Wait wait wait hear me out.. I know you're a truck driver.. my father was a truck driver. Even though I know it's not exactly a super reasonable assumption.. I kinda just think of all truckers being my father's age lol. He's been gone for 20 years now (work accident).. probably just a part of that nostalgia sickness you're talking about. Miss that man. I was born in 91 though. You very well may have been in 93 for all I know
Sounds like you're in the same position I was a couple years ago.. I had the wagon which I wanted (and was actively buying a LOT of parts) to turn into a drag car, an 86 Cadillac, the squarebody, the 96 ranger, and an 85 200x trike that's like.. 75% of the way to rideable.. along with that I had a few different RC projects.. some pew-pew builds going on.. a LOT of irons in the fire.
I was pretty much forced to abandon the wagon project, so that made taking THAT iron out of the fire "easy". It took me awhile to come to grips with the fact that I simply didn't have the time for the caddy.. but I did eventually.. so instead of letting it sit and deteriorate until I DID have the time.. I ended up trading it to someone who was gonna do the thing justice. The car deserved it. At the time I thought I'd have enough energy&money&free time to get enough done to everything.. reality is that I absolutely did NOT lol.. so thinning the herd was a necessity but I also had to kinda rewire my brain at the same time...
Simply put.. I had given myself what ended up being unreasonable expectations/goals... I expected too much to happen too quickly. When I would consistently fail to meet my timeline expectations... It would REALLY beat me down mentally and take away a lot of the motivation I had to take part in my hobby. A guy can't set himself up like that.. hobbies are supposed to be fulfilling.. not depressing. I spread myself too thin. I needed a change.
The more irons I yanked outta the fire the quicker I was able to hammer on the ones I left cooking, had more money & time to do so as well.. so it was a total win-win. Turns out that I'm actually happier with
less. I DO miss looking at the caddy though.. and shit.. I keep forgetting but.. ended up getting a dirtbike last year that needs a bunch of work so.. even though I'm trying to minimize projects SOME new ones still find a way to sneak their way in
Nowadays the ranger is my priority weekend project concerning time + money.. and the only one I still keep a quasi-deadline for completion on. The square is my secondary project that I can just tinker on at my leisure when I have some spare time after work before dinner.. I DO need to get the thing sitting back on its axles & wheels so I can roll it around asap.. but that's very minor. The trike is on total back burner.. it and all its parts are all inside and not deteriorating so.. not a big deal. I'll get to it when I get to it.
Back to the brain rewire though.. whenever I make progress now on days I work on things.. even if I only get half as much done as I would have hoped before I start.. Im still happy. I tell myself to be happy... ANY progress is better than NO progress after all..
Id say sell/barter what you can (stupid cobalt lol) to get some bodywork done to the f250. You clearly love the hell out of those trucks.. seems to me that keeping that thing around would make you happy.. and having the bodywork done for you would naturally free up a lot of your time to mess with other stuff.
Swap the motor&trans outta the vic and put it in the ltd.. or just body swap the ltd on to the vic... That'd be two birds stoned at once..
Like I said.. some soul searching will give you your answer.
I'm with you on the antiquated wood paneled house and all that though.. 100% lol. That's EXACTLY the house my grandparents had when I was growing up.. nostalgia is a hell of a drug!
I'm with this as well. Ideas steeped in much too much beaurcrapracy. Sounds like a situation that'll end up having someone's tea tossed into the harbor
A lottery type deal with a random number generator would work... Or the classic blindfolded dart toss at a map.. whoever's closest to the dart gets the honor.