A glance backwards

One of the nice things about life is that it gives us a great timeline that we can look back on. Certain things are bound to get a little bit fuzzy here and there but for the most part we are all blessed with a good memory that is filled with the times gone bye.

More recently though I've been spending a lot of time looking forward, where is life heading? It's not the easiest thing to try and extrapolate out the trajectory of your life. If past experiences are anything to go by, the progression of life is neither linear nor exponential. At the best it's nearly completely random with periods of tranquility, disaster, contemplation, and explosion so closely intermingled it's hard to tell the difference at time.

So what's the point of trying to draw a plan out over the next five years? Well bluntly put I'm an engineer and having a set of blueprints is something so ingrained into my nature that to stray from it would be like trying to paint a picture with a cat as your brush. Sure it'll work, but it's not going to look that great, and you'll end up with some scratches.

With all that said though I've done the best I can with my lovely wife to try and lay in the trajectory of our life for a manageable portion of our future. There's no sense trying to map the whole thing as we've already discussed. But no sooner had we laid in this trajectory and set our heading did life feel the need to throw me one of the lovely curve balls it's so fond of and make me question my own heading.

Does this ever happen to you? It's not that I was knocked out of my trajectory or off the horse, rather that a new option showed itself that I hadn't anticipated that suddenly made me doubt the way I was going.

At times like this, I'm glad that I can look back and see other moments in my life when exactly the same thing happened. I was just as clueless then as I am now, but it's nice to know that I've been there before and lived through it to get to here. It's times like this that I'm grateful I have the Lord to lean on for direction, and a wife to experience the ride with hand in hand.

But what about the Mustangs?

So as you know, or knew, or read, or something along those lines. One of the big things I had intended to do with this blog was to track the rebuild effort of the new project mustang that I was going to buy after our move to the Northern Alabama area. I even wrote at length about the epic adventure we took to visit a mustang of choice several states away.

Image Courtesy of RustingMuscleCars.com

And then silence.

During this time we made the move to Alabama from Kentucky. In the snow. No joke, it snowed the night before we were loading up the uHaul to come down here. So we woke, scrapped ice, and moved the much too heavy washer and dryer down the deadly stairs and got much too sweaty in very cold weather.

Otherwise the move was smooth. My first time towing a trailer and I chose to do it with the trailer loaded to the brim with all of my worldly possessions and the foundations of my new married life. No big deal. We just cruised and enjoyed the drive.

Yet once we got to Alabama we were met with another trial, there was no power in our new apartment. I had followed all the steps, gone online and set up the new account, but we were no where to be found in the system. There would be no power for us until monday.

Monday? We'd be home on monday right? The first week day after a move you'd think that we'd be in the new home that we were just trying to get set up. No, you see that would be far too normal. Monday we'd be in Atlanta, Georgia for my work as I took advantage of a workforce and a gun range that had down time.

But long story short it took a while to get back to being home. And when we finally got home, it became clear. There would be no Mustang in our garage. Because there was no garage. So until the garage is here, there's no Mustang to come.

Image courtesy of FordMustangSearch.Com

Couch Commando or something more?

I work in the firearms industry, and I consider myself very lucky to do so. How I got here I'm still really not sure to be honest. To go from working in the heart of Southern California at Walt Disney Imagineering, to central Kentucky with Remington Arms Co and now northern Alabama at their new facility has been one heck of a crazy ride.

Image Courtest of JurisMagazine.Com

Interestingly enough though, one thing that I've really begun to realize as I become more and more immersed in my work and surrounded by people who eat breath and sleep gun knowledge, is how little I really know.

Up until getting my job with Remington my primary gun knowledge was knowing just exactly what was and wasn't within the limits of California's arcane and draconian firearms laws. You can have features A, B, or C, but never any two of them together, except on Sundays, when you can have none of them, unless you're 300 feet from a church in which case your going to jail. Because really they made about that much sense. But I had to know them if I wanted to be able to safely own and operate the guns that were becoming more and more a center piece of my life.

