Captainkirk's Duster project

Hey Cappy, er, Cap'n (sorry... ok not really that sorry, I thought it'd be a witty reference to your Duke encounters),

I can't brag like the others about reading your tome in one sitting. It's taken me 4 or 5 days here, but that's not to say it hasn't been compelling. It has. It resonates louder than the worn glasspacks on my old '69 xxxx (don't want to say what that car was lest I be flamed off here) I've loved the read.

Probably what resonates for so many others here as well as myself is how we're all in that same motivational boat. Your story has strengthened my own resolve on my project(s). (maybe more on the parenthesized "s" after "project" a bit later)

My son came to me recently, wistfully longing to build a car with me to learn mechanical skills and paint skills (as if I could teach him PAINT!!) so we searched around a bit and a bought a 70 Dart Swinger a few months back. I'll be picking up the engine pieces tomorrow from the machine shop. Engine assembly begins.

I've worried about my own motivations, and the depth of the funding needed to FEED said project. But you and the others posting here are certainly inspiring me. I appreciate especially your postulation that one really needs an acknowledgment of a new "stage" of life-course, and the resultant change in lifeSTYLE. Well, as Gomer Pyle might say, "SHAZAM!", that's what actually seems to be taking place. Tonight, without anything else to do, it was cleaning small parts -- pulleys, valve covers, plug wire looms, etc.

Seems to me YOU were gonna take that tack for the winter. Clean small parts, that is. In your shop at work. (nudge, nudge) So get out there and make it happen. Or maybe your new corporate job doesn't allow you that privelege. But days are longer now, they're warming up, and, dare I say, "Yer burnin' daylight, Pilgrim!" Maybe that'll spur you on and there'll be more to read.

Forward, HO!

JD