Things are kinda slow around here - must be everybody is busy working on their cars, racing their cars, or trying to forget about their cars.

So I was over on Corner-Carvers and saw this:

http://corner-carvers.com/foru...16092


Bart's got a pretty nice place eh?

Even my dreams aren't quite that grand, though I'm sure we've got members who can dream bigger...dreaming of their own personal Paragon?

Big....Big Deal....Big Car....Big House....Big Job....Big Money...."Big-Time".

I like small. When Steve Martin said "Let's get Small" I guess it clicked over something in me. I like to do as much with as little as I can. Sure I'd like more. But I know if I had more I'd just want more. I've spent the last few months working on more and reconciling myself to less. And that reconciliation isn't necessarily about resignation. And it's not about convincing myself that up is down. And it's not about backing down, being a loser instead of a winner, following rather than leading, or any other oppressive dichotomy.

When I happen to watch nature shows I occassionally go into a reflection on the basis of the lives we build. Stripped of our cultural centricity I find it easy to see the commonality with animals in the patterns of behaviour that lend character to the struggle to live. One of the most durable impressions I've had was made by some kind of sea bottom crab - that inhabits a burrow and surrounds the opening with rocks and shells. I can't help but see the same thing in the nesting behavior of the typical female human. Or...the shop decorating behavior of the typical racing male human.

Am I just programmed to do this...and to do it this way. I've spent alot of time laying under the car lately. What I've been doing there is kinda hard to describe. Nominally I'm there trying to figure out how to do what I want to do. Sometimes that results in mental lappery whereby I start out with an idea, bog down on the details, abandon the idea, go into a fuge, reaffirm the merit of the original idea, reassess the cost to benefit, start over, bog down,...go to bed disgusted. Repeat daily.

At least I'm doing it in a nice place of my own device:



This is what I spent the winter putting together, and it's 98% done. Which is fine, cool, great. But you know what I most want to do? I want to drive the car. If it's a hundred pounds overweight - I want to drive it anyway. If I haven't got the new bars done - I want to drive it anyway. If I haven't got the new wing mountings done yet - I want to drive it anyway.

It all starts so innocently - Driving is Fun. Pretty soon you feel like a tiny little crab behind a towering pile of rocks and shells and you're saying to yourself something like "remember when this was simpler and funner?" Well, don't forget what you said at the time - something like "this is fun, it'd be even better if I (...)" And you know what? You were right...both times. Good Luck with That!

Scott, who would have written this is a press release, but I had to fire the PR Liason...and I'm laying off the Designer for a while, and more closely managing the Mechanic, and demanding some results from the Driver...Fuggin Race Team!

 

i think the subject of garages may be the only thing i can relate with you on. i really appreciate a well organized and designed garage that truly shows the passion of its owner. theres a great magazine from japan that obviously is written in japanese, but the illustrations pretty much tell the story of ppl who love cars and bikes and literally build their house around their garage, oftentimes intermixing the living space with the garage, almost like a display case for the automobiles (from the exotic to the vintage). anyawy, its call "garage life". id buy it more if it wasnt so damn expensive to buy from the japanese book store. but its nicely bound and laid out. its like the "architectural digest" for car freaks.
http://www.neko.co.jp/guest/magazine/garagelife/

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RR98ITR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I like small. When Steve Martin said "Let's get Small" I guess it clicked over something in me. </TD></TR></TABLE>

[Steve Martin] "One time I got soooo small, I crawled into the vacume cleaner....... and the drug wore off. I retained the shape of a vacume cleaner for two weeks" [/Steve Martin]

PS, looks like someone got a new workbench.

 

Hey Scott...

I'm driving tomorrow at PIR at the PCA day. Yochim and the Brewer boys will also be there with their cars. Why don't you kick the stands out from under that thing and come down and DRIVE?!

Nice garage by the way... kinda like obsessive/compulsive meets Home Depot free-wood bin.


Modified by bulldog_RS20 at 12:18 AM 4/23/2004

 

Greg,

Can't do it. Car is missing a few key parts, and I have to help carry a coffin.

