I took the boys to Toys R Us the other night to do some Christmas shopping and buy a little (very little) something for them. I ended up finding 99 cents worth of something for me, too, in the diecast aisle. I like to buy Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars and un-hotrod them for my train layout. And the Hot Wheels shoebox, with a small amount of work, looked like it would make a very passable 1949 Ford. So I bought it.
The next morning, my youngest brought the car to me as I was getting ready for work. “Daddy, will you open it?”
I couldn’t resist that smile, so I opened the package and handed it to him. He ran off, smiling.
A few minutes later, my oldest came in. I told him the car was open, if he wanted to try it out. He ran off, and a minute or two later, reappeared.
“Daddy, this is a gooood car!” he raved. “Are you going to paint it? I don’t think it needs it.”
Then he reconsidered. “Maybe the top. But keep the sides.”
The sides had yellow hotrod flames on them.
Ultimately I ended up repainting it. I lowered the engine back into the hood, filled the opening with some JB-Weld, swapped the wheels for something less outrageous, and then painted it a basic white.
When I buy these cars, I always end up putting a lot more than 99 cents’ worth of time, effort, and materials into them, but it’s part of the fun. And when the boys get a bit older, I’m sure they’ll be able to participate, and probably have a lot of fun with my funky cast-off wheels.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
Didn’t Mattel used to have a little plastic tool for aligning the HotWheels tires correctly?
This odd fragment of memory has been bothering me ever since you posted this… 🙂
I seem to remember such a thing, but I never had one. Yes, it’s odd sometimes the things we remember. I struggle to remember which versions of the .NET Framework are compatible with each other, but I still remember half of the Commodore 64’s memory map.
Heh, ain’t it the truth!
BTW, that Net Framework Update thingie you posted a while back forced me to re-validate a legit copy Win7 Pro. Maybe an isolated incident? Who knows…