Well hello once again. I swear it gets harder and harder to come up with subject matter for this page.  Maybe things will change for the better in the coming year.  Where to start?  Well.....for starters, I'm another year older as of the 19th.  No big deal really, except that in this day and age you never know what or who is going to do you in, not to mention where .  So, I'm thankful for another year, even if the world is not in the greatest of shape right now.  It's another year with my friends and loved ones and another year with a hobby I enjoy.  And this leads me to my real reason for writing this month.    

As most of you will recall, I went through a divorce in 2000, which meant I left a nice house where I had a room all to myself for my collection and my radio control cars (my racing had taken a back seat to my die cast collecting).  All my stuff ended up stored in a small bedroom in a two bedroom apartment.  Six months later, I swallowed my pride and bought myself out of the year lease to save money and payoff bills quicker, and moved back in temporarily with my parents.  Not something this 45 year old is proud of, but something that needed to be done to achieve financial freedom for the first time in 20 years (I was married 22 years).  I then leased a self storage unit, plus bought and built a metal storage shed at my parents' for tools and stuff I may need during my stay there.  Oh...............and Trish, you remember the Hot Seat full size replica from the 99' Memphis convention?  Well, that is stored in there, too; still destined for the museum whenever it becomes a reality.  
My daughter and the ex-wife stayed in "our" house until she made plans to remarry and the house was sold.  Please stay with me, here; I'm working toward the whole point of this.  During all this, my daughter decided she'd rather live with me for reasons I won't go into here, so we had the custody and child support changed. So suddenly, I'm renting two storage units(I swear I didn't think a 16 year old girl would have so much), and I'm taking up two rooms at my parents' house in what was always meant to be a temporary stay. Fortunately, my daughter not only goes to high school, but is also working two jobs (not to mention keeping on the Honor Roll), so my parents aren't  too inconvenienced by the additional person.(she basically just sleeps & changes clothes there)...............or the bird..............or the dog that she brought with her.  You HAVE to love your parents!   :-[    
Well, Mom and Dad have been great through the entire thing and they are fixing to have their whole house back.  When "our" house was sold just prior to the ex's wedding, I put my money in a 6 month CD while I watched for the just the right house to come my way.
Well the time has come. I move into my very own   4 bedroom, two bath, two car garage (with workshop), 1780 square foot home on the 31st of this month!  Of course, I'll also have a 17 year old, soon to be college bound daughter in tow, along with a bird named Tazee and Koko, the dog.  Which FINALLY gets me to the whole point of this long, drawn out, boring story of my life.  My collection has been in boxes, in storage for 2 years now.  Sure I've picked up a few odds and ends during that time, most of which also ended up in storage.  I've read the complaints and even I've complained before of not being able to find anything new out there.  Well, for the next few weeks, the scalpers and hoarders can have all they want...............I've got MY collection to unpack.  While they're out there spreading ill will and trying to make a quick, ill-gotten fast buck from some unsuspecting or impatient collector, I'll be having FUN rediscovering the FUN of my long lost toys.  I'll have two rooms to set up for the display of my rolling "treasures" (of the heart; not monetary).   :-)    I'll finally be able to truly understand the joy and sentiment that Trish wrote of when she was able to finally go through her cars again after a lengthy time packed away.
I can't imagine the FUN I'll have as I place the loose cars in their display cases, put the TH and Limited BPs in their special places, hang the Racing Champions Muscle Cars from whatever setup I devise, and create ways to display others that may have never been on display before in my collection!  I'll once again admire the detail in some of the JL cars, I'll finally add the HW Cop Rods Scorchin' Scooter, that I finally acquired just this past month, to its rightful place with the rest of the set, and really check out some of the newer HW FE's and MB's as some of them are removed from their bp's for the first time!  I'll may even finally get to complete some of the customs I had started working on way back when... All done with the soft, melodic, hard rockin' sounds from the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, ZZ Top, Patty Loveless, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jackyl, Travis Tritt, Vince Gill and some Kid Rock thrown in for good measure.  And I may even put on a little KISS, just for Moses!   ;-)     Whatever my musical taste is for the day, I'm gonna have lots and lots of just, plain old F U N !    And, as many of us devoted, high paid, Boss Lady's boot-licking CB's "staff" members have said before.............. "FUNis what its all about!"

As always>>> Happy hunting, kick a scalper where the sun don't shine, and leave the pegs in better shape than you found em'.

Stoneman