Something wrong with my Dakota
I know where you're coming from there too! I'm the youngest of 5. Dad turns 60 next year and while that's by no means "old" dad has definitely slowed down in the past 10 years and seeing how much my moms dad has gone backwards in the last 5 years, it really scares me of someday seeing dad go backwards like that. I mean, he's my dad, he should always be stronger than me and be able to work circles around me like when I was a kid, but time marches on and we take life as it comes.
I'm the middle child, out of two of my dad's marriages. I have an older brother that I don't talk to because he only takes advantage of the family and wants handouts, and a younger sister who's a lot like me (fortunately she stayed far away from the garage, I wouldn't want her to kill herself like I do). I actually taught my little sister to drive in my '84 D50 (with the 273 V8). I taught her all the important stuff, how to Power Brake, how to steer with the throttle, how to operate a ratchet shifter.... Then I turned around and taught her clutch in my Supercharged '92 D50... Her question at the end of the day was "Can I do Donuts?!" (in the Supercharged D50) "Yeah.... turn the steering wheel hard to the left, slam the throttle to the floor, dump the clutch and hang on!" "Okay!" (I'm proud of my little sister for that question!)
I too have seen my dad slow down, and it scares me too. He always outworked me, and now he's slowing down and gets tired. When I was growing up, my dad was that unstoppable guy that no one could outwork. These days, I shadow him, listening to every word of advice he has to offer and I try to spend time with him when I can.
EDIT :
It gets hard to spend time with my dad though, outside of the shop. He has dogs and I'm allergic to dogs (so I have cats at my house, because life without pets is boring). Even then, I'll still visit my dad, though I try to limit the visits to an hour. Any more than an hour and I break out in hives. A few times he's asked me spend the night, drink some beer with him and crash on the couch. I don't say no, instead, I'll deal with the hives and itching, because it's my dad.
Once I finish remodeling my living room, I'll invite him over for a beer... Even though he doesn't like one of my cats (we've nicknamed that particular cat "Satan", and we both agree she's the devil), the other cat he likes, she's just like us. She keeps to herself, doesn't like to be bothered, doesn't cause problems.
