Happy Thanksgiving

[jhawk1000]

To the Americans celebrating Thanksgiving today I send my best wishes. To those not celebrating Thanksgiving, I also send my best wishes. We were going to go out of town today but my wife was not feeling well so we stayed home. With all the spare time not driving out of town, I decided to change brake pads on my 1980 Targa. I got out my jack stands, broke out the brand new jack pad, borrowed an industrial hydraulic jack and got busy getting the wheels off. I found, to my surprise, that on one of my former trips to the mechanic he had replaced pads all around and I did not need to change the pads. So, I did what any sane Porsche nut would do------I started thinking of things to do under the car. Well, I painted the calipers red with the approved caliper paint, then I decided to clean my wheels, inside and out and to polish those little crevices hidden by the lug nuts. I then noticed the fender wells were dirty and that the oil lines in the rear were a little greasy from a leak a long time ago which has been fixed. Off to Walmart for degreaser and other cleaning supplies. Fender wells clean, tires cleaned and shiny on both sides but not on the tread , oil lines de-greased and shiny, transmission gleaming with no grease or oil, transmission checked, wheels soon to go back on car, jack stands out, jack down, jack pads out and covers in and it will not stop any better (it was doing great before my abortive pad change) but it will look better.

Surprisingly, everyone should get under their Porsche once in a while. I had forgotten how it all went together but I certainly have more confidence in doing much of the maintenance myself after a few minutes on my crawler.

Hands dirty, paint all over my hands, spots of red on the drive (this was pointed out by wife) but I feel good and that is what counts. No dinner yet, heck I even forgot lunch but it was a day to be thankful for.

Tomorrow we will have our formal Thanksgiving dinner and will have a young man from Germany who was my foreign exchange student and now has just graduated from a local Law School and has just started his law career locally, a young man from Australia who has been a frequent diner at our home from the days he played soccer with the German lad. My two daughters will be here, a serviceman who is alone here, his lady friend, a brand new young lawyer who works with the German, his significant other and his daughter, a couple of friends of one of my daughters and a young lady who just wants to come to be with a family. There will be others also but we just do not know yet who all will be here. Sharing is what it is all about and I might even let them touch the two Porsches.

As said before, happy day of Thanksgiving wherever you are.

Mel

[Zeke]

Nice story. Happy Tday to you as well.

Like your wife, I'm down with the flu. But, I'm sure that I'll be back out under the car like you in a day of two.

And happy Thanksgiving to all Pelicans and thier families. We all have a LOT to be thankful for.

[bigrubberjeep]

Happy Thanksgiving.

[FredC]

All the best and Happy Thanksgiving from the great white north!!