Episode 5 – Cars, Exhaust Pipes, and Learning

Sometimes our best learning experiences come from those moments that we choose to pay attention to someone or something that we aren’t naturally interested in. And, once in a while we find a new skill or interest along the way.


Episode 5 Show Notes


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Episode 5 Script

This is Rebecca Clark with Episode five Car’s exhaust pipes and learning. This podcast is for anyone that knows they haven’t yet found and offered up their best work, but are compelled to seek it out and do it. Are you ready to move your desk? That was fun Photos. Tractors do old medium. They’re very old. They don’t have any cylinders. Oh, I’m sure they do. How it Sooners do the mmm, maybe eight. All of those cars are medium in old Lengthy and Sally order the newest. Yes, It’s always great to learn something new or find out an interest that you didn’t know you had.

And that is the case with me and cars Now, growing up, I could say that my family didn’t care about cars very much. But in fact we did, because my parents always made sure to search out something they could pay cash for. And this was never something that was very attractive or desirable for most of us in our family. And so there was one little point in Nebraska for a few years when I was in grade school where my father had access to a couple of company cars and vans.

And so we didn’t have this huge need at that point to have our own car, even though we did have one family car. And at one point we moved to Michigan during after, like, two or three years in Nebraska and we left that one family car in Nebraska because we all flew to Michigan. And three days after removed a slew of tornadoes, annihilated our town and totaled our car pretty much. And so we’re in Michigan with no cars, so you can imagine that with e cash only policy.

Ah, we did not secure a very attractive vehicle. I think you know, if you can picture a very large station wagon, that’s a deep, green, glittery kind of look that would be the main car that we had at that point in life. And so I was, I will admit, one of the children that said, I will not be dropped off in front of the school in that it will be a block away. And maybe this was also something that was helpful in making sure that we walked the mile to school or took the bus.

Instead of asking for a ride, I don’t know. There are a lot of children. So, um, but this is my experience with cars. And I didn’t buy my first car until I was 28 years old. I wrote a mountain bike everywhere, and I was able to successfully do that unties 28 years old and of course, um, when I was in 28 Hide Ben in Washington D. C for a couple of years. So I rode the Metro and walked and rode a bike. And it’s very common for people who live in Washington, D. C or right near it in Virginia or Maryland, not tow.

Have a car. It is not just a extra expense if there’s usually parking garage fees and all these different things, So that isn’t that abnormal for some of these urban areas. But cars really weren’t part of my life, and unfortunately I didn’t really have a respect for people who worked on cars. I I actually kind of looked down on the mechanic kind of profession, even though simultaneously being shocked at whatever I had to pay them. When I get my car fixed. So and I’m telling this story and a lot of stories right here about cars because I’ve learned so much and I’ve been forced to learn.

That’s that’s what I want. Thio. Well, you’re not forced, but I’ve chosen to accept that I needed to learn about cars because late in life I had a baby. And when he was around, one hey decided to learn the word fire truck because he could hear them every day. And he loved seeing him out the window. And I think the sound was a shock at first, and that was when we started to realize, Okay, he loves fire trucks. So do all little kids, maybe. But then, if he saw cars on the TV or cars around town, he started to point.

And that’s something that became part of our daily conversations and then enters Disney and Lightning McQueen, Cruz Ramirez, Jackson’s Storm and Mater. And so, if you know anything about the cars, movies, these air, very endearing characters, I begrudgingly watched these movies at first and now had come to love cars one and three. And part of it is some of the lessons that are embedded in that for both the children and adults. But this really heightened my son’s interesting cars to the point where when we’re on the road or when we were taking our daily walks, we had to point out the symbol on every single car that we walked by.

And this forced me to learn some symbols that I wasn’t aware of why I didn’t know what Alfa Romeos were. Do you know what Alfa Romeos were and what their symbol looks like? And is that different from a poor symbol? Some of us who don’t no, don’t think so, but there’s vast differences, and then BMWs and Mercedes and high end I and Mazda and the biggest one lately is their test lis everywhere where we live and so ah, that has become part of our daily life. Well, that’s not good enough.

We then had to identify if the’s cars are new or old. A new old was not good enough, and we had to enter old, medium and new and then medium wasn’t good enough. So we have to have is that medium new or medium old and so you very quickly start creating your criterion, your head going okay, What’s new? Maybe that’s the last two years. Okay, what’s medium new. Maybe that’s a five or six year old car. What’s medium? Ah, maybe 7 to 12 years. I don’t know, You know, And and then to discover that my husband and I might have slightly different criteria in our head and we’re called on it like Dad says, it’s medium.

