h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As a mechanic... pardon me... automobile technician, and ex-offroader, I find this article particularly enjoyable. I don't think most vehicle owners should be allowed (by law) to operate any tool more complicated than a Visa card.

Although i prefer the idea of PTO or hydraulic winches, I do have to admit the counter-arguement: They require the engine to be running. Not always a reasonable expectation after you are truely stuck and needing extraction.

Thank you for your kind comments!

Regrettably, I have seen far too many incidents when owners with bigger wallets than brains have been let loose with a winch. They are fine tools, but in the wrong hands they can be lethal.

Ex-offroader? How did you beat the bug?

Sadly, I did not decide to stop off-roading. It was decided for me. My 78 Bronco with 5 inch lift and 35 inch tires was traded in due to family concerns. I could only afford the one vehicle and my wife felt very, very nervous driving it. Scared to change lanes to the right. I sympathized. It was an interesting proceedure: Signal, shouldercheck (USELESS), wait... start drifting sloooooowly right, wait for honk from miata, Oh damn, took too long, missed my offramp. That, and requiring a stepladder to put our firstborn in the baby seat...

That vehicle was awesome. I bought it cheap with blue velour interior but coming apart. We kept the blue theme and (being very very poor) redecorated the interior with all the old blue jeans we could collect from friends and relatives. The dash was done in denim and frayed along the bottom like cutoff shorts. The seats were upholstered with the old Levis buttons holding down the material. When I had passengers they would comment "I remember those...". I hadn't realized how attatched people could get to blue jeans. They can associate a pair of them with a specific memory.

Anyway... good article. Thanks.

DDD - hope you're still subscribed to this

I ran accross this via the Infinite Improbability Drive - oh my. Lovely article. Beautifully written (and I admire the fact that you got those great footnotes through the PR and subbing process)

I had a little play with a Land Rover winch during my Army days. Nearly as much fun as playing with Tanks. And that's saying something.

Thanks Sho...

The footnotes weren't without their own set of problems, but thanks to a very understanding sub, we got finally got them through as I wanted them to be.

Glad you enjoyed it - I must try a few more Entries like that. I just goes to prove that not everything has to be written to a 'standard formula' as some would have us believe.

yes. More entries like this. I seem to remember you've done a few Land Rover things. I'll have to hunt them down.

And ask for more...

(I'll help you fight the footnote corner, too)

'...thanks to a very understanding sub...'

Who he?

Incidentally, I wrote an Entry with 20 footnotes once, so I'm clearly not averse to them. Just a case of getting them right, that's all

Superb entry DDD!

Just happend to wander by.

I know (or until now knew) nothing about the topic at all, but then that's the point isn't it! If you can write an entry that's informative and entertaining then people will enjoy learning something new...



Ugi

PS Don't know if there has been a change of heart over the footnotes issue, but I currently have an entry "pending" with 15!

DDD - are you still subscribed?
because you know... you could write an entry about installing a steel bathtub, couldn't you?

Have you been spying on me? The stuff about using the credit card for stuff for my Landrover, the claim to my wife that I just need to order another "little" part etc! - only figuring out the "story" *as* the courier turns up with it (hoping she'd be out when it arrived... it sometimes works!) the figuring out my maths/design isn't good enough to weld one up myself... wondering if that set of bolts in the back of my "workshop" (shed with a welder,compressor and boxes full of stuff in it) will do .... Uncanny!