After suffering another health scare I’ve decided to let go all the projects I’ve never got round to and, therefore, reduce my stress…so free to anyone (but a
donation to British Heart Foundation would be nice):
I'm so sorry to hear of your health problems. Please take it easy and don't be tempted to push the boundaries no matter how frustrating that may get.
My general health could probably be rated on the down side of average for my age - coming up on 77 - but I'm lucky to so far, not having heart problems. My surviving younger brother (youngest brother passed a few years ago with pancreatic cancer) had a complete blackout earlier this year and his own GP suspected heart problems. It's taken ages for the hospital to take him in for a check up. Heart problems were diagnosed and then another wait for an angiogram, which confirmed a triple bypass is needed. They told him there's at least a 3 month wait for that. He's now just been invited in for a meeting with the consultant to discuss the operation and sign the documentation absolving them of responsibility if he fails to survive? Still no mention of when the op will be done though. He still lives down in the Border country where we all grew up, about an hour or so away on a good day in the car. So i keep in touch by 'phone but I do worry if he takes a long time to pick the receiver up!
I can guess what your garage/barn looks like. The first cars I got really obsessed with were the DAFs, especially the 33. By the time i moved on to Hillman Imps I had several engines, several sets of variomatic transmission units, suspension arms and a whole load of other "stuff. Had to build high level shelves all round the garage walls for storage. Then the Imp virus really took hold and shortly afterwards the wee imp specialist here in Edinburgh packed in and I bought/was gifted a lot of his stuff. At one time i had at least 4 engines and other engine bits, 3 complete transaxles, suspension arms both front and rear and literally a shed load of stuff like dynamos, distributors, headlights, a spare bonnet, and much more. Had to build an extension to the shed to house it all. Mrs J used to joke (but she never smiled as she said it) that ours was the only house in the street that had a big extension on the shed but non on the back of the house!
Pretty much all that stuff has gone now but I've become obsessed with old horticultural machines - much easier to work on as I can do it inside. Somehow the shelving looks just as crowded with stuff and the shed extension now has Briggs, Tecumseh, and Suzuki engines, mower and cultivator chassis parts and more. It's definitely a disease and I'm incurable. At least it's not something which invades the house - Mrs J drew the line at that after I rebuild an Anglia engine on the kitchen table when we were very young and stayed in a flat near Chiswick Bridge in west London. She says that if I die before her she's just going to get a big skip parked at the kerb outside the house and get my boys to tip everything into it. I haven't had the heart to tell her it's going to take 3 or 4 full size skips!