It has been four years, six months, and nineteen days since I last posted.

In that time, I have married the love of my life, moved away from my beloved Flagstaff,  let the site’s domain registration lapse, opened a 3D printing lab, felt awe in presence of the Rubicon trail, started wearing glasses, left a 3D printing lab behind, helped my wife find her calling, started a new job, rediscovered my love for playing drums, reached middle age, purchased two new vehicles, seen the Foo Fighters in concert, learned to meditate, been diagnosed with a life-long medical condition, returned to school, survived a global pandemic (so far), and been in over my head more times than I can count.  And also in that time, I have gone wheeling exactly thrice.

El LaboRato has developed cooling problems that I have, thus far, been ultimately unable to overcome.  It has proven my greatest challenge with the Jeep to date, and has impacted me and my wrenching philosophy to the very core.  I’ve been fighting this for over three years now, and have learned several bitter lessons about who I am as a mechanic, a husband, a friend, and as a man.  Slowing down to think about it though, that’s the whole point of this project, isn’t it?  I’ve been harping on personal growth through wrenching and wheeling for nearly seven years.  It’s about time I had a breakthrough for myself, right?  Find out in another episode later this season.

During my absence, my thoughts have never strayed too far from this world, this site, this lifestyle.  Imagine my surprise to log back in after so long to find that my tiny little corner of the internet has seen over 20,000 hits during the 2,393,280 minutes that have passed since my last post went live.  Now that life is (hopefully) adopting a slightly slower pace, I think I’ll be able to start posting again (reviving the Jeep will of course take priority).  I have plans to revamp the site, re-proof, edit, and update some of my older posts with new content and images (I find mistakes in almost all my posts, no matter how many times I proof them, even years later.  That’s growth, right?), figure out how tf to handle comments, provide more technical and in-depth write-ups, and re-introduce the LabRat to the world, stronger and better than ever.  It could be my break, or it could just break me.  No matter what, the goal is to make every day an improvement upon the last.

They tell us that life eventually moves too fast for us to keep up with.  Hold fast, fingers.  Hang on.