Been gone for a awhile, here's an update

I’ve been out of the loop on here lately and I hope everyone is doing okay. There have been a lot things going on with me and I had to put all of my extra projects on hold for a while. I’m pleased to say that things have gotten better, though.

First, my 86 year old mother’s health started to decline in the last few months of 2023. She insisted that everything was fine, but I was worried that it wasn’t. Like a lot of older folks (including me), she would not go to the doctor even though I insisted she let me take her. Finally, a few days into January of this year, she got bad enough that I had to call an ambulance. Long story short, she continued to decline even though the doctors at 2 different hospitals treated her. She had infections that simply would not stay cured and got weaker and weaker. She passed away on March 4th. Being an only child, all of the care, funeral stuff and dealing with her estate fell on my wife and me. I wouldn’t wish any of this on anyone.

Second, not long after mom went into the hospital, we had a short blast of frigid arctic air that dropped temps into the single digits. Hella cold for the deep south. I was trying to get mom’s house prepped for all this and stepped into an unseen hole in her yard. This left me with an extremely painful hip injury. I don’t know if I broke anything because, like my mom, I wouldn’t go to the doctor. I simply had too much going on with her to take the time. Whatever this injury was, it has just now gotten better, after almost 5 months. Only an occasional twinge of pain now. It was bad enough that I really did nothing that wasn’t required and had to resort to using a cane at times. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever be able to operate the clutch in the Healey again. I have only in the last couple of weeks felt like tackling anything in my shop.

All this put the Red Truck project on hold as I had intended to start on it in January. I’ll be posting an update on that thread soon. There has been some action there and it hasn’t been really good.

I’ll be reviving the Healey thread also since I am making a few hardware changes worth mentioning.

With the help of my son-in-law, I was able to get my dad’s old 95 Z71 truck running for my granddaughter. She will be getting her license this year and wanted a 4x4 truck. I think dad would approve. We had to change out the fuel tank and pump. Also had to rebuild the rear brakes because it had a blown wheel cylinder. It’s currently waiting on my daughter to buy a set of tires and we can start test driving it. It’s been sitting up for about 5-6 years, but fired off immediately once we got fuel to it. Not exactly a pretty thing, but solid with no rust. It should serve her well for many years.

I’ll also be attempting to get caught up on the threads I have missed on here. Cheers.

Good to see you back on posting, getting old is not for sissies.

Condolences on losing your mom, and also for having to deal with everything required to settle the estate. That's not an easy task and can be a real hassle.
Glad that your hip is better. My doc got a kick out of me telling him that I'd "jammed" a hip, and cut a sapling to make a cane to hobble around. When I asked what he thought about it he smiled and replied, "I'm still stuck on the picture of you standing on one leg in the shop making a cane!!"
Looking forward to your posts on both vehicles! Hang in, glad to see you back!

Welcome back Mike. So sorry to hear about your mom. Our condolences and prayers.

That hip injury does not sound fun. I hope you have better luck keeping track of your cane than I do. I'm still getting used to mine, I'll set it down then spend more time hunting for it than I do hunting for my glasses LOL.

Good to see you back in the shop and look forward to your posts.



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Welcome back Mike. It seems we all get that "rite of passage" thing where we get to pay back our folks for all the care they lavished on as newborns. That circle of life thing I guess.

Thanks guys. It was a tough time for sure, but things are getting somewhat back to normal.

As to losing the cane, yep all the time! Haven't needed it in a few days, though. Not looking forward to needing one all the time. Thank goodness I had plenty of anti-inflammatory meds on hand.