Losing grip – just dreaming

Living the dream, eh?

That was the standard greeting phrase on my previous job, at three o’clock in the morning; when everyone was tired, thought the task at hand was nonsense, could only vaguely remember last time we had coffee, and in general just wanted to be somewhere else. Like in bed. Yet many of us were living the dream – but the dream wasn’t always a nice one.

I am sure a lot of you readers out there can sympathize with that feeling, in one or another aspect of your lives.

Hence hobbies, hence RC cars, hence RC drifting. Or monster trucks for that matter. Take Doug, the Monster Truck Madness dude. When he was six, he probably dreamt of driving real monster trucks, but for obvious reasons couldn’t.  So, instead he lived his dream by driving Matchbox Superchargers. Today he drives RC monster trucks. Nothing has changed, except the expenses. Doug is, I take it, still living his dream in a mini format.

It’s never too late for a happy childhood.

Me, I dreamt of owning a Ferrari when I was a kid. That ain’t never gonna happen, but maybe I should pick up a Tamiya Ferrari F12 TDF for my next body? Or a 458 Challenge? I certainly need to get something, since I have left all my bodies behind, due to luggage constraints. Driving without a body works, but it just isn’t the same. There’s no dreaming to it, just driving.

Now, the good thing about living the dream in a mini format, is that there are no three-o’clock-nonsense-jobs to it. Sure, everyone has hobby setbacks, like the occasional breakage and what not, but like the rest of the dream, they are in a mini format. Very manageable. I won’t ever be Ken Block or Daigo Saito, nor would I actually want to, but then I won’t ever wreck a Lamborghini either. Last time I saw my Camaro body, it certainly was a bit worn from to much contact with curbstones. Cost to replace, should I want to: maybe a fifty.

As life and weather stands now, my hobby is pretty much relegated to dreaming, and some carpentry, building an air brush spray booth. But mainly just dreaming, no driving. Of Ferraris, of drifting like Ken Block, of the smell of burnt rubber in the morning, of losing grip and going sideways. Daydreaming is something of a speciality of mine, and I’m plenty good at visualising things. Should you have difficulties in that department, please do have (another?) look at Ken Blocks Climbkhana or Daigo and Saito battling it out. How then could you not want to drift? Available to us mere mortals in RC form. Go live the dream!

To read another Losing Grip column, click here.