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Well, we've determined that we belong in the Sonoran desert. The allergies in the Dallas area are just as bad as those in Indiana. I have a two-year commitment with TI that ends in March 2008, so we'll be looking at moving back to either Tucson or Phoenix at that time. The move was not in vain however. My IC level failure analysis skills have been bumped up a notch from working on them daily at TI. Karla has been back at automotive underwriting and has a solid year of service to show for it. When we go back into the Arizona job market, we'll have even higher value to our prospective employers.

Dad came up at Christmas time and helped me put up the new all-metal garage. It has a 24x30 foot print and had a slip tube design that allowed us to assemble and erect it without the need of a crane. I dug a 2 foot deep, 50 foot long trench out to it from the house in this damnable Texas clay and just now finished wiring it up and getting it ready for final inspection. Herbie and the convertibles have been in out of the elements since January and I now have a dry concrete floor on which to repair them.

I bought back the '77 VW beetle from my brother. Dad and I welded in the floor pans over easter and parted out a second '76 convertible that was too far gone to salvage. The '77 is a solid car and will be used to temporarily drive here while the '78 champagne is torn down and repainted. It will then be offered up for sale to some lucky buyer. Our local VW dealer has a 1978 triple white convertible on their showroom floor with 300 hundred total miles on the odometer. I was able to inspect it and take note of the pieces that mine should have on it for a complete restoration. The parted out '76 provided a windfall supply of components that I needed, from doors, front hood, and even a pressed board cover for the ECU computer in the back luggage compartment.

We've added another beetle to the stable (sorry Glo). While in the shop for the 30K maintenance on the TDI new beetle, we saw the latest release in the VW convertible line. It is a light metallic green model (appropriately named "Gecko Green") with a tan canvass top. We received top trade in value for the TDI car and upgraded to the convertible. We'll get to break it in the week of July 4th when we go out to Tucson to look at the TI failure analyis lab.

Last updated 5/26/07