Name: Mike Burdick
Age: 35
Married 10 years (Happily I might add) to Sarah,
Children: 3 (3 year old boy and twin 2 year old girls)
Occupational history: Irrigation system installer, Binding Technician at a
ski rental shop, Landscape/Irrigation estimator, Lab tech
(Neurobiology),
Graduate Student (cancer-related research), Post-Doc, Department of
Microbiology, Duke University
Hobbies (other than Triumphs!): Skiing, woodworking, sailing, photography,
cycling, all of which are basically on hold since the arrival of the
kids...
Triumph history: I bought my first Triumph, a 1970 Spitfire MkIII in 1988
when I lived in Phoenix. My wife (then girlfriend) actually found it for
e -
she has been very supportive of my hobby as long as I try to keep some
sort of balance with the rest of my life. It had a blown engine, a trashed
interior (it was stored outside with no top for an unknown period of time
before I bought it) and numerous dented panels. Oh yeah, it was lime
green. I rebuilt the engine in a friend's car port, had the seats recovered
at a local upholstery shop ($35/seat as I recall), bought a carpet set from
JC Whitney, and drove it for 2 years in all of its dented green glory. In
1990
I decided to paint it, and 2 years later I had a totally rebuilt car. Two
years
and 3 days later, I had a totaled car thanks to an older driver that didn't
notice a red light. At this time I had started graduate school and didn't
have
time to fix it myself, so I paid someone to do it for me. It's not the car
it was, but it looks ok from 10 feet and still drives well. On and off
since
1992 it has been my daily driver, including one Nebraska winter when I
rode my bike to work whenever the salt trucks were out. We just sold
the Toyota I've been commuting with, so the Spit is again my primary ride.
During Aidan's first year, I regularly drove him to day care in the Spit,
and
he still loves riding in it - given a choice, he will always choose to ride
in
"the blue car".
We currently have 4 Triumphs: the Spit, a Stag (which is driven mostly
by Sarah although I like it too), and a pair of 64 TR4s that are future
projects. My interest in Triumphs was sparked by a guy at my high
school who drove a baby blue TR4A with wire wheels, but never had the
$$ to buy my own until after college. I do all of my work myself, and
really enjoy doing it. Over the years I have picked up a lot of good
information from this and other team.net lists (I've been subscribed to
british-cars since 1989 and Triumphs since its inception). I have tried
to give back as much as possible, but the last couple of years I've been
more of a lurker - sorry about that!
I've enjoyed all the bios!
Mike Burdick
Durham NC
'70 Spitfire Mk3, '72 Stag, '64 TR4
|