Cars, Bikes and Visualization....

I have my beloved Akasha back.

I had been thinking of selling her because of the never ending issues I seemed to be having. The Illustrious One adamantly told me that I would have to be crazy to sell her because she and I belong together. I knew he was right . My girl and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on April 11.

I spoke to one of my partners in crime, Nicky Bootz, about selling her since he's well versed in Corvettes. I believe his calm, wise counsel was along the lines of ... "Are you fucking nuts?"

My friend Pete, a former owner of 8 Corvettes, commandeered the situation and found a highly reliable gentleman that replaced her radiator -- brand new, fully warranted for $340.

On the Superstition front, Scott Arndt takes excellent care of her. He replaced her rear brakes - while I try to avoid braking as much as possible, she was unfortunately getting metal to metal. I asked Scott if I should get an oil change and after pulling out the dipstick and looking at the oil he said, "Nah -- you can still see through it."

I've mentioned to a neighbor Scott's comments and he replied, "An honest mechanic?! Wow!" Ha!

I am very fortunate to have some outstanding men in my life looking out for me.

Also on the Scott Arndt front he is now back to having his own shop. He will do service work for select people and building bikes. He's very happy to be back doing his own thing.

I think a lot of us in this industry just can't deal with being employees -- I know I can't. Often when people ask me what I do, I reply - "Whatever it takes to keep me out of a cubicle." The Illustrious One and I have discussed this -- so many people need to know what their paycheck will be every two weeks, when their vacation time is, etc. And I guess for them that's their comfort zone.

For me, while I am quite fond of large denomination new currency notes, I have to confess that I must have freedom and it works for me. I work on interesting projects, meen dynamic people, I keep crazy hours but if I want to take a more scenic route home - I can. Because I can always do my work at 3:00am if the mood hits - I am nocturnal by nature after all.

I believe the saying - "Do what you love and the money will follow." I strongly believe in the power of visualization. I have pictured things strongly like a Corvette, a Harley, a perfect condition matching numbered Peter Max Donald Duck Suite, etc.

For 9 years I have pictured a Waterford Mooncoin decanter -- strange I know -- but I have a reason. While Waterford never discontinues a pattern, they do assign many patterns to "specialty" status which means they only make them once a year. So it behooves me to keep a watch on eBay to replace my collection that was stolen many years ago. The bad thing is that once a pattern goes to specialty status, Waterford for some reason will destroy the mold for the decanter. Soooo -- the decanter has been unavailable for more than a decade and for the first time since I started using eBay in '97, I found one for sale.

My current visualization goal is a 3-floor townhome near McKinney Avenue -- hardwoods, lots of light, 2-car garage, etc.

Somehow, someway, I'll make it happen.