Chapter 175: It's a Lock

Friday morning I got up to a beautiful clear morning. The backyard was waking up from a frosty night when I took this picture. The crows were returning from their nightly roost and made a huge ruckus as they returned to their day jobs.

 Friday night we went to the hockey game in at ShoWare Center for a team building activity with Bob's company, Orion Industries. As usual a fun time (and a couple of beers), and a free hat was had by all. This was my view of the game, new hat and all. I didn't need to look at that goal-thingy, they'll announce if a goal is made.

Since we went to the game as a group, Orion's name was put on the Jumbo-thingy during intermission for us to cheer.

This morning was clear and dry, although cold, and qualified as a bonified convertible day so we busted out the XJS and went to a Jaguar tech session at British Automotive Restoration in Seattle. I wandered around and looked at all the British cars under restoration. Since all cars look the same to me, I'm good for about 5 minutes of that so I dropped anchor  to be sure to find my way back and went for a walk. I love this Carr Matey app!  I "drop" anchor when I park and "find vessel" when I'm ready to return. Presto! No more of that pesky losing your car anymore.

Fisherman's Terminal was just down the street so I walked down to see the tangle of masts and variety of boats moored at the marina.

These little guys are so pretty I almost forget they are horrid little poop machines. Because of all the goose grease, it was hard to even get close enough to him to take a picture.

While wandering around, I found a four story aluminum observation-type tower. It appeared to be new and in good shape so I went to the top and found a beautiful view of the area. Too bad it wasn't a beautiful view. Thankfully I had dropped anchor because I had no idea where I needed to return to find Bob...and more importantly the free coffee. 

Since it was such a nice day, when Bob was done with his tech session we went to the locks. Apparently, the rest of the Puget Sound inhabitants had the same idea and we all soaked up some of the mysterious substance we call sunlight. Here a couple of brave little kayaks share a lock with the big ol' fishing boat.

The locks were making pretty frothy water while the cormorants...or some sort of diving bird...dove for the dazed fish coming from Lake Washington with 100% success from what I could see.

We went down to the fish ladder but since it's not fish ladder climbing season, there was only one little fishie. Rumor has it he was a male that had refused to ask for directions and didn't want to admit he was lost. On the flip side, he's not going to be a cormorant dinner this way.

The viewing area of the south locks was empty since everyone was on the north side watching the boats come in from the Puget Sound.

As Northwesterners say "The mountain is out" and it was really pretty. It even looked pretty from a gas station in Fife.

 While we were getting rocket fuel in Fife, a Jaguar X something or other, was visiting from the local dealer and was also getting rocket fuel. While both Jaguars were nose-to-nose I wondered if the dealer would make a straight-across trade? They are both Jaguars, both convertibles. Think maybe he'd overlook the $80,000 price difference?

A view of Mt. Rainier over the old train yard while we were zooming through Auburn.

When we got home we moved all Bob's toys around to allow more room in the Garage Majal for him to work on the Jag. Remember that pile of sawdust Bob and Grampa were trying to figure out what to do with? Well, they didn't figure it out soon enough and after moving the teardrop to the backyard, the pile was in my usual path out of the backyard. I had a choice of stopping and doing a "K" turn or to gas it and blast over the pile. Apparently my car is more of a "plow" than a butterfly.

The XJS now beds down in the garage with the "house cars" instead of back in the dusty ol' Garage Majal and is much happier.

The paint removing process is moving right along. 

Since Bob has been having issues with the paint clogging his adhesive-backed sandpaper, he's using a lot of sanding disks. Used sanding disks were the perfect solution for the plastic on the XJS flaring up. Just stick the old disks to the plastic to hold it down.

Bob bought himself a new toy for the next step of the process. A conversion kit to covert his sand blaster to a soda blaster. Soda is the preferred stripping material nowadays because it's "greener", and neutralizes the rusting process.

Bob's working his way forward, but the poor Jag still has his eyes hanging from the optical nerves. Here RestoCat knows how the blind Jag feels.

The first stage of sanding the hood is almost done. Just have to work around the vents which is going to be a big job.

Bob is quickly turning the Jaguar into a leopard.

Since Bob had the room to move around in his garage, tonight we took the hood off the car so Bob can work on it too.

It's going to keep him very busy.

Bob's finally opening the bonnet front from the underside so he can take take the headlights/eyeballs out.

The underside of the nose has taken some literal hits. Bob's got some work to do to get the bottom round again.