This t-shirt design came to me recently, after posting My Application for Geek of the Year. I thought that last caption was worth letting everyone embrace.

My kids think I’m
Awesome!
but they’re under 10 years old.

Bullgrit

Let me introduce a few of my first t-shirt designs:

This first one is a rather obvious idea and choice, considering this site.

Good ol’ Boy
A man having a relaxed or informal
manner, unsophisticated good fellowship,
and strong loyalty to family and friends.

Bullgrit

In a few weeks, this site will be getting a major update. Not just a cosmetic update, though improving the site’s appearance is part of it. Total Bullgrit will be more than just a domain name for a blog, it will be the address for “All things Bullgrit.”

The blog will still be the foundation of the site — Tales from the life of a Southern dad, geek, and good ol’ boy — and www.totalbullgrit.com will still bring you directly to the blog as the home page. But there will be other sides to the site, as well.

The first “other side” of Total Bullgrit will be a t-shirt store, where you can find “Stuff for dads, geeks, and good ol’ boys.” This is something I’ve been thinking about for a very long time. Many years ago, even before I started this blog, I started having ideas for t-shirts. Well, I’ve decided to turn those ideas into actual physically existing products. I’m excited.

Bullgrit

We finally got around to acting on selling my dad’s classic car. I was directed to a man, (a contemporary of my dad’s), who knew about the old Monte Carlo and had expressed interest in what we were going to do with it. I called him and we discussed the situation.

Turns out, he also bought my dad’s 1955 Chevy way back when my parents were newlyweds. My dad was proud of that ’55 Chevy, and his selling it has been a in-family story/joke/grudge forever. The story is that my mother “made” him sell it because she couldn’t drive it. He regretted parting with that vehicle ever since.

Anyway, the man wanted the ’85 Monte Carlo, too, but isn’t in a position to buy it right now. But he said the car is still in excellent condition, and he’d keep an ear open for anyone else who might be able to buy it. He appreciated our appreciation of the car.

When I took the car in for some service a couple weeks ago, (in preparation for driving it from my hometown to my current town), the garage owner told me about a neighbor who was a classic car guy who had a mint-condition ’88 Monte Carlo. The garage owner gave the man a call, and got him to come over and look at my dad’s car.

This man was also complimentary of the car’s condition. He was impressed and said it should be easy to sell. He gave us some pointers on marketing it: take it to classic car shows and contact classic car clubs. As obvious as that seems, we hadn’t thought of it.

After the servicing, I drove the Monte Carlo home to my house rather than back to our dad’s vacant house. I mentioned in the earlier post about how nervous I was to drive it around town. Fortunately, the anxiety wears off after a while driving it out on the open freeway. It’s smooth and comfortable and fun on a long-distance drive.

The old car has a totally different feel than modern cars — especially compared to my SUV. The seating is low to the ground; the vehicle feels low but wide and long. All the gauges are actual gauges with needles, not digital displays. (The gas gauge says, “Unleaded Fuel Only.”) The steering wheel is thin, with no airbag in the center.

The doors have a handle for you to actually manually roll the windows down.

I loved revisiting the experience of driving an ’80s car, but it also made me appreciate the technological advances we now have in our vehicles. I mean, just the ease of opening a passenger side window with the push of a button is a major feature after realizing without it you have to actually pull off the road so you can reach waaay over to the other side of the wide car and roll, roll, roll the handle.

Bullgrit