Curse the Curse…

So like I said, it’s been a crazy month. A few days ago, the Silvas called and asked if we would like to do dinner at our place in a few days. It’s something we do almost weekly, so I thought nothing of it. In fact, I was completely unsuspecting right up until I heard the rumble of about a dozen hot rods pull up in front of my house.

I’m not entirely certain how all of this went down, but my pals decided I needed a surprise party of sorts – something to curse the curse. And well… They all hopped in their hot rods and came out to Dripping with BBQ in tote. Before I knew it, Franco was handing over a “Curse the Curse” art piece, the two Katies were giving big hugs, Jason was laughing at me, Bleed was smiling, Joyo was cracking jokes, Stevo was handing me a beer, Blake was giving his best, and on and on… It was surreal. One minute I was getting ready to have a quiet dinner with the Silvas and the next minute I was surrounded by just about all of my favorite people on earth.

We partied and did what we always do – talked about cars, relaxed, ate BBQ, and did our best to curse this damned curse of mine. About 30 minutes into the fun, I scurried off to my office to grab some supporting evidence for a conversation a few of us were having. As I did so, I tripped on a metal sign that was laying on the floor. Fifteen minutes later, Silva and Joyo were taking me to the emergency room.

The doc sewed me up with 27 10 stitches and sent me on my way. The three of us got back to my house about two hours later. To my amazement, all of my buddies were still there (complete with a welcome home sign) – waiting to finish the job on my curse.

Franco had set up a projector in the back yard filled full of slides from the 1958 Sacramento Autorama. The photography and cars within were nothing short of awe-inspiring, but my favorite slide was the first… It was a title slide hand drawn by Franco and titled, “The Hot Rod Sin-o-matic: Curse the curse.”

And you know what? I think it might have worked. I felt different when I woke up this morning. That dark cloud just might have moved on… And I have a group of really incredible people to thank for it.