Ace-Garageguy

^^^ Handy may be dandy, but handsy can land you in a load of doo.

Roast turkey, sausage/brown bread stuffing, mashed potatoes with rutabaga, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce with strawberries and ghost peppers, mince pie w/heavy cream. All made from scratch (except the pie), which is a pretty good trick on only one large propane burner that is also my main source for heat, one small camp stove, and a toaster oven.

^^^ Yup. I'm thankful I wasn't pushed out of a helicopter this morning.

Yup, I agree. But what no-talent idiot came up with the design of that aardvark-looking postal disaster? I mean, really, when did UUGLY become a virtue?

I couldn't resist posting this one...

Got up early to clean the kitchen a little prior to cooking, then hauled a few bags of trash to the shop I haven't been to in a while, saw the metal dumpster has been emptied, snagged a Jag starter, a point type distributor for some American V8, and what looks like a rebuildable Rochester 4bbl from it, then made sure my 4 stored cars there are OK, and drove around for a while just because I vastly prefer the world with no idiots in my way. Back at the house, fixin' to start on Thanksgiving dinner. I'm genuinely very thankful for a lot of things. Is my life perfect? Nope. Very far from it. But watching the sun come up this morning, a long hot shower, having a comfortable vehicle with a good heater, and seeing Tigger waiting for me when I got home is enough, ya know? PS: Sprinkles on turkey? Who wooda thunk?

Nothing a lot of glue, some long deck screws, and maybe a little bondo and paint won't fix, I'm sure...especially seein' as how it's 'non-functional'.

"Life is hard. It's harder if you have no intelligence" Paraphrase by some random guy on the internet

Looks good to me. I'd be happy. Pinto's stuff is pretty cool, the only game in town for a lot of interesting subjects, and well worth a little "anxiety".

The world has discarded meaning for constant novelty.

Glorified golf carts with 500+ HP are the new 'performance cars'; yeah, right.

Dinner tonight is salvaged pizza, but tomorrow, oh boy.

Hey there Mr. Turkey...how 'bout you and me get together for dinner? EDIT: Later that same day...

"Butt I gots ta have muh technology !!!!!!!!"

Not only in the rarefied atmosphere you're working in. I've been seeing the death of the skilled trades for many years, particularly the very highly skilled trades, and trying to make people aware of it everywhere I go, everywhere I post. People in general don't want to hear it, and though you may not want to hear it, much of the popular perception is that we're knuckle-dragging mouth breathers, no different from the guy who mows the lawn, too stupid to do something that involves a keyboard, so we end up working with our hands because we're capable of nothing 'more'. Never mind that 99% of the people who embrace this attitude don't have the innate set of talents (or the tenacity to develop talent into skill) required to do what we do, and simply could not do it if their lives quite literally depended on it. Where has all the talent gone? A lot has just walked away. Josh Mills, an internationally known builder working in his own small shop, quit and went to work as a fireman to get the benefits package he needed to support his growing family...when he found it impossible to get competent or even trainable help so he could grow his business. I saw his mounting frustration over the years I worked with him. It's tragic, as Josh was one of the best 'period' car builders out there, with an unfailing eye for proportion and line and what looks 'right', and a range of fabrication skills. He built this for himself: https://customrodder.forumactif.org/t2950-1935-ford-josh-mills-mills-co It looked like this when I met him. Note the flawless metal work and door fit on the chop: He built this for James Hetfield when I was there (I had nothing to do with it) and it was chosen as a contender for the AMBR: https://www.petersen.org/vehicle-spotlights/1932-ford-roadster-blackjack This is one of the other client cars that went through the shop during my time there (and again, I did not work on it): https://www.throttlextreme.com/danny-bachers-1931-ford-model-coupe-hot-rod/ These are not by any means typical hot-rods. They are all exquisitely turned out, engineered, and detailed automotive sculpture. And they run. And stop. Very well. They're fast and handle well for what they are, and they're reliable. Josh's '35 Ford was his daily driver for quite a while. I always wondered why there wasn't a line of young guys out in the paring lot trying to get hired just to sweep the floor, but there never were, and Josh, Gary, me, and the one young guy who did come in to train, were just not enough to turn out the volume needed to make buckets of money. So Josh quit. But because of the work I did there being seen by the owner of the shop where I'm doing the '66 Chevelle, I was hired immediately after leaving Mills, as they needed someone who could not only do metal fab and bodywork, but who could also do engine work, machine work, electrical, AN-plumbing, and integrate complex electronic systems...to world-class standards. But I'm old. I'm tired. I have health issues. And nobody has come in for years who has any hope of taking up where I leave off, but I'd dearly love to teach somebody what I've learned over the decades. The shop owner, though still relatively young, is well aware there's just no one available to help him carry on (as I've written above), and will be shutting the doors soon after the Chevelle is done. At its peak, the shop where I am now supported 6 full time bodymen and two painters, turning out collision repair so far beyond what's accepted as 'industry standard', it might as well be on another planet. EDIT: Ford's CEO recently announced the company has 5,000 openings paying $120,000 annually at dealerships, presumably for competent line mechanics. And no takers. Where has all the talent gone? Indeed.