Brotherhood is good!

Plans are progressing. My brother Lee helped me out BIG TIME on Saturday. We took Lee's truck and went to Pull-a-Part in Lithonia, GA, and found a t-boned MX-6 that has obviously been painted recently prior to the accident. The hood and fender were in GREAT shape. The bumper was only "okay," but still good enough. So I got all 4 of the primary parts I need (hood, fender, bumper, headlight assembly) for $135! Cool!

Side note - this car had been t-boned on the driver' side. The 2006 graduation tassel was still hanging on the rear view mirror. I felt compelled to pray for the folks in that accident - it did NOT look good. The driver's door would NOT open, though we compelled it quite forcefully (and repeatedly).

Another brother, Keith, has an extra vehicle that I can borrow while the Mazda is being repaired. Cool!

Another brother, Kenneth, has done auto body and painting work for the last 20 years. Though he is in a new career (or two) now, he is willing and able to effect repairs on the Mazda for me. This will, no doubt, be the least expensive approach to getting the work done, and done well. Thanks, Kenneth! I am very much looking forward to the restoration of my car. Cool!

Brotherhood is good!

Once all this is done, I'll get back to the other pending work on the car - replacing the rear trailing links (I already have the links), getting her aligned, and getting new tires.

A quick update

I am planning to head to Pull-a-Part this weekend to try to get all the main parts I will need to fix the Mazda. My friend Lee is planning to help, and to provide the pickup truck to transport the items. If I can find the 4 primary parts I need (hood, fender, bumper, headlight assembly) it should cost less than $150 for those 4 parts. Some of them may even be black!

Work is going pretty well - I just received a promotion. There is a lot going on, so the workload is not letting up. However - income is GOOD!

I am still working hard to learn to trade well in the stock market. I have to admit that the progress has been slower than I had hoped. The market has been going basically sideways, and it is very hard to trade profitably when that happens.

Natalie and I are working through Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University Online." It is going well. We are making changes, and working to become debt-free. The coolest thing so far is that it is lending a structure to our work on the monthly budget. We are working together to accomplish OUR goals. Nice.

Ouch!

Well, here is a way to NOT start your day...



Sadly, this was my fault - a momentary lapse of focus combined with a sudden stop in front of me on I-75 heading in to work a little before 7am. Happily, nobody was hurt. Oddly, the car I hit then hit the car in front of it, but that person did NOT hang around to assess the damage. Makes you wonder...

Anyway - I'm investigating what it may take to fix this. The parts may not be all that much if I can find most everything I need (and I likely can) at salvage. We'll see how it turns out.

For now, I'm thankful to be home.

I have to confess

I am becoming more and more concerned about our economy. I am fearful of the impact of the proposed "stimulus" plan on several levels. Our nation is a nation of debtors. The idiotic notion that since the population is fully leveraged (we've borrowed all WE can) now the government should step in and become THE borrower on our behalf is NOT going to make things better.

I fear that the dollar is going to be all but worthless. Have you read about the conditions in the Weimar Republic before Hitler's rise to power?

On the plus side, my wife and I are working through Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University" online. We are focused on paying off all of our debts. We are working to save up and pay cash for everything going forward.

James 4:10 - Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

A cool quarter-million... miles

On January 27, 2009 my 1989 Mazda MX-6 GT crossed 250,000 miles. Cool.