#he was very strong he could push the tyre of and on without tools that was crazy | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

willow-salix · 4 years

Text

Isolation update!

Day 69 of Isolation on Tracy Island.

Have you ever heard that saying, don't do a flat pack project with someone you love? Yep, well apparently the Tracy boys hadn't. Let me explain.

Virgil and I went out to gather the weekly supplies of essentials, including beard oil, gentle bear shampoo, moisturizer and other things they suddenly deemed essential now that they were hairy and to pick up any orders that had been delivered and were waiting for us.

As usual we made quick work of the essentials shopping, flying through the list as we flew through the aisles, in and out in under an hour, which just goes to show how fast you can get things done when you don’t have Grandma or Gordon with you.

We stopped off at the storage unit on the way home, and once again it was like a magical mystery as to just what might be in there this week. The packages that appeared in there depended on many things, how busy we had been, how bored we were, how much time we had on our hands, which shopping hole I’d fallen into, the reasons were many and varied.

This time we had a number of boxes addressed to Brains, seven weighted hula hoops (because yes, the boys had talked me into agreeing to teach them as well as Kayo) a few other boxes of things that had been ordered and two large, very heavy crates addressed to Gordon. Virgil had to strap on his exo-suit just to get them loaded into Two’s pod.

“What do you think he’s ordered?” I asked as we headed back home.

“It’s Gordon, it could literally be anything, I gave up guessing what he was up to when he was five.”

“That instills me with such confidence, thank you for that.”

“You expected me to lie?”

“No, I expected you to evade the truth for comfort purposes.”

“Next time, ask Scott.”

We left Gordon’s crates in the hanger and went to grab some lunch, and by grab lunch I mean I stole half of John’s sandwich and poured a cup of coffee, that would do, we may have snacked on Doritos on the way home.

“Gordo, you’ve got two crates down in the hanger,” Virgil told him as he took my coffee cup.

“Yesss!” Gordon ran off without another word.

“Is nothing safe in this house?” I asked, pouring another cup of coffee for myself.

“You just took my sandwich,” John pointed out.

“Yeah, but that’s different.”

“”How?”

“Because what’s mine is yours and yours is mine, it’s how life works.”

“I don’t think that counts with food.”

“Sure it does, also you have a package,” I slid it over. “Did you buy me something nice?”

“If a new GPU for the gaming computer I’m building for Alan is nice for you, then sure.”

I made a face. “No, it’s fine, he can have it.”

“Generous of you,” he replied, stealing my coffee.

***

Gordon hadn’t returned almost an hour later after we finished our leisurely lunch, so in our infinite wisdom, we decided to track him down and see if he needed any help. It turned out he needed way more than we had expected.

“Gordon, what the heck?” Virgil stared in disbelief, taking in the mass of parts that were spread all over the floor of the hanger. Gordon was sitting in the middle of them, looking like he’d lost the will to live.

“Virgil, thank God, you have to help me,” he begged.

“What do you even have here?” John asked, looking around in disbelief.

“It’s supposed to be a golf cart.”

“A golf cart?” I asked, not sure I’d actually heard him properly. The island had a lot of things but a golf course was not one of them. “Why would you need a golf cart?”

“Two.”

“Bless you.”

“No, two, as in I have two.”

“Two of them? What are you going to do with two golf carts?” I had to ask.

John, being the sensible one, had located the instructions still inside the crate and had been studying them.

“Correction, what are you going to do with two old golf carts from 2006?”

“That’s for me to know and you to find out. So, will you help me?”

We should never have said yes. That was our first mistake.

Two hours later, Alan, Scott and Brains had joined us and I wasn't talking to any of them because they were just ridiculous.

“How can we not figure out how to put this together?” Gordon groaned. “We have two engineers and an electronics wizard and the rest of us aren't dumb either, yet we still can’t get past this?”

“How long have they been doing this?” Kayo asked me. We were perched on the discarded crate and happily sipping OJ.

“Coming up to three hours now I think.”

“I bet we could do it quicker than them,” she whispered.

“Oh, undoubtedly. All they have done is argue. John is trying to follow the instructions but Brains is trying to improve them.”

She snorted.

“Virgil is trying to go through it methodically and lay out all the pieces, but Alan keeps picking them up and asking John what they are, making him look them up and then putting them back in the wrong place.”

“Typical.”

“And Scott and Gordon are arguing because Scott is trying to direct everyone and Gordon is insisting that it’s his golf cart and it should be his way.”

“I expected nothing less. So, how about it, should we show them how it’s done?”

“Damn straight.”

We dragged the frame out of the crate and pushed it out of the way and then retrieved everything else inside.

“What are you two doing with my golf cart?” Gordon asked.

“We’re putting it together for you,” Kayo answered.

“Yeah right,” he laughed.

“Do you not think we’re capable of putting together a little golf cart?” I asked, narrowing my eyes dangerously.

“I wouldn't answer that if I was you,” Scott advised. But as ever Gordon was in an argumentative mood.

“I wouldn't say incapable, but I think you’ll be there for the next week.”

“I bet we can get it done quicker than you idiots can,” Kayo challenged.

“You’re on,” Gordon stood up to shake both our hands.

It was one of those DIY golf cart kits so it should have been easy enough for the geniuses in this family but, like with most things when all five of them were involved, it had not gone quite to plan.

We located the instructions and sat down to read them and plan out how we were going to tackle it.

“Ground up I think is best,” I suggested.

“Makes sense,” she agreed.

“Set everything out so we know what we have and put it in sections?”