Out here though, owning a gun is about as easy as buying a gallon of milk. So there's no need to memorize laws and penal code sections for quote should I ever get bothered. People here who want to see my gun are honestly curious about what I'm carrying and why I've gone with that specific brand. Moreover than that, people here have been using firearms for generations as a way to put food on the table and provide for their family.

Opinions about guns are born from experience and generations of loyalty, not what looked the coolest or worked the best in this years Call of Duty franchise.

Image Courtesy of VG24/7.com

Interestingly enough, this brings me to a point that this image showcases so well. Most people look at the picture and think "Oh cool, I need me one of those!" and a few short months ago I would have thrown myself in with them. Now I look at it and can't but wonder "Why does he have a standard A2 front sight when he's running suppressed? He needs an adjustable gas block or he's so over-gassed that suppressor isn't doing him any good!"

And that's exactly the difference that I'm running up against now. It's no longer about looking cool (although let's just be honest that there will always be an element of that present) but now it's about what really is functional and helpful. And the people out here are much the same way, their gun is a tool that they use to hunt, not a status symbol that they take to the range.

It's really worked to change the way I've approached my rifles. What am I hoping to do with them at the end of the day? That's what I need to build them for.

Blogs are hard...

I had no idea when I told my wife that I would try blogging along with her, just how much work I was signing myself up for.

I carry a full time job, that on a good week averages somewhere between 45-60 hours. To say that it leaves me a little burnt out in the evenings is an understatement. But I really do love what I do and I know that this is only a temporary time of extreme workload. Add to that our normal trips to the gym in the evenings, plus the time that I set aside to invest in my wife and just spend time with her.

Well there's not much left for writing a blog. At least not with any kind of regularity.

And that's what we're seeing here. This blog is covered with the internet equivalent of cobwebs. It's just not at the forefront of my mind to write here.

Which really is sad. I do quite enjoy writing and I should take more time to write more. But until that happens I'll do my best to come through here on occasion and wipe the dust away. Just to make sure you know someone is still home.

1...2...3... Follow through

This blogging thing is hard for me. Not because I find it hard to write, ask any of my professors from college, I can be as long winded as the next guy trying to fill a twelve page paper with a paragraphs worth of information (it's a finely tuned skill)

No, rather I find it hard because I don't know what to write about. I run around in my own daily life and I think, "Well that's just life, I don't want to write about that because no one wants to read about it" because it's hard to see what's extra-ordinary about your own life.

It really is. Stop for a moment and think about your life, all the things you've done, places you've been and things you've seen. They are all apart of your life, and while some of them may stand out as special to you, or maybe more romantic or more interesting, for the most part they are just your experiences of living.

Or (because I haven't used that word to death just yet) I am just overtly skeptical of my own life being of any interest to anyone not actively involved in living it with me.

All that to say, I haven't written in a while. It's not that nothing noteworthy has happened (quite the opposite really) it's just that I haven't thought to sit down and write.

So that's what this is. Me keeping up the fact that this blog exists. And not really much else!

There and back again: A Mustang Tale (Pt 2)

Are you kidding me?

I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing on my phone in my hand. The Chase app was telling me that there were no Branches or ATMs near me. I zoomed out. None in the state. I zoomed out more. None in North Carolina, none in Tennessee, and none in Alabama.

Fail.

I was crestfallen, utterly defeated feeling. I had planned to snatch this car up this weekend. Investigated my towing options, looked at rental locations, and had been forming a plan in my mind about storage options and the first few projects that I would undertake.

That was all off the table now. And I hated it. I wanted to go home, call the trip a wash and hang my head in defeat. Thankfully my wonderful wife was not so inclined.

"We've come all this way, let's still go look."

It was a simple thing really, a rather innocent little sentence in her mind. But to me, it was support, encouragement and so many other things. She so easily could have seized the chance to end this wild chase and send us home. No, instead she pushed for the quest to continue.

