The plan

[El Camexican]

What the heck are you guys doing with your screwdrivers??!!

[Scootertrash]

I thought it was called wreNching, not wretching.....how screwy is that?

I'll be looking into the Wiha brand.

[fabiodriven]

Today has been tricky. I realized today what a tool enthusiast I am. Not just the band, but actual tools themselves. I've always been fond of tools obviously, most of us are, but I always forget how much I have. Today I started going through my tools in order to decide which tools will come with me when I leave here for good and which tools will go to storage. It's like trying to pick a favorite child and having to ship another one away. I have been holding and really looking at each one to decide which to put aside, and I have started to realize just how much I love tools. When I first began, I got to the fourth drawer before I had to start over again. All four of those drawers I decided "I can keep all these." In reality, I cannot, so I had to go back and force myself to thin out those drawers. I'm not posting these to try and show off, I could have done that years ago if I'd have wanted to, but rather to share to those who might be enthusiasts and can appreciate what is here. It may be some time before all of these tools are together again so I figured I'd take some pictures. The first to get plucked out are those from China or Taiwan, followed by Japanese, the American tools. A really good portion of everything is American made and very high quality.

These three drawers hold my pliers, channel locks, linesmen, etc... They were difficult to open and close before thinning.



This was my 1/2" drawer before making cuts.



Weird plier drawer.



3/4" and 1" drive drawer. A lot of this is Snap-on.



Seven different styles of 3/8" Craftsman ratchets with doubles of most of these.



I have this ratchet in 1/4" and 1/2", both like new. I've never used them. They're really interesting and super light weight.



Six torque wrenches.



I love this torque wrench. It's made in Attleboro, MA, under an hour from me. It's cool as frig.





Plenty of compression gauges.



This one is my favorite.



I thought this was cool. The whole time I've had it I thought it was just another "push in" style compression gauge with the rubber grommet that seals the spark plug hole. That is not what it is. It's an RPM gauge that has a little wheel on the back side. I was thinking though, wouldn't the RPM of whatever it is you're measuring change depending on diameter?





Brake tools, tire spoons, swedges, before thinning. This drawer will lose a lot of weight. A huge number of the tools in this drawer are drum brake and spring tools. I would never need this many drum brake tools.







I was able to combine the 3/8" and 1/4" drawers into just one drawer, so that made a lot of space. First is the before picture of just the 3/8" stuff-



This is after removing a bunch of 3/8" stuff and adding the 1/4"-



I ended up shedding at least 150 lbs of tools from this box today. I'm not done with it yet and I didn't take pictures of everything I did today, this is just some. All of these will be going into storage.



Thanks for looking!

[sledcrazyinCT]

Quite the accumulation of tools! Where are all the 1/4 and 3/8 sockets hanging out

[fabiodriven]

I haven't gotten to sockets yet. Judging by the amount of ratchets and extensions I have you would think I'd have a lot more sockets than I do. I bought some really nice racks for sockets which then made me realize how few metric sockets I have. Honestly most of these ratchets rarely get used because I've had the same plastic case Craftsman four drawer set since high school that I use for just about everything. It has 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" in both metric and standard and can handle just about every job.

[86T3]

My brother has that exact rpm gauge, he uses it on his welders. Rpm will be the same no matter the diameter, if you want to visualize it, the next time youre changing a tire draw a line from the center of your hub to the outside of the wheel and spin it. The line very outside and inside of the line will complete a revolution at the same time

[Dirtcrasher]

I knew you got the best toolbox!! That dude and his tools,

All those brake tools! Is that a 4" exhaust spreader??

Great scores. It's no 250R in a crate but I was happy.....

[El Camexican]

Holy carp Dude, you've got quite the collection there!!! Amazing what the investment to be able to work on trucks and cars is in comparison to bikes and trikes. Your ratchets and extensions alone probably weigh more than all my tools combined and I don't want for much when working on bikes.

