Wally Erickson:  

Feb 24 2023 and I can say I'm almost fully recovered but definitely still feeling the surgerey. Still going to PT but I think the worth is tapering off. I got a new hip on Jan. 04 2023. It's now day 34 of my new hip. At last, it’s feeling strong today, that it won’t collapse under load. The whole operation or as they call it now a,” Procedure” was rougher than everyone said it would be. “You’ll be walking that night and be sent right home. Right, la di da, nothing to it.” Well, it’s been a month with walkers than a cane. Everything still hurts, a little less but still it hurts. Still, I shouldn’t complain, thank God for modern medicine. It’s funny how all this stuff comes along just in time for us Baby Boomers. We still have power! More car stories: (2021) (Why does no one write anything in Classmates?) I’m going to restore, de-rust and paint, my two jack stands I made in metal shop class in HS. 1968 or 69. They have held up; 62 Corvair 62 AH sprite 67 Sprite (Fix up and sell) 65 MGB (a wreck) 65 MG Midget 62 Chevy panel van 300 CI straight six 62 Volvo (Most boring car.) 67 59 TR Herald 67 Sprite (Raced in slaloms successfully and drove to California.) 63 Dodge V8 62 Ford wagon 68 Datsun Pickup 66 Saab 96, 3 stroke 69 Datsun 2000 (Raced in Blackhawk farms raceway. 3 firsts and drove to San Diego) 72 Chevy van (Moved to San Diego.) 67 MG midget 67 Datsun 510 wagon 72 Pontiac LeMans wagon 66 Lotus Elan 72 Citroen 2cv (In Holland) 70 Mini 1000 (Holland) 72 Dodge Caravan 64 Jag XKE. 92 Jaguar XJ 2000 Dodge Caravan 2001 Mazda Miata Car stories: In the summer of 1971, my 63 Dodge 318 and I did 105MPH regularly on country roads going up to Hebron Ill. from Evergreen Park, in the middle of the night, aircraft landing lights blazing. It had adjustable torsion bar front springs so I lowered them down almost to the bump stops to cure the front-end float at speed. That was a sweet car. Down shifting the push button transmission to save the poor drum brakes when I approached a speed zone, burbling through the quiet farm town, then lighting the aircraft lights and rowing back up through the gears to top speed. That car would take wide sweeping curves flat out at about 90. I liked hurtling through the darkness as much as the girl I was going up there to see. When I pulled up to her house in Hebron and shut the car down, the Dodge sat there, creaking and tinging like it was trying to talk. The smell of roasted brakes, hot engine and warm farm land, was as nice as seeing the girl waiting to throw her arms around me. She could hear the Dodge far off in the distances as I slowed down for her little town. I felt like a WWII fighter pilot back from a raid, adrenalin still pumping, glad to be alive. In a lot of ways that was my favorite car. At least it didn’t kill me. Never one repair. After a string of English cars that was a revelation. I miss my E Type. I used to just stare at that beautiful engine. The sound, the looks of it, sitting in it’s tube framed engine bay with the sculpted aluminum wishbones controlling the chromed wire wheels, held on by Girling Knock offs that are removed by the supplied cast iron hammer with a copper insert to take the blows and English Elm handle, finished bright with boiled linseed oil. To the left of the engine is the clear glass washer bottle which sprays cleaning fluid onto the wind screen so the three stubby chrome wipers can clear it at the flip of the second Lucas toggle switch in the row of five that are mounted on the turned aluminum dash plate which is next to the round, white numbers over black ,160 MPH Smiths speedo. To the right of that is the chrome on brass choke lever that lifts the pistons of the massive three, SU, constant velocity, side draft, polished aluminum carburetors that supply extra petrol so the cold blooded DOHC six cylinder, 4.2liter engine, that lay gleaming under the flip up bonnet with the laminated glass covered Lucas “Flame Thrower” head lights, could bark to life at the push of the starter button that was mounted in the centre of the dash. The fastest I ever went while driving was in my mother’s 65 Pontiac Bonneville big block down a slight grade in the forest preserves outside of Chicago. That was the run for all my speed trials. Near the Sag Canal. The front became very light. I think it was about 120 MPH. With the trees over hanging the road it was like traveling down a tunnel. I rode in a friend’s GTO up to 125. He kept lifting for a second on every tar strip, (“To save the u joints” he said.) A short stent in the hospital. I was riding my bike from OB to UCSD like I do every couple of weeks and noted with dismay my performance was dropping way off. Everybody was passing me up, fat people on beach cruisers, everybody. I complained to my doctor and he gave me an EKG and two hours later I was getting an Angiogram at Sharp. That is a stent in an artery near your heart put their by running a wire through your wrist and then blowing up a metal tube with compressed saline solution to increase blood flow. It was a painless procedure and I feel better then ever now. I caught it early before any damage to the heart was done so everything is alright. Rebecca and I and Little Hope Departed at 11 pm Saturday from Santa Barbra California bound for San Miguel island thirty miles offshore. A mostly barren, uninhabited rock south of Point Conception California where the Arctic flow meats southern California . Forecast was for light winds 3 am. Seas and wind building. 30 knots. Deep reef in main, no jib, beam seas, 6.5 k! Sustained speed (GPS) 5 am. Large breaking swells wash over the deflated Avon which was lashed to the life lines and stanchions. It tool out a starboard life line turn buckle. Boat is trailing along side of Little Hope. I clip on and try to pull aboard, rail is under water at times heavy spray. We are within a mile of the island now. Duck behind the lee of Prince island, a large rock in the entrance of the harbor to San Miguel, to try to lift the Avon out of the water. Avon quarter filled with water because of open vents, to heavy to lift back on deck. Start motor and sail out of lee of Prince Island, back out into the savage sea. 25 k to 30k winds. Going around the other side was out because of rocks and kelp. Big guest, from the port side, port traveler line parts. Clip on and go on deck to repair. Minutes later lower port shroud parts at the turn buckle/ wire connection. Can’t turn because of closeness of the rock. Decide to motor but stay the course, luffing main. It sounds like gun shots. Leach is shredding. Boat falls off from breaking sea on port quarter, sail fills, second lower stay goes, mast buckles at the mid point, goes over the starboard side. Boom still on deck, base of mast ripped out of mast step and is vertical next to boat. Held their by port side stay upper rod rigging, forestay and traveler lines. Rebecca calls mayday (...Expand for more