he taught me well

 My dad could fix anything.

Even after his stroke when it took him longer to figure out the problem

and often frustrated him to no end

he still managed to get to the bottom of it and find out what was wrong.

Yesterday some of the training I got from my dad kicked in - again.

I was at school when I got a text from Katy saying that the car wouldn't start and that

a friend from school had come to boost it.

He got her going but once the car was turned off it wouldn't start again.

I told her I would go to Canadian tire after school and pick up one of those little

tools to clean the battery posts and also the connectors from the cables.

So I did just that.

I came home and got to work.

I rummaged around in Howard's tool box and came up with enough wrenches

and sockets to finally find something that worked.

I took off the cables, cleaned the posts and inside the connectors and put 

everything back together.

I had the hood open when I started - or tried to start - the car so I could see that just as

I turned the key there was a spark on the left post and everything went dead.

I got out, wiggled that cable and tried to start the car.

Same thing.

 Just like Katy had said, there was power - the lights came on, the bells were dinging but as soon as the key was turned, everything went dead.

Something wasn't right.

Obviously.

I got out again and took that cable off and straightened it out so that everything was

aligned in a straight line and that little metal piece on the cable

wasn't touching the post.

I put it back on the post, tightened it up, prayed.....

and went to start the car.

Voila!

It started.

Thank the Lord.

I tried it again awhile later.

No problem.

This morning before I went off to school I tried it again and it still started.

Katy took the car to the shop and yes, that was the problem.

They replaced that cable and now all is well - for now.

Before we were allowed to drive the car off the driveway for the first time -

my dad made sure we knew how to change a tire and change the oil.

Many lessons came after that for me like changing spark plugs,

cleaning condensation out of my distributor cap

and helping him to compress the valves on my car after I had managed to

warp the head.

He probably though my head was warped at that point!

Through all this instruction he was generally pretty patient.

Sometimes he gave me "the look" which told me that maybe I should have used my head

just a little more - or a little better.

But mostly he patiently instructed and fixed and listened for all the mystery sounds

that never seemed to be there when he would come for a ride.

He was a good teacher.

And a good dad.