Hey everyone i need your honest input on this

[80stepsideguy]

Don,
i`ll start off by saying thanks for the kind words.It actually made me smile inside, He went thru quaddriple bypass in 2004 and he really hasnt been the same since.But this has been going on for almost 2 decades and it gets tireing after a while.See the thing is he doesnt take care of anything, he had 4 company cars that were really nice but he never took care of them and they were junk after he had em.I gave him my 1st brand new car i ever bought a 1995 beretta, it was so nice in 2001 before i bought my ram the car had a brand new car smell still in it and i never smoked or let anyone smoke in it.We got rid of it in 2004 after the tranny let go for the 4th time and within that time i paid 1100.00 of 1500.00 for the tranny rebuild and the car wasnt even mine at the time.He drove my truck after that n backed into his school bus and put a real good sized dent in the rear 1/4 and dented the rear tailgate by leaving a padlock on the bumper while opening it and let it slam down. freaked cause it was another 400.00 out of my pocket to have that fixed.His motorcycle we got it in 03 and one time from comming home he clipped the side of the stepsdies rear bumper and busted the saddlebag to the point where it was totally junk.Here i come yet again and buy a very clean saddlebag off of ebay(my 2nd home  ) and hand it to him to get it painted to match the bike.I take pride not only into my credit but my property and my rides my philosphy is you take care of something regularly it`ll last a very long time and wont cost you as much then or now to maintain.I plan on trying to apologizing him for my actions sunday but to tell him to be liennant on me buying stuff as i just wanna get this truck done and get it ready for paint by spring of 09.I got alot of work to do to get it to that point which i know i`ll have it done by then.

thanks
pat

[DnStClr]

Well I sure look forward to seeing your next truck. Funny thing- here we are a bunch of old truck nuts tryin to figure out each others' lives. Different guys with similar heartaches.  I'm not sure if our trucks are a way to get away from the rest of what's goin on or maybe  a way to try to hold on to what was once a good thing in better times.  Pretty good place to hang out I guess. We all wish you well with all this, Pat. I hope, like Sgt.Del says, that your dad reads this stuff and sees what a good son he has. A man can do a lot of wrong things in his life. But good kids can make him realize that he did the most important thing well. Raisin a family is the hardest thing that life throws at ya.   

[80stepsideguy]

Thanks don 
I have had alot of friends in the past that made bad choices in life and bad decisions and they never get ahead in life and you kinda feel bad for them but they are grown humans and they chose that path.I  got 1 good friend in rhode island that has 4 kids and married and 1 of them is my godchild.Although i never see them alot he is doing very well in his life and made good choices like marry his teenage girlfriend when they were dating in the late 80s and has a nice home and a good future while another friend has 3 kids is a firefighter and is always tired cause all he does is work.Has back problems and is going nowhere cause all he does is work.And i have had other friends that dropped out of school and never made a good living and always thought they were to cool.Well the cool guys live from apartment to apartment and get busted for drugs and go to jail and so forth.To me i am very happy of the cohice decisions i made in my life cause if i made the other decisions liek drop out of school and think i am better then others and do drugs i probably woulnt amount to anything but being a total bum and i couldnt do that i tell ya.I like a good challenge in life and i work hard for everything i got and wouldnt lose it for the world.What i am getting at is if i want something i stay focused and not try n get derailed on sometihng to throw me off.I love these trucks(heck if i didnt i wouldnt be here eh?) and classic cars as well.I keep saying i wanna retire after this truck but i dont see it happening i see me doing another 79-80 shortbed fleetside next like viles 74 and do it up w/ a vette LS1 or LS2 and make it totally radical .

thanks
pat