The EV hobby of mine, in me, is dying. I don't know if you all will see me in a year or two. Its been nice knowing you.
I am poor as a dog and a college dropout. No job, even though I am on the books for three companies. I dont have any family aside from a cat. Probably never will. Lost one, last year about this time, hit me hard, that KitKat did. Have not driven for about 8 years cause THC and current laws surrounding DUI. I sold a ton of marijuana in my life and was busted one time to many. Felon for sure. Got points. One more and I go away for years. PA State Troopers knew what they were doing. I have seen over a million dollars cash seized from my friends and family. Amazing to believe the Army and the Air force once wanted me. Got very close to becoming a recruit once. Once.
I used to make alot of money, pure labor. Hardworking mother fucker right here. Wanted to build houses once upon a time. Hell, skyscrapers. Some houses take three weeks to go up, hindered only by the inspectors schedules. Some take two year or more. I have done more than you would imagine, from industrial drilling to cleaning the floors in the bank. I have seen them built, Ihave seen them burn, I have fireproofed them myself. Both the sprinklers and the spray. Tons. Building residential, commercial, everything. From the benchmark to the roof. That sewer? I built that, and the pump station right next to it. Cutting trees? By the ton. No drop ceiling has ever made me quiver, no matter how small the tiles. That development? Yup, me and a bunch of other pleebs. The deck? yup. Those roofs? I was there. The crane over there? i wirebrushed the splatter off it before it was painted. The plaster on the 50 million dollar schools library? Stayed extra long for that one. Timberframing? Sure. I'll make 100 stressedskin panels appear in an instant. Wanna cast some concrete tables? Gimmie the day and I'll give you the most intricate pattern you ever saw for your cope and drag. Now I dont have much work,. I try to flip things associated with my hobbies to keep afloat.
Spent 10,000 hours ( maybe 20K?) plus on/in scissorlifts, excavators, boom lifts, or loading up the cranes for the operators. Forks and Telehandlers. OMG, I will drive right through a tractor giving me trouble on site if he is in my way. Have sub contracted for the largest commercial roofing company in the US (centi-mark). Been behind the scenes, in every kind of factory, with keycards and permits, and background checks, with the transformers humming as i play in the trusses with my zipties. As a laborer for one of the places I work depending on the demand. Thousands of hours, playing in factories. If there are not any temps available that day. The temps are cheaper. I also have a waste water management license, got that for fun. Just cause school is cool if you can afford it, and that course was free, at the time, for a friend at the PA DEP was trying to get it (the state funded courses) going, and called me. Asked if I wanted some free school. Sure.
That was the stuff I loved until about 35.
I can flip all day but my problem is getting high on my own suppY ( keeping anything worth a dime for myself). I got a bank account specifically for the flip capital. I got a garage, ahlf filled... that is open for my friends cars, trucks, ect. I have done a hundred hands on engine replacements, countless 4x4 clutches, a few timing belts, and the rest is far to many to count. Will rip down any engine without hesitation and 100% confidence. Still, not as well equipped as the dumbass tech right out of highschool Vo-Tec that is charging you 2000$ for the repairs on your Ford or Gm, and 600$ to do the brakes. I even worked in an industrial antique shop once. Sent 150,000$ worth of modernized tables to a hotel in New York City for a fancy designer. I built them in a basement of a mill. Never was anything but poor as dirt. I will happily slave all day for 8$ an hour if I had the chance. Today. Hell, I'll take four, I'm so hungry most of the time. Lol. Guilty. I love to work.
...paid off a 154,000$ suit once, for the insurance company did not cover me. Me and my business partner,. That was a mess. Lol. 7000$ tow, not including the wrecked machinery itself. He took the truck out and wrecked it, they sued us both. It was my truck. That took about ten years to recover from and settle. Settled, defaulted, they sued again. Lost whole buildings.Just about lost my house.
Hobbies? I dont know. Somewhere around 35 I got into hobbies, I had earned my home by then, and earned some free time from my 60 hour workweek in the ratrace. I didnt have any hobbies before then.
Hobbies? Trying to kill myself on Rocketbikes, had a few of those. Wrecked two bikes. Spent a few days in hospitals. Rebuilt a few of those. Broke em again. Fixxed them.
