Hello Bill & all,
I have had my share of trouble in this area. I have been married 3 times.
The Triumphs were not the problem, but were a symptom. I have always briefed
my to-be wives on my LBC hobby or rather "lifestyle." They loved riding
around in my TR3 and others and I explained that it takes quite a bit of
time to build and keep one of these machines, so they knew what they were
getting into. They all said OK I understand. But when the time came to do a
little work on the TR, THEN it was a problem. The first one would stand at
the door complaining about me rebuilding an engine while the kids needed
changed, I guess I was diaperman. I'm not sure what she thought her job was.
The second expected me to do at least half of the house work and such, even
though I had 2 jobs. Neither of them had a job outside of the house. I told
both of them to hit the road and now both have found house husbands.
My current wife likes my LBC's and during our marriage owned and worked on
her own GT6. She even changed the transmission herself. Before getting
involved with me she thought if something major went wrong with a car it was
just time to trash it. She didn't realize everything can be fixed or
modified. Boy did she ever learn that one! The only thing she doesn't like
about going to car shows or meets is standing around watching me talk to
others about the boring details of the cars. So now that my son is 14 and is
getting into the LBC scene, she tells me to take my son and she'll go to her
parents. Everybody's happy.
I think, or at least in my case, working on, building and driving English
cars is a very important part of me. Just like playing with my kids. It
makes me happy. And if I didn't have my TR I would always be dreaming of
one. My mom always tells me "why don't you sell all those old cars and get
one new car." She doesn't understand the happiness I get from them just
driving to work. What I say is, It is a part of me and if you love me you
have to accept all of me. People don't change and if she expects you to drop
it for her, you have not changed but are only denying part of your
personality.
I think you were pretty amazing to get up at 4:30 and work on the cars. That
shouldn't be a problem unless you were using impact tools or something.
Good Luck!
Mike
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