Saturday, February 15, 2020

Keeping in touch means knowing your losses

Just a personal journal entry today.

An old friend, John Dugger, called yesterday bearing sad news -- a mutual friend from 50 years ago, Walt Eichin, passed away February 13, 2020, in Tennessee where John now lives.

John and his wife will be visiting the Phoenix area in April, with plans to see us on the 23rd or 24th of that month. I don't know the name of John's wife--his wife of many years ago passed of cancer some years back and John has since remarried. John, himself, is a fellow prostate cancer survivor.

This past week, our son Joel and I shopped for a classic car. We eventually bought a restored 1970 American Motors Corporation AMX from a consignment dealer in Mesa, Streetside Classics. The prior owner was Dave Hefflestein of Gilbert, AZ. Joel invested, by far, most of the cost to purchase the car. I have another 'hobby' car that I will sell and the proceeds of that sale go to Joel for my participation in the ownership. A 50-year old car is a time machine--one does not recognize how much automotive technology has changed until you experience the older model alongside our current high-tech mobile vehicles. The AMX has no power steering, a manual transmission, no air conditioning, and hand-crank window rollers. It is a beast to drive. I took the car to Queen Creek early this morning for the weekly Cars '&' Coffee event, where Larry, the organizer, collected information regarding the car and took photos for his log.

Today we will visit the home of our Son, Benjamin, in Gilbert so that I can spend some time with grandson Tyler. The plan today is to get his bicycle operational and my role is to be instructor and mentor. Wish me luck!

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