I have begun a consultancy relationship with a firm in California to do constructability reviews. I will get drawings for a project and a set of prints for ease of review and make my comments on CAD drawings. I have so far done a practice review and taken a tutorial about the process and thought train.

So far its fun and the pay is excellent.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

So about one year ago I went in for an exam and some new glasses. My old eye doc unfortunately got an aggressive pancreatic cancer and died. I always liked him and thought he was pretty good. So was a little at odds as to who to go to.

I picked a new place because some of his workers landed there. Everybody was very nice and the service seemed pretty conscienceous. I got the new glasses and all seemed good at first but soon I noticed that when I was tired or my blood sugar was low my eyes wanted to cross very aggressively. Also even one drink was causing it.

I was driving home from happy hour with one eye closed. Seemed like a bad idea. Also watching movies on TV at night with one eye closed most of the time (a pain in the rear!)

So I went in and told them I was having trouble. So the owners son said he'd check my glasses. He came back and said that the prescription called for two diopters of prism and the glasses only had one. They ordered me new lenses and things seemed better, but still tough.

I remembered my GP had sent me to an opthomaligist (an eye doc with full medical training) in case I had some other issue besides glasses. He checked me out and found my eyes are very healthy with just a smidge of cataract clouding of the lenses beginning (not bad for my age). At one point he commented that when he had examined me three years ago my glasses had 3 diopters of prism....now there was 2.

Dang! No wonder I've been having trouble. The glasses place had changed my prism with never a comment to me about it.

So I went with the new correct prescription and ordered new lenses for my regular and sun glasses. Got them yesterday morning.

Excellent! I even had a drink last evening and no crossing.

Now I am wondering how much it hampered my autocrossing? I am eager to get my car back together and race!

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

About eight years have passed since this thread started. A fair amount of water has passed under the bridge for most of us.

Things just keep changing Barry!

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I am on the verge of closing on a new mortgage on my building with an interest rate of 4.22%. Woo hoo!

It'll give some cash flow and allow more maintenance and repair work.

the building was converted to apartments over a four year period starting in 2000 so we are beginning to have water heaters fail. So far the stoves, fridges and washers and dryers are holding up impressively well. I have had to replace a couple of washers and fridges but they are units i bought second hand when we did the conversions.

I want also to begin upgrading (I hate that word on HGTV) by installing diswashers in my large units and granite tops in all of them probably. I'll also convert to stainless steel fridges probably when the white ones start failing.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Between my old Mercedes projects, my 39 studebaker coupe express and the lotus 7 replica I am getting burned out on car projects so I plan to sell off some of them and try to limit myself to only one or three old car projects from now on.

So far the VW is working well.

My dodge truck which I bought new in 03 is becoming an old vehicle project now too. But with a new rear axle and refurbished tranny I plan to keep it for the forseeable future.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Did you find out the internal fault in the truck transmission or just let it go as a core?

Burnt out may not be totally accurate as I feel we just get far too much on our plates sometimes instead. I now have an endless list to pick and choose from it seems.

There was a time when almost everything got done.

I just turned it in. The core was worth 2700 so I did not choose to experiment with it.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

At least we are still here to paddle under the bridge...

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

yes the economy sucks.From what I have seen in my life time wages only rose 3 times,vehicles,and housing 10 times.If I live to 65 I will relocated to South America.I can live comfortable on SSN and have money left to save an travel.Its a shame greedy powerful people have ruint this country,to where you can't retire unless you where white collar person.I have had to raise grandkids as this generation is to sorry,or on drugs to care for their children.Thats why I have no 401K to retire on.This country is not the same I took a oath to defend.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

It is true that it has been a tough period for blue collar workers with limited exceptions. The number of such skilled and semi skilled jobs has shrunken over the last few decades due to more efficient methods of assembly like robots etc. Some of these jobs have gone to other countries but most of them just have been passed by by progress.

Moving to south america might be a good solution. For me it is not an option with all my children and grandchildren here in the midwest.

Best wishes for the future.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Economy sucks? Depends a lot on who you ask.


Sent from an abacus

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Older guys seem to usually make something work out. Far too many of the later generations may not have the abilities to do it in comparison.

This easy credit thing is destroying the learning curve. Or at least of how to decently survive long term for too many today. That is also a good part of the basis of watching many make really bad decisions to me. I really feel that if they had to accumulate the money first as we of my generation had to do in the early days they might have at least learnt how to make better decisions.

The basis of the present economy takes some effort to understand and the implications of it going forward. I still do not totally understand it but have been slowly getting to know more.

The evolution of a primary credit driven economy is both real and has many potential hidden issues and not so hidden negative side effects.

Old age to me is a crapshoot anyways to some extent. If you have decent health for your age you are well ahead. Without it not much really matters.

My wife has a recent bad disk problem that they will soon operate on. It is limiting what we planned to do this summer. I have an issue with recent cytology results that is being watched carefully.

Showing some asymmetric cells in tests now with nothing found by scans and examinations etc. My type of cancer has a high expectation of occurring again as it has in the past. Usually easy to treat but it does slow me down a bit for awhile afterwords. Fortunately I have a really good urologist.

As Tom mentions and I agree the best wishes for the future. You may have enough time to change some things before retirement as well. Or find something to augment your retirement.

Many Canadians can no longer afford to retire and continue working is being reported as well. What is really strange is that if I wanted to work for others again I could. I doubt this would have been possible twenty or so years ago for a 74 year old guy.

Very complex picture. The economy in general is doing much better than underlying conditions should justify. At the same time it is also impacting many in a negative way.

North America has experienced a horrific loss of manufacturing with tens of thousands of smaller towns that have lost their primary industries. How many more rabbits are left for the governments to pull out of the hat?

Interest is now pretty much rock bottom. Printing money and insertion into the system is also endemic for some time. My feeling is the may just print money till they run out of paper. When stimulus funds where released many converted them to other outside the country vehicles and it left the country. So the fed just pushed more money out. The extreme danger remains of a fundamental lack of liquidity in the system. The financial system nearly collapsed and has not really been restored properly in the ensuing years.

A building inspector asked me just the other day. Why is their very little new construction as the interest rates are so low? He may fear loss of his job as he has little seniority. He must have also observed that there is more than an adequate supply of resale properties.

I suggested he look at the new costs of building as whatever interest charges are saved apparently are tacked on to the inflationary front end building costs now. The cost of building would not be nearly as expensive without the cheap interest rates available I suspect. Nor would the prices of existing properties be as high although currently much cheaper than new construction.

Usually a bubble deflates and new ones form. We seem to have a series of compounded bubbles presently instead. The working population always needed financial responsibility and stability by governments so their lives can function well.

That has gone by the wayside now. For example our pension cheques are pretty much the same dollars we got ten years ago. The buying power now has been signifigantly reduced in Canada.. For many of those that depended on them as their sole income source it has become a resulting hardship. It also is a serious trend that is more likely to continue than not.