Back in business!

I'm back in Seattle. Winter is wrapping up. Hella has her new heart and is kicking ass. The sun is beaming in this morning and I am charged to get the portraits humming again! Being hobbled by engine problems and repairs for 3 months was very challenging. But, I am very grateful for the timing. While it was miserable doing that work in freezing temperatures, I'm very glad it wasn't going on during my busy time of year.

I just finished breakfast and planning my week. It's so nice having the sun slowly warm up the interior. I awoke today with an immense feeling of being blessed and boundless. I am ready to rock! Here's wishing you all the same sense of purpose in your life. Be brave and venture forth! The day is yours.

A bit out of town last week...

I have a couple exceptional kids. They were raised that the best gifts are experiences, not things. So, their Christmas gift to me a couple months ago was that they were taking me with them on their trip to Cairo, Egypt. We just returned to the states yesterday, and to say the trip adjusted my perspective on life would be a grand understatement. This was not a vacation. Rather, it was an immersion into a completely foreign culture in which we could not speak or read any part of the language including numbers. I have never been so vulnerable and clueless anywhere I have traveled as I was last week! It's going to take time to process the entirety of the experience. I learned much about Egyptian history and culture, both old and new. We walked about 20 miles of downtown Cairo and Giza while there. People were generally warm and friendly, though it was very clear tourists rarely walked where we did. It was incredible to go about streets and structures that were thousands of years old. The sense of antiquity oozes out of every crack and crevice there. I can't express enough how grateful I am to Aja and Talon for taking me along for this! So much of the experience touched my heart and challenged my perceptions. I have returned to the U.S. with renewed purpose for what I'm doing with Jackdaw, as well as a new gratitude for the incredible resources this country of ours enjoys.

Well, it's time to board my flight from San Francisco to Seattle now. Onward!

Dawn's early light

All the work is done and it's time to roll out of the woods of Poulsbo. This morning was my first in a month to awaken to natural light. What a simple pleasure! After a month of sleeping in Hella inside a shop with no windows, I really relished it.

All appears to be functioning well with the new drivetrain thus far. I had to make a clutch adjustment last night, but I think it's good now. I'll know soon! I will be forever grateful to Paul and Karion for making this all possible. I could not have done it alone. Even with Paul's expert help, it was a big push beyond my anxieties to tear out the original drivetrain and engineer how to fit a different one in. The education I received along the way is priceless. I now know every detail of the drivetrain in my truck. That is gold where driving a vintage, and now very custom, vehicle is concerned.

Time to load up the final boxes, grab a shower and say my goodbyes for now to Paul and Karion. Then I roll for the ferry.

I've got butterflies all over again!