Golly! I have not paid too close attention to threads here lately, been busy so missed this one.
Introductions seem to be in order.
I'm John
And attention Mandee!
I'm a Old.
And I have got to go and put a lift motor in my Saturn window and start thinking about getting it ready for paint.
Dang this is fun.

 

Wow...yall were busy. Lol thanks for introducing yourself...

 

John that wasn't very descriptive...I want a better introduction from you sir lol

 

Hey Momma-

Where'd you hide your sig?

 

in her money maker!

 

O.K., Mandee, fair enough. I'm the old guy here probably. This is actually the 2nd time I have been on this forum, the first was some time ago I think well before Derf and his band of merry men got involved with it. I dropped out some where along the line and then started looking for it. I am sure originally Derf and all were not there, could be wrong. The bottom line is they run it good.
I am originally from up state NY from the finger lakes area. One of the hidden pretty parts of the state. That was a bit more than a few years, 2 wives and a couple of daughters ago. Southern California, Northern California and now Arizona. I've been an automobile hobbyist most of my life and a passable wood worker the last 15 years or so. Disabled in 1997 or thereabouts and fortunate enough to be able to live a pretty acceptable life as long as you realize no matter how good you are at not being able to work the raises pretty much suck.
Between my self and my partner Valerie we own 7 cars, Valerie's Saturn being one of them.
I met Valerie originally through another national automobile club some where around 1995 or 6 when she was in Northern California as a representative of the national club and a local chapter held a social gathering in her honor.
Fast forward a bit I ended up working for a business located in Phoenix and the contract was a disaster which led to my moving here which created an environment to end my 2nd marriage which probably never should have happened anyway.
However it then created a new environment and a few things took place. One of them was Valerie was now moving to Phoenix as a job opportunity as part of the "Hoorah" surrounding the year 2000 and wanted to touch base with anyone who's name she knew and we met again.
I became disabled soon after that but by then we had developed a reputation as a couple.
I was doing some restoring at the time and that has continued along with maintaining things. This lead to my having more fun than anyone my age should have and filling my garage with parts and stuff. Along with wood working tools.
Valerie became more disabled than she was when we first met and we were not only a couple but together. And she helped to fill the garage.
About 2 years ago I had a massive heart attack, my 4th and darn near died. About a year ago Valerie was diagnosed with COPD and yesterday we were notified that the lung transplant she needs appears to be validated to happen here in Phoenix.
Which kinda gets us to today sort of.
Valerie has not been able to drive now for about 5 years her Saturn sits in the driveway. I keep it in passable shape for her because she for the longest time did not want to sell it. It represented her connection to when she could afford her way of life. So I keep it in o.k. condition. I painted it a few years ago as the paint job was destroyed by the sun. Chicago rash it is known as at the time. However I made a mistake in paint chemistry and it happened again. So it is on my round tuit list to repaint it. Her other car, a 1980 AMC, AMX is one of 863 made that year and about 12 years ago I front clipped it to eliminate the damage of rust and put it back together. That's 2. I own a 1970 American motors Javelin, a family owned car purchased by my father in 1971. It has had rust restoration and then accident damage restoration and the engine blown up twice and a 5 speed transmission installed. I am putting in Vintage Air A/c now.. I also own a 1980 AMC Spirit with a modified and fuel injected motor that I bought as a derelict and made it a mild custom with a fun modified 6 cylinder motor. And a Chrysler T&C bought new in 2007.That's 5. I am building a Hornet Station wagon with a modified Corvette engine and I have parts to restore a Hornet Hatch back and that's 7.
My goal is to live long enough now to clean out the garage so it is usable again, Enjoy playing with my toys and be there for Valerie when she gets her lung transplant. It ain't easy living that way but it is done.
So when some one talks about the Golden years? Take it with a grain of salt, fools gold is more like it, but the hunt for it is not all that bad.
Have fun on your trip, it sounds like you are having a good time at the other end of the life scale. But Michigan? I've been there. And a few other places too. There is always something to say about everywhere. Some of it is even good.

 

Not to change the topic but that's GREAT NEWS about Val!!
So happy to hear it!

 

Introductions are so hard! Ok, no more whining. My name is Dave. I've just signed up. I'm 33, so neither young nor old. I have a girlfriend named Anne and we've been together 8 years. We're one of those couples that met over the internet, but we didn't set out to be that way...just kind of found that we couldn't separate from each other. We're still separate though; I'm in southern Illinois, she's in Michigan. But we get to see each other every few months for an extended weekend. She's a little older than me with two kids from a previous marriage. Thankfully we all like each other and are comfortable being with each other, so that's one less worry off my back.


I'm currently going through college to become a grade school teacher. After dilly dallying for a decade, I've returned to school to make a career out of something. After high school and community college in 2002, I followed my retiring parents down to Florida. There I tried school and held a couple jobs in a shoe store, a Panda Express, and even worked for a time for a limousine service. Florida was nice for a while, but hurricanes aren't, the heat was not, the bikini babes got boring after the first couple of months and I stopped going to the beach. Got depressed as a whole and shut myself into my room, faded away from my schooling, that sort of thing.


My brother called me one day and said, "Come up here, we'll go to school together and we'll be buddies!" I didn't have anything to lose, so I stuffed everything into the back of a van and came up here. And this is where I've been for the last two years. My depression is mostly gone, I've made new friends, and it's nice to come back to a small town atmosphere. I think the big city (Tampa) was too different from what I was used to be successful there.


I've got about another year of schooling until I take my cert. tests and become a teacher. I don't know where I'll go after college...where ever the jobs take me. Hopefully closer to my girl because I have a lot of catching up to do!

 

It keeps taking me to the mobile version of the site so no one's signature shows up....

Thanks John for the better intro...glad to hear about Val.

Dave...its nice to meet you and.I hope schooling hurries up. I couldn't imagine dating someone for 8yrs and not being near each other. Good luck with everything and welcome to the forum

 

there should be a "request desktop site" in the menu somewhere -- if you're using Chrome it is in the dropdown menu on the right