Jack Manassas and Company

My '97 Voyager Van has 240,000 miles on it.   Usually, Voyager Vans of that vintage have their transmissions fall out at 90,000 miles.  This one has lasted the entire 240,000 miles.  I would try for a quarter million, but (alas!) the engine is blown--at least, technically.  I am still driving it to work. The trouble began about 6 months ago.  While driving home from work, the temperature gauge rapidly climbed to the top of its range.  I turned on the heater-- a common way to take some heat out of an overheated engine.  At first, it worked, blowing 120 degree air into the passenger compartment.  That lasted 20 minutes.  Then the air began blowing cold.  The radiator was clearly out of fluid.  Fortunately, I was almost home by then, and the engine made it back, but the radiator developed several leaks.  Oddly, the radiator reservoir was still full of fluid. The garage couldn't figure out what was going on for a while.  I...

Although Oakville, like the rest of Garrett County, was bitterly cold, crowds of people lined the streets near the Governor's Mansion.  It was December 26th and whole families had traveled into town, some from as far as 20 miles away, to celebrate Garbage Day.  Once a year on the day after Christmas (which the English call 'Boxing Day'), the Ancient Order of Garbagemen (AOOG) donned their traditional gray overalls, jackets and stocking hats.   Once a year, the Garbagemen practiced their traditional arts.  After larding its axles and touching up its paint, an actual antique garbage truck, the only known example within 500 miles, was carefully pulled from the Garbage Museum.  A team of six chestnut mares was harnessed to the swingle-tree on the front.  At dawn, they began the ten-mile journey all the way to the Governor's Mansion.      Old people came out to see the truck as it rolled along, smiling and waving at the Garbagemen, ridin...

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