Where's Steponme?

[Birdibus]

It would be really great if classifieds went by geographical area. I really don’t care what is for sale on the west coast.

To each his own. Personally, I have been buying parts from Virginia, New York, Illinois, England, Idaho, Oregon, Utah. If it fits in a package, it can be shipped. I have a theory that more old vehicles are being parted out in rust belt states, so the supply is greater. The good buses go east, and the old parts go west. ha ha

[bottomend]

I feel you guy-is pain about the community breaking down... I wished I shared your enthusiasim about building new ones.

I spend a few minutes reading almost everyday and I might post a couple of responses here or "over there" once in a while but ...

Man, I could really use a shoulder to lift me up these days. ( I'm not supposed to be allowed to feel like that, I know, but hey, I wear my pancreas bile on my belt loop so...

Currently I'm sitting in the middle of the desert near Tucson with a flat tire. I have a good spare I just put on so I'm still rolling, but I've got to find a place that will patch it up for me. I wanna get losted. Really losted...

[Velokid1]

bottom, if you make it up Prescott way, give me a shout and we'll go out for a beer. Music scene here blows, though, unless you like biker bar bands doing really bad SRV and BTO covers. :)

[Birdibus]

bottomend~ try writing to Ryan, called solexes@hotmail etc. He is registered on this site as well as TS. He lives in Bisbee, but grew up in Tuscon and works on his buses there at his mom's. He knows a lot about getting car stuff done in Tuscon. He writes some bus related stories, too.

[hambone]

Struggle on, Bottomend. Peaks and valleys....
You've got yer cyber bros lookin out for ya at least. There is flesh and heart at the end of the line.
Where are you heading? For whatever the reason, you're supposed to be exactly where you are right now, every moment is perfect. Trust that.
$10 for a patch. Don't sweat it.

[Sluggo]

I feel you guy-is pain about the community breaking down... I wished I shared your enthusiasim about building new ones.

I spend a few minutes reading almost everyday and I might post a couple of responses here or "over there" once in a while but ...

Man, I could really use a shoulder to lift me up these days. ( I'm not supposed to be allowed to feel like that, I know, but hey, I wear my pancreas bile on my belt loop so...

Currently I'm sitting in the middle of the desert near Tucson with a flat tire. I have a good spare I just put on so I'm still rolling, but I've got to find a place that will patch it up for me. I wanna get losted. Really losted...

Are you on your way home? Haven't heard from you in a while.

[bottomend]

Thanks ya'll.

The tire was shredded ( no patch required) so I found a little place that sold me a decent used tire for a good price. The guy who put it on looked like he's used to drinking his breakfast. I donated a bottle of Coke and half a box of grahm crackers plus the $20.

I guess I'm just at a place in my life, for the first time, where I feel a bit of disconnect with my own soul. Even the times when I was in complete and utter disagreament with how I was treating myself, I still KNEW who I was, were, am, could be, is, are...


Maybe I've just been luckier than most to have lived this long without feeling this way. I've met ALOT of people in the last year who have simply shut-down as humans. Turned off and switched out. I've been on the recieving end of a couple of good burns from some very close friends and it hurts to think about that. I've also lost one of the people who raised me. That hurt BIG TIME. Maybe the fact that it wasn't a parent hurts even more...

I've had to be soooo strong all my life and fend for myself, that maybe I can/should try being a little more like others and allow someone to actually do something for me.
Right now I have a bunch of my stuff stored in Sluggos basement. Theres no way on Earth I would've been able to allow myself to depend on ANYBODY in the past ( I bet Colin knows what I'm talking about here!) but that kind of behavior is not demonstrating strenghth. It appears strong on the outside but just under the surface, the amount of fraility is enormous. I guess I need to realize that this sort of thing is ok. Being frail. The people I've seen who have shut down, all seem to have this need to appear strong, impenatrable and fearless. Is this the reciept for premature emotional death?(':pale:')

[Gypsie]

I'm not going to say 'I know how you feel..." as it always struck me as dismissive and arrogant.

I will say that I am doing some soul searching of my own right now.

It is tough to allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to 'receive', 'specially when you have a perception about yourself as 'independant' or 'selfmade' or whatever other euphamism to describe one's lack of need for the assistance of another.
I've said it before, and I truly believe, that we must all take our turn at giving and recieving. That is what community is about. Both the giver and receiver benefit from their acts.

There is also an often forgotten beneficiary: the observer. If one lives by example who is being exampled for but the others.

I remember reading a very long thread somewhere about a guy that put his heart and soul into helping three people who had become 'lost' and were ill prepared for the 'wilderness' they found themselves in.
The guy worked day and night to help these babes in the woods.

I wonder who benefited more from that experience? The helper, the helped, the observers? That would be a tough call.

Don't think I'm going to break into a rousing chorus of "koombaya" or anything like that. I will just say that we all need to take turns. It's damn near your duty to accept help and take a break from being 'sooooo strong'. Gotta bend before the break.

Okay, so maybe I'm being a little selfish. I do expect that after you have received some you will be giving again. We (read all of us peoples) need givers like yourself modeling independance and kindness and sacrifice and
generosity, and knowledge and..... well I could go on, but you get the picture.

I don't know what is happening with you, but I will hold you in my thoughts and send them positive vibes in your direction.

Namaste to you, my brother.

[bottomend]

Thanks Gypsie.

I read what you just wrote and then I read it again. I guess a by-product of 'being independant' is thinking/beliveing that not many people can understand what you're going through. I've always known that there are folks that are going through REALLY bad times and my little weirdness just doesn't compare. That keeps me grounded... to a degree. It also makes me think ''we'll, I have no reason to complain so ... just suck it up and be strong". Where does a person draw the line?