Engines. I understand engines like no one else on this world, I have been told. It comes naturally to me. Dont mind breaking them. Building fuel controllers from online plans. Learning about electronics. Met the men who programmed every GM car in the 80's in person. Got to talk with them. Racecars. Tricking things out. Planning. Buying parts. Rebuilding old cars. Figuring out what is wrong with them. That kind of experience. I can tell you what is happening, usually with a very good explanation to go along with it: Even if you are dumb as a rock ( when it comes to "those things") you will understand. I know everything about a modern vehicle very, very well, and the history that went along with it. I have worked on Model T even before. Got a friend with a Baker. I wanna put a Chevy pack in it. Lol. I can tell a Ford vs a Chevy vs a Dodge transmission, vs an Allison only looking at its guts... ( ok maybe that is a little embellishment). I love engines and would jump on any classic engine I can get my hands on, pretty much. Just cause.
Digging. I love to dig.
I got a vintage go-kart to restore. A Rupp Dart Kart.
CNC machining. Mastering that endless chase is next for me. Probably never happen.. but I am gonna try. Hell right now Im building my first machine from scratch with junkyard parts hot out the pile. Someone gave me one, once. A small one. Dont have the money to buy one. Got a tiny laser, cannot afford a real one. I would kill (dead) for a fiber laser. Make Christmas ornaments and things. Lol. Oh yeah, my dad is a globally renowned engineer and has an engineering consultation business, so I get, what I can, off him, hopefully, before he is gone. He really is a genuine genius. Like twenty decimal places, in the calculator, in his head. Has done some high end stuff in his day. We speak a language, we understand well, to each other. So I will inherit his machine shop, and business. I am very familiar with the machines. They are far away, so I dont get to use them. I got a few small machining tools in the shop.... the stuff I try to do is trivial in comparison to his life's work. We (BSECo) are currently building the largest Victorian age walking beam steam engine in the United states. Well funded, built from the old plans with modern machines. Should be finished in a couple more years. We have built a few museum pieces, helped with the donation of old equipment, a few boats, and right now he is building a paddle wheel electric canoe ( that we built years ago out of mahogany ply @ 87$ a sheet)... I hump a four foot long piece of metal to the lathe, for my contribution to those projects. Mostly. Or weld some shit: labor. Clean the valves. Blow out the boilers. Stuff like that. I have seen a hundred or more Union run boilers in my day. More. The kind of boilers my dad spent his life designing.
Cars, bikes, trucks. paint. Shiny things. I got into BC/CC and hydrographics. Only cause I usually wreck whatever I drive. Am the one with a sandblaster in the back yard. I fix old lawn mowers. Now, everyone has approached me, about fixing the golf cart or the scissor lift: Lol. Noone really wants to spend money though. I plate. I machine. I keep the cleaning company's tools working. I weld ( if I can afford the gas). I make art. I fix the lawnmowers again. I build, I design off the top of my head. I am beginning to build an electrical troubleshooting logic in my head, that scares me with how advanced it has become. In the last few years. I *thought* i knew electricity well, back then. Nope. ES has had alot to do with this. Still, I dont always have *the* answer, and that usually tears me up inside till my brain hurts. Being uneducated.
Computers. I got a few bad ass computers. Lol. I saw DOS when I was a kid, in the late '80s...watched it all unfold. I play video games. Mostly with these computers. Still, have better computers than 90% of my friends and my computers will certainly always be there. I sell alot of that stuff to.
Made 3000$ on eBay so far this year, off about 1000$ capital... but it was all eaten, by the cost of life, and UPS, and eBay itself. Got a few accounts with 100% feedback. Got 3000$ worth of items listed right now.
Listening to the wisdoms of Peter Tosh, and the voice of Jerry Garcia, and everything in between. Ive been kicked from raves by fire marshals, seen the garage doors thumping, seen bullets on the streets, I have seen the tattoos in jail. I do have some family in Philadelphia.. I never see anymore. I know people from all walks of life, all over the world. They are my friends now. Screw that old life. I am over being young. Anybody can be my friend. Anybody.
Oh yeah. I fly. I will never not have a flight ready craft. My grandpa flew the B-24. I have an inherent love of flight since I was a child, and I fly radio controlled helicopters whenever I can. Big ones. Fast, and slow. Up, down, right, and left.
I was sent to some very good and expensive schools when I was a kid. I have had quite a few great teachers in this world, and one of them ( Capt. York) taught me to type, very well. I love the English language, and all its grandeur. I can half speak Spanish. Foreign language conjugation gets me. I can say they built the hobby of learning itself, into me, and that has been one of the most valuable things to me my entire life. Yeah, I proofread, and yea, I am not always right. I'll still fight you over it.
Enjoy your medical plans. I'll be dying over there, in the corner. Dont mind me. I'll be enjoying it.
So much for the profit margin... 
And that is not to mention steam cleaner and the x55 solvent to clean the case. 
