Side Project

So… I've always been the type of person to overthink things. I can typically talk myself out of what other people would see as "fun". An example of this is my life long interest in classic cars. In fifth grade, during a school magazine drive, I signed up to a two year subscription to Popular Hot Rodding magazine. Ever since then I've been able to identify the year, make, model, and modifications for an unusual amount of cars (for a poser :)). Add to this an addiction to car shows, and a daily craigslist search for muscle cars, and you would think that I would have rebuilt multiple cars by now. The reality of it is, however, that I only recently sold the same four-door Honda Accord that I'd driven driven for the last 16 years.

On September 24th, I received my first email ever from my 12-year-old son… It was entitled "Sam's car":

Hey Dad,
hows it going? it going great here. I want a Camaro. specificly a 1967 rs ss Camaro
anyways =) i found a bunch of them on craiglist check out the links
See you later.
smiley faces your son,
                           Sam

This email was followed by 10 craigslist links to 10 cars, none of which was for sale for less than $40K…No father has ever been so proud :-). Sam's interest, combined with my growing sickness of my  own poser-ship, combined with Amy's encouragement, combined with the willingness of a few insanely gifted friends with real (versus poser) car experience, lead Sam and I to make the following purchase:

The car's arrival made quite an impact on the neighborhood!

As you can see, the car is on a trailer.… It was not running at the time we picked it up, but, thanks to the tireless work of a couple "uncles / car friends" (we've had to be specific about what we call these guys because, otherwise, Jake calls them "Dad's boyfriends") it's on its way to road worthiness.

Though our family CLEARLY has a number of other things on our plate, I'm finding this "side project" to be a much needed distraction from The Project…Sam and I are clearly in over our heads, but are very excited to have a project to work on together.  Many thanks to Amy for being the rare type of insane wife/mother that encourages this type of thing! Many thanks to Uncles Tim and Tyler for an epic retrieval trip (full-length feature film expected in 2014) and for their understanding, mentorship, and wrench time!

Wish us luck!… Better yet, bring your coveralls and come get dirty with us :-)

Seth