Hey, all.

You may have noticed that I’ve gone a bit dark around here lately.

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you. It’s just that a long-awaited reality has finally come to fruition- the arrival of my very own fully operational Death Star, in the form of a pattern true Indian Jeep, otherwise known as the Mahindra Roxor.

I bought a base model and had the dealer install a few options. Trivial things such as a windscreen, a trailer hitch, and wipers. I splurged and even got a wiper wash motor.

When Mahindra means a base model, they mean a base model. You get a functional off-road vehicle with tail/brake lights and headlights. That’s about it. You must either pay someone to do everything else, or you do it yourself.

The wipers, hitch, and windshield were a bit much, so I paid for the installation. However, I left plenty of work aside for myself. I’ve been busy with these additional mods over the past week. The mods are creature comforts and safety features. They were largely inexpensive, thanks to Amazon, but labor-intensive work.

What did I do? I added turn signals. This was a real chore- you must drill holes in brand-new, freshly painted sheet metal. It’s not for the faint of heart. If you are a few millimeters off, it will look like crap. You only get one chance to get it right. Therefore, a good layout is a must. It’s time-consuming. Also, I added a radio and a license plate bracket. This needed correct, properly routed wiring and a new dedicated fuse box.

I don’t know if you’ve ever installed a car radio, but it involves contorting yourself under the dash to route wires and make connections. And BTW, the Roxor had zero provisions for mounting said radio and speakers. Therefore, more holes had to be drilled while I was already in what amounted to a stress position.

Guys, I’m sore as hell.

However, all the crawling on the ground and being jammed under the dash bullshit is done, and everything works.

I wanted to really press on this past week because we had lovely weather, some of the last of the year. This makes life a lot better when you’re doing work outdoors.

Something had to give, and that happened to be writing. However, it’s all over but the crying. The Jeep is now roadworthy, and I still have some mods to do to make it trail-worthy. However, that’s what I know of as “gentleman’s work,” it doesn’t involve me stuffing my body into unfriendly and unyielding spaces. And the hell of it is that the Roxor is an easy vehicle to work on, with plenty of space. You should try doing wiring on a subcompact- it’s a special breed of hell, and my hat is off to the peeps who do it, day in and day out.

But there you go- my activities for the week.

More writing soon.