Well hasn’t this year just been a peach?

The Bad: Everything that comes out of Trump’s nasty ass mouth. Losing my friend, Lisa to cancer. Ruth Bader Ginsburg passing and leaving a MASSIVE hole in the Supreme Court. Fear of what is going to happen to this country in the next few months. Anxiety coming back with a vengeance. Missing my trip to Italy. Trump Virus that has taken 200,000 human lives.

The Good: I bought my truck. My relationship with my dad improving. Finding my half sister. Shea getting her van. Alyx getting her promotion. Kara and I learning how to communicate. I took up gardening. My BFF moved to San Diego (which falls in the ‘bad’, but I can’t put it there because what has come from it has been beautiful to watch). My other BFF is becoming a Dad again. Monty Don’s gardening shows. I don’t have the Rona…yet.

There really is a lot that won’t ever fit into a blog post. I’ve been struggling a lot lately. This is a shit show of time in the world and I am trying to figure out how to look to the future without having an attack that shuts me down completely. Not understanding how friends and family can support such vile leaders has me baffled.
I’ve pushed away people that continue to make excuses for his behavior. The closer we get to election, the more I have seen from people that I have spent years looking up to that makes me absolutely sick that I wasted any amount of time and effort into a relationship. Not that they will even notice my absence since they never call or check in. They can spend there time supporting 17 year old children that kill supporters of BLM. When a 17 year old kids kills one of their nieces at a BLM peaceful protest maybe they will understand how his hate speeches has been the driving force behind it. Maybe them calling him a patriotic hero won’t taste so good in their mouths.

So this is the color scheme that Bruce and I have decided on for the 1965 Dodge van, except the white is more of a cream color.
The rims have been powder blasted and the Croker tires just rolled through the door. I am so excited to finally start pulling those cars out of storage and getting them the way he has always wanted them to be.

My dad and brother came down yesterday to pick up his truck (mine will need to be towed due to my brother freaking out that my dad was driving it that far and it died during a rainstorm). I was able to give them the tour of the shops and the killer old cars we have. My brother loves the 1939. That’s MINE, he can’t have it! :)
It got us to talking about all the old cars we have had and sold.

He called me when he got home and we talked for like an hour on the phone. It was nice sharing a part of my life that I am so very proud of.

My truck was suppose to be here on Friday of last week when my Dad came to pick up his, he would drop mine off. The stupid a/c hose blew and now he won’t he here until next weekend.
I called the dealer to find out when the hoses would be here…OVER A WEEK!
My poor dad is having to drive my truck with jacked up brakes until he gets here to get his truck.
The funny part, they consider my dad’s 2004 Dakota a “vintage” and that’s why it’s taking so long. I ordered all the parts for my 1967 and they were here the next day.
SO STUPID.

Since traveling is off the table at this time, I decided to do some interviews with people I know that have traveled to some pretty cool places, took inspiring pictures and have a story to tell.
My first interview is with a friend of mine who moved to Russia. MOVED TO FUCKING RUSSIA! Who does that? Adventurists do. People not afraid of not knowing the language, but want to fall in love with the culture.
I’m also interviewing a friend who moved to Germany for a bit and i’m sure he has some cool stuff to talk about.

Interested in being interviewed? Email at randomandodd at gmail dot com.

Stay tuned.

I have been talking about getting a truck, but honestly I thought I was holding out for the 97 Toyota Tacoma Prerunner.

In a text with my dad he mentioned that his buddy had one for sell and it had 38k original miles on it…and it had a stick shift. There was NO WAY I was going to buy it without my bosses thumbs up. I told him and he said, “That’s stealing that truck. Buy it.” So I did. I’m now the extremely proud owner of the same truck as the one I owned when I was 16.
This was the truck that I learned how to drive in. We named it “Tank” because when I started it, you could hear it all the way back at my best friend’s house. Tank didn’t have a radio so I used my old ghetto blaster that had ONE tape. I would start it up and blast “Should I stay or should go now!?” and “Rock the Casaba” and found every back road my old hometown had.

This last weekend I drove all the way home to check it out and give it a test drive. My dad and his buddy were talking- talking- talking so I finally just got in and fired him up. Chuck isn’t as loud as Tank was, but it had that same rumble. The stick shift part was a bit to get use to, I only stalled it once and that was because I was not use to going from a dead stop to driving starting in 2nd gear. The choke too. Good lord so much to remember. It was like shifting a garbage truck! I got him going, mastered the shifting and then we had to stop. My poor dad damn near went through the windshield.
I felt horrible and humiliated because it has been a lifetime since I drove a vehicle without power brakes.

