So lets catch up

Topic: So lets catch up (Read 10887 times) previous topic - next topic

So lets catch up

Reply #45 – November 21, 2016, 03:14:12 PM

Quote from: Tbird232ci;458081

That sounds like a degree where you didn't want to make any money What kind of work do you do?

Well it's not a degree I recommend getting unless you have some sort of job/career path lined up, like I did. Currently I manage a public library building and supervise 10 people. Let's just say it's civil service and pays well enough

So lets catch up

Reply #46 – November 22, 2016, 03:43:48 PM

Quote from: EricCoolCats;458150

LOL Yeah, same place. The dye came out with no issues. ;)

It's amazing what small details come to mind ;)

Quote from: thunderjet302;458162

Well it's not a degree I recommend getting unless you have some sort of job/career path lined up, like I did. Currently I manage a public library building and supervise 10 people. Let's just say it's civil service and pays well enough .

That's actually really fortunate. I have a handful of friends with liberal arts degrees and have absolutely no career options.

So lets catch up

Reply #47 – November 22, 2016, 05:30:30 PM

Quote from: Tbird232ci;458184

That's actually really fortunate. I have a handful of friends with liberal arts degrees and have absolutely no career options.

Oh I know. I don't look the gift horse in the mouth....

I only got the degree because of employer assistance/career path made it worth the time/money. Having a BS in management helps as well. I know several people I went to graduate school with who don't have steady jobs in the field 4 years later. I was shocked at the amount of people in my classes who didn't have something lined up for when the finished school. In this field it's almost a must.

So lets catch up

Reply #48 – November 23, 2016, 11:23:42 AM

Quote from: V8Demon;457963

I was the THIRD person he bit within a month..... The one before me was an elderly woman whom he put in the hospital for weeks..... It wasn't my first rodeo with him.

To find out how often it happens you could always contact your local SPCA. Most munilities require them to be notified in such instances.

Just wondering really. Something that will unfortunately happen from time to time, but clearly not the norm. They're always great to see, I'm a total sucker for shepherds :)

Beau, you're right you definitely put on a good show. You hinted at not being exactly thrilled with things sometimes. Glad that you recovered. A former co-worker told me that the best things in life aren't things. And I'm finding that myself.

So lets catch up

Reply #49 – November 27, 2016, 10:00:46 PM

Boo!

To summarize my last 8 years, the girl you met when we last saw each other I married. Gumby was there

We now have two kids, a 2 1/2 year old and a 1 month old. Bought a house, do some farming when we have time. Life has been good.

I still have my 88, I have tried to sell it a couple of times. The buyer either fell through or people had little interest. It has sat for years getting started every couple months suffering from a low fuel pressure issue. I actually dropped the tank and fixed it this week, it rekindled an interest in the car now that it runs great again. I even washed it! That's why I'm here and how I even saw your thread.

I notice its a bit different around here, I think people have moved on to different projects. I personally have gone down the diesel truck route but mostly due to needing them on the farm. As we get older and the pay increases we can afford the dream cars and move on from the foxes that only filled the void. My money gets spent on farm equipment though :hick:

So lets catch up

Reply #50 – November 28, 2016, 12:22:25 PM

I'm still here, but don't post a whole lot. Life is good, but busy.

Still have the '83 and have plans to get some work done on it (Been hard to get too motivated to get too deep into stuff, as I don't like leaving things apart sitting outside). Got married (again) back in March and we are closing on another house in a week. More room for the car projects and finally a spot to get the TBird back into an indoor home.

So lets catch up

Reply #51 – November 28, 2016, 03:02:39 PM

Quote from: CougarSE;458268

Boo!
As we get older and the pay increases we can afford the dream cars and move on from the foxes that only filled the void.

I don't know. I've had the same Fox for 14 years, even with pay increases. I have no plans to get rid of it any time soon ;)

So lets catch up

Reply #52 – November 29, 2016, 05:24:43 PM

I am looking to find the right home for my fox. It's in the ad section of this website. Would make a good project as ground effects are there. Window dew wipes need replaced and front window seal. A little front end work and she'll be golden. Some surface rust but not terrible. I'd like her to be indoors this winter. I will bring it home Saturday to columbus ohio. Askin 2000 cause of HCI, 5 speed, exhaust, A9L computer, fuel injected, mass air, 24 lb injectors. No interior needs complete recover. All parts are there. chipped!!!!!!111!!!!!!!!!!!eleven!!

So lets catch up

Reply #53 – December 05, 2016, 02:01:12 AM

Quote from: CougarSE;458268

Boo!

To summarize my last 8 years, the girl you met when we last saw each other I married. Gumby was there We now have two kids, a 2 1/2 year old and a 1 month old. Bought a house, do some farming when we have time. Life has been good.