[fabiodriven]

I knew you got the best toolbox!! That dude and his tools,

All those brake tools! Is that a 4" exhaust spreader??

Great scores. It's no 250R in a crate but I was happy.....

That tool sale was a once in lifetime thing. These days that would have been plastered all over Facebook and we wouldn't have been able to get in there. There was no way I could pass up that box (loaded to the gills, top and bottom).

About two years ago I acquired a second loaded rollaway for chump change, just a bottom. Probably 1/3rd the tools that came in the first loaded top and bottom, so the collection grew significantly then. I added a top to the second rollaway so now I have two full rollers. The second roller just happened to be the twin to the first one too, lol!

[fabiodriven]

It is this evening I reach you from the state of Hawaii where I arrived almost three days ago for my first trip here ever. My father lives here and he's been trying to get me to visit for years. Almost a month ago my father called me and offered to fly me out, an offer that was difficult to refuse even though for some reason I had the feeling I should have. I was in very good health (for me) when he asked me to come, but I was hesitant to say yes for reasons I wasn't even sure of at the time. I agreed to go and I booked my trip, more for my father than for myself.

A few days before I departed Boston I began to get sick. Due to my past with Lyme disease, a mere headache or case of the sniffles is enough to make me nervous about what I may be in for. Knowing I had this trip coming made me extremely concerned when I began to feel under the weather.

Not long before the flight I had pinpointed who it was I had gotten sick from and where he was a couple of days ahead of me with his sniffles I inquired as to how he was feeling. He was on the mend and it was no big deal. Sounded good to me and that did put my mind at ease somewhat, however the worry in the back of my mind was not going to just roll over and die. I went through with the flight and boarded the airplane in the wee hours of Wednesday morning after a sleepless night Tuesday. I was fortunate enough to procure my own row of seats on the plane and was able to stretch out for some plane rest, which isn't sleep. On the second flight I wasn't able to sleep a wink.

Upon my arrival to paradise I was obviously very tired, but not terribly hungry. Loss of appetite started days before I departed Boston and is bad news for a toothpick like me. No biggie I thought though, it's likely just jet lag. I had some terrible jet lag upon my arrival to Thailand last year that left me sick for three days and seriously considering whether or not it had been a good idea for me to undertake such a endeavor, however at some point I finally collapsed for an entire day to appease the jet lag and repay the hardest debt you will ever have to pay, and that's sleep debt. I mean a day, like close to 24 hours in bed. After that rest I was right as rain and that's when I was finally able to get up and out and celebrate the health I had at that time, and what a magical experience that ended up being in the end.

As I write this now, it is Friday night here. I've yet to truly sleep since Monday. Very few people can say they know how it feels to go that long without sleep, and anyone who cannot relate should consider themselves to have at least something going for them. I've laid here with my eyes closed and dozed off into a somewhat subconscious state that would appear to look like sleep as viewed from the outside looking in, however my eyes will pop open in the middle of the night and it's as if I'd not gotten a second of rest. Then the cycle begins all over again.

Years of operating with a failing top end has taught me that I must listen to the universe and follow the paths suggested me. I'm not able to bulldoze through life and do what others do. I'm not able to exist as others do and push through work every day and then party all weekend. Work would kill me and I'm unable to socialize and unhealthy enough that drinking a lot is a big risk for me, or at the very least a heavy price to pay for the next two days.

I arrived in Hawaii to weather that my father described as "incredibly uncommon". Our final approach on the plane was from the opposite direction as what's normal in Hawaii because the trade winds were blowing the opposite direction as they usually do when I arrived. I tried to ignore that fact.

The following day we decided to go to the other side of Maui because that side is always sunny, always. My father lives on the rainy side of the island but it's a short trip to the other side for sun and beaches. Everyone here knows that, that's how Maui works. My father was once again taking note of how strangely uncommon this weather pattern was, and I was doing my best not to take note. Kind of tough to overlook though. Eventually we did find the sun, but it was only at the very tip of the island, far further away than it ever is usually. Even then we were still getting sprinkles. If you're not yet catching on, I brought all this with me, this is all because of me.

