The Great Car Restoration hits a speed bump.

The Great car restoration started with such lofty goals and expectations. Take a broken down 1986 Corvette Convertible (only 7315 were ever made and with all the assholes on the road there are a lot less now) and restor it to something resembling what it was a long time ago. I’m a rag top guy. I’ve alway been one. That started back in 1979 when I bought a Jeep CJ5 and put a rag top on it.

I knew the Corvette was going to be a tough haul, I just didn’t plan on all of the non-auto distractions. One of the owners at Elena’s job was unhappy to have it there. I thought we worked that out and everything was going to be good. Elena got the tire locks off, I found a set of four rims and tires. THe rims are in excellent shape, and the tires are old. Progress has been slow, but I was hopeful…until today.

Elena texts me saying one of the guys at the shop says the car has to leave in a week. I thought it was the same issue as before and I was going to the shop to find out what we did and to see if I could fix it. Teri gets a clarification of the text. It was the landlord who said it had to go. I go to My brother Eric’s house and talk with him. I was going to ask him if he had space, but when I told him what happened he went into a story talking about all the problems people are having around town with the unregistered cars and putting in cement pads and even cutting down trees. It’s not the West Nyack I grew up in. When I was a kid, on Klein Ave. between West Street and West Nyack Rd there was a gas truck, a couple of milk trucks, cars people worked on and even an ice cream truck. They're all gone and so are the type of blue collar people who owned those houses. It’s a different type of person and I don’t recognise that type of person.

I’m sure the landlord at Caliper has the same issues with how his property look as my brother and mother would have if I tried to park my car there. So that leaves two options.The first is to try and convince Sean Sr. to talk to the landlord and if I put plates four wheels and a car cover on it could it stay. Slim chance at best. The second one is to put it in our garage. The problem with that is the garage is small and Elena will be away from people with the knowledge to assist her. I know very little about cars built after sometime around 1979. Give me a Triumph TR6 and I can do just about anything with that car, almost. I open up the hood of the Corvette, even though it is a 1986 and I might be able to identify a handful of items.

On a different subject, yes I still have another daughter. Her name is either Nastia or Anna. It all depends on when you met her. I met her in 2008, so she is Nastia to Teri and I. Sean, her boyfriend who met her in 2000 something or other, he calls her Anna. She is still alive and well. I haven’t talked about her lately because she is doing the same old thing every day more or less. She goes to work. She comes home. She either goes out to eat with Sean or stays home and eats. After dinner, or if she does the dishes, after the dishes, she goes upstairs, not to be seen again until morning,or if it is the weekend, until the next afternoon. She's been basically boring recently. She did get a letter in the mail saying she owes $15,000.00 in student loans.She keeps saying, "what loans, I thought they were grants." It’s a shame she didn’t finish her degree. I remember all the checks she kept receiving. She’d get more money than she needed. For a while she had $5,000.00 extra in her savings. I called Access VR about the money and I don’t remember what they said. I didn’t know they were a loan either. So of course the $5,000.00 is gone and she has to pay money back each month that she might have. Fun times definitely!! Nastia told me earlier today (Saturday) that she and Sean were trying to move out and this will set them back. She says he feels they don’t get any privacy. I understand, but I also don’t. Teri and I don’t go up there after they have gone up until we go to bed around three hours later, but we're always there, so even if Teri and I go out for the evening. They are not really alone. One day they will move out to Orange County because they can not afford Rockland. If Teri and I were buying today, neither could we. It’s another sad reality of the day. My question is who are all of these people who can afford houses priced at half a million or more. Zillow, a house pricing app has us at something like $576,000.00. And rents start mostly around $1,500.00 The two of them went to a house warming party in Orange County for one of Sean's friends. They are staying over and there is plans to head to the beach for the day. Ah, I remember the days I was trying to save money to move out and I went to the beach.Yeah, I didn't make it out either, at least at that time. I don’t want to think about it. I’ll go to my quiet place and drive my black 1986 Corvette convertible with the standard shift ( again go ask your grandmother what it is, I most likely tried to teach her to drive one) up an empty Thruway with all cops on a lunch break, shift, Ahhhh, feel the breeze!! Shift to third!! I don’t even know if it is a four speed.