Art & Inspiration Thoughts On Today and Tomorrow For Inspiration

I've noticed several doom and gloom threads lately related to our current times causing negative thoughts, depression is a problem with us Seniors I'm told. I want to share something that a friend showed me years ago. Here's a gauge for everyone to consider. take out your tape measure, run it out to 77" that's the life expectancy of a baby boomer, then subtract your age, example 70, leaves 7" put the 2 tape measures side by side, Note difference of 77" and 7", puts things in perspective if you are debating on something you want to do, Now is the Time. Remember 77 is the average, I'm shooting for the curve, 4 to go, hoping to make it, Nobody is promised tomorrow. This thread is meant as an INSPIRATION to fellow CarCrazy's. This Too Shall Pass, get out in garage, polish something, enjoy the HAMB, call a car friend, most likely he'll be glad to hear from you, if parents alive call them, they will be thrilled to talk with you, daydream on that special car, figure out how to act on that dream. Never Give UP, WE are the Lucky ones, the Car Hobby is the best IMO. Life is Good, Everyone, Have A Great Day ! Bob Marley "No Worries, Be Happy"

 

"Any day on the right side of the grass, is a good day."

My father on his way to hospice in the shoebox, a week ago Thursday.

 

Been There Done That, hopefully he will pass peacefully, Sorry for your loss if he has passed. Hospice is so much better for the end of life care IMO.

 

Be resolved to be happy today, to be joyful now, and out of every fleeting moment draw all possible pure and lasting pleasure.

 

He's still jammin. Talked to him on the phone last night, tho it's difficult to understand him sometimes via phone. Two week quarantine for covid n I can go see him. He's a tough bastard, he's too stubborn to die.... He told me yesterday a few of the fellas at the home saw the shoebox pull up when I dropped him off and want a ride...lol.

Thanks tho guys. I know we all been there/done that with someone important to us.

 

One morning I got to the office just as my boss and mentor Tom was getting out of his truck.
He looked at me and said “today is going to be a good day”
I asked how he knew that,
He replied “because I decided it would be”

I try to start every day by deciding it will be a good one.


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Shit, I'm screwed...by that "measure", I've only got 9 years left to do ALL the things I put off during my first 68 years..
I BETTER GET BUSY !!!!

 

How many years do war babies get? What ever it is I’m past it. Drank out of a lot of garden hoses in the summertime, road in the back of pickups, and smelled too much powder from cap guns. I won’t even get into 45 years in power plants filled with asbestos, PCB transformer oil and chlorthane sprays... oh well a least I didn’t smoke, those guys are gone.

 

Not yet we aren't ... ^^^^ and all it's cost me so far is my vocal cords & sense of smell.

 

I've never been average, so I'm shooting for much longer than 77. Unless they stop making beer, then all bets are off.

 

Three "widow maker" heart attacks and a brain bleed....I've buried a son and a grandson....every breath is a gift. Enjoy every day as best you can, even when things don't go the way you'd like. And besides, you could have my looks, so count your blessings!

 

I've done the tape measure trick to my friends, most are shocked when they see what is used up and what is left. Personally, I'm happy to be 65, my dad never made it past 53, my mom had a head full of useless pudding when she died, dementia is a horrible thing.
I've had two very close calls with the reaper, one I documented here, both taught me a very valuable lesson, and as a result, I'm not afraid of death, it's gonna happen.
What I wasn't prepared for was the loss of my friends, something I never gave any thought to, I lost my three closest friends in the space of three months, and three more since, six last year, all good friends, the kind you can relate to, and talk to very regularly. It put me in a kind of a funk, a bit lost, nobody to speak my language, has taken a couple months to kind of get my mojo back.
HOWEVER, bonneville here I come, rust valley day trip, white post auto museum, bought a minibike for bonneville, I'm getting my shit together for the coming year, all my life I done shit for my family, this year is mine for some personal, unachieved goals, might even get drunk for the first time in 35 years, we'll see.

 

Carpe Diem my friends. HRP

 

Not all of us
My doctor said "I'd live longer if I gave up cigars"
I told him "it would only seem longer"

 

Long but worth reading.
It always inspired me.

Subject: 1000 Marbles
The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings.
Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.
A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement shack with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life
seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it.I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice.You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting
business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles". I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.
"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's
dance recital."
He continued, "Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities". And that's when he began to explain his theory of "a thousand marbles".
"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years. Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of
Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now,stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part. It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred
Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a
large, clear plastic container right here in the sack next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one
marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focus more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight. Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast.
This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.It was nice to meet you, Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family,
and I hope to meet you again here on the band. 75 year Old Man, this is K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"
You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off.Guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to
work on the next club newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss."C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."What brought this on?", she asked with a smile."Oh, nothing special,it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out?
I need to buy some marbles.... "

 

^^^^^^^^^^^ Give this some thought ! ^^^^^^^^^^^^ For you younger men, think about this marble story. My only regret and not sure it is a regret, I did spend too much time running/building my business, ran a racing operation 20+ years, and my car hobby. I always took some time for my family, did my best as a father/husband and we don't get do overs anyway. My children seem happy and are very successful in their lives, they are far better parents than I was with spending family time together with their kids and so far so good with grandchildren. One does not think about this stuff when young and Bang ! seems one day later you are old, this marble story hit home with me today.

 

Life expectancy for a male born in 1941 in the U.S. is 70.8 years. I just turned 80 and am still alive as far as I can determine. Just imagine how long I'd last if I had the government telling me how to live for all those years.

 

"Live hard, die young and leave a good-looking corpse". I've lived too long for the last two.

