ladies and gents it is exactly like this.  I don’t think I saw one single chain store that the rest of America cant seem to live without.  The grain towers have a huge “Welcome to Alton” logo painted on it with an American flag.  City hall looks like something strait out of the 40’s.

I spent the second day of my trip just wondering around this little Mid-America town.  We drove over to old side of town and checked out all the turn of the century mansions.  One of these my brother and sister in law were actually staying in.  They did not tare these house down to make way for strip malls with star bucks or over priced “what is in style” clothe boutiques.  No they kept them in the family or other people bought them fixed them up and ether lived in them or turned them into hotels.  From there we drove down through the neighborhood that my aunt lives in and all these houses look like they were straight out of  leave is to beaver land.  I was waiting on the beave to ride by on his bike and toss out the daily news paper.  Then we saw the old steal mill that was shut down due to reasons that are un known to me.

All in all I was in awe by how this town seemed like it was frozen in time.  Everyone knows everyone, they still mostly go to St. Mary’s or the First Presbyterian church on Sunday.  They still wave when you drive past and they say hello to you even if they don’t know you.  None of the bars are over priced with the velvet rope V.I.P affliction shirt wearin crowd.  No it is just your neighbor hood bar that is just a fun place to drop money in the juke box and hang out with your friends.  It seems that in these day and times everyone is scared of everyone.  Its all about yourself and not helping anyone around you.  I cant blame people for being like this in some of the towns they live in.  But I wish sometimes that America was like this little town that most people don’t know about but with of course the digital era twist.  If you get a chance and you are up that way stop in and visit lil ol Alton and have bite over at Fast Eddy’s .  it’s a great place to be.

Mighty 390 update

Well, back on memorial day weekend I aquired a 390 to start project mighty 390.  I figured I would give yall an update on what s going on.  Some of you may have been wondering and some of yall may not care either way you are getting an update.   So last night on the way home I was feeling like crap but,  I needed to get down to Mills Hot Rods and see what I had got myself into.  When I first pulled the valve covers the absence of burnt or  old motor oil was a big relief.  But , the previous owner had use a heavy paraffin based oil so this was coated on the rocker arm shafts but no big deal, my sure shot and some mineral spirits will clean that right up.  Now on to the intake manifold.  Anyone that is reading this that has ever pulled an intake on an FE knows that they almost need the engine hoist just to take this part off.  So got the intake off and no broke lifters, yippee.  Man at this point I am extactic,  I got this engine for nothing and it is looking promising to this point.  Lets pull the heads shall we?  Well this is always the part that scares me on an engine.  You never know what is going to be inside there other than a piston.  Pulled the right bank and no water but .030 over pistons that look good with good crass hatching in the cylinders.  Right head same way.  Well we decided to stop there at the end because I wanted to let the oil drain all night before I pulled the pan off.  Lets just hope that the rod and main journals on the crank don’t look like the top of a 2X4.