"I have a memory like an elephant. I remember every elephant I've ever met." - Herb Caen

This is for those who are creeped out by spiders.

I didn't post last night because by the time we got home and I got things laid out and set up for Sunday I was too pooped. We spent the evening next door at Sandy & Lee's for their annual neighborhood taco party. We're still the youngest people in attendance and it's not the easiest group to socialize with, but once again it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. We sat across the table from a couple who live up one of the side streets. I'm guessing they (his name was Ralph; missed hers) are in their late 70's or early 80's. He started and ran a small construction firm in CO, sold it, and moved to Sun City about 10 years ago. No education beyond H.S., just a strong work ethic and a heavy dose of natural business smarts. 

She drives a Saturn Sky. He drives a Saturn sedan. But the fascinating thing is that in a storage yard nearby they have a '62 Vette and a '56 T'bird! They're not car people; he couldn't tell me what engines were in either car. They had friends who were in to classic cars, went on tours with them, and after a few years of that decided they should get their own car(s) instead of bumming a ride. So they bought these two - and think now they paid too much for less-than-fine examples. 

I told him about the valuation tool on the Hagerty site and he was eager to go home and find out if he can sell them for a profit (it's been several years, so appreciation on two very collectible cars will probably make that possible). I told him I'd pay 50% of whatever he found they are worth. 

Mostly I enjoyed hearing him talk about being a small business owner after starting from scratch. Fascinating stories. He talked about the govt. barriers that make it impossible to repeat that now. He got pretty fed up with the hoops he had to jump through. One of his 30 employees was a woman whose sole job was to make sure they were in compliance with govt. regs. 

It's been a crazy week and I haven't been to the gym daily as is my norm. I think I only made it two of the five days I normally go. Got on the scale this morning and saw I lost a pound. But I've been at this long enough to know that's the loss of muscle which weighs more than fat. Weight goes down, waist goes up. Gotta get back to work tomorrow!

After lunch with the kids I came home for my preacher's nap and then headed out to the driveway for a couple of hours. The result: Dolly is ready for bed.

I'm supposed to get the truck's body back from media blasting sometime this week. Here's the dolly on which the bed will be set so I can do the body and paint work. Those rails are 10' long because I didn't think to take measurements before I dropped the body parts off. I think I need about 8'6", so I'll trim it when the time comes. The casters will make it easy to roll in/out of the garage as necessary. Later this week I'll build a dolly for the cab. The other parts - fenders, hood, doors - will sit on saw horses. They're small enough to put on/off when it's time to work on them.

While I was working I streamed the "classical symphonic" channel on my Pandora account. For some reason the selections included an unusually high percentage of cello concertos, a perfect imbalance for my Sunday afternoon. I'm not just partial to the cello because of my time spent with the instrument. Of all the orchestral instruments the cello's range and tone most closely matches that of the human voice, from soprano to bass. The flute is a fine instrument and I enjoy a trumpet voluntary as much as the next guy. But both lack the naturalness of the cello because of their range and tone. Most people find listening to the cello especially easy and pleasant.

So here I am sitting in my chair typing this between dolly making and supper eating, with the local classical music radio station playing through the stereo. Guess what just came on. Yep, another cello concerto. It's like God knew just what this tired old preacher needed on a Sunday afternoon.