My appetite was still null and void but I know enough to force feed myself. You want to talk about miserable, try cramming food down your throat when you don't feel like eating at all. It gets worse when there's an audience around, as that adds to the anxiety. Then you get people asking why you're not eating, passing their food over to you trying to help, it's not fun. Americans have zero concept of what it's like to have no appetite, you portly folks you.

After lunch I had a brief moment of relief when the clouds lifted for some reason (figurative clouds, not literal), and I felt I was going to be OK. That was fleeting.

This morning we drove up to the top of the volcano on the most amazing mountain road you could ever imagine, beyond beautiful. Some of the most amazing stuff you could ever hope to see. Unfortunately my eyes could see where I was but my mind wasn't able to appreciate it. I couldn't even tell you the name of the volcano, as awesome of a journey as that was. I felt awful all day and couldn't even enter the visitor's center due to my inability to be around people. My head hurt and I was tired even though I can't sleep, I'm like a zombie. I go through the motions and act the part, many wouldn't even know there's something wrong with me. I know what I used to take joy from in life and I do those things, however the feeling of joy has eluded my heart for three and a half years, which actually began before I ever contracted Lyme. The Lyme only served to cement those awful feelings into a rather permanent state of mind for me, so basically if you've seen me happy you've seen me attempting to fake it 'til I make it. Unfortunately (a word we'll be using quite frequently in this particular post), I'm tired of faking it. I don't think I can do it much longer. I don't expect I'll feel true joy again. My heart is without love, something which unfortunately seems to be some kind of requirement for this being, as someone took it from me a long time ago and I'm not quite sure what that person did with it. I do know they didn't return it. I fear that follie may follow them through this life and into the next, but I really shouldn't be concerned for how they're going to answer for that one, not my problem. This is my problem however, this is something that has to be dealt with by me. I'm running low on solutions though and I am not getting any younger.

Silly me thought maybe I'd run into an interesting person of the opposite sex here, and I actually had very high hopes about that prior to my departure for the island if you can believe that. I've been working out quite steadily for at least three months, so I started two months before I even knew I was coming here. I figured I had a shot. Well what I hadn't taken into account was the amount of jacked surfers with flowing Swatland locks this island is capable of supporting. It's like a whole island of Swatlands, and here I am skinny, balding, and with a big goofy nose. They're the friggin Fabios, not me. So we can scratch women off the list for this trip. I can be so silly, I don't know what I was thinking.

It's 11:05 pm here as I type this, and this morning I left my bed before 8. My "sleep" was not sleep, and as such I was miserable and yawning all day long. I couldn't wait to get home and sleep. I immediately retired to my bedroom at 4:30 in the afternoon and laid there with my eyes closed for hours without a wink of sleep, even though I was so tired that I was dizzy all day. Once again, sleep eluded me. I decided to take up position and meditate for a while. It's OK if you guys want to laugh at this, but I am a "lightworker". It seems odd, yes, and nothing I did on purpose nor studied for. If you're curious what that means check it out. I've been told by two separate people who are completely unaware of each other that I am what I am. I like the fact that's a part of me very much, I need that guidance, but another unfortunate circumstance of my sickness is that it cuts my lifeline. My tether to the universe gets severed by this illness leaving me unable to see my path and manifest the circumstances which I would prefer to see come to fruition. I feel like I've been dropped on an uninhabited planet or something, it's quite awful, and therein lies my struggle. I need the guidance of the universe in order operate in this realm, and my heart will not function while empty. I cannot see my path without guidance, therefore love cannot find me and my light remains out, which causes me to feel ill, which leaves my heart empty, which clouds the path, which leaves me without love... I'm sure you can see where this is going.

