"If you saw a heat wave would you wave back?" - Stephen Wright.

May be time to change the diaper.

First, Saturday's car show.

Last year was the event's first and they had 350 cars. The newspaper article said they hoped for 400 this year but I'm sure it was closer to 500. Some were very nice, and I didn't see but a handful that made me wonder, "Why did someone enter that?"

The show was sponsored by the Auto Restoration Club of Sun City West, the slightly more upscale version of Sun City that's about seven miles to the west of us. (duh!) They did a pretty good job of running things, especially in just their second year. The loud 50's music blaring the whole time got a little annoying if you had to sit there for six hours, but it broke about every 20 minutes so a guy could yell announcements and raffle drawing numbers.

Judging was done by club members, that is, old guys who like cars. I figured out from watching that they had teams of judges for the different categories, and I'm guessing that they guys who judged, for example, pre-60's hot rods were into those themselves, and therefore knew what they were looking at.

When I arrived I went to the registration tent and learned they'd added a category for VW's. "Do you want to be in that category?" A: Absolutely!

I happened to be sitting at my car when the two guys with clipboards judging VW's came to look at it. They asked a couple of questions and gave it a pretty quick look-see. When they were done they were very complimentary and pretty much told me I'd win my category. "I shouldn't say this, but I think you'll be happy with how it turns out." Cool!!

So when it came time for handing out the trophy for VW's I was - uhm - disappointed that they called someone else's name. Worse, it was for a '68 (aka "fat chick" in the classic VW community) that was an abomination to anyone interested in restorations. Fancy carpeting, a trick stitched cover for the spare tire, custom seat upholstery, goo-gaws on the dash.... It wasn't a custom in the sense that it was a VW rod, just a gussied up '68. So, I was bummed. But, whatcha gonna do? And before I knew there was a VW category I had no thought of a trophy, just getting in a learning experience, so it's not like I went in thinking I'd bring anything except the car home with me.

And I did learn. One of the event's main sponsors was the local VW dealership, the one with about six very nice classic VW's in the showroom. The guy in charge of buying and restoring those cars was there with a car of his own, an all original 1959 Beetle with 62,000 original miles! That thing still had the shift pattern decal on the dash! Incredible time capsule, and FOR SALE for $13k. It's easily worth twice that, and probably more. I asked him why so low, and he said he has too many VW projects, only bought this (out of North Dakota) because it was too good to pass up, got it for a song, and just wants to flip it quickly. Aaargh!
I thanked him for not entering it in the show. (This was back when I thought I was winning my category.)

He came over and looked at my car. In fact, I asked him to give it a pretty thorough going-over and give me his candid assessment. My hat nearly popped right off my head when he said, "Whoever did your headliner did a good job. Those are tricky." He, too, was very complimentary, and given his background in classic VW's it meant more than the two old guys in the Sun City West car club who probably got my category because they didn't have expertise in any of the others.

I asked this guy what he thought my car was worth and he said, "mid-teens." So after talking with Pam I'm going to lower the price a couple thousand. Still no hurry to sell it, but I want to ask a reasonable price, not look greedy.

I came home exhausted and with a headache. Not because it was hard work, but I spent over six hours sitting (or walking around) in a parking lot with no shade and temps in the upper-80's. Yeah, it's pretty warm here right now. Would I do it again? Yes, to meet that guy from the dealership. But I probably won't go back with a car next year. To look, yes, but not to enter. Been there, done that.

Next up, a report on this orientation course I'm taking in order to teach in my alma mater's online program. Oh my.