Good Day

 Pretty good morning yesterday - went to Aldi to top off the pantry and the wine cellar, picked up the carb gasket, went to the library for a couple more books, came home and ordered tickets for Post Modern Jukebox on our anniversary. It won't be Hawaii, but it will be a buffet before the show, concert, nice hotel room and breakfast the following morning. It'll be nice to get out and spend a little time away from home with the old girl. Fifty-two years is definitely worth celebrating.

The gasket makes it look like I'll be able to modify the manifold on the jitney or make an adaptor that won't look out of place. I'll need to think it through a bit more yet, but it should be just what the doctor ordered. I took the studs out of the intake using the stud removing tool. I usually just use a pair of vise-grips, but since I have a tool, I figured I should probably dig it out and use it. I've had this thing probably 40 years and I doubt if I've used it more than a half dozen times. As it turned out, the studs weren't much more than finger tight.

I put the eye bolts on the trailer bulkhead sheets yesterday. A bit chilly on the fingers but otherwise it was a decent day to be outside, since the sun finally came out in the afternoon. Depending on the weather, I might try to get the sides bolted on today. They're calling for some snow the next few days after today, so it would be a good time.

The session at the gym went well Sunday. We worked on uppercuts, both throwing and defending against. Our boy who fought in Tulsa last year got tagged with several by his opponent in his last bout. We don't want that to happen again. Since I've been back in the gym, I've noticed the progress of the fighters has been stunted a bit, much of which was probably covid related along with the lack of coaching. 

Even though I'm back in the fold, we could still use another quality coach. We need some more people in the gym, as well. When we first opened up we were taking 10-12 fighters to the Gloves each year, all of which were in great shape. This year we're looking at maybe 6 or 7, four of which showed up Sunday morning for the extra session we've been running. Two of them are in good condition, one in fair condition, and one in lousy condition. One of the guys who didn't show works weekends, but he's there during the week all the time. He's in pretty fair condition and knows what he needs to do. One of the other fighters has a long drive and changed jobs. He met us in Indy when we went down there a couple of weeks ago and he looked terrible when sparring. I doubt if he'll be in any kind of shape for this year's Gloves. We need to get the boxers and the gym in better shape this year.

I'll be back in the shop later today, either working on the trailer sides or something on the jitney.