He told me that he would drive my new truck down to Sacramento and I would drive his down and get his A/C fixed.
The anxiety attack I had almost dropped me to my knees. I had so many thoughts running through my head about making a huge mistake.
The next day he called me and said he drove my truck and had to stand on the brakes to get them to work. It wasn’t me being a sissy-la-la, the brake calipers are frozen!

I have very little mechanical to do to my new truck and I get to focus on getting it just the way I want. It needs a new floor board, head liner and a paint job. I’m going with green and cream. It’s also going to get the power steering, power brake conversion and an A/C that will freeze you out.
I want to get an old 8 track to fill the spot where a stereo goes. Yeah, i’m that girl.

I’m that girl, the EXTREMELY proud driver of a 1967 Ford Pick up!

I love you Sister.

Last weekend I managed to get a few of the historical markers shots. On my Instagram highlights I have been adding them.
In the past few years when I see one of the historical markers I will get a photo, but with this virus out I have decided to spend my weekends in the car trying to add a few more to my collection.

Dan and I went out to Amador county to get some photos of the California poppies all over the hillside. The sun was only half out so they were only half open which meant it was only half as beautiful as it could have been. The poor guy got suckered into checking out all the markers with me. Honestly I don’t think he really cared much as everyone has been bored at home and it was nice to talk to someone….and I can drown out what he’s saying anyway ;)

This weekend is another round of searching for historical markers!

If you’re interested in visiting some historical spots near you in California: https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21387

Enjoy!

It’s not until you’re told to not do something that you realize how much you actually do it. I would say 30 seconds of every minute I am touching my face. I rest my head in my hands a lot. Mostly when I am talking politics with my boss, but still.
No one is taking it serious either. I mean is it TRULY essential you get that oil change or your A/C recharged right now?
People come in and say, “oh I am safe.” and I look them right in the eye and say, “I might not be.” and they take a step back. What is it going to take for people to take this shit seriously. I now know 5 people who have/had this and because someone doesn’t know anyone who has it, then it’s a ‘scare’ and not going to happen to them.

My heart goes out to the people who have to work in hospitals right now. I get panicky about going into work in automotive repair (mostly because no one I work with thinks this virus is as big of a deal as it is) I can’t imagine going through what they are going through right now. I don’t come home to young children that I can pass anything on to and I am happy about that. My boyfriend’s son (who is my boy) is 16 and self quarantined himself to his bedroom…where all the video games are ;)

A customer came in and said the hardware store had a sign that required masks, the next day the sign was down. He asked why and they said too many people complained about having to wear a mask and they didn’t want to loose money over it.

Yeah for capitalism. *rolling eyes*

I saw something that said we would never be able to really withstand an apocalypse..we are failing on easy mode as it is.

The Rona is making everything quiet.

Apparently I am an ‘Essential worker’ Never thought in a million years the government would classify me as ‘essential’, but here we are.

It’s taken 2 plus weeks to get my website back up and running. Customer service was a nightmare and 3 different people did the equivalent of nothing, but today I got someone that actually could fix it to get it done. To be honest, I thought I made a huge mistake letting the migrate my content. I was ready to let it go and start over fresh.
I’m glad I didn’t loose 2004 – 2020. During the process of transferring I found old pages I had put to password protected. I reread what I wrote and It pissed me off again. Not because I stood up for someone who now is a complete bitch and doesn’t deserve my protection, but all the anger I had in me toward the people who treated her like shit. I wish I could have all that negative energy back, they weren’t worth it. None of them were. I can’t believe I got myself tangled in their web.
I asked my oldest daughter if I should take the time to remove all the photos I have of her. She said that she likes to look back and remember the good times and asked to me to leave them. She’s a better person than I will ever be, because if I had my wish I would delete every single memory if given the opportunity.

So Italy is off the table unless Boo Hoo Moneybags is right and this virus will disappear just like a miracle. *rolling eyes at his stupidity*
and I am bummed, but on the other hand I am actually happy because it gives me more time to learn about the places I will see. I have been cramming information like a test up until a month ago. Now I can relax and read the books, watch the videos….it will still be there and we will help it back on its feet.

Holy shit, the amount of tv i’ve been watching is pathetic. The crazy tiger one too.
My favorite is called, “Walking through History” anything on the world’s history is always my favorite, but I love this guy who tells the stories. I’m into British TV lately because I don’t have to listen to the drama bullshit the American shows have. The screaming at each other, the name calling and the KEEP WATCHING!! WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT!!. I mean, our shows are shit. The Bachelor is a prime example.

Well, back to work.