So, it’s been a long whiles since this olelongrooffan has contributed anything to my favorite blog on these here interwebs. So long so that the Chief Blooger even dropped me an old fashioned email asking if I was okay? Well, once the Big Brass get involved, you know it is time to get off your lazy *ss and do something. So if any of my fellow Hoons have a few minutes this fine Truck Thursday to read a long white beard kind of pseudo folksy post, this is it. If not, you may want to wait a bit and read through while enjoying a cold libation of your choice.

As my fellow Hoons may be able to make out, in the above image of my longerroof, it is covered in dust and tree leaves and this olelongrooffan hasn’t driven it in nearly three weeks. Why? Well making the jump would be required at this point in time.

So there this olelongrooffan was, living in toney Palm Beach, Florida, enjoying being my friend Kris’s wife and researching the ins and outs of opening an apps and tales wine bar in the area. We had decided on a storefront location and in between the time we made our decision and contacting the realtor in charge of leasing that space, said realtor had leased our space to someone else to, get this, open a wine and cheese bar with the very freakin’ same concept we had. The Bastadges.

Well, needless to say, that revelation took the wind out of our sails. We scouted around for an alternate location in the area and all of them were rejected for the same reasons we had rejected them originally. So, here this olelongrooffan was trying to figure out just what I would be doing the remainder of my livelong days aside from being a dutiful wife. As Kris was spending the majority of her nonwork related time at her new beau’s place, there wasn’t a whole heckuva lot for this olelongrooffan to do to pass the days on by and, quite frankly, I was getting a little bored. Incidentally, I have some Hooniverse swag to send to the first Hoon who identifies that car under the body cover parked behind the Rolls in the above image.

As luck would have it, one nite while Kris and I were out researching alternate wine bars in the area, we met and conversed with a gentleman, OldAJ, who owns a residential staircase installation company. We all talked into the late hours of the evening about our lives, our opportunities in life and, of course, wine. About a week after we had missed the opportunity on that wine bar location to a competitor, we ran into OldAJ at another wine bar in the area. We shared the facts about that missed opportunity and he asked what this olelongrooffan was going to do. I mentioned I would probably have to get a “real job” now. He, on the spot, offered me a position in his firm coordinating the installation of his stairways and stair railings.

Now even though this olelongrooffan has spent the bulk of my career in the new home construction industry, after being laid off some five years ago from a position in that industry, I doubted anyone would want to hire a 53 year old dude when there are so many recent college grads out there looking for employment as well. But not OldAJ. “I’m tired of training new people to do this job only to have them fail miserably, usually within a month.” Well we hammered out an agreement that evening on a proverbial cocktail napkin with my friend Kris doing a major part of the negotiations for me. OldAJ joked that he would have to have his attorney review this agreement prior to his accepting it.

Well, my fellow Hoons, this olelongrooffan showed up the following Tuesday morning as instructed and promptly settled into my new position as the Field Project Manager for Symmetrical Stair here in not so toney Boynton Beach, Florida. It has been just over four weeks since this event took place and this olelongrooffan is settling in nicely. I started off in a 30 foot hole with a 25 foot ladder and now I am merely ankle deep, but heads up, in that hole and all is well. And there are very few places in these here United States of America that the security guard at a gated community drives a freakin’ brand new Mercedes. Yeah, only in Naples, Florida.

So once an initial assessment was completed, this olelongrooffan realized what needed to be done to be successful and I am fortunate that OldAJ gave me the tools to be successful in this position, including the authority to coordinate the millwork production shop to produce to meet the schedules as provided to this olelongrooffan by my construction superintendents. I asked OldAJ once, and only once, if he minded if I did such coordination? His response? “It is refreshing to see you taking ownership of your position.” And the dude never calls me at all. That, in and of itself, is pretty da*n cool in this olelongrooffan’s book.  

So anyways, in addition to some desk time doing the coordination necessary to succeed, this olelongrooffan is getting in plenty of windshield time and, as a result, I gets to see me some pretty cool sh*t around the south and central Florida area in which my projects are located. H*ll, once in a while I even get to see something those Brown Car fans over on the book about your face might enjoy.

