The Hardest Part of VP

[FloridaPhil]

I'm heading to Tampa myself on Friday.  After last week's blood bath, I'm hoping my luck improves.  Hope yours does as well.   If not, maybe we can drowned our sorrows. 

[olds442jetaway]

And I get to visit my 65 442 several times a year. My mechanic and friend down the street bought it from me in 2003. At least I get to walk around it and sit in in it on good weather days. Miss that car, but the car I miss the most is the 66 Plymouth Hemi Satelite. It was that beautiful Plyouth blue. I forget the exact color, but it was kind of like the ocean. I still have my Plymouth racing jacket blue with white racing stripe and the red symbol on it.

[olds442jetaway]

Best of luck to all and I hope we both beat our slump. I feel like a tired pitcher at the plate trying to bat 200 but never getting past 110. if not, we can always fall back on car talk to drown our sorrows. like you say, more fun anyway.

[Raner]

Us old farts did have fun back in the day didn't we...
Great story...Phil... I made a pretty good living working at a Dodge Dealership for over 34 years. 28 years as a master tech and 7 years in car sales... I'd have to write a book to share all the stories I have turning wrenches for over 49 years...

[olds442jetaway]

I have just one story for now. When replacing the power window motor in my 65 xl conv, in freezing temps in Jan 1972, I found a crushed Schlitz beer can inside the door panel. I could tell the panel had never been off. I guess stuff like that was pretty common back then. Due to a ding in the flywheel in that car, I replaced 5 starters in it, most of which on frozen ground with howling wind. The starter drives kept getting chewed up. One time in a snow storm up at UCONN, it went and in a pinch, I had to put in a tiny ford Falcon starter for that big 390 motor. It bolted right up and actually turned fine and lasted nearly a year. I was shocked. That car also ate solenoids up on the fender well, so I always had a pair of slip joint pliers duct taped under the hood to jump the terminals until I could get another one. If the frame hadn't rotted I may still have had that car. Never any trouble with the motor even after 224k hard tromped on miles. 4 auto trans replaced though. That was my fault. Back then a rebuild including installation was only 225 bucks. As to vp, I did finally connect with quad deuces last night, but only had 5 coins in and gave it back before the end of the session.

[FloridaPhil]

You would like one of the cars I'm working on right now.  It's a '66 Fairlane 390 GTA.  It's had a 428 4 speed engine swap.  The car has 70,000 actual miles and the body and interior are perfect.  We sold this fellow a home a few years ago and became friends.  He has quite a car collection and a shop that looks like a car dealership.  He's a younger guy  and needed someone with experience to help him.  I was getting pretty gimpy so I sold all my cars about 5 years ago.  Working on his collection has got me back into the hobby.  It's great because I can work when I want and stop if I get tired.  I found out sitting in front of the computer all day is not a good thing.  Better to get out as much as you can.  If you don't move, you'll rust in place.   Off to Tampa this morning.  We'll see what happens.

[FAA]

When playing negative games, controlling losses in much more important
than engineering wins. The math told me so, but of course I chose to
ignore it. Lesson learned.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------WTH. You've been preaching this consistently since I got here. Don't deviate from this clinical iron clad fact. It's not about what you win, it's about what you don't lose! If your willpower is fading, I'm in for huge trouble.

[FAA]

problem is you get antsy and say let me up my bets too early and the
quad deuces may never appear. I try and wait about 4,000
hands before I up my bet, but don't always wait that long.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Yes, I lose my willpower pretty much all the time on dollar JOB and abandon the safe and sound min bet strategy! Result: early exit. 

[olds442jetaway]

Yeah, rust is very bad. Don't I know that up north here. Anyway, heading out for a light breakfast and walk in the cold, but warm march sun. When I was not quite 18, my neighbor offered me that exact car 66 gta for 50 bucks. He had rolled it, but it had held up pretty well and was definitely repairable. I drove it what a bear. my dad didn't really want it in the yard while I worked on it, so I passed. Bummer. My dad regretted it later because he was constantly helping me fix 5 British sports cars that littered up the yard even worse. My dad never swore, but came close to swearing about Lucas electrics and some of the other British engineering. I loved those cars though and raced locally, but never up at Lime Rock. heading up to Mohegan for a quick visit tonight. Taking my sis and family back to the airport at 4 AM so I have to be back. They are heading back to Sonoma. They had a great stay overnight Tues and part of Wed at you know where. At least everything was paid for by Mohegan though I really paid for it zillians of times over.

[FloridaPhil]

Stuck it out and stayed with 50 cents this morning.  Was rewarded with this $500 jackpot out of the blue.  Came home up $200.  After last week's debacle, only $1,800 more to go.