Jeff...
tell the B-day present story
Ok the birthday present story:
As some of you know Ricki and I use to resto-mod hot rods and musclecars. The resto-mod techinque is a blend of restoration (in which only factory parts or direct replicas of factory parts are used) and modification (in which anything goes). With restomod (at least the way in which we pursued it) we attempted to leave the body of the car unmolested - so the car looked like stock, but upgrade other systems of the car (brakes, cooling, sometimes interior, etc, etc). We built several cars using this technique with good reviews (one of my cars one best of class in all but one show that it was entered it).
These were no mere show cars, we drove'm like we stole'm --- as I think any good musclecar or hot rod should be. There were no trailer queens in our stable.
Anyhoo, keeping that in mind, one particular car that we built for Ricki was a 1966, Ford Mustang 2+2 Fastback. A beautiful fire engine red car with a black interior. As I mentioned earlier this was the car that Ricki re-wired bumper to bumper.
This project was occuring during the year of her 40th birthday. So since it was a milestone birthday I told her I wanted to do something very special for this birthday. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday.
So she gave me a list and I shopped for it, gathered all of the presents together and wrapped them up.
We went over to my Mom & Dads house to celebrate her birthday. We had the traditional cake and in accordance with Admiralty and Maritime Law we sang the happy birthday song to her.
So it comes time to open presents. Mom and Dad bought Ricki a nice watch or necklace or something like that. My sister bought her some nice bath soap or perfume or some such thing.
And then Ricki gets to my presents. She tears open the huge box and in it is an Edlebrock Manifold, a Holley Carburetor and a set of Ford Racing valve covers.
I thought my Mom was going to kill me. You'd have though I bought Ricki a floor scrubbing machine. Man was my Mom peaved. She felt as though I bought Ricki a present that I wanted but the truth was that I bought Ricki EXACTLY what she asked for right down to the exact model manifold and carb that she requested. The valve covers I just threw in for good measure.
Dad was completely happy given that he was a die hard hotrodder - he clapped me on the back and said "Great Job Son." But it took me quite a while to convince Mom and my sister that I got Ricki what she wanted. It also took Dad and I four or five years to get us added back into the will.
After that I learned to give Ricki car parts in the privacy of our home. In front of Mom and Sister, give her some traditional girly gift. Then tell Dad what she actually got.
A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
And that is the birthday story.
