So tonight, this morning, whatever, I was doing my now usual "I can't sleep, so I might as well go clean the garage" cleaning, and discovered a small treasure trove. 2 cases of surely moldy to hell 8 tracks, but behind them, in it's own pretty little box, was a belt sander.

I had absolutely no idea I owned a belt sander, never knew my dad to purchase one, and it's a craftsman at that. It doesn't have a belt on it, but looking at the dust collector, I don't think it's ever been used.

I was going to go buy a combination belt/disc sander today at Harbor Freight, looks like I'll just be designing a mount to hold this one instead.

So today, after a nice combined birthday party for several children, we went to this variation of the Breakout Game. Called the Countdown Game.

My brood of 6 plus my brother escaped the room in 56 minutes. Woo hoo!!

Jed a muscleup is a huge thing. I cannot do it period.

Bonus numbers came out today. Was a rough rough year. Instead of what I expected ,used NC Miata money, I got a check for almost a nice used Ferrari 360. Cannot tell anyone of my friends so figured I would tell you people.

In reply to wearymicrobe:

Won't they notice when you show up in the Ferrari?

In reply to wearymicrobe:

Apparently . . . I need a career change!

Wall-e wrote: In reply to wearymicrobe: Won't they notice when you show up in the Ferrari?

Given that I drive up in the ACR or the Vintage stuff a few days a week they don't notice. I just tell them the truth which is that I flip cars on the side and I keep the money to buy what I really want.

Its about 50% the truth. I do buy and sell but I will barely clear 25K in profit this year if last year was anything to go by.

Once again, if I had your money I'd be retired in a remote locale. With a boat.

Lost the tailpipe on my miata right after the muffler a week or two back. Went to go pick up some parts off C-list last night and the guy offers his stock exhaust for free. :). Got it welded on at a shop today.

I ordered some tires from the Discount Tire Direct Ebay store on Wednesday night. Estimated delivery was one week. I got them today!

And shipping was free!

It's like 64 in mid February in mid Michigan, I'm not gonna complain.

mtn wrote: Once again, if I had your money I'd be retired in a remote locale. With a boat.

I used to think that. Mrs. Deuce just made 918 money on the sale of her company. Her last day of work is Tuesday. She'll be at the new start-up leading a strategy meeting Wednesday.
We now have enough that she can pursue work for the challenge, but she's still going to work because she wants to and thinks it's a good example for the kids. Life is weird. Extremely good, but weird. And like wearymicrobe, nobody in my real life I can tell about this sort of thing.

Re-signed my garage lease for 15 months, no problems, no rent hike.

It was like 70 today, so I put the battery in Lumpy and went out to get washed since it hasn't had a bath since before the December rallycross. It ran like poo on the highway. Met a guy there in a very clean 3-series who asked me if I ever rallycrossed at BeaveRun (no), but he used to rallycross there. And he saw the GRM sticker and mentioned that he'd gone to the Challenge a few times with various DSMs, so I think I met one of the Westside guys.

It ran a lot better after getting cleaned off! I then went to Ace and bought two 12x48 shelves, six shelf hangers, and enough screws to attach them. Got a 20% off coupon for everything at my next trip there.

Went to garage, mounted the shelves on the wall and found that 2 hangers per shelf was sufficient. Hey, got spares now. Cleaned and organized and cleaned some more, got the VW higher on its jackstands so I could finally get the rearend off of my trailer and under it, loaded the rest of my scrap on the trailer, found a 12x48 shelf just like the ones I'd just bought left behind by the previous tenant tucked against the wall in a back corner. Good thing I have those spare brackets now!

Found the exhaust leaks on Lumpy - they are all in the midpipe, so I can probably get away with a replacement midpipe instead of a midpipe and muffler. I blew the front presilencer wide open at the last event.

It's 5pm and there's still a bunch of day left, but I had to stop working to eat something. Stuffed cabbage. Awesome.

Apparently I was the fastest 'Out of Towner' at the last two autocrosses I did up in Canada, scoring me two free event fees.
AND it's scheduled to rain tonight and throughout the autocross tomorrow.

justAWDthings

mazdeuce wrote:

mtn wrote: Once again, if I had your money I'd be retired in a remote locale. With a boat.

