With a name like "
Mister Bumbles" how could I not like him. Now he will have to explain that name.
Duh...I didn't see the link when I was just there but found it now. Thanks for the info, Don. 1000 Points are donated, Mr. Bumbles!
Well, thanks guys for the welcome (and the points)! I'm still waiting on notification of the points in the wallet... it did a weird thing and *showed* 1501 points after Don's donation... then it went weird and only shows 2 points now. Don suggested I wait a while and see if it refreshes / updates, so I'm giving it some time.
In the meaaaaan time, apparently I have some explaining to do! This business about "Mister Bumbles".
So, most of my life, I drove pretty ordinary, normal, BORING cars. None of them ever really suited my fun-loving personality.
That is, until one day, in late 2002, I stumbled quite accidentally across a limited edition, 150hp 1.8 liter turbo-charged 5-speed VW Beetle. It was a "Double Yellow Color Concept".
For lack of better words, it was PERFECT. Bright yellow outside, with yellow wheel inserts. Black and yellow leather with yellow stitching, yellow accents.
It was a modern day "Bumblebee" (if you like Transformers you'll know that Bumblebee was a BEETLE, not a Camaro!). I attempted to get the financing on the car... and it fell through.
Ended up driving a really hideous flesh-colored Saturn L200... my friends had no end to nasty jokes about what the car looked like.
Well the years rolled by. One day in early March of 2007, I stumbled quite accidentally across an Autotrader ad for the same car. Somehow I had fat-fingered the zip-code in Autotrader and ended up with Whitefish, Montana instead of my hometown of Longview, WA. To this day I'm not sure how it happened. Anyway, there was the car. Five years old, but only had 21,000 miles on it. It turned out that for the first year of the little Beetles life, it had stayed IN a dealer showroom. Then it went to an elderly lady that rarely used the car except to drive to the doctor. When she was unable to drive, she took the car back the same dealer that she got it from, and traded it in to help her daughter get a car.
The dealer plopped it up on Auto Trader, not knowing what he had or how there were only 2500 of them made. The dealer mentioned that he drove to Spokane, WA once a month for a car auction and that he'd be willing bring the car there on a trailer if I wished. I did! My bank loved me, so they pre-approved the car loan so that if I wanted it I could just bring it home. I made arrangements to drive the 398 miles there to look at it, and fell in love with it when I saw it. Took it to a local mechanic and had it checked out, and it was in perfect shape. Still in near show room quality. I bought it and brought it home.
It didn't take long for my friends to start calling the car various names, hoping I'd 'pick one'. The folks in the Beetle community name their cars, give them personalities, and in general give life to the little cars. I wanted to call the car "Bumblebee", but the custom license plates were already registered in Washington state. Then, the car chose it's own name. One day, while sitting at a red light, I rested my arm on the window sill of the car. A few seconds later, I got stung by a wasp that was climbing out of the door. So, "Sting" became his name. Yup "his" name. They get genders AND names, don't you know?
After that.... my obsession with all things black and yellow started. It didn't help that my friends and family kept sending me black and yellow STUFF. Hats, flashlights, screwdrivers, teddy bears, you name it. Boxes of black and yellow STUFF soon took over my storage room. And due to me being rather bear-sized (I'm a big fuzzy guy, friends called me a bear for years), along with the particular group of friends I was hanging out with all being of bear-sized stature, they started trying to come up with a nickname for ME that matched my car's personality. And soon.. one of my online friends just started calling me "Mister Bumbles". I liked it. It stuck. Been using it as my online moniker ever since. I kept modifying the Beetle over the years, upgrading bits, adding on a yellow spoiler that I later turned into a black spoiler, etc.
Friends started sending me stuff for me to wear while IN the Beetle at club get-togethers.
So, there you have it. The epic journey of man-turned-bear becoming "Mister Bumbles". Sadly, after 5 years of owning Sting, I decided I need something bigger. Something better for my knees and back. I've had a number of sports / play-related accidents (dislocated both knees, broke my jaw, had 7 concussions, tore out my hip flexor, broke my wrist, broke both feet, etc) that have left me with permanent pain, along with degenerative arthritis in the spine and knees. Good times! So, I sold Sting and bought myself a little black Ford Transit Connect, lovingly named "Bumbles".
Some day, if I get the money or find a sponsor.. I want to modify Bumbles into something more unique that fits my personality better. With a little help my friend "Photoshop".. I made a mockup of what I want.
So now "Mister Bumbles" drives "Bumbles"... and all is ... mostly well
Did I ramble on enough?
For more photos of Sting...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/evanrude-/sets/72157601322051275/ (details on a long list of modifications under the "SEE MORE" link near the top)
For more photos of Bumbles...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/evanrude-/sets/72157627704243433/
So... I'll stop there for now.
I'll leave one last photo, for fun.
