[MrBoxx]

Okay. Yesterday, I drove the four hours to Winona with a friend. Spoke to the guy next door and he said Jake was just there and left to run an errand across town. My friend and I went and got some food, then came back to wait for Jake to return.

While we were waiting, I called Vassil, who is one of the two guys who rent the shop. He said he would stop out at the shop and meet me and I could get in and take a look at my car. He mentioned that Jake had been at the shop the night before, from about 5pm till after midnight, working on the strut tower rust on my car. An hour later, Jake's girlfriend showed up and asked me what I was doing there. She obviously thinks I'm crazy or stalking her or otherwise bothering her and Jake needlessly. I told her I was waiting for Vassil, and she asked me "You talked to Vassil?" Me: Yes, just a few minutes ago. Her (doubting): "Really?" Me: Yes, really. He's on his way here. She wanted to know why I kept coming out there without calling anyone first. My answer to that is, for the past month and a half, Jake hasn't returned any of my attempts to contact him, so I figured he was hiding from me. Now if I just show up at the shop with him there by surprise, THEN we can talk. Anyway, she got out of her car and started walking in the shop door. I asked her if I could come inside and look at my car and she said she didn't want to let me in. Okay, fine with me. Vassil's on his way and he'll let me in. A few minutes later, she came out and left. I told her if she sees Jake to tell him to meet me at the shop.

Actually, Tim got there first and I introduced myself and he had no problem letting me in. Vassil got there about fifteen minutes later. We all talked for probably two hours. Jake indeed has made a little progress on my car, enough for me to believe he really intends to finish it, eventually. My engine is more or less done, it just needs to have a CAS and a valve cover put on and be installed in the car. Most of my other parts (intake, IC pipes, turbo, etc) are just kinda in a pile on the floor. I'm not exactly happy about that, but most of it's going to be replaced as soon as I get the car back.

Brian's engine, the one he sent to Jake, was sitting on an engine stand, totally untouched. Another short block, with a fresh rotating assembly, was sitting next to mine. Vassil thinks that Jake is going to consider Brian's old engine as a core, while giving him this other built block and head. Apparently, that's not what Brian and Jake had originally agreed on. Since Jake wasn't there and never showed up, I can't say for sure whose engine was whose or what the story was.

I left Jake a note taped to my car's windshield explaining that I wasn't pissed off at him (and I'm really not pissed, just disappointed and confused, which is really worse than being angry) and that I was happy to see that he was making progress on my car. I wrote that the strut tower patches on the one side look great, and the other side will probably turn out good too. I also told him to call me so we can talk, and that's really all I want at this point. I can live with him taking another month to finish my car; it won't be cool, but I don't absolutely NEED my car now like I did two months ago. But he does need to call me and let me know what's going on.

So... that's where it stands. Got home last night at 3:30am, had a doctor's appointment at 8:45am, and now I'm gonna go crash for a while. I'll post a few pics I took later on.