1952-59 Ford How do you 'Chill Out" from problems of everyday life ?

I am just curious on how everyone here escapes from the everyday hustle and bustle that plagues all of us everyday in this country ? What do you do to occupy your brain and tune out to unwind ?

I enjoy working on my cars in my garage listening to some tunes of my choice and think about when I was younger doing the same thing , working on my cars ! It's enjoyment to me to sit and rebuild an engine or do some welding and body work . Yes I get all pissed off when I have to repair the mess that someone did before me to fix the rusted out spots on my 55 Ford . I could kick their *** for the way they did the repairs with gallons of body filler , sheet metal and hundreds of rivets ! Even though I get upset , I still am not thinking about anything that is going on in this country today or what I heard on the news , TV or radio that day . It's my time to go to a time where everything was great with no worries at all except how to win the next race down the 1/4 mile track we had on a old road in the middle of no where ! Yes I street raced a lot and won a lot but it's those things that keep many of us from going crazy ! I guess it's a man cave per-say but even though I am working hard to get my car ready for an engine swap and a repaint , I am still in my own little world doing what I enjoy doing the most ! I am just tuned out and sometimes forget what time it is until the wife asks me if I am coming in for dinner or am I going to stay out there all night !
It's really good for each and ever one of us to have that special time out from life and just enjoy the simple things we enjoy doing to our cars .

OK now what do you do ?

Jim

 

Great question.... My doctor asked me that just last week.

It's simple... I go to my shop and work on the cars. I'm just a few weeks away from driving the "Yard Art Rod". I have the brakes to bleed and some simple wiring to do and it's ready. Then I'll move onto the '37 for a few up grades like a lower rear gear ratio so my engine doesn't run at 3200 rpm at 60 mph!

I think my blood pressure drops drastically when I'm with my cars. I listen to my smooth jazz and no news programs!!!!!! I also like to work alone and plug away on ideas even if it takes all day for something simple.... doesn't matter..... just having fun.

 

The stress factor a**** Americans in general is 'way up in recent months, and getting free of it is important as Geno pointed out. We're all getting older and stress is not a good thing for our collective tickers.

Finding a comfortable spot in our lives is seldom easy and it often does include, as Jim mentioned, physically escaping to a remote location...garage, "man cave", etc.

I'm lucky. I'm self-employed and single. I can do pretty much what I want when I want to do it with no h***les from anybody. I don't recommend this lifestyle as an escape in and of itself, but it does make being a recluse much, much easier.

I have my hot rods, of course, but I'm also an animal person with lots of critters to care for and enjoy, and a voracious reader of fiction and biographies as well as my collection of "little books" from years gone by.

I live in the country and there's always chores to do. Mowing around the house isn't much fun, but when I get aboard my flathead 6-cylinder Funk-converted '52 Ford 8N tractor to mow the pasture I'm in heaven.

There's downsides, of course...but darned if I can think of any at the moment.

 

i put on my favorite music and pull out my pin striping brushes or my tattoo machine and do some work. it my favorite way to turn my brain off of the worries. ive got a baby boy on the way and the health insurance alone right now is killing my bank account so i need as much escape as i can get

 

I head to the shop, crank on the tunes, work on the car and have a beer or three...Wife says you are always working on the *(&$%* car...but I try to tell her sometimes I am just piddling more than working, but its my "out". And I always wait until the kids are all in bed before I do it so I still get the family time we all need. Of course that family time is generally what causes the stress

 

Yeah, I either go beat on a harley, or throw some vinyl on. Driving at night is also a way I can relax

 

I put some tunes on and start working on the cars..maybe try banging some dents out...but cruising does it for me also..no one in the car and just drive to some great tunes

 

driving in general is a great way for me to relax, specially in the old ford. i relax also by mowing my little 1 acre peice of heaven. of course no neighbors for 1/2 mile in any directions helps make the acre seem bigger a couple hours riding in ever smaller circles does wonders for me.
looking now for an old pop up tent trailer to go behind the 53 would complete it for me. no, not a pop up like a coleman, but an old sears type pop up a relative of mine had when i was a kid. of course my family was sleeping on the ground in a tent then, so sleeping off the ground seemed really cool to me. in my minds eye, that seems like it would make a cool combination.

 

Yea I know all about the lawn cutting too . I just got done mowing mine and my mother in laws .
I enjoy listening to vinyls too ! I have over 2000 of them to choose from ! I also enjoy fishing either in my boat or on the shore . It's a very peaceful time for me and a few tugs on the line just makes it better ! This time of the year is archery season for deer and that will be taking most of my free time up till mid December . Then I will start warming up the wood stove in the garage so I can get the car done for paint by February 2011 . Sometimes I just like taking a walk around my neighborhood . I am grateful to live where this can be done at anytime of the day or night !
The enjoyment of building a car is the best for me . It's nice to say , I did all this work when someone asks about your car at a car show .

Jim

 

I still build Model cars, when I cant get out to the real thing I sit at my table play some tunes, stick parts together, build the car I can't afford, here is one Im working on now, takeing the Vicky and truning it into a Mainline sedan.......

 

I spent many, many, many happy hours as a pre-driver building model cars. I had a whole room dedicated to that part of my car addiction.

AMT 3-in-1 kits were just becoming available when I began, around '58 I think, and I later built many a '40 Ford, '36 Ford, '49 Ford and '57 Ford in various guises. Even won a few trophies at local model car shows.

If I had time I'd begin building models again. Between the models and the magazines I somehow managed to make it from adolescence to high school with my dreams and sanity both intact.

How neat to see that others of this group still build 'em.