And continue it did!

We made some little rest stops on the way, but finally we were in the mountains, on the road the car sat off of nearing what the GPS said was our destination.

Parked on a small bridge over a river we were thwarted by a gate blocking entrance to the property. We set out on foot leaving the truck parked over the 5 foot drop to the water below on a bridge older than I am.

*knock knock knock*

No answer. A quick look around, no cars parked near the house. The barn was far away and I didn't want to just stick my head in and rummage around. So back to the truck to think...

Wait what?!

That's the wrong house number! Quick out of the driveway back on the road! What if they had come home while we wandered around their property?!

It took some effort, but we found the place. And there, right of the road, inside the barn, was a 1970 Mustang Mach 1.

Here I am giving it a close inspection

The original 351C-4V was long gone. The 351W that now sits between the shock towers is actually the third engine to be in the car

Normal Mustang rust, the battery pan and fender were completely toast. They'd need to be replaced.

I hadn't expected the hood to be so shot. The springs were frozen and the hood has been unbolted from them.

The body lines were super crisp. No signs of body damage or the use of bondo anywhere on the car.

Drivers side trunk was missing, you could see the ground below and I was told the gas tank also had issues.

Nothing in the lower window corners. Solid!

Taillight corners were solid and the whole trunk opening looked to be in good shape.

Quarter panel extensions while a little roughed up were in good shape as well.

Those are 302 headers in the trunk. They had been part of the trade that landed the 351w now in the engine bay.

Just a little bit of bubbling along the trunk lip. Still quite salvageable.

The drivers side sported the most rust damage, but here you can see that the extension still looked good.

She's a Mach 1 alright.

The worst sin here was the paint. Someone had covered the Pastel Blue paint with a quick and dirty white job at some point before this owner landed the car.

After the new motor was dropped in back in 1986 the car sat, the swap never completed. It has been here since.

Shock tower holes for greasing the suspension, a sign this car was run and run long.

The only spot of rust on the front fenders, easy to repair and hardly worth mentioning.

I wanted the car after looking it over. I don't have pictures but the car interior was the dark blue. With the exterior paint code and interior trim, this car is one of less than 400 produced like this for 1970, not even counting the Mach 1 trim.

The wonderful people selling the car really deserve every penny of the $9000 asking price. You might think that's high for a car no longer sporting the original engine (It does retain the factor 3 speed though) but the color and trim combination make it a diamond in the rough.

I had intended to pick this car up and restore it myself, but plans have changed and I wont have a garage in which to work on it. So I can only hope that someone else finds this car and puts it back to the state it deserves to be in.

1970 Mustang Mach 1

DOOR DATA PLATE INFORMATION
Serial Number 0F05M160205
0 1970
F Built at Dearborn
05 Mustang Mach I 2-Door Sportsroof
M 351-4V Engine
160205 Serial Number of this Ford scheduled for
production at Dearborn
01/70 January, 1970
63C Mustang Mach I 2-Door Sportsroof
N Pastel Blue Paint, Ford #921-A
3B Medium Blue Clarion Knit/Corinthian Vinyl Bucket
Seats
9 3.25 Conventional Rear Axle
1 Three-Speed Manual Transmission
22 Charlotte Ordering District

Your vehicle was equipped with the following features:
- Black Hood Stripe
- E70X14 Belted White Sidewall Tires
- Power Steering
- AM Radio
- Argent Styled Steel Wheels

STATISTICS
Your vehicle was one of:
731 With this Paint Code
448 With these Paint/Trim Codes
1,299 With these Engine/Transmission Codes
1,580 Ordered from this DSO
7,916 With Argent Styled Steel Wheels
For the 1970 Mustang Mach I 2-Door Sportsroof

IMPORTANT DATES
ORDER RECEIVED: --
CAR SERIALIZED: 01/21/70
BUCKED: 01/29/70
SCHEDULED FOR BUILD: 02/02/70
ACTUALLY BUILT: 01/31/70
RELEASED: 02/02/70
SOLD: 01/26/71

Craigslist Ad: http://asheville.craigslist.org/cto/4679169626.html

If you do buy this car, let me know! I'd love to feature your progress here.

