"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
06/18/2019 at 17:39 • Filed to: None

I really love going to my local junkyard. It’s a you-pick, like all the good ones are, so it’s both a good morning of exercise as well as a chance to shoot the poop with your fellow wrench. There’s sort of a camaraderie among the scavengers who roost here; you get to know the same people, even if you never learn their names. Last week, the team of Filipino engine-swappers who harvest every Toyota in the yard lent me a ratchet when mine exploded.
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It’s all so very egalitarian, a group of common folk allied against a common enemy: entropy. Although it’s never particularly friendly, it still feels a bit like a real society has developed. There’s technical experts, grease monkeys, and guys who can carry a whole lot of engine blocks on their backs. Everyone gives in a little bit and they get a little bit back. It feels right - moral, somehow. Also, occasionally, we pocket a few relays because fuck the police.

The reason why I keep banging on about the social harmony of our great wrecking-yard utopia is that it is even more abrupt when someone violates the unspoken code. On the same visit that I was helped by the gang of engine-swappers, I also came out to the parking lot to see that someone had helped themselves to parts off of my Volare. It seems I had parked a little bit too close to the scrap-intake area, was the explanation of the happy front desk clerk who collected fifty perfectly-good dollars for my grille and the remaining intact door mirror.

It could have been a lot worse - I’d heard stories of guys whose Suburbans ended up completely stripped to the bone like piranhas - but at least I was in the perfect place to pick up some more parts. I headed back into the yard, and followed the path that was nearly muscle memory by now.

The junkyard society had smiled upon me once again: There was a Volare waiting for the crusher that was in way better shape than my car. All it needed were a few trivial parts, like the entire engine and a floor. The things other people throw away. I started stripping my own car in the parking lot and smuggling parts back into the junkyard. That evening, I drove out with a much-improved car.

Like I said, you get back what you smuggle in.

- Seat Safety Switch

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DISCUSSION (8)

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
06/18/2019 at 17:54

So I read up on this and also your blog posts and I do enjoy the narrative in them. How long have you been doing this for?

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
06/18/2019 at 18:14

I miss these stories.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
06/19/2019 at 08:28

Sorry for the confusion - I didn’t write these. Just sharing his work. He was a regular on OPPO for a while (with a few shares to the front page) , but now just posts on his blog.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
06/19/2019 at 08:29

His blog is there and he keeps writing!

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
06/19/2019 at 12:21

Interesting. The cadence in the writing I’ve encountered before, like a signature, but I don’t recall who it is.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
06/19/2019 at 12:39

Here’s his old OPPO stuff - https://kinja.com/seat-safety-switch

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
06/19/2019 at 14:11

It’s like... it’s like if Jack Baruth wasn’t as mean. I don’t know how else to describe it. Like if JB and Robert Fulghum decided to co- write articles together. I wish I could write like that.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
06/19/2019 at 14:17

He’s got a gift.

I like some of this guy’s stuff, too.

https://bringatrailer.com/editorial/sludgos-mile-markers/