A window into your world..please post...

I can't compete with firemen - nor Jeff's care for his daughter. ; As a single guy, regular business job, vacations and travel when possible, cat to care for, love of cars and cameras, wildlife and bird junkie...my life is hard to summarize for want of a single defining inspiration, need, or mission. ; So my simplistic photo that summarizes those mundane bits of my life as much as possible would be this one:



It combines my daily commute, 5 times a day x2, which speaks to my dedication to my job, it involves my car, which I love, I'm using a camera to take it, which is always on me and a defining part of my life, it involves a sunset, speaking for my love of light and nature, and is Florida, where I live and derive so much of my inspiration, as well as earn my living and make my home.

It's the best I can do in one shot!

 

Ah...car! ; I love cars just about as much as cameras...and I've had a strange collection of them over the years since my tastes don't usually run with most folks' tastes. ; I tend to like something a wee bit different, or something 'secret' that fewer people have discovered. ; My first car was a 1985 Honda Prelude, which at the time wasn't very well known in the sporty field. ; But that one met its end, and I ended up with a Hyundai Excel for college. ; OK...not a special car - but I still loved it and hammered it into the ground. ; When I graduated and moved to California in 1990, I got a Mitsubishi Montero - which was a real boxy, battle-tested 4x4 in its early days - with locking differentials and steel plates underneath - one of the very early SUVs before SUVs had become something everyone aspires to. ; Ended up going through a second Montero before SUVs just became far too popular and were all over the roads (even though most aren't true 4x4 vehicles designed for off-road use). ; So I decided to move on. ; Eventually, I ended up with a VW Passat sedan, when they were a brand new design - they borrowed heavily from corporately-owned partner Audi, and made a budget German luxury sedan. ; I fell in love, but again, they became popular and started to appear all over the road. ; So I decided to stay with the Passat model, but move to something much more rare - their W8 wagon model - an all-wheel drive, 8-cylinder, station wagon - the stealthiest sports car in the world, and one that could haul appliances home too. ; ; I became totally addicted to this concept, and since wagons have never really caught on in the states, in 2007 I bought another one - this time a 6-cylinder model with more power, still AWD. ; So this is my current baby:





And now for the technical list, which noone cares about except car people: ; full-time AWD, 18" lightweight rims, lowered sport suspension, 3.6L VR6 engine, APR performance chip, KPR filter, dual exhaust, 310HP, 300Ft.Lbs torque, 4-piston calipers on 12.5" ventilated discs, . ; Room for 5, tons of luggage, top speed north of 150, mileage 27mpg highway, runs equally well in dry, rain, or snow. ; I love my German long-roof racer! ;

Oh, and obviously more of the quirks of my taste - I don't like normal car colors. ; This one is metallic mocha brown. ; I've owned an orange car, a red car, a two-toned white and gold car, a dark flat brown car, a flat-satin silver car, and a forest green car (OK, and two black cars). ; I love the colors that you don't see at every intersection you pull up to!

 

To quote one of my wife's friends... ; "I drive a Saturn". ; Hold your applause.

 

i set the forum to only show siggies once per page.

 

A little window into my car world, just for fun:

[attachimg=1]

[nb]Disclaimer: In case there are any police seeing this, or any who happen to run this site, do not try this at home kids! ; Or anywhere for that matter! ; This was a professional driver, on a closed course, under supervised conditions. ; Or, no, wait...it was all just in my imagination and never really happened. ; Or no...it was photoshopped. ; No wait, I wasn't even there at the time. ; Billy did it![/nb]

[attachments posted prior to 4/27/2010 have been deleted by admin. be sure to link images to make sure they don't get removed]

 

you are a sick puppy. ; i might need to speak with mr. williams about you.

 

He once owned a Porsche. ; He can sympethize. ; Besides, I snapped that shot on my way to St. Petersburg for a work convention...so I was doing it for the job! ;

 

Remember, he is the Footnote King. ; And it is it is a glorious thing to be the Footnote King.

 

Looks like a ; nice stretch of road to play with, as obvious by your speedometer.

 

That's totally kph.[nb]The Wozniak Defense.[/nb] ; Those darn foreign cars making the metric system larger than the King's English...
;D

 

speedometer only goes to 110 mph:
(but it did it before you left the intersection)

I finally sold it to buy my new van, oh well!



[attachments posted prior to 4/27/2010 have been deleted by admin. be sure to link images to make sure they don't get removed]

 

the best vehicle I ever owned. 1986 Ford E350 with a 460 big block. This was nicknamed the Millenium Falcon. ; I once put 6000 lbs of ceramic tile in it. It could haul anything anywhere and always got 7 mpg no matter what.

I had to sell this as gas was costing WAY too much.

[attachments posted prior to 4/27/2010 have been deleted by admin. be sure to link images to make sure they don't get removed]