The only constant in life is change
There are some things in life you can count on: The cable company will have you on hold for 2 hours, while playing a message about how important your call is, gas prices will rise just before the 4th of July, and toast always lands jelly side down. A few of the constants in our lives have recently changed.
In January, Kevin went to Daytona, but not the 500. It was my first trip to the 24 hour race, and it was great. It’s amazing to walk around a track at 4 a.m. and watch wheel to wheel action. I had Carolyn’s cousin Jim as a travel companion, and we attempted to support the economy of Kentucky and Tennessee one bottle of bourbon at a time. Delta airlines did its usual “have to change planes in Atlanta, your plane is two terminals away and you have a whole 30 minutes to get there” thing. O.J. Simpson had nothing on us.
In April we went south for a week to freshen up the condo, and relax. While we were there we bought a golf cart, so now we’re officially beach people. We bought the cart, but, of course, we couldn’t actually get the cart until June. It’s a Southern thing. What’s your hurry?
We spent the Fourth of July at the beach, picking up the golf cart and doing the whole fam dammily bit. It’s a bit dangerous having 24 hour beer sales and fireworks stores ½ mile from the beach. At one point, it looked like video from downtown Baghdad there was some much stuff flying. Before we went home, we brought the cart back to the place we bought it from for repair. They mounted one of the tires backwards, not that you would notice if you’re were completely blind. Their comment “We do that a lot”. Good thing it wasn’t the brakes.
In August, for the first time since 8th grade Kevin is unemployed. How does the self-employed become unemployed? Easy: find someone with too much money, and sell him your business. Chase Parkway officially became a Garage without a Garage on August 20. It was a good 61 year run, now it’s time for someone else to have the fun and the headaches. We’ll miss all the people, but not the “help” from the factories and the regulations from the state.
Since the business was closing, we had to buy some cars. Two new Volvos entered the fleet: Carolyn got silver C30 Coupe; Kevin got a silver S60 sedan. Park them both next to the silver Miata and the silver golf cart and you can go blind if the sun in the right spot.
Since we have more free time, we bought more house. We purchased a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath house closer to the beach in Surfside Beach SC. It’s going to become our permanent residence in 2014. In the neighborhood? Stop in, we’d love to see you.
Since the new house doesn’t have a garage or a lot of parking, the truck, trailer and race car had to get sold. They all went to good homes, but its strange not having the race car after 8 years. I’m sure it won’t be the last, though, and I can still autocross the silver Miata.
It’s going to be a big change. Carolyn and I are looking forward to the next adventure in our lives, and actually spending some time together. With the tougher gun control laws, I think we’ll be able to manage it. Neither of us is happy about leaving behind family and friends, but with a house near the beach, and an airport 20 minutes away, we’re both sure at some point we’ll heave a sigh of relief and say “They’ve finally gone home!”
May your credit cards not burst into flames
Kevin & Carolyn