Morning coffee

[CobraJoe]

So sorry for your loss James, but it's nice that you and your son will be able to continue his dream.
Best of luck and keep us posted on the bow-tie.

[Fairlane62]

Thanks Joe.

[djfordmanjack]

Man this year is a drag...another rained out and windy and cold weekend coming up....already MAY starting ! it should be bright and 75 degrees.....the only thing I did with the 57 so far this year was pulling the big Lady cruiser across the property...not going to get many miles done like that.

[hiball3985]

I have the opposite, 95 yesterday and today. Did drive around town the past two weeks but no road trips 

[abe_lugo]

djfordmanjack - maybe set up a screen and projector on decent night and have a Drive in night???

I feel like 2 steps forward and 1 step back on my 57, I'll be test driving a couple things this weekend, just driveway and maybe around the block.

I still need to drop the shift arm selector on the C4 to change back to column shift, but I need to test other changes before doing that. I know that one is a tranny oil change/seal at the same time.

[Ecode70D]

 Günter
      You seem to be putting a lot of miles on that Lincoln pulling it around your place with that nice two tone beach wagon tow vehicle.
       Jay

[djfordmanjack]

Jake you are right. you could say I am having a car cruise each time I move the Lincoln around. Usually two cars following each other that closely is at a classic car cruise in the parking lot....hahaha, got my own private car cruise ! 

[RICH MUISE]

Morning coffee thread has been in a slump for a while. Time to perk it up.
Hey Guys, the first thing I want to bring back up again is the prostate issue Bill/FordBlueBlood talked about a while back. Last month I had a scare, and thanks to Bill's info that he had posted, I finally went to see a doctor. First time in about 17 years, and only the second time since 1964. Before I get into that issue, I've figured out I've been developing allergies I never had before, and apparently, a certain breed of dog is among the new allergies. We have two French Bulldogs and 4 others, but they are causing me issues. I've figured out a lot of my breathing issues lately are the alergies, not to play down my 60 years of smoking. Our live-in relative has alergies also, and her niece is a rep for a pharmaceutical company, and told Sherri she needed to try Clarentin D(SP?). She gave me a few of her pills to try. First morning after, I felt great, didn't wake up gasping for air (one of our Frenchies sleeps with us). I just felt "clear" if that makes any sense. Two days later I woke up and had to pee real bad, but I couldn't! A little dribble every five minutes or so, but I knew my bladder was full. I finally gave in and we went to the emergency room. Sure enough, I had a swollen prostate. The ultrasound confirmed my full bladder with an ultrasound reading of about 300. He told me to make an appointment with the urological center here locally, and gave me a prescription for Flomax. At my Urology doctor, I told them  I had been taking the Claritin D for a few days before the incident. That was the day after my emergency room visit, btw. After his exam, he agreed that Claritin D was probably the root cause.
My second prostate exam that day after the first, showed my prostate to be normal, and my ultrasound was at 45..........well below the 100 or less that they hope to see, so that was great in such a short period of time. Great relief (pun intended). They did a blood test, with a warning that they may have to redo it on my return visit because doing the blood test that soon after a prostate issue would almost always not show a clean result. My urine test showed clean. They called a few days later with the blood test results and told me everything looked normal except for a slightly elevated whatever it was they were looking for. They said that was pretty much normal for doing a blood test so soon after a prostate issue. I go back next week for a follow-up, but everything has been back to normal for a few weeks now, so I'm feeling good about my scare.
Anyways, since most of us are in the same age group, I just wanted to boost Bill's advice on getting a prostate exam and watch out for Claritin D if you have alergies.

[RICH MUISE]

Later, or tommorrow, I'll do some posting on the long trip I took in March, and some issues I've been resolving on the '57.

[mustang6984]

So...I gotta ask...does this mean yer kinda pissy? Or perhaps a bit of a pissant? You don't seem to be piss poor that's for sure! 

Oh there are so many more I could run with...but I'll leave some for others!    Glad you're okay though...that's a scare to be sure!!!

[RICH MUISE]

Funny. Reminds me of something I heard many years ago. Do you know what almost NO rich people own?

A pot to pee in. Kinda makes mute the old saying of being so poor ya don't have a pot to pee in.

[mustang6984]

Or...a window to throw it out of? 

[Ford Blue blood]

The blood test Rich is talking about is the level of Creatinine , one measure of kidney function.  The enlarged prostate causes urine to back up in the kidneys.  Normal levels are in the 1.5 - 2.0 range.  Many issues can cause a high reading, urine backing up into the kidneys is one of them.  My levels were 5.9, doctors start dialysis at 6.0.  My elevated levels were discovered at a normal VA doctors appointment, routine six month for us old buggers.  No symptoms other then leaking once in a while and frequent trips to the john. 

After living with a garden hose in little willey for eight months my kidneys returned to nearly what they were in the past.  When the kidneys returned to normal the doc decided that trying a router-rotor job was in order to see if my bladder would behave.  The other option was self cauterization for the rest  of my life.  I am happy to report things are working as they should and my levels have been 1.8 - 1.9 for the last two years.

So fellows, can't stress enough the need for routine doctor visits and labs.  Pay attention to your pee and how much.  Prostate issues are one of the most common health issues we have.