I'm an "all or nothing sort of person". I've tried to modify this trait but it's just not natural. I've would no have been able to get things done that were diffecult, if not impossibe, had I tempered my approach. I also run the risk of running myself straight off the end of the pier. Balance is not attractive, so I guess I need to deal with lows, huh?

The weird thing is, I've never felt this kind of low before. it's almost like a slow leak on a tire, rather than a sudden pop. Thats scary! I've seen people around me 'fizzle out' lately, and even though they have a tire pump handy, they dont wanna use it. I dont wanna fall into that trap.

Thoughts?

For the next couple of days it'll just be me, my bus, the occasional gas station and and a road. Or maybe I'll even leave out the road part...

(BTW, can you send me a link to that thread you mentioned? It sounds like I might have something in common with those three guys)

[DurocShark]

(BTW, can you send me a link to that thread you mentioned? It sounds like I might have something in common with those three guys)

Smartass.

Did they ever get hold of you after abandoning their bus?

[hambone]

You know what? We all go thru shit. It's part of life, and it hurts like nothing else. But imagine how much you've grown thru all this.
I've lost everybody in my family except my daugters and wife. At first I was devestated - I just didn't understand how someone could do such a thing. But time does heal all. It's especially hard to heal during these cold days of winter; once spring starts it's dance everything seems to begin anew, including perspective.
All who wander aren't lost! Don't listen to all those voices. But don't drown in self pity either, that won't getcha anywhere.

[Amskeptic]

I've always known that there are folks that are going through REALLY bad times and my little weirdness just doesn't compare.
That keeps me grounded... to a degree.
It also makes me think '
'we'll, I have no reason to complain so ... just suck it up and be strong". Where does a person draw the line?

The instant you go into "comparison mode" you abandon your very real reactions and end up in "suck it up school."
It is not about comparing the specifics of your pain and judging those specifics against anothers' specifics.

The child who has been beaten every day of his life finds the one day that he escapes his beating a great day.
The child who has never been beaten finds the day he is slapped a calamity.
I am there to celebrate the great day with the abused child and
I am there to grieve with the newly bewildered child.
When it comes to emotional life, it is all relative.
There is no line to draw. You feel what you feel and it is worthy of respect regardless.

The weird thing is, I've never felt this kind of low before.

Enjoy it. Get in it. It is a sign of strength to deconstruct.
It makes you far less self-centered when you pull back out of it.
No longer does the relentless cheerfulness of carefully constructed public personalities look real.
So long as you remain essentially engaged with daily life and
have people you can stay in touch with, see where your lows go.
And by all means respect the integrity of whatever inside of you
is saying there is more to life than all that has led to the present.

Our culture battles mightily against emotions it deems dangerous
or party-pooping.
But some of our richest reality is to be found amongst them.
I give sulking children a wide berth to experience their feelings free of adult interference.
A bad day is a good thing every once in a while. . .
rules of conduct still apply:
"Enjoy your rotten mood, kid, but manners are still required."
Colin

[hippiewannabe]

Came across this article just now:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-23151813

How American energy independence could change the world

And it made me think about this exchange with Steponmebbbboom (can it really be nine years?):
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... l&start=60

... It was not a nice weekend.....I have been labeled the doom and gloomer and have reduced my wife to tears...When I mentioned the idea of selling our home now and using the equity for our place in the world of 2020, she lost it....

Oh my. That's some serious stuff. I've resisted the urge to engage in this topic for a few reasons:
- it seemed silly to try to teach macroeconomics on a VW technical forum.
- much of it is pretty harmless, I mean, who can argue with conserving energy and simplifying your life?
- I don't want to alienate the mostly left-wing board when I need so much help with my fuel injection

But enough is enough. These scare mongers are harming relationships and leading people to make bad decisions.

We're going to be fine. We'll be changing our lifestyles somewhat, and it may even hurt a little, but there isn't going be any apocalypse.

The whole foundation of the doomsday scenario is bogus, because they refuse to recognize the function of price in allocating scarce resources. The law of supply and demand is not some esoteric theory used by conservatives, it is absolute fact. It governs economic life, no different than F=ma in physics. It applies in capitalist countries, communist countries, prison camps and jungle tribes.

When something becomes scarce, the price rises. Several things then happen:
Consumers will use less of it.
Producers will be motivated to find/make more of it.
Substitutes that were previously uneconomic become viable........
....So buy that land in the country. Not because you'll need it to survive Armageddon, but because it's a good investment and will bring you joy. And spend your time training yourself to thrive in the information age, not fretting about how to survive a new dark age.

Now lighten up and hug your wife, OK?

Which led me to Google (stalk?) him to see what he's up to:

http://www.oldhouseweb.com/forums/viewt ... =37233&f=2

Repair of plaster details
by steponmebbbboom » Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:08 pm

I scored a 24" plaster ceiling medallion from a house demolition a few weeks ago, and I'm starting to get it ready to be transplanted into my dining room. Unfortunately because the eyebolt that secured it to the ceiling had broken off at the head, I had to cut through the floor above it and cut out the floor joists to get it down. In the process, some of the corner sections broke just below the finial.
I also have a corner on one of my front porch capitals that had been "glued" back on with paint.
Has anyone seen any articles on how to restore plaster details properly, or had success doing it themselves?

I'm such a huge fan of irony, and this is positively epic. I've tried, and I just can't come up with a worse way to prepare for the apocalypse than plaster ceiling medallions.

[Amskeptic]

»
Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:08 pm
I scored a 24" plaster ceiling medallion

I'm such a huge fan of irony, and this is positively epic. I've tried, and I just can't come up with a worse way to prepare for the apocalypse than plaster ceiling medallions.

Your sense of humor is . . . wicked.

[hippiewannabe]

your sense of humor is . . . wicked.

Thanks, Colin. That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.