I have never been strong, as in able to lift hundreds of pounds over my head. I don’t think I am headstrong as in stubborn. I tend to be compliant—a people pleaser. But I am headstrong, as in working on heads. Before you get all excited about mental health—not that kind of head either.
Heads are a part of the internal (and external) reciprocating engines. I’m sure that definition glazed a few eyes. Think of the head as the cap above the pistons. (Cap, as in the Latin capite, meaning head)
Just before COVID got going, the right head gasket on my ’37 Ford pickup failed. I have taken heads off a flathead Ford before, but this one took forever. I worked on it, off and on, for a year and a half. Here I am, trying to lift it by hammering wedges. (I know the engine isn’t sanitary, but it is 84 years old.) The wedges brought it up about a zillionth of an inch at a time.
By doggedly working on it, the pickup is back on the road. It went to the gardening supply store and brought back a half yard of potting soil.
No sooner was the pickup running than the #7 intake valve on our motorhome failed. I diagnosed the problem instantly but had the fun of removing the head.
In this picture, it is important to note my vice-like grip on the bar as I lift the head out. My friend Donald is guiding it to a 2X4 we cleverly placed over the valley so we could rest and figure out our next step.
For those still reading, you may wonder why I work on such projects. It is like my writing. I am retired, and so I work on things until they are done. My first book, Members of the Cast, took six years. I wrote three other books during that time and worked on getting that head off my pickup.
Ruth and I aren’t in the poor house, and one reason is that I fix things. I am guessing that the motorhome problem would cost $3000+ to have repaired. I will do the job for less than $200, and it will be done the way I want it. It just takes time.
So, I am off to edit the second book in the Wolfskill trilogy. I could pay for editing, but I know myself. I would check everything, word for word, three or four times to make sure it was exactly the way I wanted it.
I’m a shade tree mechanic and a self-published author. On both counts, I am pretty good. Perhaps, about these things, I am headstrong.
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