“Yep, that’ll work.”

We spent half an hour hauling everything out of the crate and laying it out.

“Are you girls done prettying up the place?” Gordon called over to us.

We didn't rise to the bait, they were still arguing over which was the front or the back of the seat.

We found the engine mount and lifted it into place, I helped a bit but honestly Kayo is as strong as an ox, she hides a lot of power in her slender frame and she could have probably lifted it on her own. We screwed it into place and then got to work putting together the wiring loom.

The wiring was actually pretty simple, the loom came as a mostly complete unit and all we had to do was make sure we left enough…

“That wire is too short! It doesn't reach. Who had that job?”

“Wiring is down to John!”

“Don’t blame me! I told you that you needed to actually measure it and not just do it by eye!”

“It was still your job!”

OK I take it back, apparently the wiring wasn't simple for everyone.

The rear suspension was a little harder, but between us we managed to figure it out, getting the spindles and lifting blocks to stay in their right places was a bit of a challenge, but we’re girls and we’re used to getting stubborn things to behave and stay where they are put and soon powered through.

We could hear muttering coming from the boys' side of the hanger, and we saw them peeking over at us a little more often than they had before.

“Go get us a drink and some snacks and see if they want anything,” Kayo suggested. I nodded and got up.

“Want a drink, Kay?”

“Sure, can you grab me one of those smoothie bottles?”

“Sure, no worries.” I wandered past the boys on my way out.

“Do you guys want anything from the kitchen?”

“No, we’re good,” Gordon insisted.

“Can you get me a smoothie too?” John asked.

“Sure, babe.”

“Why did you just do that?” Gordon hissed at John.

“Because I'm thirsty?”

“It’s a plot to spy on us and see what we're doing so they can copy us!”

I snorted. “Dude, we wouldnt be stupid enough to copy you guys.”

“Insults now?” Virgil laughed.

“Hey, if the blue pointy cap fits…” I escaped before they could yell at me any more.

I found Grandma in the kitchen, cremating a number of what I think were once chickens, I didn't look too closely.

“Where is everyone?”

“Hangers,” I answered and began to explain.

I came back with drinks and Grandma, who had wanted to join the winning team. I gave John his smoothie and left the rest a few bottles of water and went back to help Kayo with the axel, which she was trying to wrestle into place on her own. I’ll be honest, she was doing most of it herself, but we were having fun, we were chatting and laughing and ignoring the boys, which just annoyed them even more.

With the addition of Grandma for logistics we were steaming through.

With the help of a dolly and a discarded arm of a broken exo-suit we slid the engine into place and screwed it down. It was pretty simple, everything fitted in quite easily and with our more modern tools we had very little trouble.

With the engine fitted we got to work on the rear of the cart, checking the amount of tyre clearance we would need and making sure they spun freely and that the shock absorbers were situated correctly before we tightened everything down.

We could really see this thing coming together. The boys were still arguing like they were on Jerry Springer, yelling at each other, blaming each other for things they either had or hadn't done, and threatening to break various body parts.

“Right girls,” Grandma started one of her famous pep talks as we started to flag. It was late, we were all hungry and sleep was calling us. “You’re on the home stretch now. Get those breaks in, then it’s just the chassis. I’ll sort the wiring in the handle bars. Once that's done it's the finishing touches, seat, lights and horn. Then you can sleep.”

We heard the boys start to mutter under their breath, all huddled together like they were in the playoffs and only had thirty seconds left on the clock. Maybe Grandma should’ve lowered her voice...

“Look at theirs, how did they do that?”

“We’re never getting to bed tonight, are we?”

“Alan is already asleep.”

“Come on, we can’t give up now, guys, we got this.”

“Girls, we can do this. I believe in us,” Grandma encouraged drawing our attention back to her and we nodded, the last thing we’d ever want to do would be let her down.

Following her instructions we got on with the breaks, working together quite well. I didn’t know that much about machinery or anything really, but I can research my butt off and read instructions perfectly. Everyone should read the instructions, I honestly don't know why men seem to be so incapable of it.

Grandma was as good as her word, she had the wires poked through the handles and connected up before we had the chassis on. We fitted the handlebars and the chassis in place and tightened everything up.

We got the seat on while Grandma got the lights connected up and put the bulbs in. The horn was the last thing.

We put the battery on charge, tucked our baby into bed and called it a night.

John slumped his way into the kitchen with Virgil about four in the morning. We’d gone to bed around half two after throwing some pizzas in the oven and having ourselves a little past midnight feast, leaving a few for the boys. I’d gone to bed but couldn't sleep, having eaten late and gone past my tiredness barrier. Deciding that a hot chocolate sounded amazing I’d gotten up again.

The boys were almost dead on their feet. They had taken Alan to bed and tried to bully Scott and Gordon into moving but both had refused to quit, as had Brains, who was apparently over engineering everything and making things so much harder. I don't know how boys manage to make everything so difficult and complicate the simplest of things.

I took pity on them both and made them a hot drink too and warmed up some pizza, making sure they had eaten before I marched them to bed.

“How bad was it?” I asked John after we’d brushed our teeth.

“How bad do you think?”

“Parker trying to explain filling FAB 0’s gas tank to Alan, bad?”

“Times that by ten,” he flopped face first onto the bed and refused to move again.

I’ve still got no clue what Gordon wants with two vintage golf carts, but I guess we’ll find out soon. At least I know one will be properly put together.

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds 2015 #thunderbirds #isolation island #self isolating #social isolation #isolation

7 notes · View notes