There and back again: A mustang tale (Pt. 1)

Two days. Eleven and a half hours, and 645 miles of driving. All to spend an hour looking at a car stuck away in a barn for nearly 30 years.

Crazy? A bit. Fun? You know it! Worth the drive? You better believe it.

Now some guys would cringe at the idea of bringing their wife with them to go look at a potential project car. And I really feel bad for them! It was an absolute blast to have my wife and best friend along for the ride. The voice of reason when "disaster" struck and a good sounding board as I struggled with important decisions and backwoods exploration.

We set out Friday night after I got home from work. And let me tell you, driving through the Kentucky country land (Or should I just say Kentucky?) at dusk in the autumn is pretty breathtaking when you're from a place where the only example of you have of green are the fresh tumbleweeds growing on the sides of the road. We were pretty smitten with it all and road in relative quiet aside from the occasional gasp and "oh my that's pretty" as we pointed out houses and pastures that the average passerby could probably care less about. Does this single us out as major tourists? You betcha. Did we care? Not a bit!

But then the sun set, and we were cloaked into almost suffocating darkness. There were no lights for miles in places, and when I say no lights, I mean NONE. Now I'm from Southern California originally, and the only way I can get somewhere with "No lights" is to close myself up in a closet. It was amazing, for about ten minutes, and then it was really boring. We only had three hours worth of driving to do this first night since we were just making the jump down to Knoxville, TN. But the last hour and a half or so was in complete darkness. We needed coffee and we needed it badly. Enough so that we settled for McDonalds coffee during one of our bathroom stops.

It was a mistake.

Really.

Big mistake.

Now I've had bad coffee before, and at times it's my own fault. Don't even get me started on the stuff that I drink at work on most days. Now I've never had something to drink that not only didn't taste like anything approaching coffee, but was, in my opinion, what liquid plastic would taste like. It was horrid. Why they call is a "Caramel Latte" and not "Brown plastic in a cup" I don't know. But avoid if at all possible. I prefer truck stop coffee over this stuff, at least it tastes like coffee.

I pushed through it though, mostly because I desperately needed caffeine like a fish needs water. And I'm still here to write this post so it didn't kill me. Looking back on it now, it didn't feel like three hours in the moment, but it also didn't feel like 3 minutes either. 

We arrived at the hotel, and after just a touch of waiting we were all checked in. A short walk, an elevator ride, and another short walk brought us to a humble little room with the basic accouterments. We settled in for the night and did our best to get to sleep.

The universe had other plans.

Sometime around 2AM in the morning we were both jerked from sleep by the sound of wailing klaxons. Fire, tornado, rampaging squirrels?! I had no idea what was going on but jumped out of bed and made for the door. Just as my hand touched the handle, the noise stopped. A tense moment of silence passed and... Nothing. Silence, Blissful, peaceful silence. I looked back towards bed. Had I imagined it all? Was this a dream? Nope, A quick query to the wife shows she heard it as well.

Hmm. Odd. Back to bed I guess.

45 minutes later. It happened again. But the tone was faster (at least that's how I remember it) and this time I only managed to crack my eyes open before it stopped and I was out again.

The morning finally came, time to throw some clothes on and head to the lobby for that promised free hot breakfast.

One word. Salt.

I'm not sure how you make pastries salty, but I think they managed it. If you could make apple juice salty they probably would have done that too. Now I know I shouldn't complain about a free meal, but afterwards I think I would have been better off just not eating. The dead was done though, now it's back upstairs for a quick shower before looking up the first destination of the day.

Oh no... Are you kidding me?!

(... to be continued)