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Hi Friends,
Just
read the digest - first time in months, if not years. Saw a post or two from
friends I remember like BigHeadDennis, and references to Little Ricky and his
half-Mondial. Can't remember which half he planned to buy...
Anyway,
I thought I would say hi to old and new friends alike. Since joining Steve's
list in 1996, a few things have changed. For one, I have gotten older. Many
of you may relate. Here are a few other changes:
1. Kids
are grown, educated, married, moved away and employed.
2.
Nancy and I now live in Houston.
Moved here in 2006.
3.
Still good friends with Peter Henrys, my oldest FList friend from 1996. Also
still close with Rui Gigante, Ric and Wendy Rainbolt, Phil Tegtmeier and
Charles Perry, and occasionally chat with Lashdeep, Cap. Robert and others,
if offline.
4.
Still have the '79 308gtb that I bought with Phil's help in 1997, sold to
Ric, bought back, and is now beautifully restored in silver with blue.
5. Sold
the Mondial QV that I bought from Matt Boyd in about 2000, to Dave Craig,
bought it back a few years ago. 2009 I think it was. Reversed the fuel
injection federalizing back to the way God and Enzo intended, then after a
year or so of enjoyment, sold it to a friend and fellow geophysicist at Exxon-mobil.
That guy is now on a temporary (3 year) foreign assignment to Jakarta, and I'm
keeping the car for him. Its getting fed and watered regularly.
6.
After waiting 10 years, a lady sold me her one-owner ' 62 Triumph TR3. It was
original but hadn't run in over a decade. Today it runs and looks great. It
is "preserved" not restored. Only issue is that it is a very
seasonal car in Houston.
Often too wet in winter and ALWAYS too hot in summer. Beautiful and valuable
car though.
7. At
the bottom of the economic crunch, a friend back in Tulsa offered me a '69 Rolls-Royce Silver
Shadow at a well-below-wholesale price, and for some reason, I bought it.
Yep, for some reason, I'm still a sucker for a quirky car.
8.
Bought Nancy
a '73 E-Type, again with Phil's help. Its the unloved car of the genera,
being a V12, 2+2 automatic with A/C. Read: perfect for Nancy.
9. Just
a couple of months ago I bought an '85 Testarossa, non-running with the fuel
injection in a box in the trunk. Yep, still a sucker for a quirky deal. This
is the car that Ric and Deep sold back and forth for years. Ric had grown
tired of it and didn't finish the custom aftermarket FI he designed for it. I
bought it with the EFI removed and set about restoring all the bits of the
original Bosch FI. Today it runs great. We still don't know what caused the
poor running earlier but it appears that while refurbishing the Bosch bits,
some undiscovered malady was repaired. Read: luck, not skill.
10. I
am switching to part-time work starting in July this year. I'll work 3-days a
week for another 6 months then retire. After that we have some casual
consulting/teaching plans - and a lot of time twisting spanners in the
garage.
Thanks
for the read.
-rick
(not Ric, nor Little Ricky)
Sent
from Yahoo! Mail on Android
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