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helmet modifications
Crystal Lake, IL
December 3, 2005
Getting My Bucket Ready for a Transformation!
It was Saturday, December 3rd, and it was the day my helmet would
undergo a major transformation. It would be receiving two fans to remove
hot air that builds up inside, and would also receive a
microphone/amplifier set that would sound much better than the eight
dollar set I have been using since my armor had been put together. Who was
going to help with the installation of these two features? The one that
was recommended to me over and over again was none other than Duffy, whose
real name is John Duffy.
Instead of driving two separate cars up to Crystal Lake from Aurora, I
had suggested to the Walton family (Bob, Mary and their two daughters)
that we all ride up in one vehicle. I offered to do the driving, but since
their daughters were coming along there was no way they could all fit in
my Subaru Forester. So, we opted in taking their big family conversion
van.
I arrived at the Walton home around 1:30pm, and as soon as I walked
inside I could see that everyone wasn’t close to being ready for
departure. Last time I met up at the Walton home I was quite early, but
this time I showed up just a few minutes later than expected.
Nevertheless, I had no problem waiting around for the young ones to get
their stuff together for the long trip ahead.
Bob wanted to go up to Duffy’s house so that he could work on his
sister-in-law’s TIE pilot helmet, whereas I was going up there to have him
work on my sandtrooper helmet. After doing some Dremel work on my helmet a
couple weeks ago, I didn’t think I was going to need to install cooling
fans in my bucket. But, once the weather gets warmer in the Spring and
Summer next year, I know for a fact that I will need to have those
installed, so why not get those done now? Plus, the microphone/amplifier
installation is a must, because that eight dollar setup I have been using
is a piece of crap. No one can understand anything that I say, as it comes
out muffled. So, this new set would be a huge difference for me, and
people would finally be able to understand what I would be saying.
We Are Finally on Our Way
After everyone was securely fastened into their chairs (in the van), it
was finally time for our trip up to Crystal Lake. On the way up there my
wife called me, and she wanted to inform me about the snow storm that we
might be running into while driving up there. Just minutes after I got off
the phone with her, the snow started falling from the sky. I couldn’t
believe it. She mentioned that we were expecting to get anywhere from four
to six inches of snow, and the further we drove north the harder the snow
started coming down. I started wondering to myself, just how well these
conversion vans handle the bad weather, but I would soon find out for
myself.
Before we made our way to Crystal Lake, we needed to stop at a store on
the way called Army & Science Surplus (at least that’s what I think it’s
called anyway). We needed to stop there to pick up some cooling fans that
would be used in our helmets. I purchased a total of six of them, each
costing only $1.95 each, and I would only need two of those for my helmet.
The others would be used in the TIE pilot helmet and later in Bob’s
sandtrooper helmet. Once we acquired those fans and other items for Bob &
Mary’s daughters, it was time to get back on the road.
The drive took about ninety minutes to get up there, and you could tell
that it had been snowing up there for quite some time as the ground was
covered nicely with snow. After we pulled into his driveway, it was time
to unload the van, and it felt great getting out and walking around again.
I grabbed my container that has all my armor in it, and made my way
inside. I immediately met Duffy’s roommate, Jason, who guided us to the
basement where miracles were about to happen. Downstairs were Duffy and
Chris Spice, both who were working on Spice’s backpack and other
miscellaneous items. Spice needed to install better backpack straps on his
backpack, and it took him a while to do that. While he was working on
that, it was time for Duffy to start working on my helmet.
Getting Right to Work
Duffy started immediately working on the fans, by re-wiring these to a
much heavier duty type of wire connector that would be used to connect the
fans to 9-volt batteries. What would have taken me probably thirty minutes
only took him less than ten, but I’m not an electrical expert so I never
would have been able to do this on my own. After re-wiring those it was
time to head on out to Radio Shack, to pick up the necessary parts to
complete the project. Duffy and I drove out in his little Ford pickup
truck, in the snow, and made it to the closest Radio Shack in less than
ten minutes. He knew exactly what he needed, and as soon as we walked into
the store you could tell he’s done this several times before. He was
grabbing 9-volt battery holders, switches, microphones and amplifiers, and
before I knew it I was more than $100 in the hole. Of course some of that
money would be returned, since some of that equipment was for Bob and his
sister-in-law’s helmets.
We were gone for what I would say about forty minutes, and of course it
was “right back to work” for Duffy. We immediately started removing the
items from their packages, and in a way it felt like Christmas morning to
me. I couldn’t believe that my helmet was close to finally being complete,
but then I heard Duffy say something about the speakers. We didn’t have
any speakers. Well, that’s not entirely true, as Duffy had one spare set
left from a previous engagement. I asked if we could use those for my
helmet, and he said they were already set aside for someone else’s helmet.
I begged him to use them on my helmet, and he eventually agreed to use
them on mine. Unfortunately, one of the speakers didn’t want to work, so
it was tossed in the garbage. He said that I would have to order them
directly from a small shop, since you can’t just pick these up at any
store on the street. The speaker portion would have to be put on hold for
the time being.
It was getting late, people were hungry, and it was time to get
ourselves something to eat. We were almost going to have pizza delivered
to us, but everyone wanted these burritos that Duffy kept raving about. He
said they’re they best burritos around here, so we were going to hop in
the Walton van, and drive approximately 20 miles through the snow just to
eat some burritos. All I kept saying to myself is that “they better be
good!” We never found out if they were or not, as the snow seemed to have
intensified a bit. The roads were horrendous, and there was no way we were
going to drive all that way for some burritos. It was time to make a
decision, and that decision was to eat at the next available place.
Granted we were only in the car for maybe fifteen minutes, but we were
starving and it really didn’t matter what we ended up eating. Of all
places to stop for a bite to eat, we chose to eat at Burger King. Let me
tell you something. I haven’t eaten crap like that in a very long time,
and the food didn’t settle well with me. I’ll leave it at that.
We got back to Duffy’s after filling our stomachs with crap, and we
were there for no longer than an hour when someone mentioned the exact
time that it was. It was past 9:00pm. Bob and Mary needed to get going
since it was well past the girls’ bedtime. Duffy had worked on my helmet
the entire evening, never having an opportunity to work on the TIE pilot
helmet for Bob. I kind of felt bad for Bob about that, but I couldn’t
believe how long Duffy was working on just my helmet. Yes, we had to run
out to Radio Shack and then later to Burger King for some food, but we
arrived there around 3:00pm or so. In over six hours my helmet wasn’t even
close to being completed.
The Night Was Over
It was definitely time to start wrapping things up, and I made the
decision to leave my helmet with Duffy. I later ordered the speaker parts
by phoning in an order to the company Duffy recommended ordering through,
and I ordered extra parts for him and Bob (six speakers in total). I have
yet to make a trip out to Home Depot to pick up the aerator parts, but
that will happen sometime. That shouldn’t be too hard to setup. My biggest
concern is getting those speakers to Duffy, which should be shipping
directly to his doorstep (so that I don’t have to send them to him
myself). |
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