Can we find................our youth, our past

So a friend has recently asked me a question on Facebook. Well maybe more of a suggestion than a question.

Well I haven't seen my friend in close to 20 years. He's living south of me and hasn't really been seen or heard from by much of anyone.

His suggestion is to have road trip with two other friends like we used to do all the time 20 years ago. Damn..........hard to believe that it's been that long. I certainly don't feel my age.

So can 4 almost middle aged guys pull off a road trip similar to days gone by and still find new adventures? I think we can.

We have a prerequisite of things in the works to pull it off though.

Here are a few of the items needed:

• 1978 Brown VW Rabbit-this was the road trip car back then and no need to jinx ourselves with the wrong car.
  

• 4 cup holders big enough for the Super Big Gulp-This was always my best mates drink of choice on the road.

• 1 duffle bag filled with McDonald's Cheese Burgers-serious. Don't laugh. We used to eat A LOT of McD's on the road.

• Selection of 80's Hair Bands and New Wave- We were a pretty mixed group. My mate Brian was into metal: Def Leppard,Motley Crue,Winger,White Lion,Van Halen,Ratt,Kiss,Warrant. The other two (Josh and Ryan) were into other music: OMD,Cocteau Twins,Screaming Trees,Skinny Puppy,Revolting Cocks,Black Flag,Social Distortion,KMFDM......you get the idea.I listened to both happily. I like it all.
  

I will have to take up smoking again for this one. We used to by packs of Dunhills and Export A's for our trips. My favourites (and always will be) are a German brand: Botschafter. What can I say............I love a lot of German products.
(I don't read German but I think it says to smoke this in all German vehicles at high rates of speed)

So far I think Josh and I are serious about it. We'll have to convince the other two. I'm sure they'll want to go.

Road trips also involve collecting trinkets from your travels. Ours always consited of various street signs and flashing construction zone lights. We used to take those little flashing lights apart and paint designs on the inside and reassemble them so the pattern would flash on walls.

One road trip even involved Josh's dad paying Brian and I to take Josh to Oregon and leave him there. We should have charged more than $100.

So can 4 almost middle aged guys pull off a road trip similar to days gone by and still find new adventures? I think we can.

UPDATE: 8th annual BMW E30 Picnic

I know...........the picnic was a month ago. Sorry about that folks. I've been busy with other car shows and treating my wife and neighbour to lunch on one of my company's cruise ships and enjoying the really great sunny weather.

We had a great turnout this year for the E30 picnic. The attendance was through the roof with 243 E30's in attendance this year!!! When I first went 3 years ago there were maybe 120 E30's there. We officially have the largest gathering of E30's in North America (if not the world).

So here are some photos of my fav E30's there.

Clearly some folks were really excited to be there!!

This is my absolute fav: the E30 Touring. Only available in Europe. This one is a black market car.

This E30 actually belongs to a coworkers boyfriend. He has owned it for 25 years.

This one is one of my favs just because I like the Rat Rod look.

And finally we have an E30 with an LS1 Corvette engine stuffed into it. Damn.

A Lettre to my ex wife

Dear Choad Sucking Financial Vampire,

I wanted to thank you for your contact last week and to offer an apology.

I’m sorry that you feel walked on by me and by the judicial system and by the support enforcement system. After all these government agencies are most likely controlled and operated by men which you seem to have a hatred for.

I base your hatred of men on the fact that the several boyfriends you’ve had since our divorce look like men, but in fact have a ghostly outline of where their testicles should be. Only one of them was smart enough to get out from under your thumb by his own volition.

I’m sorry that the agreed upon amount for the child support (that was approved and signed off by a judge in a court of law) is not enough. It seems to me that since our children reside with me an average of 48% of the time throughout the year that you may have forgotten that I have just as many child related expenses as you do.

In fact I have incurred additional costs because of your lack of ability to provide health insurance for our children. These costs have been paid in the form of cash/credit directly to said purveyors of the services that were rendered.

Why haven’t I provided health insurance for the children you ask?

Oh well let me tell you why. If you had bothered to read the fine print in the support paperwork you would see where it very clearly states that as the non-custodial parent if my insurance available to me from my employer exceeds a specified cost of $100.25, then I am not obligated to provide it. This is just wrong in my own opinion. As human beings we are all entitled to health care. That being said the cost of health care from my employer is just over double that cost and goes up every October.

What about alternative health care you ask?

Good question! Let me inform you of that well traveled road. It seems that there isn’t a government backed or private health insurance provider in our free thinking liberal state that will allow me to purchase a policy for our children with the exception of my already existing work plan because I am not the custodial parent.

