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 Click Here to Order Online Well, as the headline states the annual Z32 wall calendar is finally available online to order. A labor of love I'm happy to again be very pleased with the final result which is in no small part due to the fantastic photography submitted by every Z enthusiast who submitted images for this years calendar. Y'all are indeed a terrific community and I have been glad to call myself a member of it for over 6 years! Also, huge thanks to Damon and Greg and the whole crew @ TTNet for making this possible each and every year. Now, on to a more somber note. Frankly, I'm more than a little upset with some of the things that have been posted on here lately. In response to valid concearn and some criticism on here I posted an update as to why the calendar was behind this year, however that seems to have fallen on deaf ears. So, again I am going to outline what has been going on in 4th quarter 2005 that has caused such delay. To preface that however I will take full blame for any and all delay as ultimately it is my responsibility. Things started to take a downhill slide in September of 2005, as my maternal grandfather Robert Ashford began to rapidly visibly deteriorate in health and stamina. Being very close to my grandfather I tried to be there as much as possible to spend time with him and assist my mother in taking him to the doctor etc… My grandfather was 87 years old at the time and having just lost my grandmother the previous October it had been a somber year. Mid September rolled around which meant time to pack up all the Down Shift gang and gear to attend/participate in the NOPI Nationals as we do each year. While in Atlanta I received news that my grandfather was doing better and that the tests had all came back negative, he was given an excellent bill of health. This was a relief. Under the auspices of my grandfathers improving health Laura and I continued with our plans to attend her cousins wedding in Asheville, NC that following weekend, and seeing as how we had been very busy we decided to take a week of vacation following the wedding and enjoy some time in NC/TN/SC/GA. We returned home refreshed and ready to return to both of our respective jobs as well as Down Shift. This was not in the cards however, as the day following our return home I received a call from my mother telling me she had found my grandfather collapsed face first on the floor of his house. I rushed over arriving just prior to the paramedics aghast at the site of before me. Once admitted to the hospital it was determined that my grandfather had fallen and been there for some where upwards of 12 hours a byproduct of a stroke he had suffered. He had regained conciousness but the booming voice of the one proud engineer was gone. He was in and out of clarity, seeing black ships sailing around his hospital room and ants on the ceiling… Days passed as the entire family spent all their free time with him, comforting him, feeding him and consoling him ever while hoping for a resolution. That resolution would come in the form of a terminal diagnosis of liver cancer, followed closely by a 2AM phone call 2 days later saying the end was near. My mother, my sister, my father, Laura and our family friend Stuart would all spend the next 18 hours at his side as his body slowly shut down. The Shallow raspy gurgling breathing of the last few hours is something that will haunt me for the rest of my life. Finally 18 hours into the ordeal with all of his remaining family at his side my grand father's breaths became slow, his pulse weak and in a near silent moment of love, respect, regret, saddness and happiness my grandfather, Robert S. Ashford the once proud and preimminent architectural engineer let go and passed on. Now, long story short I was stuck out of town when my grandmother Lucille had passed just 1 year and 1 week prior so I was sprared much of the emotional trauma, but with my grandfathers death totally and completely screwed me up as fellow TTNet member Ric HaloZ can attest. My thanks to him for having been a good friend and having listened to me rant endlessly about all of this. Having been a person who never really suffered from stress or depression I was overwhelmed with both. So much so that at all of 24 I began to experience chest pain all day and all night. Fearing the worst it was diagnosed as not being cardiac but stress enduced. I immediately began to try and relax, mimimize work as much as possible and so I did until I had recovered. However, all would not be resolved at this point. Now, I was presented with haivng to help my mother begin to sort through my grandparents house, in an effort to clean it out and ready it for sale. Now, my grandparents lived in a retirement community so the necessity to do so, was ever compounded by the monthly community fees my parents were being forced to pay. So, the pattern became thus. I would get up in the morning and go to work ( I work as a NOC Analyst for a fortune 500 clothing retailer) and after work head over to my grand parents home to help my mother sort through 30+ years of receipts, insurance policies, cancled checks etc… This went on for seeminly forever, and much to our thanks Laura my terrific girl friend and the other part of Down Shift was there to help us all, the entire time. We would work, then work into the night helping my parents. The funeral came and went, and on we worked repairing the house, cleaning it out in an effort to get it on the market. The weekends provided no rest, instead they were reserved for fun things like garage sales to get rid of much of what we did not want. Finally, just in the past 2 weeks all the furniture has been moved out and distributed amongst the family and some peace has been returned to our world. Hence, why you will see Down Shift returning to normalacy. The calendars are rapidly being finished and readied for the printer, the magazine is coming back together and our other ventures such as copywriting, graphic design, photography etc… are all back on track. Now, for all the haters that have pissed and moaned may I also remind you that through all of this chaos Laura and I still got Jody's TTNet poster printed at a savings to you the TTNet member. Its been the worst 4 months of my life, but Laura and I have worked through it as best we can. Balancing both Down Shift, our jobs, and for me law school as well. Things have leveled out and I hope to operate the company as it should again and I will vow to certainly do my best. Please accept my apologies but also know that there has been due reason for our tardiness. So now that you have or have not read my novella, I present unto you the 2006 300ZX wall calendar. Those of you featured will receive an email shortly. If anyone has any questions feel free to catch me on aim, email or phone. 
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The 2K6 Z32 Wall Calendar Is Now On Sale --> Info, Answers. - 
