Runs With Sticks

So if a dog runs with a stick, is that the same as people running with scissors?

Selling my past

So I have decided that I have to much stuff. So much in fact that I need to get rid of stuff.

Where does it all come from? Last I knew I was a 20 something with no possessions and now KAPOWW!!!! I have a condo and an on site storage full of stuff!!!!

This just isn't right.

What's going? Well damn near everything. Clothes that for whatever reason I just didn't wear anymore. I don't know why. It just happened. Maybe they got a little snug and I thought that I'd drop a few pounds and hang onto those clothes so that I could wear them again. Never happened.

There are free tools from my *surrogate parents home almost 4 years ago.

They are not my real parents, but they the treat me like one of the family.

Back the story. So these parents of some close friends decided to sell their house and buy a new motourhome and travel the US for a while. After all is said and done with getting their house ready to sell and on the market they pull away in their shiny new diesel pusher saying that anything they have left in the garage we can sell, keep or throw away.

Wow what a deal. There was a lot of shit in that garage. Not in the literal sense but just in the metaphoric. They had a lot of stuff. There's that word again. I think the word stuff was created to generalise the sense of one's belongings that just couldn't be defined by any one category.

So after hauling much of the stuff to the refuse station I called two friends that love tools. I told them it was a free for all and come get what they needed/wanted.

Marc took tools that he did not have, but had been meaning to get at some point. To give better insight on Marc: he has a two car garage filled with tools. Literally. When you open his garage door you are met with a wall of tools. There is a path. He has wood working tools in one area. Automotive tools in another. Manufacturing tools in one spot (including a sheet metal press) and the list goes on. As I write this he is extending the back of his garage 6 more feet to make room for.............you guessed it!! MORE TOOLS.

Then there is Dan. Dan doesn't care if he needs it or not. He will take it. A tool is always a good tool to Dan.

So I looked in the bin the other day of the few tools I did take. Never have used them and obviously didn't need to since I haven't missed them. Time for them to go.

Next on the chopping block: childhood relics. There are two rocking chairs from my toddler hood that were both hand made for me. My kids never used them and I don't know of anyone in my family with small kids that wants rocking chairs. Time for them to go.

N-gauge train equipment. Yes it must go. There is hundreds of dollars in these things. Trains are ok but it's just not my bag. Guess I grew up in the wrong era.

The bowling ball went. I think used it last about 4 years ago. Old toys that I thought I would start a collectibles shoppe with. Never happened. Those must go too.

The hardest one of all............my massage table. Ugh. This one is hard because I laboured for one solid year to get an education. Yes one solid year. I went to school full time at nite 5 days a week while holding down a full time job and two kids and a (now ex) wife that wanted to go to massage school too. There were even weekend workshops (Saturdays and Sundays) two weekends a month. Yes I paid my dues on this one. I did graduate at the top having an overall average of a 95% percent on all work and testing throughout the year. I had my massage school certificate. I took my state exam 3 weeks later and had my state license first time around.

I'm rambling.............oh yeah massage table. Well I've posted it on Craigslist tonite. In 12 years the table has seen less and less use. My last and only client has fizzled out on me. Economy. Must be. She has no money. All too familiar these days. I just don't have the patience to wait for her to have money again. I want my house back. I want all the clutter gone.

Nick knacks and trinkets............gone!! If it doesn't have a use in my life at this moment then it goes.

We've been holding off on some large items to sell at a yard sale that my friend Dan's wife is having next weekend. What doesn't sell becomes property of the Goodwill on the way home.

I really thought that getting rid of so much of my past would be harder than it is. It really isn't. It's just stuff. There's that word again.

I have the memories of all this stuff. That's the only clutter I think I really need.

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.