Today… Didn’t quite go as planned. 🙃
I had a bunch of cars on the schedule, but between weather and issues with my own work fan, I only ended up doing two cars on the day despite being up and out pretty early. 🙃
The first job was just an easy battery job way up in Bella Vista, on the far west end, And the second job was a break job on a 2014 Chevy Cruze that had been driven until the brakes were grinding.
After that, I headed over to AutoZone to do my own breaks on my work van because mine were about ready to start grinding. 🙃
But mine were drum brakes, and as big of a pain in the petute as drum brakes are, and even more so with this setup, I figured I’d do the wheel cylinders as well. So I started to pull everything apart and the parking lot of AutoZone, joking around with Allison the manager a little bit, as well as others of the employees there.
It wasn’t long after I started pulling things apart, though, that the wind picked up, in the clouds rolled in, and thunder rolled, and I got a message from Miguel suggesting I bring my van over to his shop because of the weather and because he had an open bay.
So I got everything back together just in time for the hail to begin.
And holy hail!!!
Now, I know it doesn’t compare to some hail storms that others have been in, but this is the first time in my own life that I have seen quarter size hail come down. Grateful, I was inside the AutoZone when it started to come crashing down.
The wind was super strong as well, making it a pretty nutty experience to be out in the weather.
One AutoZone patron went out to their very expensive SUV, and drove it up on to the sidewalk and under the little roof thing that overhangs the entrance, just trying to save their vehicle from all the dings and dents that almost certainly would cover it from the large hailstones.
As my nephew in law who does roofing come in specifically insurance claims for hail damage, put it, This one storm will fill their schedule for the rest of the year
There were some pretty good sized hail drifts against the side of the AutoZone building by the time the storm was done. It didn’t last all that long, maybe 5 or 10 minutes, and then it was done in the skies cleared up pretty decently.
Still, I needed to get my brakes done, so I drove up to Miguel’s shop and spent the next… many hours… Working on my brakes.
Miguel was a huge help, doing some of the work for me when I realized I had the wrong real cylinders. I came back to him having already removed everything and having set up stuff for me to just dive in and put it all back together.
Super nice of him!
It was a bit challenging, though, since I hadn’t taken all of it apart, I had to rely on 100% on the pictures that I took ahead of time and not on much experience. I had taken apart some things, but not everything.
Anyway, does rear brakes kicked my little butt pretty good. Even though I started way early, and even though he did a lot of the work for me, I still didn’t get done until like 10:00 at night. I had to push my other jobs off until Monday, and I was so tired and so drained that I just didn’t have much emotional strength to do a job that was at frustrating.
But in the end, I did it. I got it done–thanks in large part to Miguel. We’re at not for him, I would have been stuck in the AutoZone parking lot with a van that was torn apart with the wrong parts. That… Wouldn’t have been good. 🙃
After finishing up the van, I went over to Miguel and Koven’s house to drop the keys off, and I stayed and talked with them until like 1:00 in the morning.
🙃
We talked a lot about stuff that’s going on in the world today. We see things a bit differently in some areas, but that’s okay. I’m grateful to be able to experience different viewpoints.
Super tired.
Lights out at 3:00 a.m. is probably not going to do me so well for my day off nor for the coming week, but… That’s what we have. 🙃
On to Sunday!
Love and hugs. 😊
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 