Back home again!  Well, actually we really aren’t back at “our” home but the one place we keep returning to that feels most like home to us nowadays.  And since we actually played a small part in the construction of the place we do claim a certain level of bragging rights…

That’s our son on the left, our daughter on the right, 2 of the grandkids in the middle and, of course, dear olde Mom.  My brother and his family were there as well and he insisted I include a picture of him with our aging mother; so, here they are…

In addition to receiving the “family discount” of 25% more than he charges everyone else, he also added a personal touch to the differential housing…

  Back Home Again                                                          June 12, 2012

We always receive a warm welcome upon our return to HBE from Jerry and Sandy who can usually be found tending their vineyard…

Children just don’t seem to abide by the “respect your elders” rule these days.  He is coming up here to HBE for a BBQ tomorrow and you’ll never guess who is preparing his food…

“Revenge is a dish best served cold” (from: Star Trek, Wrath of Khan) or in this case, in barbecued chicken!  Old age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill.  “Here, Jeffie, have another wing…”  See y’all next time.  Hugs, CC and Zook

Or, on those rare occasions, we find that Jerry has taken on the mantle of a World War 1 flying ace as he terrorizes the neighborhood in his 1931 Ford hot rod…

He, apparently, is not familiar with the game in which the olde guy gets to harass the young guy without any payback.  As it happened, our Jeep has had a vibration problem since Texas which we have been unable to get repaired.  Jaws, his real name is Jeff, owns JAWs Gear and Axle in Sacramento and, although he does not work on transmissions, he does work on other drive train components including the differential…

Pictures, from top: 1936 Ford Coupe;  1934 Ford Coupe;  1934 Ford interior; 1956 Ford Victoria interior;  1956 Ford Victoria;  1969 Shelby Ford Mustang engine; 1969 Shelby Ford Mustang interior;  1969 Shelby Ford Mustang.

You may have noticed the “Carroll Shelby” autograph on the glove box of the Mustang’s interior. Steve removed and shipped the glove box door to Carroll Shelby for his autograph.  My personal favorite is the 1956 Ford Victoria which is not only immaculately restored but also sports a 750 horsepower engine.  WOW!!

Fremont has also become the spot we find ourselves for Mother’s Day the past few years and our usual shtick is to invite the entire family over for a champagne brunch at the Elks Lodge…

There you have it, folks: your Medicare dollars at work.

The aforementioned brush with the Grim Reaper left me questioning my attitude of invincibility and I decided to treat my Bride to a walk down memory lane with a visit to Spenger’s Restaurant in Berkeley where I proposed to her some 28 years ago.  They still have that very booth where the grand event occurred …

THE brother-in-law originally named the place Gladiacres in memory of his mother, Gladys.  Soon after settling into the place, tilling the soil and planting a vineyard, the local horde of insects discovered what they had been missing, established residence and filed a homestead as the Zimmerman Fly Farm.  A battle soon raged between the two occupying factions, Zimmermans on one side and an assortment of creeping, crawling and flying entities on the other, until an uneasy truce was reached and, in a spirit of détente, the place was re-named Happy Bottom Estates, or HBE as we now know it.

Our vibration problem was resolved with a new rear drive shaft, rear axle shafts and a complete differential re-build…

This run through California seems to have been one automotive encounter after another.  While in Fremont, our son introduced me to his friend, Steve, who owns a rather large collection of unique cars including these…

The aging process seems to have extended itself a wee bit past olde Mom and took a bit of a bite out of me during our Fremont visit.  While puttering around the UAV, I suddenly had some pretty severe pain in my chest and right shoulder area.  Heart attack was my immediate thought.  My Bride-turned-ambulance-driver rushed me to Washington Hospital, stopping only momentarily for an Oreo Cookie Blizzard at Dairy Queen, and wheeled me into the cardiac care section of the ER.  I have never had so many folks making such a fuss over me!  The thoroughness and efficiency with which they all worked through their various protocols was quite impressive!  The short story is that they kept me overnight, performed a stress-echo test the next morning, discovered I have the heart of an Olympian, the liver of a Mormon, and then proceeded to kick me out of my room with the admonition to never darken their door again.  HAH!!  After the welcome I received, I plan to visit their emergency room for everything from a splinter to the vapors…can boys get vapors???...

I suspect that a commemorative plaque will eventually appear above the table and a red velvet rope will be installed to keep out the riff-raff and paparazzi.

Our youngest daughter, Jenny Marie, moved to Sacramento during our stay in Fremont and so, needless to say, this necessitated a stopover there to visit her new digs and harass her boyfriend, Jaws…