Honestly?

I did the July one because nobody would listen to the fact that I'm actually doing stuff, and it was cathartic to catalog all the shit that I had gotten done. I did the August one because I recognize the value of that catharsis.

I am on that voyage where your home shores are long gone, your destination remains over the horizon, and you find yourself surrounded by people with no understanding how sailing works but a bottomless curiosity for "are we there yet."

Honestly? It fucking sucks. It sucks on every possible level.

When I built the car I found myself going "huh. I wonder how to make a distributor because this engine is actually a Mercruiser and they don't make a marine HEI." I had to cobble something together from junk yard parts. I went to Checker and said "I need a GM alternator" and they would say "for what car" and I would say "doesn't matter, give me a hundred amp" and they would say "it doesn't work that way son" and I would say "that one on the shelf there will do" and they would smile and go "no, fucker, tell me what car it is" and I would have to go "A four wheel drive Triumph TR-7 on a scout chassis with a full roller 400 SELL ME A FUCKING ALTERNATOR ASS" but of course I didn't do that because I was a seventeen year old kid with exercise bulimia and a disabling crush on a girl who didn't know I existed. So getting a damn alternator was obviously something that scarred me for life.

I'm now at "yeah nobody remembers the specs for that spindle" and "nobody really remembers how resolvers work" and "yeah you may have paid us $6k but we just hooked up the existing wires it's not like we tested anything" and "we'd love to answer your question but we'd much prefer to do the integration for you it will probably be only $30k now that you've done all the work."

Here's what the hobby machinist crew thinks is a "tool change."

Here's what Kern thinks is a "tool change."

Now - who's got two thumbs and absolutely no support from anyone on closing the gap?

this guy