History in the Remaking

A 1949 Chevrolet, bought by my uncle for 100 bucks, and slowly being resurrected.

Car Season Is A Go!

As I'm sitting down to watch the 2013 Daytona 500, I'm excited car season is finally kicking off.  Good luck to Danica Patrick, starting from a historic pole position.  She's not my favorite driver, but she is my daughter's favorite, since they share a first name.

I'm Sorry Cars! Only a Couple More Months...

I've really let my cars down lately. For a month, my poor Mustang sat exposed to the elements in the driveway, because junk was in the way in the garage. My Falcon had become a glorified shelf. I'd accomplished nothing for months on that car. The cover I bought to put on the Monterey to keep it from further deteriorating while I focused on the Falcon still sits in the unopened box.

Why have I let my treasured cars come to such a sorry state? There are a lot of reasons. Fall means fishing and hunting. It also means Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I'm teaching two classes this fall also, so that cuts in to my free time. We inherited a bunch of camping gear for my daughter's Brownie troop, so naturally it ended up in my garage. Doing anything on the cars means cleaning the garage first, and that is just a pain. Throw into that mix the seemingly endless stream of illnesses my kids bring home, and there just isn't much time or energy for tinkering with the cars these days.

Daily life catches up to us every once in a while, and if you aren't careful, it takes over. When things are busy, it's hard to make the argument to your spouse that hobbies are important, especially when the yard needs mowing, the dog room needs to be cleaned, and the kids are getting into trouble.

It took an approaching hurricane for us to get the garage clear so I could get my prized car sheltered from the elements. Hurricane Sandy wasn't nearly as rough for us as last year's Irene was, but that was because we prepared. Part of that preparation was making sure the cars could get into the garage where they would be safe from falling tree branches or trees. I even made sure to get the car washed before the storm too, so it would be nice and clean while sitting in the garage.

It's as bad as it looks.

For two weeks, the garage was clean. Then my wife needed to get into the camping gear, I needed to get into my hunting gear, and suddenly my Mustang was back out in the driveway, and the Falcon was pulling double duty as a shelf again.

I suck, I know. But hunting season ends in a couple months, and it will be too cold to go camping. I'll have my garage sorted out in no time.