What a great thread – thanks for sharing Scooter. Some wonderful follow on posting, i.e., “We cry because we miss them, we celebrate them with memories and laughter.” And, “How can I only be 65, and have lost so many close friends already? Many never made it to 40! I guess there are no guarantees in life! God bless 'em all for sharing this crazy passion with me! I hope it enriched their time here too!”

We’ve all been touched by someone somewhere who pointed us toward cars be it hotrods, paint, building engines, “technical-inspections-of all things-that-go-fast”, etc.

By default, my father fixed nearly everything in our home growing up. When I was a kid I always thought it was just because he was brilliant beyond belief and now I realize that dollars were often times hard to come by. But such was my early exposure to tools and all things mechanical. Dad would often tell me to, “Listen real close and the engine will tell you what’s wrong.” He often used a broomstick and later a stethoscope as an initial diagnostic tool. Dad died in 1995 and there’s not a day goes by I don’t miss him, but I know he’s hanging around a workshop in heaven waiting for me to join him as we’ve still got a lot of stuff to do together.

The loss of a loved one causes us to reflect (as well it should) but hopefully it encourages us to love those we love and perhaps reach out to those we’ve not talked to for a while. We lost Joanie’s mom this past February – day after Joanie and my 40th anniversary. Joanie was with her when she died and there was nothing left unsaid, but we will miss her sorely as she was such a wonderful woman and a real encourager to us. Joanie turned 63 this past Wednesday and as I’ve read this post I have to admit I'm not getting any younger. We need to pursue our passion and not wait too long to do those things we long for as none of us knows when our last breath will be.

I really do enjoy this site – I met few of you face-to-face, but feel close to a great many and plan to meet a few more of you on some road trip coming up real soon!

Regards All,
Glenn