Well, yesterday I got to see my aunt Kathy from Sebastian, Florida. It felt good to talk to her about stuff. I helped to get her notebook working on the wireless so she could do some work for her company. She works for Piper (the airplane company) down there in the lowest reaches of Florida. I told her that back in October I wasn't far from where she was in Melbourne. Which, come to find out was only about 30 minutes from where she lives.
I then had to run out to my aunts house to pick up Trenton because she wanted me to take him to get some clothes to wear to the service today. So I went out there and got him and we went to Belk's here in Cullman. We picked out some nice khaki pants, button down shirt, and a tie. Then we went elsewhere to pick out some shoes. I have never felt so weird before, taking a 12 year old kid to pick out clothes. I didn't know where to start or what to do. I consulted a nice girl about picking a matching tie which she agreed in my choice.
After that, Trenton and I came home to replace the starter on my aunts car which has been giving her trouble. This is something my cousin would normally have done so, of course, I volunteered to do it as well. After about an hour struggling with the blasted thing we finally got the old one off. Putting the new one back on wasn't quite as bad once I figured out their secret. Thus, we got it all buttoned up and it worked...but...the new starter needed shimming. It fit too tight against the flex plate. The flex plate is really the output of an automatic engine. Its quite similar to a fly wheel in a manual transmission. The flex plate bolts to torque converter for the automatic transmission. but both have a large gear on them for the starter to engage and turn the engine over. Well, mom and I ran it down to a mechanic we know so they could shim it for us.
After all of that, mom and I went to walmart for a few things. I didn't know what to get mom for mothers day so I let her pick it out herself. Mom is always modest about what she picks out for herself and she picked out The Chronicles of Narnia dvd. I put it back and got her the special edition, if i'm going to get mom something its going to be the best with all the extras. Then I recuited her to help me pick out something for my aunt. Backstory time. When my mom was working second shift she would carry me out to my aunts house so she could babysit me while mom was at work and when I started school mom enrolled me at West Point HS near my aunts house. She would take me to school and I would ride the bus to my aunts house after school. Then when mom got off work she would come pick me up at her house. Then later when mom shifted to first shift, she would carry me out to my aunts house at like 4:30am so I could catch the bus from her house and then she would pick me up at school in the afternoon. So, my aunt and uncle were really like a second set of parents for me and Dale was a brother.
Anyway, here is a picture I scanned of me and Dale from when I was 16 and he and I were racing circle track cars at Moulton Speedway.
~Brian