Ready for Spring

It has been a long, cold, winter for many parts of the country. Here in Southern Utah, we usually don't have to worry about snow and ice on the roads, and our weather is usually a lot warmer than our northern neighbors. But even here in the sunny southwest, we have had plenty of cool and wet days in the past couple weeks. I'm ready for spring, even though we have about a month of winter left.
Being a car guy, there is a lot of things I would like to be doing, if it were just a little warmer.  Everyone has their version of "spring cleaning", and that applies to car chores too. After a season of cooler days, and all the craziness of the holidays, our cars tend to be a bit neglected. They need a good vacuuming and a good wash job, and that's just the starting point. They also need a good wax job, and some quality wheel cleaning, and tire shine treatment. That's the kind of stuff I'm anxious to do, especially since I have a nice new garage to do it in.
Car enthusiasts should check out my book, just follow this link: Grab Some Gears

Lets keep that snow on the distant mountains, I'm ready for spring.

The New “Darwin’s Garage”

We have spent the last week moving into our new home. It has been a lot of work, but it’s finally complete. The last task I had to complete was moving everything that was to go in the garage. We had to give the epoxy coating on the floor plenty of time to cure properly.
The most enjoyable part for me was decorating the garage with all the automotive signs and memorabilia I have collected over the years. The organizing and putting everything in it’s proper place is also a very relaxing and enjoyable task for me.

Now maybe I can just relax, slow down, and start really enjoying this new home. On second thought, I now have two cars to get cleaned up after a week of neglect and rainy weather.  A car guy’s work is never done, and now I have a very nice place to do it. 😎

Just a glimpse of the new garage.

Another angle.

Darwin's New Garage

Coming soon, The new version of the actual "Darwin's Garage".  We're in the process of buying a new home, and it has a three car garage. It has a beautiful epoxy coated floor, finished walls , and I'm looking forward to how it will be decorated with all my automotive memorabilia. It's going to be great.  Stay tuned.

This is my current garage.  The new one will be much bigger and nicer.

New Car

A couple weeks ago we bought my wife a new car. We traded our 2014 Dodge Charger for this 2018 Chrysler 300 S. I had stoped by the local Dodge/Chrysler dealership to look at a red Charger I had spotted on their front row. As I parked my Mustang and started walking through the lot, I walked right past this 300, and the wheels caught my eye. They really made an impression, so I stopped for a better look of the whole car. After a call to my wife, and a test drive to show it to her, a couple hours of dealing and paperwork, and we were the owners of this beautiful Chrysler 300 S.

Home

Home may have a different meaning for different people. It could be your room in your parent's house, a dorm room while going to college, or your first home after getting married. For most people our first place is a rented apartment, or sometimes a small rented house, and many times it's not what we would consider an ideal "home".
I have been pretty lucky in that respect, after several rental apartments, homes, etc., for the first few years we were married, I built the first house we owned with my own hands. We had been married for seven years, and I was a new general contractor. After building several houses, I built one for myself, and it was the first home we actually owned. That was 40+ years ago.
We have now owned four different homes, two of which I built myself. We like to look at new houses, sometimes with the idea that we might actually be considering moving. We would like to have a little more room, and I still have hopes of having another three car garage. ("just in case you haven't guessed, I'm a garage guy")  In the last few days, we have had some family from out-of-town here, so we went looking at new houses with them a couple of different days. I couldn't help but notice when you walk through, and look around a new house, you always visualize how you would make use of the space, and make it your new home. I can almost see a Mustang in those three car garages. We could make it home, just let me prove it.

This is the last home I built myself.  It was in Northern Utah, and had a three car garage.

Night Out

Years ago, I used to really look forward to Friday and Saturday nights, out cruising the streets in my favorite performance car, seeing, and being seen, by other performance cars out cruising main. There was always the possibility of a street race or two. There was an excitement in the air, any life-long car guy felt it, as well as any new driver out cruising for the first time. When we hit the main drag in our muscle car, we could count on seeing the streets full of other hot cars. It seemed like every performance car in town was out and about. That's the way it used to be. Not any more. That part of the car enthusiast lifestyle is a long lost thing of the past.
Part of the reason for the change has slowly happened over the last 20 to 30 years. Young guys are no longer interested in performance cars. At least, not the way it used to be, especially compared to the way it was when I was young, and first started driving.
I can remember when I first noticed that things were different. About 15 years ago, I was out on the streets on a Friday night, after a long time of not going out, and it finally hit me. I could drive from one end of town to the other, and not see one other performance car on the streets. I remember thinking on my way home. "Well, it's finally happened. I'm the Last Street Racer".
Check out my book, just follow this link: Grab Some Gears

A night on the street, back in the summer of 2012.

Black and White

There was a time when everything was "black and white", not just our photographs, but the world around us, and the way people lived their lives. Maybe it's just the way we remember things from 60+ years ago, but I can't remember the world being as crazy as it is today.
There were serious issues back then, as history proves there has always been, but maybe the way people handled it was way more civil than it is today. I find it harder every day to watch the news on TV, or read about it on social media. I wonder if that isn't part of the problem. We are so "connected" to the world around us, and it seems almost all of the news we see is bad.
I come across this old photo from 1956 the other day, which is what started me thinking about the way things used to be. Of course, I was only six years old at the time, but the times were much simpler back then. The photo is of me, along with my cousins and my brother, on Christmas morning. I'm showing off my new cowboy six-shooters, the bad guys would be running for their lives. I just wish the holidays in 2018 could be as trouble free as they were in 1956.

Christmas 1956.