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My life is about to travel a new road! 5 years ago (mid December 2010), I literally drove a then brand new extension of Stearns Rd from IL RT 25 to Randall Rd:

Now, I will be figuratively driving a new fork in the road.

A year & 2 months after I drove that new addition, I lost my job mid-late February 2012, just after my 4th open heart surgery (11/11/2011) & within weeks of returning to work full-time. I have not had a paying job since. Unemployment ended early September 2013, so I’ve had no income for over 2 years.

I started the Old Cars, Strong Hearts Facebook page 12/19/2012 to keep me positive, active & engaged. Then, with the encouragement of some friends & the help of my cousin & OC,SHer BEN M, I launched the website (www.oldcarsstronghearts.com) 01/19/2015; it has been “on the air” since. It is awesome crafting outside of the FB world; so many more possibilities & ways to present material from daily-weekly posts-themes to pages spotlighting my radio show playlists, etc. I had hoped the website would attract more potential employers & give them a sense of my abilities, interests & dedication. While it has to some extent, the low interaction & view numbers on the Facebook page & website kept some from hiring me for related jobs.

Within the last 3 years, I have sold more cars than I care to count. Most recent (09/01/2015) was my all-time #1 vehicle, my 1989 Caprice Classic Brougham. That was tough to sell because I had a “dream team” of my “summer cruiser” 1989 CCB & my “winter warrior” 1979 Caprice Classic sedan. With the 1989 CCB gone, I have been trying to sell my 1979 CC to get a different year-round daily driver & for other reasons.
1979 CC Craigslist ad

That all noted, I finally have a job! My 1st day is next Wednesday, 12/09/2015; before then, the next few days will be a flurry of activity as I attempt to finalize some personal projects prior to officially returning to the workforce ranks. I will be the Part-Time Office Manager (Monday-Friday, 20 hours a week, 4 hours per day, very flexible schedule) for a local business owner who runs an appraisal firm. This will eventually allow him to do more of the “business” side of things, namely visiting clients, versus the day-to-day paperwork, documentation, calls, Emails, etc. I will be an independent contractor, with the possibility of discussing full-time employee status down the road, perhaps evolving into marketing &/or social media management. Once I get trained, I may be able to do most of my tasks from virtually anywhere! Salary is lower than what I’ve had & it will take a long time for me to be able to do much, but it is a start &, most importantly, stops the “bleeding”.

At the moment, this new job does not change my resolve to find a vehicle to replace the 1979 CC. I want a different vehicle for this fresh start & to be OC,SH’s “flagship”. However, I will soon have to pay the Illinois Secretary Of State the yearly license plate renewal fee, so I may have to keep the 1979 CC a bit longer, which will feel like I am “settling”….

So, how will my new job affect OC,SH? For now, it shouldn’t! Given the PT status, I will still have time to craft daily-weekly posts & interact (albeit on a perhaps more rigidly limited schedule & availability). I have over 10 weeks of images to craft for the different themes. If you have submitted photos, please be patient; you WILL see them featured in the future. As always, thank you for choosing to be a part of & active with OC,SH.