Bungle In The Jungle

Approach every new day with a positive outlook and try and find the shiny side of any strife!
Um...yea.  Sometimes easier said than done!
Forgive me if I seem a little burnt out, but yesterday was the Wally World Killer Koaster! 
Got right to work close to first thing.  Needing to clean up my bay, then get through some of the unprocessed stock, threw  a few in the rack.  Got the first two torn down and put in work buckets, then hit the third, the really sharp looking old school, hardtail GT MTB, and after stripping it down, realized it wasn't going to need much cleaning, rather some serious parts changing.  With a refurbed set of Araya rims, tread, cables, housings, a rear set of brakes and pads and a chain, she was pretty much done!  I mean, the derailleurs were already "spot on" barely needing a tune!  THEN, I went on to the beginning assembly of the truck.  Here's where it got REAL fun.  Starting with the rear, I dug through all my "three wheeler parts" and finally found enough bearing packs to set 'er up with the old school.  Had to swap out the 15m rear packs on the new wheels, and was elated that I had enough.  Once mounting the axel and all the drive hardware, went to mount the wheels....
UGH!
I measured the length of the older axel versus the rear end and the width of the hubs, and it was spot on...EXCEPT, it wasn't until I had her together and tried to mount the wheels, I realized that the drive plate was recessed in too far!  Instead of the distance being 3" it was a 4 1/2"!!!!  Therefore, was off on the other side, considerably!!!  Needless too say, the brain had to kick in and try and come up with a solution that didn't involve sinking money in for a new axel.  I could chop the rear end down, but removing the necessary 3/4 of an inch from each side would bring the cut precariously close to the rear stabilizer mounts, and with this much weight bearing down on it, I NEED them stable!!  ARRRGH!!!
I had one more axel to work with, that had no rear mounting plate, but two problems; No plate, you're relying on the mounting nut to hold the wheel in place to help engage the wheel, which again, this much weight?  you're getting slippage!  Not to mention, the threads on either end were thrashed!  In other words, No nuts! In the end, I had no other option but to break down and order a new axels!  SOOOO, two hours wasted (I  LOATHE wasting time!) and another two to three day delay!!  Recovering from that, cleaned up the area again, and shifted back into newbie mode!  After tearing down a couple more bikes for the mill, got to a lightweight Diamondback that someone, along the line, had converted into a simple eight speed.  They made a valiant effort, but among other things, had mounted a set of BMX bars, with a 1" neck into a 1 1/4 steering tube.  Yes, they shimmed it in!  Talk about taking your life into your hands!  WOOOF!  All the way down to frame and back up again.  It has some chinks in the paint, and the tires BARELY pass, but I put her out cheap for anyone wanting to take the time to trade up on the tread.  I have a soft spot for Diamondbacks, so I wasn't chucking it! 
That all brought me up to closing time (and a little beyond).  Then it was back to the homestead for what we had HOPED would be an evening of chilling and collecting our collective head.
No such luck.
As I predicted yesterday, things with Kaleb were going to come to a head.
They did.
It wasn't pretty.
You'll forgive me, that I don't go into specifics, suffice to say the line of the law was drawn, emphatically, as to just what we will tolerate.  We do believe that a child coming into manhood (or womanhood) has to make their mistakes, take what life deals them and find "their own way", but there are things I DO NOT tolerate!  Kaleb pushed the most egregious of lines. 
They say to never push a female Lion or threaten her cubs.  Well, NEVER push a MALE lion and threaten his mate. 
Not.....pretty.
It took a GREAT deal of restraint on my part to not bury him.
Surprisingly, Elijah was there.  Elijah has his issues, that we are dealing with, but one thing I can say with a GREAT deal of pride about this boy, is you don't mess with his family.  It took all the strength I had to keep this boy from going primeval on Kaleb.  For safety sake, we had Elijah go with friends for the evening, as a cool down time.  Once tempers abated, I took Kaleb aside and had a long talk with him trying to figure out where his head is at.  There are things he is doing, which he should not be and it's anyone's guess exactly where this is going.  Clearly, for his own sake, he is going to have to remain on lockdown for a while and get some counseling. 
Oh, I can only hope an pray that today will bring respite and a calming peace.
Ok, I best get back too it, because lamenting never pays the bills!
See ya! 

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