Thursday, September 27, 2007
|
 |
|
|
So my little sister is getting married next month. I have been scanning some pictures for when we were kids for a DVD I am putting together for the wedding. It is kind of amazing to look back and remember how it was back then. Time seemed to stand still and you never thought you would grow old. Marriage, kids and all that gorwn up stuff seemed as if it were just things that people talk about but that never really happens. Seems like a lot of time has flown by with barely a moment to enjoy it as it did.
I am so happy for my sister. It wll be a truely great day in the life of my family when she gets married. But at the same time I am actually a little sad. My sister and I have never been great friends, way to competative for that. But now she is truely off to her own life and I will miss that she is now someones wife and not just my sister. Maybe it is a little be jealousy as well, but most of all I am so happy she found a person she is happy to be near.
I remember all the times she and I fought. There were some pretty good fights, but looking at these pictures as I scan each of them I remember all the fun we had and what it felt like to be a big brother.
It is truely going to be an amazing thing to see my little sister get married. I am so proud of her.Labels: Personal
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As long as I can remember the sight of a Corvette, Ferrari or Lamborghini has always been an exciting experience for me. Growing up in rual Nebraska there weren’t a lot of exotic cars. I grew up with stories of my father’s ‘55 and ’57 Chevy’s. My uncle’s 56 Chevy. The stories of racing on Saturday nights with the cops blocking off the road so the kids had somewhere to do it safely. My grandfather always worked in a shop. Always was working on his car, little things, big things. I grew up going to see him at the shop he worked at and being totally amazed at the machines in the garage. I grew up with all the stories. That is where it all started for me. I knew I needed a fast car.
Anyway, I started reading car magazines. I would memorize the stats of each car. My best friend Pascal also loved cars and we would go back and forth about which car was the best. It was a lot of fun actually.
When I turned 16 I expected to have a ’67 Chevelle with a 350, but I ended up driving my mother’s ’88 Caviler. Not my idea of the car I should have had at that time. At 18 my parents bought me my first car and the only car they would buy me, thank god! I got an ’86 Red Camaro. Problem with this car is it only had a V-6 and wasn’t much faster than my mother’s Caviler. My father wouldn’t let me have anything faster and being the kid I was I didn’t fight him much. Good thing, I promptly wrecked it. I was chasing one of my buddies around a left hand corner and started to spin into traffic going the other way, I over corrected and spun the other way onto the sidewalk and drilled an adopt a mile sign with the left front quarter panel. I went home and told my dad thinking I was dead. Just made sure I was ok and we got the car fixed. I did a number on that car though. Flattened 3 out of four tires bent the frame plus some descent body damage.
I drove that car for a long time. I got it in 93 and drove it till 2001. My next car I had a total of a month and a half. I got a raise at my first real job. Enough I could afford a new car, so I went down and bought a brand new 2001 Camaro. I got it fully loaded, but again it had a V-6. Well I was driving to work one morning and went under a bridge. Right where it went from light to dark there was something lying in the road. I swerved to miss it and then swerved back to get off at my exit. Well when I swerved back the rear end slid out and I hit the side of the tunnel head on at about 70 MPH. It shortened the car up about 2 feet. Flipped it back into traffic, bent the hood up high enough you couldn’t see over it from inside the car and when the air bags went off it blew the windshield out of the frame. The cop that showed up told me to drive it up off the freeway. I told him to look at the car, I didn’t think it would run. But to my surprise it did. I popped the T-Top up sat on the back of the driver’s seat and drove it off the freeway. I walked away with no injuries.
While they were trying to decide if they were going to total the car or not, I was driving my parents brand new Trailblazer to work and rear ended another car. It was a bad month for my driving.
Well the insurance company finally decided to total my Camaro and I got a check and went down to buy my next new car. This time I got a 2001 Z28 Camaro. My dad was so upset, he thought I wreck the other one because I couldn’t handle the power. I told people I got a Z28 because I didn’t hit the wall hard enough. I drove that car for 5 years. Got rear ended in it twice, but luckily I never hit anything in it.
After all of those Camaro’s I didn’t know what my next car would be. GM stopped making Camaro’s so that was out of the question. I got a big raise at work and decided I needed something nicer.
I sat at my favorite hangout one night with a few of my friends and talked about what I wanted for a car. Everything from a Lotus Elise, BMW M3 and many, many other cars. I mentioned I always wanted a Corvette and the C6 Corvette Z06 just came out. I got a ton of shit from the girls. I went to work the next day and started making calls. Dealers wanted $150,000 for the car. I couldn’t do that. I went to a dealer that I had done some work for and they made me a deal that looking back on it was kind of a bad deal but I made it work.
The deal was that I would buy a 2006 Corvette Coupe. I could order it however I wanted. Doing so they would jump me to first on the list for a 2007 Z06 Corvette, I said ok. I got my Corvette Coupe in November 2005. I was scared to death of that car. It was a 6 speed. I didn’t know how to drive stick, my cousin Josh taught me to drive it in the parking lot of our office. Nice car to learn to drive stick in. I left it at work 2 nights then I finally got the balls to drive it home. That was the last time I left that car anywhere except the dealership.
I feel in love with that car as soon as I drove it. I took it with my cousin Josh out of the parking lot and hammered the foot feed as we came out. The car just stuck and launched like a rocket. My cousin Josh said he had never seen a bigger smile on my face.
Well I learned to drive the car well enough to run the tires off the car. The worst thing GM could have done to that car for me was put a G meter in the heads up display. The G meter tells you how many time the force of gravity you are pulling as you corner. I got it up to .9 G’s. It was the most fun I have ever had in a car.
I took it to my parents house to show my Dad. He has always wanted a Corvette. We stood in the drive way forever and messed with the car. He was actually pretty proud of me. I was pretty proud of myself as well.
7 months later the dealership called and said it was time to order my Z06. I was freaking out. This is where they tried to screw me. How many people could afford to buy a new car less than a year after buying a new car? I was upside down in my Coupe as pretty much anybody would be unless you paid cash, which I didn’t. I had a plan though.
So I went down to the dealership and loaded my Z06 out. I went to my parent’s house and my Dad and I made a deal that when my new Corvette showed he would take my “old” Corvette. Well my new Corvette showed up quick!
About a month and a half later I drove down to the dealership late one night and checked it out. It still had all the stuff on it from transport. My new Z06 was the most beautiful car I had ever seen. I did all the paper work that night, put down every cent I had on it and came back the next day and picked it up.
If I was scared of my Coupe, this one was terrifying. More than 100 Hp more, but I got it back to the office nicely, stood in the parking lot taking pictures of my two Corvettes side by side, I should say both cars are bright yellow. I must have stood there for over an hour. I had to eventually go back inside and get some work done. But shortly the rides started. Pretty much everybody in the office.
I took the Coupe up to my Dad that weekend after spending 3 hours detailing it for him. I am not sure I have seen him quite so happy with a car. He buys more stuff for that car. It is really nice to see him happy with something like that.
Well the Z06 is the latest car I have bought. I can’t imagine driving anything else. Lost only one race in it, it is ok, the car the beat me cost 5 times what my Z06 did.
I don’t know, but I have always loved cars. The ability to have a machine that can go so fast, change direction in an instant. I love it.
Don’t know why I love it so much, I think it is in my genes, but I do.Labels: Cars and Racing
|
|
|
|
|
RSS Feed