You say it’s medium knew. Okay, well, then what do you think? And so these air, our daily conversations and along with this has now entered the number of exhaust pipes and the number of cylinders in these cars. Oh, my word. Like, how many details are there in cars? I didn’t realize all of this stuff before. And now everywhere I look, I’m how I’m pointing it out to myself in my mind because I’m quizzed on this daily. And so, uh, so is this is all going on. We’re like, we gotta find something else besides cars to watch.

But of course, you find other things, and then you run across, say something about Formula One race cars on Netflix, right? Okay, good. At least this is not a cartoon. Let’s turn on this and try this and that had some interest in some lessons learned and Then we find car masters from rust to riches on Netflix. And this is about these guys and gals at Gotham Garage in Temecula, California And they made a point. They wanted to make money by always selling upward, you know, So they were anxious to find what most of us would think.

We’re junk. They turn it into something great, sell it from that sale, buy more junk, makes something even greater, make more and you can see the pattern there steadily going toe higher value projects. But it was amazing to watch this because they would go to junk yards, and they’re identifying things across the junk yard that just seemed like stray pieces of junk to the uninformed mind like mine. But when they’re finished, there’s a beautiful vintage car or a beautiful car that has elements of vintage mixed in with some new.

And the owners are so happy for these and some even. There’s one episode where he recreates this car that had been a hot Wheels car that had never been created, and it was this guy’s dream his whole life since he was a little boy and he created this car and you see pieces and parts of how this is created, and this is where something switched in my mind. And I was like, Wow, I want one of these cars I go from not caring about cars to suddenly I have to have some special vintage unique thing for myself and I’m almost in the market for a new car, I say almost because I have to over 250,000 miles on my car and I’m having a race to see how many miles it can go.

And so I’m super excited to get to 250,000. I’m hopeful that maybe 300 is an option, but the car I’d identified to replace my car with is just, you know, right off the lot kind of car and all of sudden, like, Wait, why would I want one of those? If I could have one of these specially created for me vintage cars, that’s you know, you take the scraps and you put it together and you make something beautiful. And so I became the person that wanted to see all the episodes.

Even after my son lost interest, I had of newfound passion and love and understanding of cars. And now when I drive down the road and I see some kind of souped up car or something that someone has bothered to resurrect a vintage vehicle or create their own version, I get super excited because I know the thought that’s gone into that and the resourcefulness and oftentimes the trust. That’s what came out on the show to. A lot of these deals were made with handshakes and trade offs, and they knew that someone was going to deliver something that they love.

The customer knew that the garage would deliver that. And so that’s why I was super excited to share this episode because I’ve gone from someone who didn’t think this was not a default interest of mine whatsoever. And now it’s turned into a little passion. And now when I go on the computer, every single advertised so about classic cars because I actually took some time to look up a couple, and so now that’s gonna be in my algorithms for a little while. And so what? So why bring this up?

Well, I remember when I was young and my father said his company said that they wanted the employees to purchase three magazines a year on the company Dime, and those magazines shouldn’t have anything to do with their job, and it might not have anything to do with their interest either. But it would allow them to learn from something that was different in their default. And perhaps they could get ideas and processes and approaches that they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. And it could come from another field but could still have meaning in their job.

And that is a valuable action right there, I think, and on howto apply this. We all have our defaults. We all of these things we may shy away from or blatantly think we’re not interested in. And to have an experience like this with cars is another reminder to me of always keeping that door open toe. Learn from anyone from any resource because you never know if it could be a hidden interest of yours or if they’re some nuggets in there that will help you do your job better.

That will help your life change or that will help you help someone else. And so I’m hoping that the takeaway today Rita, take one area of life or an interest. Or if you have a friend that keeps talking about something, you keep rolling your eyes saying, Are we talking about that again? I don’t care about that at all. Maybe it’s worth taking a closer look and finding out. Why are they so interested in that? What is so appealing? What are the details I’m missing? What is the point?

And who knows? Maybe there will be something in there that changes the way you are, where the way you work or gives you a nudge to pursue some slightly different approach or option that you had not considered in the past. I consider myself extremely lucky to have gone through this experience the last couple of years of supporting a little person in my life’s passion and thereby discovering that I have a new appreciation and love for something that I took for granted in my commutes all of these years.

So it’s never too late. Hope you have some stories to share. Have fun driving today, and I’m looking forward to your listening to the next episode and sharing your thoughts. Have a great day theme. How many do you think? Yes, he has seven Because he’s a little. He’s very little are. I don’t know if any cars have seven cylinder, I think. 46 or eight for 12. Thank you for listening to another episode of Move Your Desk show You enjoy listening. I would love if you would take the time to give a five star review and share the podcast with friends that are seeking to find and do their best.

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