And my fellow Hoons, this is the sight looking to the west at the Florida Everglades from the Sawgrass Expressway down around the greater Sunrise/Fort Lauderdale area. If you have ever read a Carl Haissen book, this is the desolate Everglades he speaks of in those, at least to this olelongrooffan, thrilling novels he creates almost at will.

So, yeah, this dashboard jockey olelongrooffan gets to see a few sights around these here parts. And those sights would include this big ass bug splattered all over the windshield of my new to me daily driver. The sighting of that smashed up bug would be in addition to my getting my new ride over to the SunPass lane so I can cruise on through it at the recommended 25 MPH. HaHaHaHa. And that is all I have to say about that.

But, fortunately, in addition to those splattered to smitherens bugs, I also have the opportunity to see a bunch of pretty cool, at least to this olelongrooffan, carp out and about. And that would include this A Series Mercedes. While I have a blue diecast of one the same shade of blue as my longerroof, this is the first one of this I have ever seen in the flesh, so to speak.

And as I was capturing these images of this mini longroof while heading north on Old Dixie Highway, the driver of it looked over at me and flashed me a thumbs up and then, promptly, sped off into the distance.

So yeah, this olelongrooffan has a “real job” and, at least initially, it required a ton of 6am to 7pm days. However today I arrived home at 4 in the freakin’ afternoon with my schedule firmly in place.The millwork production crew is rocking…I have been told by all of the forepersons they are just happy they have a schedule to work toward….the installation crews are happy because all of the materials they need to complete their installs are shipped without omission and the construction superintendents are happy because the product they need to complete their homes is being installed on their schedule. And while all of this is super cool and a good reflection on this olelongrooffan, there is absolutely no way I could do it myself. From my coworker who prepares the paperwork for the installation of the stairs and rails the homeowner selects to the guys who cut the wood work out in the shop to the guy who delivers that product to the guys who do the actual installation, all is clicking like clock work. All this olelongrooffan does is just schedule this stuff and it seems to just fall together like someone was giving it some thought. And the smoke from all of the fires I have put out over the past few weeks seems to have just about cleared up.

But this olelongrooffan has only this to say about that. If the dude or dudette who owns the above shown home parks these in the driveway, what is in the garage?

But what the h*ll does this have to do with this olelongrooffan’s new xBox?

 Well my fellow Hoons, one of the perks of this job is the unlimited use of a company car. In my case that “some small car” as OldAJ called it is a 2006 Scion xB. This ole xBox has seen some better days. It has been through a whole dadgum bunch of project managers and has been treated like a red headed step child. There are dents and dings all over it. The doors shown above are from when one of the previous PMs ran a red light and got broadsided.

There are so many bug scratches on the hood that the paint is peeling right off. This situation has been rectified by this olelongrooffan with a rattle can paint job just waiting for the new bra to arrived via the bay that is e.

The day I took possession of my new xBox, the first thing this olelongrooffan did was head off to have all of its bodily fluids flushed and new shoes all around. Nine hundred bucks later it came back to me and drives like a charm.

Shortly thereafter, a visit to the detail shop was in the works. While it didn’t help any of the dents and their removal, at least my xBox is all clean and no longer smells like a barn inside. Our delivery driver, who is in charge of logistics is in the process of locating a couple of driver’s side doors for this olelongrooffan.

And how the h*ll can you break off the rear wiper arm and the lever to open the rear hatch? I popped off the inside panel to release the rear hatch door so as to access the rear end of the cargo bay, limited though it may be. The Project Manager for the millwork division came out and mentioned that was the first time that hatch had been opened in at least a year. It just amazes me how dumb some people can be.

But this olelongrooffan does have this to say about that. Even though my new longroof xBox shows 205,000 miles on its clock, it still screams up and down the turnpikes and Eisenhour Highway System round these here parts. It can regularly cruise at 80 MPH and when I step on the go faster pedal, it kicks down and gear and promptly takes off. I sure didn’t expect this performance this little buggy gives based on its looks. But it is a Toyota after all even though it has a different name here.

And even though my 5:00 am mornings are no longer, it sure was a beautiful sight to see the sun rising over the Everglades last week as I returned home after spending the weekend with friends in Naples. Yeah, a sh*tty iPhone captured image but in person it was just gorgeous.

But don’t fret my fellow Hoons, this olelongrooffan plans on being around these here tubes a lot more often in the future. Gotta go for now though, I see smoke off in the distance.