Bill,
Convince her that you need to keep yourself solvent as an individual in order to
be a good father and husband, and that working on your Triumphs does that. It's
great you spend as much time as you can with your kids because that's the most
important job you'll ever have. When they're 13 they won't need you as
much...believe me I've done three kids already. Also involve the kids in your
Triumphs, teach them the names of tools and have them hand them to you. Let
them crawl under the car with you. Let them get their hands greasy. That's
what my dad did with me (it's also when I learned how to curse since he wasn't a
great mechanic). Your wife won't resent the times you're working on the
Triumphs if the kids are involved (that falls into the baby-sitting/quality time
category).
My wife is really understanding about Triumphs and didn't flinch when I told her
I was going to sell her car and use the money to buy another Triumph. Of course
it helped that I'd already bought her a Lexus and she could care less about her
old car. She also didn't care that I spent two weeks driving to Maine and back
last summer last summer, since she got to go with the "girls" to Jamaica. It's
called trade offs. Works for me.
Anybody want to buy a loaded 86 Maxima station wagon with 101k miles and that
goes like a rocket (3 liter EFI same engine as the 300ZX) and handles better
than any Triumph I've driven.
Anybody got a TR (of comp value ~$3k) that they want to trade for it?
Later
Bud
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