If you think I've gotten really weird now then I'm glad, I like it when people think like that. I love so many of you for who you are but I have no desire to be anyone but me, and so I am. If you think I'm full of beans check this out- Today it did not rain, it was rather sunny. As I said, I went to bed at 4:30. My father tried to get me to come out for dinner around 7, which I was unable to do. I stayed in bed in the hopes I could enter REM. The only dreaming I ended up doing was when I thought I might get some sleep, yet another silly idea. Around 10:30 pm, right before I started this post, I decided to go outside for a cigarette. As I stepped outside, it began to rain. I sheltered under the eaves of the house and had my smoke. As I finished up smoking and headed back into the house, the rain stopped. That was the only ten minutes it rained today. You can't make stuff like this up and I would never joke about something that to me is so serious, like dyer.

The reason I've posted this in this particular thread is my friggin plan is crumbling before my eyes as I deal with this. All of a sudden I foresee myself rotting away alone in the miserable Commonwealth with a roof over my head at least I guess, and cabinets full to the brim of misery. Hooray. Nothing is set in stone however, but my hopes and aspirations are below low at this particular juncture. A lot of people know I deal with a bad top end every day, I don't hide it, but almost none understand why my thoughts go to the places they do. I'm trapped like a rat, struggling to climb out. I'm tired of struggling. I'm tired of feeling empty and alone, tired of plastering a smile on my face, and just plain tired. I've done my part I feel, but I wish I could do more. I feel I offer little to the benefit of others anymore and I refuse to be anyone's burden, ever. I'll take care of me as best I can and just continue to keep to myself as I have. Honestly I find it amusing to become a stereotype, it's so ironic to me because it's so unexpected. I always felt like being aware of things was a strong defense against undesirable traits, however what I wasn't able to account for was my perception being a bit askew and my inability to see many situations for what they really are. Unfortunately my poor vision has already had it's affects and my current reality is a product of my actions due to my inability to see at times. I have since learned many things I see much more clearly with my eyes closed. I think that says a lot.

Thank you all for reading and I promise if I can turn this around I will. I could potentially be retracting this entire post tomorrow should the universe see fit. Unfortunately I think that's out of my hands at this particular moment, but I'll see what I can do. If you're concerned about me please don't be. This ride isn't over yet. It doesn't matter when it ends regardless because we all live forever anyways.

Thanks very much for reading guys.

[Scootertrash]

Well Fabs, All I can say is that I hope at some point you can find everything you are searching for that will enable you to reach some level of happiness and/or balance in your life.

[Mickey Dunlap]

There is a answer to your problems, He's the answer to every ones problem, and wise men still seek Him. Chances are you don't want to hear it, I get that, but I still have to put it out there.

[Jd110]

Hang in there, Fabio. And if you ever get that trailer on the road and venture this way, you're always welcome here.

[El Camexican]

John, I gave this to someone I know to read and they asked if you’d ever tried QHHT?

[Shep1970]

I cant believe your in hawaii... i’ve always wanted to go back/ my dad was in the service he was stationed there when i was 3-4 yrs old. Dont remember much but a couple areas when i see photographs. Its the flight there thats always held me back from re-visiting... maybe someday
You need to go sit your azz on the beach with a couple soothing umbrella drinks and watch the scenery.... you’ll be back in mass before u know it (same crap here just different days)
On the whole woman topic: i dated a girl out of highschool for 6yrs, it ended BAD, i’ll just say she got to know a couple of my good friends really well....then i kinda gave up figuring that id never find another. Well i dated a few that didnt make the cut.

A few yrs later i went to a birthday party for a friend of a friends cousin that i didnt really want to go, well i met my wife there. I was the azzhole this time though, she was engaged to be married to some other guy. Ended up that he treated her like dirt so i didnt feel too bad about it. He was also going to school to become a priest or similiar so ya i’ll probably go to hell..... ha
You never know where you’ll meet someone- dont give up- it happens fast when you dont expect it....

Ok i’ve written way too much.
Ps. If it rains again while your outside go jump in some puddles, enjoy the “warm” rain!!!!
Shep