Well, list, I dunno. All these stories of wonderful spouses and spousal
equivalents depress me. My ex-wife had brief periods of understanding
during which she would agree to my starting an automotive project, but if
the project took longer than a month, she got testy. When the Sprite took
4 years, she got livid. She didn't tell me she was livid, but she was.
At one point, she said, "I thought the idea was that you bought it, and
fixed it up. You never told me that you bought it, threw it away, and
built another from new parts." That was uncomfortably close to the truth.
After it was finished, she rode in it just once, and her comment was, "You
know, it isn't as bad as I thought it would be."
She had fair warning. When we met, I owned a 1949 Willys Jeepster, which
was off the road because I was replacing the trashed 4 cylinder with a
Chevy V8, a 1928 Ford Phaeton, which had not run in years but which would
have been nice if I had had the time and money to restore it, and a 1929
Ford Roadster Pickup with no engine that I and a friend were planning to
power with a model B engine with an overhead valve head. Because none of
them ran, I was driving my brother's Ford while he was on an extended
cruise courtesy of the navy. I am *sure* I mentioned I didn't own the
Ford.
My present lady friend once owned a BRG 73 MGB roadster, which she regrets
ever having sold. When it rusted, she took an auto repair course, and gas
welded patches on it. I am not a good enough welder to do that. But that
was 15 years ago; she drives an appliance car now. She seems tolerant,
though. We had errands to run recently, and I suggested awakening the
bugeye from its winter slumber for the purpose. She agreed, and watching
my face as we pulled out, started smiling. I asked why, and she said, "a
boy and his toys!" It also helps that she has multiple time-consuming
enthusiasms of her own. I asked if she would be upset if, when I had a
place to work again, I wanted to spend time working on cars. Her response
was, "I'd be relieved."
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
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