Sorry Sharkey, can't remember my password. I've applied for a new one but nothings arrived in my Inbox.
I'm delighted my media exposure is having some positive effects. The idea of Sharkey being informed about me while building his Crown ... is some form of MAJOR media-eclipse. I've been following the Crown with great interest, and have tried to contrast Sharkey's methodical precision with my own well-hewn gonzo approach, which would ruffle a few feathers I'm sure with the "This Old House" crowd.
I think very few people these days really comprehend how much effort it takes to put together the simplest thing, when you're doing it yourself, using your own designs and building something right from scratch.
I've often spent half an hour just looking for the right Phillips screwdriver ... that's before anything even starts. Trying to find the short in a fifty foot bell cable with 100 pairs of colour coded wires, might take the better part of a Sunday.
When I started my Firetruck I actually thought I could do it in two years. It was livable-in in five, more-or-less finished in 13. My routine was to leave the office at 5 ... be there by seven with all my food and everything for the weekend ... and leave Sunday night at 9pm, quite possibly never having left my compound over the whole weekend. I maxed out at 6 hours sleep both nights, and tried to shop during the week for all my materials. It was actually an awfull lot of fun ... but if I didn't have an almost military sense of self-dicipline, I could have never done it the way I did.
The reason there are so few rolling homes in this world, is that very few people have the patience to spend two hours trying to make two beams attach at exactly the right place. Watching Sharkey's progress is actually painful for me, because at each stage I have a good feeling for how much effort it's taking. I wonder how many people have attempted to build a rolling home ... only to give up, after seeing the effort required.
The recent rash of "Do it yourself" type shows makes things even worse. Anyone who has actually made anything themselves (paint by number kits being the exception) knows that those shows are put together in such a way ... that if you try to actually do it ... you'll give up believing that you're incompetent. You're not. They are actors, and the whole thing is a set-up by the material suppliers.
I've talked with a few mechanic friends, and the likes of "American Chopper", are absolute fraudulent entertainment. I've studied "Monster Garage" ... and there is absolutely no-way, man! And the net result is nobody REALLY knows what it takes. It looks soooo easy on the little silver screen.
Well Sharkey knows. Roger knows. Greg knows. And my hat off to all the rest who KNOW. I salute you.
and ... Hey Damien,
Well Thanx, and like I said, it was an absolute ball ...