[RICH MUISE]

Well, my wife finally gave up on me looking for a "regular doctor", and made me some appointments. Next Monday I have my scheduled lab work for follow-up from last month, and Thursday A.M. I have an appointment with the Eurologist to discuss the results. My wife just informed me I have an appointment with a family doctor for a thorough exam. Oh well, at least I can (hopefully) look forward to telling my wife "I told you so".
OK..........now on to more interesting stuff.
My 3800-mile road trip in March from Amarillo to Florida: It started at the Fort Worth Goodguys show on a Friday. Rain was predicted for Saturday, and I was really anxious to head east, so I made the decision to not stay for Saturday. I did meet a 52-59 Hamb social club member there. From pics I saw on the Goodguys website, that may have been a mistake because there were probably twice the cars that were there on Friday. After spending about 4 hours getting past the Fort Worth/Dallas at rush hour, I made it to the Shreveport, Louisianna area. Man, that area sure has changed in the 20+ years since I was there last. I couldn't even find the small riverboat casinos where I wanted to walk around for a while. The next morning I headed down to Baton Rouge to visit with Lynn. I had totally forgotten he had previously told me he knew he'd be in town because he had planned on doing a car show. Yep, I was a day early, and when I called him, he was at the car show. He told me I was about an hour from his house and he'd meet me there. By the time my brain kicked in and thought about telling him I'd meet him after the show, I figured he had probably already left. As it turned out, I was coming in a different way than Lynn thought I would come, and drove thru the area where the show was..... I coulda met him there. I felt really bad I screwed up his car show day, particularly with the lack of show last year. Lynn was really gracious about it, but I still feel bad. Shortly before I got to Lynn's, I stopped at a rest area and noticed something hanging down from my car. It was my front driver's side shock. Lynn fixed it up for me at his house. I love the area he and his wife live in. Funny, when I pulled into the street he lives on, his next-door neighbor was working on his yard, saw my car, and pointed to Lynn's house, lol. As I said, a beautiful neighborhood right on a lake. Thanks again Lynn for fixin' my shock for me. He took me for a ride in his freakin' awesome car. Wow, that thing runs like a top. Really fast, sounds fantastic. He took mine for a spin, told me mine was more comfortable, and the steering was "not as touchy". We were comparing the Borgeson steering that he has to the rack and pinion I have. I think we both decided it would be great to have two '57's....one for economical comfy cruising like mine, and one for just plain fun like his. I forgot to take pics at his place, sorry.
The next stop (that early evening) was at James Potter's town (Christian Pass, Miss.). We met at a convenience store just off the highway and spent some great time just talking '57s and swapping stories. His car looks great. As with Lynn, it was great to meet another Forum member (he's the owner) after 11 years on the forum. BTW, before I got to James', I got stuck in another traffic jam trying to cross over a bay bridge on I10..........about 2 hours! urg. My car never got over 200, but I was glad I was able to use the switch I installed last year to turn my cooling fan on when anticipating a potential overheat problem.
Louisianna, btw, is like driving into another world once you pass over from Texas. Lots of lakes, Biyous, waterways. I really enjoyed the scenery. I was thru this area 20 years ago, and much has changed. As in Shrevesport, the areas I stopped at before and walked around were not to be found. The small casinos were now 20 story jobs with huge parking garages. I just kept going.
More later, but note my underlined stuff above, I'll tie it in later.

[RICH MUISE]

My trip cont: Somewhere on the Florida panhandle a lady followed me into a gas station to tell me I had a taillight out. That was my second issue with the car. No biggie, a ten-minute fix. I put in a new bulb, cleaned the connections and added some dielectric grease to the connections. No more problems with that. I took next to no pictures along the way, sorry Gunter. I will post a few that I took. Most of the pics I did take (being alone) were with and of the friends and relatives I was visiting. My next stop was in the Tampa area, a few days early, so my son was still working. I spent that night with him at my ex's house (she wasn't there), then left for Venice where my sister lives. My son followed me there the next day and we both spent the next 4 or 5 days at her house. They live in a big gated retirement community. Lots of joggers, dog walkers, and golf carts. I must have met 25 of their neighbors because my car was parked in their driveway in front of their house and that's where I went to smoke. Tons of people stopping to look and talk about the '57. They even had a hot rodder down the street with a Hemi-powered 34 Plymouth. Generally speaking, I was really disappointed in the number of classic cars on the streets anywhere in Florida. Heck, I think I saw more Bentleys and Rolls Royces than street rods. Just too much traffic and crazy drivers in general I think being the reason.
My son and I left my sisters and drove south to Naples where my best friend from since I was 10 lives. We were supposed to also meet with another friend from my growing-up neighborhood in Mass., but couldn't get ahold of her. My son Derrick, remembers going sailing with Rick on Cape Cod when he was 8 or 9. We drove back that night and on the way home I noticed my steering wheel was in a different position by about 10 degrees. At first I thought there was just more crown in the road than I thought. We checked the car when I got home as much as we could from the top.....steering joints, etc. Couldn't find anything. At some point my steering changed back to where it was. I should have found a garage to check the car out, but I didn't. Here are a few pics I took.