Those Are the Breaks
Or the Brakes Depending on How You See It
My GOAT is pushing toward 300-thousand miles now. I will probably never, in what time I have left driving, have another auto that comes anywhere near what this Toyota 4Runner has done for me over the years. Sure I miss my Toyota FJ60 greatly, and especially this time of year when a run up the PINS (Padre Island National Seashore) comes back into my memories. I made sure that when I sold her off, it was to no one local. I never ever wanted to see her again, and that strategy has worked for ten years now. Sweet dreams my Smurf Blue wall climber.
It’s funny though … I was watching a video over the weekend, and this young guy, a fly fisher warming up a beer and talking to the camera to (an amazing) 66-thousand subscribers about … fly fisher driving. Wow. The “Huge Fly Fisherman” YouTube channel is so popular, this young man has no worries about the things that we daily fly drivers have, like gas pumps, or will my ‘Yota start this morning. Or any wondering if I could actually push her out of this intersection when she finally dies – at every single red light I catch in this red-light-infested-town. Hey HUGE, your beer’s getting hot …
I never imagined floundering on the ground under another vehicle once my Toyota FJ60 was loaded on a flatbed tow and driven out of my life, but here I go again. It’s not that I can’t do the work, but that gravel grovel is hard on my thinning skin. Little did I know it would take a full day of recovery after a half-day of a rear brake job AS WELL!
Someday this bonafide “sleeper” car will give up on me, but I am already preparing her for a heart transplant because at twenty-years-old? value is going in her … no more depreciation! And my mechanic looks at me like I am crazy if I talk about putting her out in the pasture to graze. It’s hard to imagine ever owning anything better than this 2005 V8 Toyota Forerunner 4WD. So I don’t imagine that. Although, I may fantasize at times …
TOYOTA USA
IF you know anyone at TOYOTA USA, what the heck!? Feel free to drop the “Texas Fly Caster” name on a Post-It in their cubicle when you pass by! Stick it on their red Swingline Stapler. I do honestly covet the new Land Cruiser even if it is hardly off-road-worthy, and hardly the tow vehicle I now own. I doubt it can even tow enough weight to pull my Airstream, but it’s a sexy, if muted, beast – in the looks anyway. I would be happy to partner with TOYOTA and stand lovingly by a new Land Cruiser staring into her headlights. I will even have (somehow) dreadlocks if it helps the partnership thrive! I could warm up a few beers if it helps US have a new Toyota every year. I’m sure I will add a couple of zeros to my subscriber number real soon, I promise!
Thanks for your patience as I go off on the strangeness of YouTube, cars and the life some of us live every single day. This “shade tree mechanic” bellyache could easily fit into “The Wholistic Fly Fisher” and it will in a surprisingly constructive way.
In the background, I am very busy making new videos for the Denton County Military Veterans fly tying program that starts this coming Saturday 12 October! (Into the sound booth once this is published!) You’ll never see those – unless you participate, but these new format videos are a learning ground for some of the upcoming videos YOU WILL SEE on the YouTube Channel as I struggle toward that new TOYOTA Loaner. I already ordered the green dreads.
Category: Body-Mind-Soul, Culture on the Skids, Fly Fisher Health and Wellness, Life Observed, On The Road
