Don't let the huge task intimidate you. Just begin.

Last Sunday was the three year anniversary of Hella's arrival in my driveway in Ellensburg. She'd been hauled on a flatbed trailer for six days across North America from Ontario, Canada. It would be quite the understatement to say I was excited when she arrived! What made it even more special was that my kids were there when she did. What a feeling that was!

The day after is when the true scope of the project settled on my shoulders. I had an 8000 pound military relic in my driveway that hadn't run for over 30 years. She had been in a barn all that time and become a home to birds and rodents. Besides the yucky messes to deal with, about the only thing that was functional was the steering. This was a mechanical project the likes of which I had always aspired to tackle. Yes, I was intimidated, but I knew I could do it. I spent that day inspecting every inch of the truck and created my initial work list. The first of countless lists to be generated over the next three years!

After three months of bloody, greasy weeknights and weekends, she fired up for me for the first time! The sense of accomplishment was amazing! The thrill faded quickly when I had to turn around and limp home a half mile into my first test drive. This was not going to be quick or easy! It was clear the work had only just begun. So, I kept working and she kept limping home as the test drive radius expanded in ever widening circles with each system restored. As the distance grew, I found more problems and set to repairing them. It was over a year before I took her on her first true trip, which she broke down on! Her first successful trip over the mountains without issue was 15 months after I had begun working on her. It would be another year before I was taking her on serious trips with reasonable certainty that she'd get me back without too much drama. All the while, with every breakdown, I was learning what I needed to learn to keep her rolling for the life ahead.

It's now been four months since I swapped out her original flathead six and transmission for a modern V8 and transmission. With that heart transplant she went from 80 horsepower to 250. The new mill just ticked off 2000 miles and is running like a boss. After years of crawling painfully slowly up hills, I doubt I'll ever stop grinning stupidly as I roll on the power and go up them at the speed limit! I have finally arrived at a practical point of operation where I jump in the driver's seat, fire up and go without drama. It is wonderful! There's still plenty of maintenance to keep up on and I know she'll throw surprises at me as we travel. But I know that I'm up to the task now. Thank you to all my friends in person and online that have helped me get her to the point she is now. You all rock!

Anybody who takes on a project like this knows you are never finished with it. You bond with the machine and start talking with it like Han and the Millennium Falcon. I think we literally give the machine a soul as we go. Hella is more than my truck, she's become my home and friend.

Bringing this rig back to life and making it what I need it to be has taught me a lot about devotion, endurance, humility, and most of all vulnerability. Most folks restore vehicles like this for amusement on sunny summer days or parades. It's an entirely different proposition to make one your only wheels, your home, and take it on the road. Only a mechanic could do something like this. Good thing I turned out to be a decent one! I've always enjoyed working on my vehicles, but I never would have guessed how important those skills would be to my future. It is amazing the way life is always preparing you for the next chapter. Good or bad, all that is happening in your life is teaching you something of value for the road ahead. Be encouraged that the heartbreaks and setbacks are intended. They present opportunities to grow and evolve in ways that will inspire your purpose and unleash your full potential. That is, if you are brave enough to face them full on and seek the lessons.

Photo- May 26, 2016 as she was...

I couldn't close the partition door last night...

I have to sleep with all my lighting gear in the rig on the night after a Jackdaw shoot. It wouldn't be a terrible pain, except for the long background poles that I use. In order to get in bed, I have to run the tubes from my floorboard through the doorway and into the back leaving enough room for me to sleep. It may sound silly, but I don't like it when I can't close the partition door at bedtime. It's just a nice feeling of privacy. In any case, it always seems to be on those nights, when my cab is packed with photography equipment, that something strange happens. And so it did...

At 2am I was awakened by the screams of a seriously disturbed young man walking the railroad tracks I was parked beside. He was screaming 'DAD' over and over so loud and angrily that his voice sounded like it was bleeding! He woke me out of a dead sleep from a quarter mile away. That's how loud he was! I got up to see who was coming toward me and as he got closer he looked like he could be my son. Same build and height as him and wearing the same kind of military surplus jacket he does. I couldn't imagine my son acting like that unless he had experienced something horrific, but I had to be sure. With my lights off I kept watching his approach through the open slot between the door and the doorway. It wasn't until he was literaly at Hella's nose that I was able to conclude it wasn't my son. It was a huge relief of course, but I was still overwhelmed with the desperate energy of this young man screaming 'DAD' over and over with every step. I felt so very bad for him! He was either very emotionally disturbed or having one hell of a bad trip. Either way, it was heartbreaking and bone-chilling at the same time. I could still hear him screaming in the distance 15 minutes after he had passed by. I saw a couple of police cruisers heading his way about the time I couldn't hear him any longer. I hope they were able to help him.

All I could keep thinking about is what could have happened between him and his father to bring him to such a state. It flashed me back to the abuse I suffered at the hands of a stepfather when I was a teen. There are many choices I could have made in my 20's that could have brought me to the same state of painful hopelessness and anger that I felt pouring out of that distraught young man last night.

A single person's actions or a single choice can have such devastating impact on a life. It can take one completely off their rails for a very long time and lead to a cascade of terrible experiences that they may never recover from. Think of the stupid shit you did in your 20's that you were lucky enough to survive without injuring yourself or others. When you see street folks that offend or frighten you, try to recognize their pain and desperation. Instead of disdain, send them merciful thoughts of healing. You can't possibly know what they have been through in their lives. I understand that many of them are not safe to interact with, or even make eye contact. But, try not to be cold. Under different circumstances, their life that so frightens you could have been your own.