At some point I want to elaborate on my experiences with sub-contractors as a way of illustrating why you need to be very careful about letting bits and pieces of your car out of sight. But this post is just for fun. I don't believe in curses in the paranormal sense. But I do believe in coincidences--that might look like a curse--if you were inclined to believe in them. They are seared in my memory because they always slowed down progress. It was only after the "coincidences" began to accumulate that I started to wonder about the curse thing.
After moving to Santa Fe, things seemed to be going much better, until . . . .
Part of the workshop is a cozy office where my wife, Toni, works. One cold, dark, snowy February day in 2011 she noticed a dusting of sheet rock fragments on the floor. I was out of town and no one had been in the shop for a few days. She looked up and to her horror realized that the ceiling had split open in a long, ragged crack. Toni didn't need a crystal ball to know that an indoor avalanche was on its way. I would like to have heard what she said to the builder over the phone. Whatever it was the response was immediate and dramatic. A framing crew was there the next morning, shoring up the ceiling and trying to determine what happened. The verdict was that the roof joists were 50% undersized. Collapse was imminent.
It could have been a lot worse. The builder stepped up. He said yes, mistakes were made. Now we're going to fix them. There will be no charge for the work. We will figure out how to move and store your cars. We will move everything out of the shop and into a container that we will deliver to your property. We will clean up afterward. We will make it right.
The solution was to install full-size joists next to the half-size ones. All we had to do was move the cars and everything somewhere else while they tore out the lights, wiring, sheet rock, and insulation to get to the joists. But what about the Alfatross? The builder came up with the perfect solution: with the 12 ft ceilings in the shop we could build a bomb-shelter, roll the Alfatross inside,and let the work go on around it!
It took quite a few weeks to do all this in the dead of winter, but in the end the shop came back together, the Alfatross emerged unscathed, and now our roof is 50% stonger than the engineering calls for.
Maybe I'll put a deck up there one day . . . .
- Ten years ago I paid $175 to have a specialty spring made. Not a big, impressive suspension spring but a tiny, intricate one that opens the louvers in front of the radiator. When I went to pick it up, the company was out of business.
- When I contacted the guy who was restoring the wheels to find out what was taking so long he said he had to go in for a hernia operation and would be out of action for a few months.
- A pattern maker who was supposed to cast a part for me sent it back because his foundry-man retired suddenly.
- The guy I sent the engine to for a rebuild was injured when his shop caught fire. Then he had the Alfatross engine for 8 years, always just about to start on it again. I was lucky to get it back at all.
- The mechanic who was inspecting the differential didn't come back to work one day and was never seen again.
After moving to Santa Fe, things seemed to be going much better, until . . . .
The Sky Is Falling!
As I mentioned in the very first post, the Alfatross's "final resting place" is a brand new, purpose-built, well-insluated, high-ceilinged, heated workshop in the mountains of New Mexico. It must have been quite a relief for the Alfatross, after spending years in the rain, snow, heat and humidity of South Texas, North Carolina, Michigan, the hold of a ship, and northern Italy to have at long last an appropriately safe and stable place to live. An so it was for about 18 months until . . . the Curse of the Alfatross returned!
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| The Alfatross during a period of outdoor storage in central Texas. |
It could have been a lot worse. The builder stepped up. He said yes, mistakes were made. Now we're going to fix them. There will be no charge for the work. We will figure out how to move and store your cars. We will move everything out of the shop and into a container that we will deliver to your property. We will clean up afterward. We will make it right.
The solution was to install full-size joists next to the half-size ones. All we had to do was move the cars and everything somewhere else while they tore out the lights, wiring, sheet rock, and insulation to get to the joists. But what about the Alfatross? The builder came up with the perfect solution: with the 12 ft ceilings in the shop we could build a bomb-shelter, roll the Alfatross inside,and let the work go on around it!
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| Only Toni's quick action averted Death From Above when the roof began to collapse under the weight of snow and ice in the winter of 2011. Everything had to be removed from the shop in order to replace the roof joists, insulation, wiring, sheet rock, and lighting. |
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| Everything except the Alfatross, that is. We built a strong house around it for protection and sealed it up inside the shop. |
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| . . . for a long winter's nap. |
It took quite a few weeks to do all this in the dead of winter, but in the end the shop came back together, the Alfatross emerged unscathed, and now our roof is 50% stonger than the engineering calls for.
Maybe I'll put a deck up there one day . . . .
