I am happy to report that rumors of my imminent demise were grossly exaggerated, though said rumors likely evolved from my own posts. So, you can place your pall-bearer suits (or jeans and t-shirts) and your mourning outfits back on their hangers. It looks like I will be around for a little while longer!

Of course, God, with a sense of humor unmatched, plucked me off that frying pan (the first bed they gave me seemed hard as one) and dropped me into the fire, that being the record heat we had around here. For all my Arizona brethren, you can have your crazy 115+ temps! Though, I will say the hot temps made it very easy to stay inside and get well.

Back on the fateful day when I checked myself into the emergency room, and once they determined my near death seemed avoidable, I had plenty of time to kill and a full charge on my phone: dangerous bedfellows!  Yet, I didn’t know if I was out-of-the-woods totally, so I figured I might as well let folks know that, as my father used to say in his understated manner, ‘there’s a problem’. Thankfully, I now feel reassured enough to say that, there is currently no longer a problem (knuckles meet wood).

But, that doesn’t mean eWillys will be back anytime soon. I’m enjoying this extended break. It may be that eWillys never returns to its original format. Instead, I’ll take this time to figure out a way that the site can be of use without the time demands of the past.

Before I go, I once again have to thank everyone who shared their stories about eWillys. It is always gratifying and humbling to see strange idea of mine evolved into something worthwhile.

Finally, I will leave you with two posts below, both oddities deserving of attention.

Dave

I’m sure you are as shocked as I am that this post is about yours truly working on a jeep! It’s truly a miracle!

This all started because this weekend and into the early part of next week, we will have record hot temperatures, the hottest of which seem to be centered on ol’ little Prosser, Washington! (See the Axios story here) … records are going to fall.

Because things are supposed to heat up, I wanted to clear room in the shop so we could move a couple more vehicles in there. To do that, I wanted to move the racing jeep underneath Patterson (which would be lifted up on the hoist). But, to drive the racer within the hoist stands, I wanted to remove the wheel spacers to reduce the width.

Sounds simple enough, right? So, I jacked up the rear, pulled one rear tire. That’s when I saw this mess: several of the Allen bolts have been stripped. Ugh. WTF?

I figured I had a minimum of 2 solutions:

1. I can weld Allen wrenches on each of the stripped bolts, then (hopefully) spin them off.
2. I can drill out the Allen bolts.

Thankfully, I don’t want the spacers anyway; if they get ruined in the process, so be it.

But, before I started, I figured I would throw my dilemma out to you folks to see if there are any other ideas floating around?

Joe-in-Mesa was kind enough to donate an FC-150 sign he won a few years ago while attending the FC-Roundup to eWillys HQ. It will have a ‘most excellent’ place of honor in the shop. Thanks Joe!

To keep it safe for the moment, I put it on the fireplace mantle. It is covering a lithograph my great grandfather bought in the UK in 1924.

In case you are curious, this is how it normally looks. Upon his return from Britain in 1924, my great grandfather Karl Eilers gave it to the Engineer’s Club (this was shortly after the club built their golf course and country club near Roslyn, NY, on Long Island), where Karl was a member. At some point, my grandfather, who was also a member of the club (and President in 1930) was given the lithograph back. Subsequently, the lithograph hung for years at my grandparents house over their fireplace, which was a done floor to ceiling in rock.

You can just see the edge of it in this mid-1960s Christmas time photo of their house on Hayden Lake. It’s interesting how much lighter the matte looks in this photo. It must just be the light, as I doubt the matte was ever changed.

Grandfather Eilers on the left. My aunt Martha on the swivel chair. My grandmother Eilers standing. That place looks smaller than my the way my child-self remembers it, lol.