Three months ago, I gave up. I just didn't care about my cars anymore. So, I quit.

It's hard to explain to people why, one day, you just decide to up and walk away. The simple answer really is that it just wasn't fun for me anymore. The ubiquitous Nissan 240SX, the new Mazda RX-7 FC3S and the Porsche 968, detailed frequently in past columns, had all grown over the last year to become like the Brady Bunch of car collections. Each one was so unique, so special and so lovable for such different reasons. Occasionally, they acted like brats and pissed me off, but I still loved them, and bragged about them like they were my kids. But the truth is, if you're in a bad mood, even the little things you didn't mind before quickly change from molehills to mountains. Every time the coolant light came on in the FC, and that hideous shrieking, buzzing cackle came on (notorious in old Mazda), I lost my temper.

I got a ticket in the Porsche. Done; I refused to get behind the wheel again.

The 240 started to overheat in the dead of summer. Screw it, I parked it somewhere and let the power steering fluid leak out. I couldn't have cared less.

I started to feel weighed down by the financial burdens. I had delusional daydreams of green currency literally being flushed down the toilet. My rent went up $100 for the year. I had sky-high medical bills. And I lost the will to work.

My creativity flowed straight into the Hoover Dam, like so many tributaries. If this entire passage appears to lack cohesive thought, then you have an idea of how scattered and lost I felt all summer.

But the truth of the matter was that I simply wasn't in any sort of stable emotional or financial shape to build those cars up anymore. It's all very irrational, of course. Yanking the relay to that damn coolant buzzer would have solved that problem instantly. Furthermore, everyone gets a ticket now and then. And upgrading cooling on an SR20DET is simpler than baking apple cobbler.

Additionally, writer's block can pass like a summer fling.

Today, I'm back. I approach the cars with a very different attitude than I did before. I no longer dream of ice cream, LS1 V8 conversions and KW Suspension. I am more pragmatic and realistic about what I have yet to do to these cars. I still love all three dearly, of course, but I've hit an age where I simply don't want to be burdened by these old beater project cars much longer.

Call me mature, call me Chinese, I just want a nice, comfortable ride with air conditioning that is still fast as hell. I'd like good brakes, too. That's it. And I want it to be built sometime within the last five years. My taste in cars, always diverse and never biased, has recently been slanted towards two-wheel drive compact SUVs and E46 M3s. I have my eye on a well-maintained Lancer Evolution 9 MR and wouldn't mind a Lancer with an optional 2.4-liter engine, to boot.

I know they will come in time. But until then, my current kids are calling. They need new shoes.