That marketing campaign by Honda had a major impact on my life. Honda became a huge seller of motorcycles in America and I have owned more of them than I can count in my life. They are and have always been my preferred brand of motorcycle.
It is funny how one little thing can have a dramatic impact on our lives.
This dream and project is no different. The last three years have been a blur and many twists and turns have taken place in our lives:
- Our house has flooded twice
- Our youngest daughter got married and now has had our fourth grandkid
- We bought the longest race trailer you can legally pull (I have a few stories related to pulling it, ha!!) If you have seen the movie Lucille Ball made called "The Long Long Trailer" you will know what I am talking about!
- Bought and built the most beautiful drag boat I have ever seen (never drove it though)
- I have had two major crashes on motorcycles and had major surgeries to put me back together
- Traded my beautiful boat for an incomplete ProMod Corvette
- Qualified for my NHRA drag racing competition license
- Purchased a complete dragster to learn to drag again
- Was the worst driver at four races last year (but improving)
- Gone completely overboard on building the ProMod Vette
- Watched my dad survive his 3rd battle with cancer
- Lost my last uncle
All of this stuff has given Traci and I lots to think about and has given us motivation to come up with a good game plan for life. Traci and I have realized that our time on this earth is very limited and precious and time flies by so fast that it is unbelievable!
Traci and I have been consumed with rebuilding our house in Tomball for the past 15 years only to have it destroyed twice by floods. We are so burned out with working on our house that we cannot stomach doing it again. Now that we also have the house next door (which we had to completely gut after the flood) the thought of rebuilding just wasn't a task that we felt like we could cope with mentally.
Over the past 15 years we have been so close to finishing the house that we could taste it but it just wasn't meant to be. Every time we thought we were close to being able to travel, relax, or play with hobbies, we just seemed to go backwards.
As I sit here and write this blog, Traci and I have celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary today. We are still best friends and have never been closer. We haven't always had it easy, nor have we agreed on everything but we always know that we could never make it without one another. Over the last several years the houses have taken their toll on us. We never seemed to be in sync on how to finish them, when to finish them, or why they flooded twice!
The one thing that we have always agreed on is that God is in control and will take care of us. We have one another and God so nothing else really matters.
As you all may have noticed, we have ramped up the pace on building the ProMod. That has happened because we finally have a real plan for our housing situation and life in general. Not everyone would agree with our plan but Traci and are are absolutely in sync and we realize why all of these events occurred. They had to happen to get us on the same page.
Over the years, I have been such a hammerhead about not using contractors to work on the houses. Traci was so tired of always working on them and just wanted to finish them with contractors. Neither one of us really like the layout of our house or the construction methods/materials that were used when the house was built. As they say "A turd is a turd", ha! It has been home but has really never been right. We love the property but something was missing!
The second flood made us realize that we were both right. Traci is glad we did not waste money for contractors on a house that floods repeatedly and I realize that life is too short to waste on constantly rebuilding houses.
As a result of us being in sync, we have built ourselves a five year plan to recover our lives. Because my time to do crazy hobbies is getting closer to ending, we are moving full steam ahead on my drag racing dream. Our plan is to debut the ProMod early next year. We are going to try and compete at a serious level and be noticed in the ProMod community. It is a lofty goal but I think is possible. We have good equipment, motivation, and a pretty good head on both of our shoulders!
After we get the dream well underway, we will tear the house next door down and either leave the lot vacant or have a small apartment built for my sister on the property. It will be built on a pier and beam foundation, raised high enough to not flood easily. Nothing big, but a simple place that is easy to take care of where Sissie can retire and have a place close to us so we can look after her.
Next, we will build a large race shop on our lot on the other side of our existing house for the race operation. This shop will be large enough for the race rig to fit inside and have an apartment inside where we will live while we tear our house down to build Us a new home (just like she wants). It will be a country farm style house on a pier and beam foundation that is raised to prevent it from flooding. It will have porches all the way around it so we can enjoy the evening outside and watch rain storms without having to constantly worry about it flooding again.
Once we move into the house, the shop apartment will be turned into my "man cave" that I have always wanted. All of my indoor hobbies (reloading, building R/C airplanes and helicopters) will be moved out of the house and into the "man cave" so Traci's house will be hers to decorate any way she wants.
We are very excited about he plan and we believe God has led us down the right path for Dean and Traci.
Now I know you wondered why I titled this page "You meet the nicest people in a ProMod" so here it is. I know most of you don't really know the type of people you meet at the drag strip but I can can tell you that I have met the most sincere, honest, helpful, and nice people in this hobby than I have met in any other hobby I have ever done. A big percentage of them are religious and believe in treating one another as they would like to be treated. One of the neatest things is that every event has Sunday morning church services and a chaplain that visits racers and supports them. Not exactly what most people would expect at a drag strip!
This hobby has given us lots of hope for our future because of the decent people we have met. There is my old friend Scott who helps us a the track. Brian who has been supportive since I got the boat. Shawn who traded me the ProMod for my boat. JB and his wife who hang out with us at the track and talk religion with us. The Parise family who sold me some good parts and encouraged me. The Christoffel family that sold me an awesome transmission and offer me lots of advice. The Caruso family that sold me my dream engine and introduced me to the Janis family. Then there is the Janis family (Jan-Cen Motorsports) who have been so helpful and keep me from making the wrong decisions when I buy parts for the car. It is a family run business that functions a lot like our business. They are supplying me with a lot of my parts for the car. They are and will be instrumental in me being successful.
You see, you truly do "Meet the nicest people in a ProMod".
I will leave you with some pictures of the car with the body and front end on it for the first time since I got the Hemi engine in it and all of the frame modifications done. This is a thing of beauty! Pure "Billet Porn"!!!!
Click on the Blog Archive hierarchy on the right hand side to see my posts in order. The ones at the bottom are the newest posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment