Do you know how hard it is to type with one finger bound up in bandages and Gorilla tape? I do. I’ve been doing it for the last week. I want to say that the injury was something gnarly in the shop, something that will sound absolutely badass while equally being that instantly cringe-worthy image in your head. Nah, sorry, it’s not that good of a story. The garden behind BangShift Mid-West has been loaded for bear with cucumbers from two plants and I decided that making pickles would be a good idea. I was so wrapped up in the process of making the brine right and getting the jars together that my dumb ass forgot how a mandolin slicer works up until my right ring finger and the cutting surface had a quick tryst. For about five minutes, it was sheer madness in the house: after one initial, very sharp expletive, I ran to the bathroom to see the damage as my sink started to look like a horror film scene. Happily, I will have my whole finger…just as soon as it heals itself back together from where the blade cut in between the nail and the fingertip surface, deep. Should be a couple of months before it’s fully gone and I just have one more scar to my name.
No, bleeding all over the house isn’t why I picked today’s song. One other thing of note happened, just in the last couple of hours: sitting in the shop, waiting for me to get to work, is a T-5 World Class transmission that is destined for the Rough Start Fox. I’ve been grinning like the cat with the feathers around it’s mouth all day long. The real reason I picked this song is it’s in the top ten of my driving music. Nothing more, pure selfishness, but getting that transmission out of the truck and cleaned up in front of the Mustang has invigorated me. It’s been hot and muggy for two weeks now, genuinely oppressive conditions, and I’ve done a little here and there and would come inside to cool off as soon as I started getting sweaty. But work needs to happen. This car needs to live. I need to be rowing gears in a featherweight Fox body that has gears, has guts, and has no true value besides it’s fun factor.
