Finally looking like a car

I have the suspension, wheels, engine firewall and radiator placed now. Turns out the radiator is too far forward and I have to move it, but lots of other tweaks in placement/alignment of the firewall and dash are still ahead. But it's getting closer to where I will be doing body work and not chassis work.




Have felt OK the last few days. Called the nurse about the left leg swelling and we upped the diuretic for the weekend. It has helped. Meet with Dr Margolin on Tues for a checkover and infusion of Zometa. Otherwise taking it easy and relaxing. Amy and Jane hung around and we watched Food Network last night and Andre leaves for her IronMan late Monday.



Naturally when you get to where I am you think about where you've been. A really vivid recollection as a kid is being in the back seat of my grandfather's jeep singing "Don't Step on my Blue Suede Shoes". I assume Jim was with me. My grand-dad was a mail carrier in rural Mississippi in the 50's so it was a real treat to ride around with him, and I guess I have to admit that Elvis may have been an important part of my life-long love of music! We would have been living in El Paso, Texas, then. My mom and dad met at a USO dance in Los Angeles during WWII. My dad joined the Army December 8, 1941 and worked as an airplane mechanic at Van Nuys Army Air Base. He stayed in the Army after the war and was eventually working at White Sands Proving Grounds firing the earliest of US missiles like the Nike Ajax around the southwest desert while Jim, Dave and I grew up in El Paso. Being in the Army didn't pay much so my mom worked and we had a long string of Mexican maids that would come take care of us and cook. And that leads to perhaps another passion of mine - food. I started learning how to cook Mexican food under these excellent tutors as soon as I could reach the stovetop. The summer of 1957 was a turning point for us. My dad was offered a job at Convair in San Diego to work on the next level of missiles and he accepted the job. It was monumentally exciting. He went out and purchased a brand-new 1957 Chevy Two-Ten station wagon and drove it off the showroom floor. So before 6th grade started for me we had traded west Texas desert for the surf and palm trees of Ocean Beach, California.......