 

I also build many , many models too in my younger years ! I had a paper route and cut laws so I had plenty of money to blow . I know I would buy one a week or so . Depended if I got one build in a week or not . I did have quite a few that were never opened but have no idea what happened to them . In my teens we would take the older models and stick Cherry bombs in them and had some fun ! Yep I was hell raiser when I was younger !
I still have some models sitting in a room that need to be build , when I ever get time to .

Jim

 

well i have a decent drive home because i work in the city and live in the country. so i use the drive home to unwind, trafic depending. through the week i dont get much time to work on the car, but i can take as many nights to mow as needed. i mow about 3 acres. or help the guy that cuts my hay . on sat. and sunday mornings is when i get to work on my car. im always on my work wake up time so i use the time to work on my car. since nobody else is awake. this weekend there is a civil war reinactment that im going too. my wife and kids dressout for it and i just go and enjoy . im about ready to start working on one of my other cars . my wife want me t get the frame for the 48 out of the ba*****t garage, so ill have to make it a rolling chasis before i can move it to the detached garage. thats where i try to do most my work so im not within yelling distance . someone has to take the effort to walk down and ask me to do something diffrent. that dont happen often. gota love my detached garage. just need to make it more winter freindly.

 

Ahhhh, those model cars. I can't count how many of them I had built as a kid. They were my outlet to rid myself of all the problems of being a foster/practice kid for terrible parents. The models were my way of stress relief and offered a safe place. That all carries over into my adult life so stress relief is easy to manage. I guess I enjoy the build more than I enjoy the cars themselves. After they are done..... then what? Let the tire kickers put their greasy hands all over them? So.... I sell them to start another car!
Everyone has different outlets that work for them.... point is.... do anything to get happy inside.

 

My garage is also detached . My wife sends my 2 small dogs out to get daddy ! The one will come in no matter what noises I am making and the other one won't come in unless it's quiet . He was abused when h was small and hates loud noises !

And I will agree with you 100% on finding something that lets you unwind and chill out a little just so you can make it thought the next day !
You just have to figure out what works best for you if you want to live a long life !

Jim

 

Honestly, the HAMB helps me unwind. I've seen a lot of folks do really great, selfless things for eachother here. I like to head to the middle of nowhere and cruise on the country roads by myself and listen to the cl***ic country radio station on my stock am. I, like Eric, read a lot- a great escape. Fishing is right up there too.

 

I work in a maximun security prison, iam a stationary engineer. i get off work and fly remote control planes. Takes my mind off the daily grind..

 

I have allways wanted to try building those model cars. I started buying them 20 years ago. I figured when I had kids that would be a cool way to teach him about cars. Well never had kids and own about 75 or more model cars and never built one.

 

I use to build and fly model airplanes too back in the 1970's . I had built some kit planes then started building twin engine planes from scratch then some of my own design . At one time I had over 20 complete planes with engines ! I also use to fly combat planes and that was a hell of a good time . I would go to a contest with about 10 planes and come back home with one or two of them patched up to keep flying . Yep those were the good Ole days ! I was a control line flyer or a Ukey as we were called . Still when you were out in your little word flying you didn't here anything that was going on around you , just the sound of that engine screaming as I did stunt after stunt for about 8-10 minutes depending on what size tank you had . We would fly the plane until it ran out of fuel then slowly fly the plane until it slowed down enough to land it . I really miss it but couldn't do it again .
We had a 1/2 circle of air to fly in basically . I would sometime sit or lay down on my back and fly that way at shows to show off some and the people loved it . I would fly overhead and just do all kinds of stunk and hope I get up and level the plane out in enough time before I ran out of fuel . If I ran out of fuel in an overhead stunt , the plane would drop like a rock to the ground and there was nothing I could do !

Jim

 

stationary engineer? would that be the gaurd in the tower or the one in charege of p***ing out paper. sorry, couldnt resist. i can imagine after dealing with some in prison, it would get kinda stressful, especially in a max type prison.

 

i know its off topic but hell its trying to be old , heres my wife and kids dressed for the reinactment, yea i know my little girl dont have period correct shoe's on .

 

You must be reinacting my neighborhood!!! We still have people near me that doesn't have electricity! They are off the grid... seems impossible now days but they are very happy folks. I have one family that are best friends, we trade skills.... I do welding and I get deer/elk steaks! A great trade!

 

is luttrell near the smokey mountains, or are you smack dab in the middle of them. we went to asheville last year for a vacation, and my wife had never been east of st louis. she looked at property fliers while we were there, and decided we could travel to asheville many times at the prices they were asking for a 10 to 20 acre plot. crazy money some of it was.

 

its near them , im north east of knoxville by about 20 miles

 

Working where I do, the "politics dujour" is always there. News, notes, tasks etc. keep us involved in all of it - very serious stuff for sure. It's nice to get away from it when not in the office or out in the field working with contractors or troops.

Quitting time means zoning out, and having a daily 130 mile round-trip commute allows for a few hours of alone time with good music and little or nothing else except traffic, which I've learned to just deal with. Metro Detroit traffic can be a bear sometimes, for sure. But dealing with it in order to get home out in the country makes it worth it.

My workday starts at 0300 and I do 10 hours, 4-day workweeks so get 3 day weekends. I don't work on cars too much but spend a lot of my free time in the garage or doing outside stuff, weather permitting. Mowing nearly 2 acres is being replaced with cleaning up leaves, cutting & splitting firewood, getting the summer stuff put away and getting the snowplow and blowers ready for winter.

Both the wife and I are blessed with good jobs and have been relatively unaffected by the ecomonic situation so we're able to enjoy a few short travel trips on weekends when and if we want to.