Honest to God, it seemed like just yesterday that I was dropped headfirst into the editor's seat at Rod &Custom-guess it's taken a lot longer to get myself turned right-side up than I thought. Yeah, I'd definitely say that this past month alone has been busier, more stressful, and had me going in every direction besides straight than the entire year leading up to it. But you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.
Bottom line is, I'm back, smack-dab in the thick of what I love most: hot rods and customs. Just the thought alone of returning to the "big show" seemed too good to be true at first, but now that I'm here, it feels like I've returned from college. I'm home, right where I want to be, seeing familiar faces, talking to old acquaintances on the phone, and of course wearing my fingers to the bone with the untold number of emails that now consume so much time (which isn't a bad thing by any means-emailing just wasn't used so widely not that long ago). Well, let's just say they do a good job of taking the emphasis off "hard work" that's for sure.
I was thinking the other day about how different things would be now had it not been for my '53 Chevy, which I've owned since before going on a hot rod hiatus. Though it wasn't intentional, over the last five years or so, I gradually became more and more distanced from the rod and custom scene; the desire to go to a number of events I normally attended religiously began to fade as well (fortunately, not before the last Paso!). Partly to blame is something I call the "magazine editor burnout syndrome", but also because if I wasn't covering a show for the magazine, I didn't have to go ... so I usually didn't. Over time, though, it started becoming too much of a recurring theme, and before long, I was hard-pressed to even motivate myself into going, without my '53 no less. But that blue car somehow managed to keep me from totally losing touch and getting completely cut off from the scene. Don't know what I'd do without her!
Fortunately, interest once seemingly lost was never gone to begin with-it was merely suppressed. And regardless of what happens with everything else in the world around me, I'm glad to be back. The economy may be fragile, our government more ignorant than ever, and the environment on the brink of catastrophic demise-so what, I've still got my fossil-fueled passion, and as long as I'm able to enjoy it as I see fit that's just what I'm gonna do.