Presented without comment

 

The boys are back in town!

Alfred Pennyworth, my 2700lb. Butler…. he’s gotten me home safe & through the shit more times than I can count, and keeps on running! MoPar or NoCar!

Well, it’s been a trial of a year. ’12 was rewarding, while quite a hurdle. I brought Pop home from NY State (my heralded home), he’s now living comfortably in an apartment in Alameda across the hall form one of my best buds. No more 3000-mile-away calls and missing holidays, the family is all home again.

I quit my job (well, one of ’em) and rededicated my days toward making my home a happy one, and building myself for the years ahead. I had realized recently that if I don’t make a major change in my life and redirect my own rails toward happiness, I’ll end up with more regrets than accomplishments. I’ve been spending quite a lot of effort on clearing house, and diminishing the boxes of accumulated crap that seemed to keep me from making any headway on the important stuff! Too many small projects. I can tell you this; the joy in my life of having a happy wife (and a clean house, these may be related) is quite astounding.

On the N scale frontier, I’ve collaborated on some N scale layout action with a brother-in-law, during which time (and having been inspired again by his amazing appreciation of fewer trains, more tracks) I’ve sold off all the N junk I never really needed and refined my collection down to anything/everything I’ll actually run. Needless to say, there’s a lot to be done still for both of us but it’s nice to have a track plan! My NP collection now includes some nice custom locos, and I have sold off a lot of duplicates in favor of getting some other roadnames in on the rails. UP, GN, CN, ATSF, MILW, they’re all here! Represented by a majority of Intermountain’s stunning F3’s and F7’s, might I add; the out-of-box detail there still blows my mind!

As I sit here in the final planning stages of my first real, significant N scale venture (layout!) I am hesitant to start but eager to finish. There are tracks to be laid and engines to be fine-tuned, buildings to be built and trees to be planted. Quite the allegory for my own life, a ‘fresh start’ as the saying goes.

Contemplating what project to tackle next on my 1966 Plymouth Valiant Signet (see above), I work on a hot cup of coffee and realize that after I do a brake job on wifey’s Honda today I can actually do whatever I want today! It’s a pretty nice feeling. Maybe I’ll finish up the reupholstery project on the ’66, it took a few yards of black Vinyl and some finger-numbing stitching…. I’ve gotten rid of $12 ebay seat covers and now I slide into a smooth black bucket seat. The list of “car stuff” keeps dwindling and soon all I will need is a paint job on the Plymouth, and sign off a lease on the SO’s dream car (’12 Camaro, black), I can go back to just washing & polishing, cruising and car shows.

I think, for now, I’m gonna go read some MoPar fan websites and drink a bit more Trader Joe’s Java. Nice day out, too….