horchoha wrote:
Ok, I'll bite, what the heck is "trailer frog"?
Welllll, there's a bit more to it than just Trailer Frog. It began with "Frame Lizard."
The story started when Earl and I were still welding up the chassis. Near the end of that task, we had gotten down to welding caps onto the ends of open tubes and such. Most of them were done, and I had cut a piece to go over the end of a tube near the right rear of the chassis. Earl had the welder in hand ready to tack it while I held it in place with pliers. I looked at the tube in question and a little frill-necked lizard was sitting on top of the tube. Frill necks are common in this area, ya see 'em everywhere all summer long (and most of the winter). They're skinny little boogers about 6 inches long. They have a piece of skin under their necks/heads that they can expand downward like a "fin" of sorts. It sticks out and even becomes red when they're scared or angry. (And maybe they use it to attract girl lizards, too...)
So anyway, this little guy was sitting on the tube we were going to weld up. I waved my hand at him, thinking he'd run off. Instead, he ran INSIDE the tube we were about to weld. We tried to run him back out, going to the other end of it and banging on it with a screwdriver hoping he would run back out the open end. No such luck. We worked on other tubes, welding up seams we'd overlooked and capping some other ends. Never saw that lizard run back out of the tube. Finally, we gave up and welded the cap on the tube and said to each other, "He probably ran away while we weren't looking." That made me feel better, but there was this little doubt about whether he'd actually escaped.
For years, we said that on a quiet night in the shop, when everything else was still and silent, you could hear this faint scratching sound inside that one chassis tube, as Frame Lizard tried to get out of his steel prison... (Cue spooky organ music)
Then came the beastie in question, "Trailer Frog". One Saturday when I was loading up to go to a monthly autocross I noticed in one corner of the trailer, near the inner fender well, there sat the earthly remains of a tree frog. Tree frogs are also common in this area. They're the little green ones, not much bigger than Bubba's thumb. They sit on branches, window sills, or stick to the kitchen window and make this huge croaking sound. Their little throats expand out about as big as the rest of their bodies and they give off the grandmother of all "Ribbets" when they let it go.
The one I found was well beyond the "Ribbet" stage, being mostly bones and dried up blackened skin. I swept around him, not wanting to disturb his final slumber. He stayed there all weekend, just hangin' out with Team Slotus at the event. I introduced him to Earl and HamDip and TWWTFM. Them women folk didn't seem to appreciate him much.
For the next several months, Trailer Frog was part of the team, going places with the car, and guarding the trailer between events. Hey! Don't laugh! Not one item was ever stolen from the trailer while ol' TF was on duty. During this time, Trailer Frog lost weight and was just a frail white skeleton of his former self. I debated spraying him with clear-coat and putting him in some kind of clear container for his own safety but I never did. That proved to be a mistake. One day, he was just gone, vanished into thin air. I wonder if that last isn't too true, as in I left the trailer open and the wind blew him away, out into the yard somewhere. We will probably never know his true fate. His spirit still guards the trailer...
And then last but certainly not least is Shop Snake. Earlier this year, I had the garage doors open and was tinkering on some piece of junk or another, I think it was the lawn mower. I was walking back into the shop when I saw what I thought was the tail of a really big lizard sticking out from in front of the right front tire. Another step and I saw it wasn't a lizard, it was a black snake. About three feet long, black and shiny. (They're non-venomous, BTW.) I turned back and grabbed a broom to shoo him out of the shop. He was gone. I looked under the car, around the perimeter of the shop, under my desk, in the tool cart with the electric drill and grinders. No snake. He didn't come past me out the shop doors. He was in there somewhere. Didn't find him. A couple of weeks later, he showed his tail again (literally) but I couldn't chase him out the doors. There have been a couple of sightings since then as well as rumors and urban legends and possibly an episode on Ancient Aliens next season.
The discovery of Shop Snake has made for one major change in the starting procedure for the Slotus. It used to be that you'd just slide into the seat, push in the clutch, turn ignition switch and fuel pump switch on and hit the starter button. Now, prior to all that, you take a piece of wood or a big wrench or something and bang on the outside of the footbox and behind the seat and step back for a second before getting in. Just in case you ain't the first life-form to enter the vehicle at that point in time.
So there you have it, the Animals of Team Slotus (Not counting Bubba). It is worth noting that most of the problems, handling wise, that I've had seem to center around the rear suspension. Bad JuJu from Frame Lizard? We will never know. But on quiet nights in the shop, when all is still and silent...
Peace, Love and Reptiles
JDK
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