Me and My Dad

I remember reading a book with this name when I was little but that's not what this post is about. I want to talk about my dad, daddy, pops, daddy-o, etc.

This last weekend, my dad and I worked on his car. His truck has been at Mark & Stacey's for a week waiting on a new intake manifold. The car started overheating and gushing water out of it over this last week too so he ended up renting a car for the week. I originally took 4 days off of work so I could work on my son's birthday party next weekend but so went that...

I got to my parent's house on Friday morning around 9am and we got started. First, we looked for the leak and I immediately found it. I thought it was the water pump with a hold in it and that would be pretty simple to replace. So we commenced dismantling the car so we could get to the water pump. When we got there, I noticed that the hole was not in the water pump rather in the timing chain cover. My dad immediately went for the phone to get prices on the replacement part. He called Napa where they said they had it for 49 bucks. We took off to Napa to get it. Needless to say, that was the wrong part. They did have the right part but it was $122 instead. We bought it. We had to.

My dad bought my mom and I lunch from Rito's Burritos. They have one of the best green chile burritos I have ever had. We ate and then I went back out to tear the rest of this thing apart. We had to remove all kinds of brackets, the alternator, power steering pump, water pump, and harmonic balancer to get to the timing chain cover. It took me until about 6pm to get it all apart. I called it a night.

Next morning, I headed over around 8:30am and got started on putting it back together and with my dad's help, got the water pump and timing chain reinstalled and had to leave at 1pm so I could get ready for a birthday party.

On Sunday, I didn't get up for church but headed over to their house around 12pm. We got the rest of the car put back together with almost all new parts and were done at 5pm. So, I know I said this was about me and my dad and it really is because during this whole process, I had some things re-confirmed and learned some things about my dad:

He's getting old and has old people skin now.

He's just as particular as when I used to hold the drop light for him as a kiddo.

Time is short and I need to spend as much with him as possible.

He doesn't have a steady hand anymore.

My brothers and sister are missing out.

He can't take the heat anymore.

The ladies at Checker still love him.

He loves his grandkids...all of them!

His dog is old and prolly won't be around too much longer but he still makes her get out of his way.

I love the time I was able to spend with my daddy this weekend. I just wish it wasn't so hot and that I didn't have other things to do. He was able to return his rental car today and was also able to drive his piece of crap Lincoln. I love my dad even though he can be a pain in the ass sometimes!