008 - Things With Wheels

Not much new to report this week.  So if I can.  If you'll allow me.  If you wouldn't mind too terribly much.  I may digress.

It's about cars, yes.  Of course, this is a blog about a car.  But this is also a story about us.

A story about where we've been and where we're going, and this car?  This car is just one step in that adventure.  That adventure I wouldn't trade for all the anything in the world.  The stuff is fun and vaguely amusing, but the memories.  The relationships, the stories, the adventures.  That's the treasure.  For me this ridiculous thing with wheels is a way to create memories.  When it's done it will be a fun toy to have, but it's the journey that got us there.  And then the memories we will create with it, the places it will take us to, the people we will meet just because they want to stop us and say "Woah! Cool! Tell me about this"

I started this blog with a statement about my love of wheeled things.  It's ridiculous, don't really know how to explain it.  But it's there.  It's real, and it's part of me.  Here's a picture of two wheeled things that make me smile.  Well one wheeled thing, and one thing to become wheeled at some point in the future.  This makes me happy.  But I look at that bike, and don't see the bike.  Instead there are miles and miles and miles of adventures with family, with friends, with random strangers.  Where that bike has taken me is so much more interesting than the bike itself.  For me the thing has limited importance beyond being a tool, or a means to an end.



The Coupe?  Potential.  Potential to generate untold adventures, stories, joys, heartbreaks, laughter, tears, and time together.  I love all the technical bits and challenges, but to do this alone...  I'd be lost.  Bored.  Probably sell a partially built car to someone else.  Not sure I care that much.  In another way, I love mountain biking, one of my favorite ways to spend time.  But on my own, pedaling through the woods without another soul to share the experience?  Not sure I care that much.  

I would label myself a car guy.  Others might agree.  I would label myself a mountain biker.  And still others would agree.  But more than that I'm a husband, father, brother, son, friend, someone who simply enjoys spending time with the people he loves.  And with some, simply sitting, being, existing is enough.  Residing in the same room with only the sound of a page being flipped, a breath taken, a slight shift in a chair.  But for some, the activity brings close, bonds, shapes the memories.  When words fail, but time is desired we will turn a wrench, problem solve together, and bang our knuckles against an unyielding bit of automotive hardware.  The shared experience, the creation of an object is immensely satisfying and what most of my career has been focused around.  This is a way to include my family in the creation of something big and complex and satisfying.  To get in way over our heads, but know that it will all work out in the end.

And at some point to stand back.  Admire.  Smile.  And say look!  Look at what we created!  As our minds fill with memories that brought us to that moment.

So thank you.  For letting me.  For allowing me because I did.  Digress.

It may happen again.


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