Phishing for a good time

Hello reader(s),

I now am back at home in Cincinnati searching for jobs.  Things are slow but certainly not dead.  Still I have been having a hard time fully amusing myself.  I have spent most of my time applying for jobs and working on cars.  It's great and there will be many more DIY's to come because of it but some days it gets tiring and down right boring.  Although I still maintain I am an auto addict.  There are some days when you just need change.

Well I tried to change things up.  In one way I failed and in another I succeeded in a manner I never thought possible.

First the failure....

I give you the 1992 Acura Integra GS-R (DB2) that was not nearly the car of my dreams.  


 I contacted the seller after seeing an ad on Craigslist for the car. I had high hopes. DB2 GS-R's are rare birds. They only came in Black, which is what this car was supposed to be, red and a teal color that was more green than this one. There were only around 5000 made total for the United States and Canada.

They came with a special motor that was only made for this model of integra. The code for it is B17. It was basically a stroked out B16. It made the same horsepower as the Honda Civic Si's B16 but made slighly more torque, about six foot-pounds, thanks to a longer crank stroke. Really it doesn't make any sense to me why Honda would waste the time and money to make six more pound-feet of torque. But I bet the powerband was different.

Anyway this car had little of it's originality left. As you can see it is a horrid blue color. It was a shoddy paint job to make things worse. Still I was looking for a shell and it was a 1992 GS-R so I thought about putting up witha the color at first glance. Then I saw this stuff. The door hits the rocker on the drivers side and caused rust. The quarter was misshapen. I don't know if that picture does a good job showing that. On the other side the quarter fix was already starting to go bad again. Still for about ten minutes I thought about going for it. "Hey," I said to myself, "I can fix this, I can paint it black then I'll put an engine in and rip it." I started talking price. The guy was asking $1000. I offered him $400. He shot it down. He asked $900. I said the best I could do was $600. We settled on $700 with a B16 head. It was really a pretty solid deal. I handed him my $100 deposit.

 Then I went back to take one more look and take those photos. I looked at it again. The interior was complete and pretty clean for an old Honda. The suspension was aftermarket but the tires were good. It had extended wheel studs. But there were problems. The most glaring one was the paint and it still bothered me. I thought "I can't do this." I backed out of the deal. I took back my $100 deposit and apologized about eight times. Then I got back in my own teg and set out on the hour drive home. I regretted not getting it but there was also some satisfaction that I stopped it. Last Sunday the guy told me he would take $500. I told him I would think about it. I can't touch that car. If I had the space to paint it and fix the body I would have taken it but I don't. I failed to find the fun. The end of the week approached and again

I decided to try to change things up. This time it was a concert. A local public radio station was hosting a free concert. I decided I would go no matter what. I told a few friends but none ended up wanting to go.

 Still that Friday I set out on my own. I was headed for Coney Island near the Ohio River. I had never been but I was sure I could figure out where I was going.

So I headed out. I got there and I parked. The first thing I saw were these huge canoes, very cool.



But back on topic; there was a pretty good crowd. I thought, "They look like they know where they're going. I'll follow them." I walked across the small theme park along with the crowd.

Soon I approached an arena. It didn't look like whatever concert was playing there was free. People were buying tickets at gate. Suddenly I listened to what was playing. It was funky. The guitar was screeching in melodic fashion. The bass was slapping along. Piano could barely be heard in the back ground. I recognized the sound.

Then I really looked at my surroundings. When I walked up a guy in tye dye was trying to bum a lighter his eyes heavy, a goofy smile on his face. Another guy was selling garlic for "extracts" he said. It seemed that everyone one walking in was hippie esk.

Then it hit me. It was a Phish concert and I couldn't pass that up! I bought a ticket and walked in. You couldn't slap the grin off my face. I even eventually found some friends inside who actually planned to go. I reveled in the harmonic insanity. Here's just one of the songs. I recorded it right after the break. I wish I knew the name. Let me know if you do! Cheers!.