Creative project vehicle

There are very few things as painful as losing your father. I recall reading a famous person lost their father thinking they were going to die. I can relate. There were four months not long after he passed where I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. There is more to the story.We were as close as could be. One of the last times he and I worked on the car was about 2016 as shown in the videos. There is more to this story. 

I also believe in the power of prayer. There was a time in 2019 when my father was diagnosed with Valley Fever. He nearly died and had wasted away so much that he was barely recognizable to me. It was like he had aged decades and lost over half his body weight. The doctors were telling us to get his affairs in order.  I remember sleeping on the floor under his hospital bed. He would go on to make a miraculous full recovery and I am very thankful. There was a famous person I saw in a talent/dancing type tv show that did the same thing for a loved one. Miracles do happen.

Throughout my life I have contributed in one way or another to various causes. In high school it was meals on wheels. Have participated in habitat for humanity in part helping put up houses. Did some volunteer work for Boeing ( I think I still have the light blue tshirt). I have given to the United Way through work and it was apparently enough to win me 2 tickets to a luxury skybox at a Phoenix suns stadium (I took Pops to this game many years ago) I get there are more important causes and those should be donated to 1st.

If you are a car guy like me, you know these can go well beyond 300k miles if well maintained. We had fun that day back in 2016-7. I don’t know what simulation you may be in but pops and I were in the one where a little foghat slowride was on the playlist.

https://vimeo.com/1041496896

 There are companies that specialize in restoring these cars. 

https://www.woodsandbarclay.com/1982300sd

https://www.woodsandbarclay.com/inventory

Here is one that got to 600k plus miles!!!

https://www.autoblog.com/features/junkyard-gem-1981-mercedes-benz-300sd-with-almost-600k-miles

Look at the comments here. Are these million mile motors?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rifmI1sK6bY

Converted to manual. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bVkl_rdmUSA

Saturday morning throwback

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LVjq0RFIf_Q

Looks like great fun

https://youtube.com/shorts/FsN9c8m-wmg?si=QYSD0jCxnRxlVP-M

Another resto company 

http://www.mbrestoration.com/html_docs_18/mercedes_300d_restoration.html

Like minded fan

https://www.benzworld.org/threads/my-1982-300sd-restoration.2026273/

Bring a trailer a few months back

https://youtu.be/SOeLQo0xSnk?si=1ik8RdPkJQJaIcsf

Sold!

Only problem, it’s not my dad’s

https://www.woodsandbarclay.com/1981-300sd-ivory

Many are unaware this was in my fathers office for decades

He was a geriatric phsychiatrist for nearly 30 years.

i have no doubt he helped so many people.

I am named after his brother that died of complications 

 while diagnosed with tonsillitis at a young age.

His mother my grandmother passed away when he was a child 

Of respiratory failure when he was a child on the Philippines.

It is the reason he became a medical doctor.

He actually went to pre med twice. Once in the Philippines and again at UNC Chapel Hill. He also did a research fellowship at Duke University. My understanding is it was for geriatric psychiatry.

Anyway this was on the wall in his office.

I helped him take it down when he retired.

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.

Take kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann c.1920

There is much more to this story…

I do not use social media.

Around July 2022 one or more individuals wanted

Both of us dead. The four months after his passing and previous 

One or more individuals attempted to take my life.