Author: Steve

 

 

We were in a league of our own.  Nobody else could fit on the same scale as us.  Then India and Brazil caught up enough to join us on the display.  Looking at the trendlines, it seems like we’ve figured it out.  It looks like India still hasn’t.

 

Meanwhile, glorious early summer weather here.  Highs in the eighties.  Lows in the 70s.  Maybe a little bit of humidity.  Morning coffees on the deck.  When the outside temperature drops to 82 in the evenings, we can turn off the air conditioning and open the sliding door for real air.  Got to shut it all up and turn the cooler back on when it’s time to go to bed though, so we can sleep at 65 degrees.

 

 

While we were in Arizona.

 

Grandpa fixed Barbie’s broken leg.

 

 

The functional car of my youth was the 1955 Chevy.

(Not my photo.  Not my car.  Mine was all blue and wasn’t this shiny and nice.)

 

I loved it.  A V-8 and a Hearst floor-shift installed by my brother Tom.  I imagined it was fast, but with that small 283 cubic inch engine it couldn’t have been that badass.

 

The car of my heart was the 1932 Model B Ford two-door sedan.  Dad found it for $75 and fronted the money.  The car didn’t run then and never did, but it had most of its parts.  It sat in the driveway and I puttered with it off and on.  I bought an old Chevy V-8 engine, and rebuilt it to go in the Ford, but before I got the new engine put in the car I got distracted and joined the Army.  When I got home from overseas the 1932 Ford was gone.  That shape and style still calls to me every time I see it though.

(Not my photo.  Not my car, but this is generally what I had.)

 

While we were at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge we spotted a Model A sedan.  The owner was kind enough to chat with me a while.  It is a 1930 model A; a little harder lines; but not entirely different from my ’32.

 

 

 

I always thought my car was a Model B, but I find out later that there were different versions of that car produced in 1932; the Model B, with an updated four-banger engine, and a Model 18 with a newly released flathead V8.  I had the V8 Model 18 with a whopping 65 horsepower compared to the 4 cylinder 50 hp!

 

(Again, not my photo.  I don’t know if a photo of my actual car survives.)

 

Were I to have this experience to repeat, I wouldn’t be looking to soup it up with a Chevy V8.  I’d be fine with that old flathead ford and a car that ran like the original.

 

 

 

It’s a little steamy and wet out there.

 

But that’s nothing serious for here.  It’ll dry up in a few days.  No rain in the forecast for the rest of today.

 

 

Phoenix Sky Harbor to Houston Hobby to Harlingen International.  A drive home.  Aah.

 

It rained half a foot while we were gone.  Our house is high and dry, but in the dark I can hear frogs in the field across the street.  It’s not supposed to sound like that.  It’s supposed to be dry grass.  We’ll see what delights daylight brings tomorrow.