Have fun and say hi to John and Joe and Mike.

Scott, who figured out the easiest way to get a bigger garage....I need to swap the ITR for a Mini....


* Hey Tyson - cool link. I've long been aware of Japanese and English garages - they've provided some inpiration/motivation. I'd draw the line short of Dan Tanna's place from the old TV show "Vegas" though...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RR98ITR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
.... and I have to help carry a coffin.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

&lt;big sigh&gt; My sympathies to you and to all who knew the departed one.

I'm struck by this footnote to your original and well-scribed installment about wanting vs. appreciating what's beyond reach. Always an interesting batch of thoughts and emotions for me, and can also be a very interesting discussion among friends. Seems to be easy to be caught in a cycle of yearning for greener grass and more of what you don't have, because if a little is good then more must be better, of course. One of my all-time favorite quotes says something along the lines of "you know you've achieved perfection in design, not when there's nothing more to add, but when there's nothing left to take away."

My actions as a middle-aged man are aimed at simplification, where less is indeed more. To each his own, but I'm always chastened by the thought of mortality, of mine and of others, and ponder the imponderables about what's important to leave behind and how to be remembered.

Casey, not trying to be overly morbid or somber, just pensive and trying to find perfection in my own design...

 

Thanks for a great read.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RR98ITR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
But you know what I most want to do? I want to drive the car. If it's a hundred pounds overweight - I want to drive it anyway. If I haven't got the new bars done - I want to drive it anyway. If I haven't got the new wing mountings done yet - I want to drive it anyway.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah, what he said. not that having a top of the line garage in my home would be so superficial and shallow that :dramatically: I just coouuulldn't fooorgive my self darling :dramatically:
But there is something to be said for the beauty and fun of real simplicity. Hahahah, your post should be titled "Emerson, Thoreau and the Art of Auto Racing."

 

maybe that link should have been...... http://www.tough-life.com it's sad that people have to live like that.

 

as always a great read

christian- who wishes his garage was as organized as Scott's

 

Theres not a dman thing wrong with your garage. I bet theres a ton of members who appreciate your garage.

I'm struggling trying to afford parts and expand my tool collection.

 

Great looking garage Scott!

I'd take one bay of Bart's garage - or Scott's garage... over what I have now.

 

[Steve Martin voice]I'm not small, I'm Tall.

Once again, really enjoyable read. I recently did some work on my car in "my garage".... well, the rented 5' wide space #95 in the garage below my apartment.... in downtown yuppie-ville. I have never been on the receiving end of so many strange looks in my life. I'm positive that the first reaction of most who saw my lying underneath my car with a pry-bar was the following: "I should call the police... except that my cell phone doesn't work underground..... and why would that vagrant be stealing a car with no wheels anyhow?"

Fortunately I know the security guard so although he also looked at me like I was suffering from a severe mental condition, he didn't bother me. No complaints though, because according to the timeline the gentleman on corner-carvers followed I still have 25 years to make my millions.

btw, nice garage, it would fulfill my humble aspirations nicely.

 

WOW. Yeah Barts got a nice place...

Im glad for the guy, it would appear he worked very hard for that spread. For years it seemed I worked at getting by and would always settle for just what I needed and not so much what I wanted.

But seeing and knowing guys like this helps me strive to go out and get what I want...although you just find yourself settling again...its a strange and weird circle.

BTW anyone know the going interest rate? Thinking about a second mortgage to finally build my shop in the back.

 

"It's just impossible to stick a Cadilac up your nose."

Agreed, my garage (nose) is bigger because I stuff a CRX into it.

Good stuff Scotty. Thanks for jogging early childhood memories of listening to "Let's Get Small" on vinyl.

I always tend to feel better when I'm content with what I have instead of wishing for things out of reach. However their is merit in striving for those things just out of reach, or wishing for things that are somewhat realistic, I'm not saying your not. Something slightly more then wishing for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is where I'm at.

dave, who is weighing the sillyness of buying a gas-guzzling beast just to get his toy to the racetrack.