I still have my 88, I have tried to sell it a couple of times. The buyer either fell through or people had little interest. It has sat for years getting started every couple months suffering from a low fuel pressure issue. I actually dropped the tank and fixed it this week, it rekindled an interest in the car now that it runs great again. I even washed it! That's why I'm here and how I even saw your thread.

I notice its a bit different around here, I think people have moved on to different projects. I personally have gone down the diesel truck route but mostly due to needing them on the farm. As we get older and the pay increases we can afford the dream cars and move on from the foxes that only filled the void. My money gets spent on farm equipment though :hick:

At least you didn't marry the stripper :D

How much property do you have that you're farming? What are you growing?

Quote from: Chuck W;458278

I'm still here, but don't post a whole lot. Life is good, but busy.

Still have the '83 and have plans to get some work done on it (Been hard to get too motivated to get too deep into stuff, as I don't like leaving things apart sitting outside). Got married (again) back in March and we are closing on another house in a week. More room for the car projects and finally a spot to get the TBird back into an indoor home.

Man, I didn't know you were married before. Shows how well I paid attention.

Quote from: thunderjet302;458279

I don't know. I've had the same Fox for 14 years, even with pay increases. I have no plans to get rid of it any time soon

Show off.

So lets catch up

Reply #54 – December 05, 2016, 04:16:40 AM

Pssshhh. Only 14 years, Lou?

New year's day will be the Nineteenth anniversary of me owning mine.

So lets catch up

Reply #55 – December 05, 2016, 05:11:45 PM

Quote from: V8Demon;458392

Pssshhh. Only 14 years, Lou?

New year's day will be the Nineteenth anniversary of me owning mine.

I couldn't even legally drive 19 years ago....

So lets catch up

Reply #56 – December 05, 2016, 11:20:20 PM

Quote from: Tbird232ci;458390

Man, I didn't know you were married before. Shows how well I paid attention.

This is actually #3.

The last one was done over 10 years ago, so...

So lets catch up

Reply #57 – December 06, 2016, 07:33:34 AM

My Bird is a keeper. No question about it. I still peck away at it when I can.

So lets catch up

Reply #58 – December 06, 2016, 08:00:07 AM

Wow, what an amazing set of stories. Well here goes. I don't usually post any personal stuff on the internet. I got burned back in 1998 (seriously) and it was bad enough that it scarred my for nearly 20 years. I still don't have a facebook account.

I had a couple T-Birds growing up, but "my car" was an '84 that I spent over a year on when I was 15 years old. I loved that car, until I was the victim of a hit and run, and had to tear it apart and rebuild it. In the end, I was dirt poor and I had already spent my money fixing it once, so I wasn't able to do it right, and it became a nuisance for me. Fast forward some 20 years, and I was diagnosed with cancer and given an 80% chance of recurrence. The particular type of cancer that I had is aggressive and doesn't respond to chemo or radiation, only removal. I avoided all the quality of life issues that everyone else has when they are diagnosed, but on the other hand, we have to watch it like a hawk, and I get regular PET scans. When it comes on, it comes on like a storm, and the usual remedy is removing lymph nodes so that it doesn't spread. Fortunately for me, I've been cancer free since the initial diagnosis, and if I can make it another 4 years, I will be a normal person, statistically speaking.

With this life event, I decided I wanted to take some time and teach my kids things that I know. I am a self-proclaimed workaholoc. We were very poor growing up, and I decided that I never wanted to live that way again, so I have always put work above most things in life. I decided to get back into cars, and make time to teach my kids, because it was something that I really enjoyed doing. My son and I were building a pro-touring 1968 buick skylark convertible for him to drive, and he turns to me and says, "wouldn't this be cool if it were a mustang?" I was active on the buick forums, so I posted a for sale ad and had it all gone in two weeks. I decided to instead focus on my own passion, which was building a fox thunderbird "the right way" - something I could never afford in my youth, and let me son fend for himself ;-)

I'm 42 years old, and my fox t-bird journey you could categorize as the opposite of the 7 stages of grief: From euphoria leading back to denial. I found a great, low mileage car, and proceeded to work on it. In the mean time, parts became more scarce, so as I saw parts cars come up, I just bought them. I literally have 5 cars now (2x88, 1x87, and 2x86), and only two in drivable condition. My son is driving one of the '86s right now, but he's getting tired of working on it, and is looking for something else.