I used to think that. Mrs. Deuce just made 918 money on the sale of her company. Her last day of work is Tuesday. She'll be at the new start-up leading a strategy meeting Wednesday. We now have enough that she can pursue work for the challenge, but she's still going to work because she wants to and thinks it's a good example for the kids. Life is weird. Extremely good, but weird. And like wearymicrobe, nobody in my real life I can tell about this sort of thing.

I have no kids to be a roll model for. Id be willing to retire to a remote island for you. I won't even ask you for a boat.

If a guy is driven enough to build a business, or a career that makes him wealthy, sitting on a beach or fishing boat is not going to be satisfying for very long.

In reply to Streetwiseguy:

I'm not that person, but it is nice being married to that person.

The duster ran again!!!!

And i think that the fix it list is officially becoming. Lot shorter before the dyno tune.

Had to run to the Rally Ranch today to get safety stuff ironed out for next weekend. Told Dave I wanted to use the Trophy Kart for a safety car. He said that if I could get it running it was mine to drive. Bit of time learning a new carb, some cleaning, and I had a pile of fun.

Finally got around to watching Furious 7. I enjoyed the over-the-top action. Then, as everyone knows, WHAM! right in the feels!

mazdeuce wrote:

mtn wrote: Once again, if I had your money I'd be retired in a remote locale. With a boat.

I used to think that. Mrs. Deuce just made 918 money on the sale of her company. Her last day of work is Tuesday. She'll be at the new start-up leading a strategy meeting Wednesday. We now have enough that she can pursue work for the challenge, but she's still going to work because she wants to and thinks it's a good example for the kids. Life is weird. Extremely good, but weird. And like wearymicrobe, nobody in my real life I can tell about this sort of thing.

I think wearymicrobe has been making this kind of lucrative money for a while now. Sale of a company can't be repeated consistently--it's a little different.

Had my taxes done today. My entire tax bill for 2016 was $106, which means I'll be getting $4k back. My accountant is fabulous!

mtn wrote:

mazdeuce wrote:

mtn wrote: Once again, if I had your money I'd be retired in a remote locale. With a boat.

I used to think that. Mrs. Deuce just made 918 money on the sale of her company. Her last day of work is Tuesday. She'll be at the new start-up leading a strategy meeting Wednesday. We now have enough that she can pursue work for the challenge, but she's still going to work because she wants to and thinks it's a good example for the kids. Life is weird. Extremely good, but weird. And like wearymicrobe, nobody in my real life I can tell about this sort of thing.

I think wearymicrobe has been making this kind of lucrative money for a while now. Sale of a company can't be repeated consistently--it's a little different.

Which is true, but today, by every metric I know, money, family, health, happiness, cars, today I am rich.
I want to bottle this feeling and give it away.

mazdeuce wrote:

mtn wrote:

mazdeuce wrote:

mtn wrote: Once again, if I had your money I'd be retired in a remote locale. With a boat.

I used to think that. Mrs. Deuce just made 918 money on the sale of her company. Her last day of work is Tuesday. She'll be at the new start-up leading a strategy meeting Wednesday. We now have enough that she can pursue work for the challenge, but she's still going to work because she wants to and thinks it's a good example for the kids. Life is weird. Extremely good, but weird. And like wearymicrobe, nobody in my real life I can tell about this sort of thing.

I think wearymicrobe has been making this kind of lucrative money for a while now. Sale of a company can't be repeated consistently--it's a little different.

Which is true, but today, by every metric I know, money, family, health, happiness, cars, today I am rich. I want to bottle this feeling and give it away.

Ya know mazdeuce, many of us admire you not only because you finish* projects that we would be afraid to start, but because we believe your statement to be true. Good stuff, please keep sharing your adventures with us.

*Is any GRM project ever really finished? Nope. Finished is a relative term.

Today I scored a bellhousing from a Mazda e1800 van. They may as well be made from hens teeth and unicorn farts.

Why, you may ask? Because it bolts to the Mazda rib case gearbox and fits the mazda f family of engines. Which means rwd fe-t/f2t just got another step closer for me.

Been planning on ordering a rollbar for my Miata and really wanted a Blackbird GT3. Had considered a certain crazy color but then wimped out and decided to go with black. I call and Moti goes "Well, if you're brave enough, I just got a bar back from a custom 2-stage powdercoat and the customer backed out on it. If you want it, I'll knock half off the powdercoating. It's the best-looking bar I've ever seen and it's got no home." Well, it just happens to be said color that I was considering, so I took it as a sign. Plus, because the bar is already bent, welded and powdercoated, it's shipping today, so it should arrive fast.