Zen and the Art of... I forget

I get lots of email from people who have been following my progress over the years, and I always feel bad when I remember I haven't made any updates in awhile.

So here I am with an update. What have I been doing lately? Well, not much with the cars, as fate would have it. The gold car is almost ready to start. As of two nights ago, I had finally managed to get the distributor back on. But that's another story. All I have left, primarily, is to wire up the electric fan, and then try to comb out the kinks in the radiator fins. :-)

The biggest problem is that I work entirely too much. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, because I usually have fun while I'm working, and...well...something has to pay for my endeavors in the garage, right? The other big problem is that it is hard to get motivated to go out and work in the garage when it is 2 degrees (F, not C) in there.

I think the highlight of my day is when I get home to check the mail and there is a catalog from a parts company among all the bills. I don't care if it is from Victoria British, Moss, or Mini Mania. Although the latter never has anything for my particular cars (1500 model), it's still fun to browse. The internet has made price and parts shopping a breeze (you can check my vendor page here).

I hear a lot of talk about how one parts supplier is bad, or another is worse, and so on and so forth (not necessarily from viewers of Midget Web). I can open a catalog and search for part #1zx2328azxxa12323 for my car, which may happen to be a screw to hold part #3233211123asd3 to part #1218999843djhd4. Not only can I find it, but I can price shop for it, as well as buy/price-shop-for parts #3233211123asd3 and #1218999843djhd4, and have several different qualities to choose from. Anytime I do this, I am amazed. I think some people take for granted that we can still buy parts for these cars. Can you imagine having to have a brake caliper specially fabricated? Talk about rising cost of restoration! Anyway, I just wanted to vent some frustration about people who complain too much. Be thankful you have a choice, that's what I say.

Well, it looks as if lunch time is upon me, so although you guys are great, lunch is pretty good too, and since I forgot my breakfast this morning, it is really important right now. heh heh...