For me, I have simply run out of time. I have two boys in driving age, and a girl right behind them. I find that I'm spending a lot of time working on their stuff, and absolutely zero time to work on my own. I want to teach my kids the value of hard work, so I made a deal with each of them. I would pay half for whatever car they wanted to buy. Period. Literally anything that they wanted as their first car, I would pay half of the money for, but they had to earn the other half. It's been an interesting social experiment with my oldest setting really high goals, but not attaining them (he wanted a new Ferrari, but ended up with a 1986 t-bird), and my middle son diligently saving and not spending everything he saved. Instead, he bought a very nice 2006 Lincoln LS with heated and cooled seats. As a Dad, it's very rewarding teaching your kids to make decisions, and then to teach them to deal with the consequences of those decisions. I have to remind my oldest who "settled for what he could afford" that my offer to pay half was a one-time thing :flame:

When you have teenagers, things get really busy. We're a swimming family, and my kids swim both the winter season and summer season for the school, but then the spring and the fall, they swim on a select team for a local college, which means year-round swim practice, swim meets, etc. In addition, I am an assistant scoutmaster with the boy scouts.

Work-wise, things are insane. I am an executive in the software industry. As part of my cancer-induced life reflection, I decided I didn't want to finish my days on this earth working for the maniac that I was working for, so I switched companies. But that hasn't made things any less stressful. I started with the new firm in order to launch a product line, and we grew that product literally from zero to $2B in revenue with 4500 companies in 5 short years. I'm now managing three lines of business, and in the last year, I have launched another business line, and I am working with a startup division within the company to launch yet another new line of solutions. The thing about this industry is there's never a shortage of ideas and initiatives and nothing lasts long-term. If you sit still, someone will capitalize on that, and you'll get left behind quickly. Because of this and my high risk tolerance, I've been extremely fortunate and have done well financially. I don't have any complaints, except that it has required 12-14 hour days and a lot of weekend work. It's getting more intense lately as well, and the numbers are much higher. 20% growth on $1M is much different than 20% growth on $2B.

Over the summer, we did really well in the market, and I got within 20% of my "retirement number" and my wife and I started reflecting on what's next in life. We thought about moving, but decided that we didn't want to take all of our stuff with us - we have too much. As we reflected on what's really important, and what we want to take with us, there are a few heirloom items, a bunch of pictures and memories, but the rest we really didn't have a purpose for, and that includes my thunderbird obsession. We decided that we're going to keep status quo until the kids are out of high school, but once that happens, we're going to move somewhere else. We still don't know where, but it will be somewhere with much milder winters.

Which bring me to the long-winded point of this post. Part of all this reflection made me realize that we didn't need to wait 5 years to purge everything, we can start working on it now. When the time is right, we can walk away from our house, leave the keys in the door, and start a new life somewhere else. I know it sounds crazy - my sister tells me all the time - and that's probably not what will happen, but the goal is to get to the point that we could realistically do that when the time comes.

So that's why I posted the "interest" thread in the for sale section. I really do enjoy these cars, and it has been fun amassing the collection that I have, but it doesn't fit my 5 year plan, so it needs to go.

FWIW, I have always felt like a member of this family. It's part of my daily ritual to read this forum after I work out. It brings a normalcy to my crazy days!

Geoff

So lets catch up

Reply #59 – December 06, 2016, 09:15:03 AM

i am totally still into these cars, birds & cougs. I guess im an odd ball. I cannot imagine what the eventual day looks like when i can no longer drive one. I feel just as ambitious and energetic about the preservation aspect as well. I was 15 playing basketball in my driveway when i was finally united with the commercials i saw about that car the cougar........ as it drove by i saw the full side profile and at that moment i decided i will have one. No one could buy me a car or get me a college education as we were a family of very humble means. I come home from bootcamp and my father and i go out and at the first stop, the first car lot, there was the 84 coug with a v6. 3200$ cash and i drove home in it,, and down to avionics A school in memphis tn.

anyone who knows me knows i seem to wear the same car. i have had 4, my first 84 total loss at the intersection where circuit city once operated in va beach. The second 84 my rental apt tree fell on it.. then i re-enlisted and cashed in my leave days and bought my white 87... its being restored now for my youngest son although i am dealing some lonely time by myself nearly every available day... SON where art thou!,, this hurts me and i hope he snaps out of it. skype and IoT seem to be more interesting for him yet he's my passion as well, my son and i am working hard to preseve and old machine he can be proud to own. I love these old cars and for the sake of conversation, thier simplicity and ease to remediate and fix with a modern solution if needed when no part is available. I worry about the tone lately around here and one day i had a bad feeling that our community of this board will yeild and error 404 when i jump on to find information.... I have this feeling everyday now since i have started paying close attention. to anyone with that feeling of moving on, keep one of your fox cars, its a part of who you are, these cars have personalities and wishes just like you to survive, be noticed and be liked. If they could only for a brief moment be gifted with the opportunity to speak words, they would all tell us they also do not want to die.