Tis the Season of Giving. You begin the month by giving your bank or landlord a big chunk of your last paycheque or savings. And then, there are all of the sales like BLACK FRIDAY and Boxing Day that seem to go on throughout the month. Needless to say, I’m NOT falling for it. We need to keep the lights and heat ‘ON’.
AS we get older, you have people start to give you stuff- those things you need when you are ‘starting out’. (And please, don’t move back in with us.) You also become the recipient of those things such as mementos from your childhood as well as some of the junk you left behind when you moved out. Parents want to ‘down-size’ as they get older- then, there are the things you wind up inheriting. What am I going to do with my grandfather’s hard- assed wooden rocking chair? The best use I have ever had for it was to collect clothes that I didn’t want to hang back up or toss in the laundry.
I also have friends who also ‘gift’ me with stuff I neither wanted or asked for. I regularly trip on a camera tripod and a telescope that one of my buds figured I needed. The telescope is half the size of the one we already have, and I haven’t had the kind of time to set up my SLR camera for a few years now. But then, he no longer has to deal with it either. But, I do appreciate the thought. Thanks, pal.
I often get asked how I manged to accumulate so many vehicles. Sure, it took years- and thousands of dollars to move them all here. The truth is, I got most of my collection for FREE – some, I was even paid to take them away. Let’s just say that there is no such thing as ‘free’. I had to pay for the truck to haul that junk car or truck away. I had to insure and license said truck. I had to put gas in the tank and maintain it. Then, there are the ‘overhead’ costs. Like, the rent or mortgage costs, electricity, gas. What does it cost to keep this ‘business’ open every month? You don’t want to know…
There is also the fact that I haven’t had a paycheque in 22 years.
THEN, there are the in-tangibles, like time and effort. 20 years ago, I had an abundance of both. Not so anymore. Hours, days, and weeks no longer drag by. Thanks to the long-term effects of the Chinese Flu, I can’t count on what my energy levels will be, or how I will feel from one day to the next. The truth is, I need to move on. I need to get to those projects which still hold value to me. I have told many who ask about my NFS projects, all that is needed is time and money. I don’t want to leave ‘a project’ to my kids. I also don’t want to leave this mess to my wife to deal with.
INSTEAD of an annual, televised auction sale, I am going to continue to sell off my collection one piece at a time until it gets to the point where a scrap outfit will be called in to do the final clean-up. UNTIL that time, I will be happy to take vehicles and parts that ‘you don’t want to see go to the scrap yard’. I’m going to do the business until I’m not going to do the business, if you know what I mean?
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