well, i'm sending it out early tonight ... cause my alternator died
on me as i was turning into my driveway. :(  something had been making
sickly noises, somewhat akin to fan-belt-driven devices of some sort,
back in Ye Olde Engine-Land ... i wasn't sure if it was an alternator
bearing (cause of the "howling" aspects of the noise; and cause nothing
seemed amiss electrically) or the power steering pump. well, before i
shut it off, there were sparks (metal-to-metal kind) coming out of the
alternator, so i'm pret-ty sure that's the culprit!

that's the good news. :(  the bad news is:
(1) auto electric shops in this fleabag town can't even spell Bosch.
(2) the ONE possible alternator in stock at the FLAPS might not be the
    right one.
(3) all other possibilities are 60 miles away.

it's gonna be a fun day, i'm sure. $160-$270, depending on where i can
get it. :(

anyhoo, here's the Weakly Stats: for all you Unknowns (i.e., Newbies
to the list since last Friday, who haven't told me what bus you are
driving/wanting/pushing/pulling/watching-rust/etc), this is what
i "do" with the info requested in Gerry's welcome letter.

here's where everyone is located:

-AUS            3   -SWE            1   IN              4   OR.NW           9
-CAN            1   -UK             3   KY              2   PA.C            1
-CAN.ALB        1   -UK ENG         9   LA              1   PA.E            7
-CAN.ALB.Cal    2   -UK WAL         1   MA             10   PA.W            4
-CAN.ALB.Edm    1   -ZA             1   MD              6   RI              1
-CAN.ALB.Med    1   AL              3   ME              2   SC              2
-CAN.BC.Int     1   AZ.N            2   MI              5   TN              2
-CAN.BC.Van     4   AZ.S            5   MN              4   TX.ASA          8
-CAN.BC.Vic     6   CA.BA          31   MO              4   TX.D            6
-CAN.MAN.Win    1   CA.N           12   MT              2   TX.H            4
-CAN.NB.Fred    1   CA.S           15   NC             15   TX.L            1
-CAN.ONT.Ott    8   CO              7   NE              3   UT              2
-CAN.ONT.Tor    3   CT              2   NH              1   VA              6
-CAN.QUE        1   DC              1   NJ              6   VT              2
-CAN.QUE.Mon    3   FL.N            7   NM              2   WA.W           25
-FR             1   FL.S            1   NY.NY           6   WI              6
-GER            1   GA              7   NY.W            4   WV              1
-IRE            1   IA              4   OH              9
-NL             1   IL              3   OR.NE           1
       Unknown      79      Total       409

and here's what everyone is driving/pushing/etc.

50 Microbus   0  59 Microbus   6  68 Bus   5  80 Vanagon  12  91 Eurovan   1
51 Microbus   0  60 Microbus   5  69 Bus  11  81 Vanagon  15  92 Eurovan   2
52 Microbus   0  61 Microbus   4  70 Bus   9  82 Vanagon  29  93 Eurovan  10
53 Microbus   0  62 Microbus   3  71 Bus  27  83 Vanagon   9  94 Eurovan   0
54 Microbus   0  63 Microbus   3  72 Bus  17  84 Vanagon  22  95 Eurovan   1
55 Microbus   0  64 Microbus   5  73 Bus  28  85 Vanagon  28
56 Microbus   1  65 Microbus   8  74 Bus   6  86 Vanagon   8
57 Microbus   2  66 Microbus  13  75 Bus   5  87 Vanagon  20
58 Microbus   1  67 Microbus  10  76 Bus  10  88 Vanagon   4
                                  77 Bus  12  89 Vanagon   6
                                  78 Bus  10  90 Vanagon  10
                                  79 Bus   8  91 Vanagon   7

 Microbus  61 - Camper  19, Panel    7, Pickup   6, Kombi   10, Deluxe   9
 Bus      149 - Camper  82, Panel    1, Pickup   4, Kombi    7
 Vanagon  170 - Camper  80, Panel    0, Pickup   1, Diesel  15, Syncro  14
 Eurovan   14 - Camper   7, Panel    0, Pickup   0, Diesel   1
 Total    394

 Vanagon Mailing List   409 people,   394 vehicles
   61 Microbus,  149 Bus,  170 Vanagon,   14 Eurovan
   69 Unknown,    23 Wanabus

 gopher site: halfdan.med.umn.edu:/Miscellaneous/Vanagon
 ftp site:    lenti.med.umn.edu:/pub/vanagon
 URL: gopher://halfdan.med.umn.edu:70/11/Miscellaneous/Vanagon
WWW/HTTP info available from:
 http://www.teleport.com/~des/vw
 http://www.automatrix.com/~skip/volkswagen
 http://www.polaris.net/~jclark/vwstuff.html
 http://www.alldata.tsb.com/
 http://iraf.noao.edu/~lytle/lytle.html
 http://query5.lycos.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/pursuit?vanagon
 http://www.chaco.com/~coyote/vw.html