*apparently the definition of Non-Custodial Parent is one who is allowed to view his children from afar, but still bear the financial burden while the mother whines like a tea kettle whistle about the lack of cash.

What can you do to help remedy this problem you ask?

Again, very good question!! You could start by doing something like going to your employer and asking to place the children on your benefits.

What’s that you say? There are no benefits available to you from either employer because you don’t have enough hours weekly to qualify for any. Oh that’s a shame.

Might I suggest that you then start looking for a real job that offers 40 hours a week and benefits? There are plenty of entry level careers out there for single moms that have been waitressing for over 10 years that have not done anything to better themselves by means of advancement or education.

This segues nicely to my second apology. Or is it the 3^rd? Who cares!

I’m sorry that you work two jobs that rely on tipping and don’t provide a full 40 hours. If you look at my previous statement about the real job thing you might find that you have a bit more money and a chance for advancement and better career prospects in the future. Just saying.

I’m sorry that your current live in boyfriend of the last 2 years doesn’t contribute anything to your household. I understand from our children and his very own MySpace and Facebook pages that he is gainfully employed. This means that he should have the means to help you with your rent since he lives there too. He should have the means to buy some groceries. I assume he eats, but if he’s a mindless robot then a quart of 20/50 a month should do him fine. I can also assume that he does more than sit in the dark? So he must use electricity. Does he help pay that bill? What about internet. You have a computer. Does he help pay that bill as well?

My advice is to throw this freeloading prat onto the street or have a chat with him and start dipping into his wallet for a change.

I’m truly sorry that you feel you have been so put upon by the choices that you have made in life.

8th Annual BMW CCA Puget Sound Chapter E30 Picnic

First you'll all have to excuse my hiatus from the blog. Seems that when nice weather appears I seem to disappear from the computer. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I feel as if I'm ignoring a commitment.

So for the next few months I'll have updates on up coming auto shows/events in the region and around the Pacific Northwest and hopefully photos of said events.

First up on the list: the 8th Annual E30 Picnic. This is the 8th year that the Puget Sound Chapter of the BMW CCA has held this event. It is the largest gathering of the BMW E30 in continental North America.

For those of you not familiar with the BMW E30 series, please check out one of my posts regarding my very own E30, The Bronze Bitch or just wiki the E30 for a brief summary of the the car.

Oddly I wasn't a fan of this body style when it first appeared back in 1982. It just didn't appear to be as aerodynamic as the outgoing E21 body style of the 3 series. The other turn off for me was that the engine got smaller for the first year of the E30. The outgoing 3 series had a 2.0 litre 4 cylinder and the new 3 new series would have a 1.8 litre in the new model which was heavier by a good couple of hundred pounds. The upside looking back now: the E30 has the pleasure of being the first M3 introduced by BMW.

The E21 had the pre-M3 sports models from perfomance companies such as AC Schnitzer, Hartge and Alpina.

Over time though the E30 did grow on me. I mean a really long time. My first BMW was a 1981 E21. Black exterior/black interior. Fun car to drive for what it was. My friend had an E30. Just still couldn't get into that car. Seemed so lacking compared to mine. Well one more BMW under me and some 8 years later I was cruising Craigslist and searching for my next BMW when at the unholy hour of 1:30 in the morning (or there-abouts) I came across a freshly posted ad for this lovely 1987 325is. Those last two initials caught my attention so hard that my ADD could not pull me away from the monotony of staring at endless car ads. Those two little lettres: is. The "is" meant that this was the one that was the predecessor to the M3. It was also the one that was sold in market areas where the M3 was not available. The 325is had all the thrills and punch that this model should have had from the very begining.

Well here it is 3 years later. I'm still enjoying my E30 and thankfully there are enough enthusiasts out there that are still loving these cars as well and this weekend we will celebrate them. This event has grown from an afternoon gathering to a full on sponsored weekend event.

Saturday is the tech session at Griot's Garage (just one of the BMWCCA's many supporters) and then a friendly's gathering for the owners to hang out and chat E30's and general debautcher.

Sunday is the big get together at the XXX Drive In in Issaquah. Cars start arriving at 8am and we finish up about 2pm and then there is the after picnic drive. This year we are expected to break the 200 car mark.

We are also expected to have some special guests with joining the picnic this year. First up is Satch Carlson; editor in chief and columnist for the BMW CCA national magazine Roundel.

Second guest will be (from what I have heard) Steve Johnson the Vice President of the Pacific Region of the BMW CCA.

If you find yourself in the area, come in and see these amazing cars!!!