Alvin and I had lunch at the Bayou Cafe today (Ox Tail Tuesday). We must have talked for over an hour about everything except racing. Alvin had already had ribs from Deep South, so he didn’t eat. Alvin stated that he was getting burned out on talking about racing and needed a change of pace.

Alvin has some unique theories about different things and we sometimes get into deep discussions on his concept of different situations. With his background being so different from mine, we sometimes have to try to put ourselves in the other persons point of view to try to understand each other. Alvin is from a small town in North Louisiana and his father was a mechanic. I am from Daytona Beach, Florida and my parents were in law enforcement and teaching. That, coupled with my Navy submarine experience, can make for two totally different opinions on the same subject.

I love Chevrolets and Alvin loves Fords. Now that is grounds for a very heated discussion on any day. But normally we just have discussions on how to accomplish a certain job or projects. It is so good to have a friend that can talk on a variety of subjects, from religion, politics, world events and automobiles to anything else we can think of.

Today I happened to mention that Reggie Jackson had a problem with his rear main seal in his new engine (Mopar aftermarket) that he’s building for his dragster. Reggie and I had discussed how to install the rear main seal housing, which consists of 4 thin strips of rubber that seals the block and seal housing. Reggie and I had never seen anything like it and the very tight tolerances were causing the rubber strips to get cut when the housing was forced into place. Alvin has worked on Fords that have that same arrangement for the rear seal. We got Reggie on the phone and they discussed the correct way to install it and we think Reggie will be able to get some new seal material and put it in without hurting it by using Alvin’s instructions.

I am in the process of selecting a new cell phone. Alvin just got a new iPhone 3GS with 32 Gigs of memory. I am down to two selections, the Blackberry Storm and the 16 Gig iPhone 3GS. I am already with AT&T (iPhone), but I want to switch to Verizon (Storm). Right now the iPhone is winning, but I am going to give it a few more weeks before I make my selection (maybe Apple will drop the price again like they did last time).