Lynn

 

I am 80 years old, so I am thankful that I have beat the average. I won't go into my medical history as I have already mentioned them earlier today in another post. When I turned 50, my brother-in-law asked me if I felt bad turning 50. I told him that a lot of my friends didn't make it that far, he didn't know what to say. I am 80, and still going as strong as my body will let me. I have good days and bad days, but every day is really something to be thankful for. At least I am not just sitting in the chair looking at the boob tube. I try to keep as busy as my body lets me. One of my buddies wife calls me the Eveready bunny. One day the batteries will no longer work. So be it. I hope that day is a long way off.

 

This is all good information to be sure, I like things with a positive outlook!
I will be 68 yr's of age on the 28th of March. It isn't young and it isn't old, its just a number, nothing more than that, simply a mile marker !

Now that being said, and since we are dealing with numbers, take this into consideration.

Lets look at the really big picture. First of all, none of us would be alive on this planet today, if it wasn't for the fact, that we were the best swimmers on that particular day, ( you know the classic journey, of the tadpole on its way to meet the egg ) !

Now zoom way out to the center of our galaxy, 93 million miles away, and since our " SUN " is the true source of the power it takes to keep our planet alive, and since it only take 8 minutes for a photon of light to reach the Earth from the Sun.

( Let's face it, as cool as science is, with spectral analysis, we can only guess at the true age of the sun and how long it will last before it doesn't shine anymore ).

As we all look up at the sky, if the Sun stopped shining at any given moment, we would not know it for 8 minutes ! So in a very generalized statement, with out getting into all of the nomenclature of how our SUN will go through a variety of phases before it expands to a red giant stage, that will boil our seas and atmosphere away, just be glad in knowing, that a wonderful big ball of burning hydrogen is still functioning 24/7, providing light and heat to our planet !

You will never know when the " 8 " minute clock will start or when it started.

Now that being said, and surely not to be a negative element to all that are bummed out and on the razors edge of depression, just do the best you can, with what you have, and enjoy every minute of everyday !

As a side note, its pretty amazing that we can tune in and see the daily progress of a robot driving around on MARS!

Just remember, " It's better to give than receive " IMHO, YMMV.

I think our planet is glad to be receiving light and heat from the sun!


That's my " 8 cents worth "
Thanks from Dennis!

 

They say; "Only the good die young"...that may be an explanation for my longevity

 

Age is nothing but a number .........I know old guys 60 and young guy s 80. We all know how easy it is to sit on it but we all also know what a charge it is to make something better on our cars. We are very lucky to be a part of this great hobby and I truly believe that it will keep you young IF you will let it. Stay active, stay involved, get your hand dirty again and stay young...


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Positive thread guys - I'm at 65 and hope to finish what I have and not buy to many more - but some purchases keep the cash roll going when I sell - just hope my body stays with me - and y'alls too !

 

I’m reading and learning from all of you. I’m 54. I retire in 4 years and 9 months. The men in my family don’t live to the average age so I am watching my health more and do something everyday on one of my projects regardless of how long the work day was and how small what I accomplished. I want my cars done and extra parts sold so the family doesn’t have to deal with much. Thanks for sharing. Randy


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Damn ! I thought baby bloomers life expectancy was 82, not 77. Now I only have two years to finish my project - crap!

 

41 GMC I will be wishing you a happy birthday as mine is on the 29th of March. I feel having a son has helped keep me young feeling as he is 14 going on 30 lol . He and I are working on the latest project and it keeps me feeling young to see him learning how to put tools to use and finding he is able to do stuff for himself. So glad my dad did the same for me ,he died at 80 and my mom at 88 so hoping that the good genes have rubbed off

 

Nice, happy birthday guys! Mine is on st Patrick's day, and oh boy has that been a good birthday over the years..... Lol. One year me and a buddy went to Ireland for a few weeks, rented a car and just drove around. We were in Dublin on st pats and drinkin in a super busy pub and I told one of the Irish guys it was my birthday, and he said "bol-chit. Eets nae yer berthdey" so I showed him my ID, and him and his buddies, trashed as we all were, lifted me up in their shoulders and ran me out the door, sang me happy birthday, and punched me more than I was comfortable with, took me back in and we drank whiskey like men... That was a damn good day. Still got a Pic of me standing outside that pub hangin in my house....

 

I am only 39, but my dad just turned 72 and if I am out in the garage he is going to be out there with me.



Or out in the snow.




Hell he is out there when I am at work!

 

Man, what a great thread, specially for the younger set to read, gives them an idea of what they'll face. I'm happy to be 65, never thought I'd be here, my heart attack survival was pure luck, I was gonna head up into the bush to cut firewood, by myself, I'd have never come home, but I procrastinated (big word), which I never do, played with my dog,(old sophie for those of you who've seen pics of her), she saved my life.
I married my kids, they were very young, I was dad, still am dad, I did everything with them, they came with me on my motorcycles and cars, we went camping every long weekend, dirt bikes, EVERY long weekend, bought a cabin, devoted my life to them.
At 13, I wanted to go to speedweek, never went, L.A. roadster show, never went, in short, I never indulged my own personal wants, always shit for my wife and kids. No regrets, all good, EXCEPT, I'm 65, and I need to visit the salt, need to make the thousand mile hot rod trip, meet other like minded guys I've read of, spend some time and money on me, my woman is not a car person, (she's not coming), I need to look out of that casket knowing I did some stuff for me and not others, just for a change, my tape measure only has 12 inches left, you guys pay heed to this. The thousand marble thing is spot on, we only got so much time to enjoy the things that matter to us, I want the end to be the end of me, worn out, smiling, brushing the dust off, ready for the final adventure.