A Relaxing Weekend

No matter how much sleep I get, I wake up exhausted. Six a.m. and it doesn't feel like I've slept a wink. And when ten o'clock in the evening rolls around, I'm exhausted. It's beginning to feel like there is absolutely on iron whatsoever in my bloodstream, even though I'm eating my spinach like a good boy.

With Vacation Bible School a happy memory, there was hope for an easy, relaxing, restful weekend. Alas and alack! 'Twas not to be. Spent all day Saturday working on a car, and all afternoon Sunday putting my garage back in some semblance of order.

Funny how relaxing it can be to tear down an engine and put it back together again, my hands black with grease and oil and everything in between. No, really. It's like playing with big-boy Legos. It would be even more fun if the engine worked after all that labor, but you can't have everything.

Actually, part of Saturday was spent throwing together a quick table using a 4'x 4' base that was intended for our backyard shed. Attached a few stray 2x4's for legs, and suddenly there was a nice little table in the middle of the garage, perfect for laying out all the engine parts.

Decided to take advantage of the opportunity by teaching the kids a thing or two about engines. "This is the main block; on top of this, we attach the head. Then the exhaust manifold. Then the intake manifold. And finally, the carbureter. Simple, huh?"

Well, it is kinda simple when you look at it as functional blocks. The only part of the demonstration that didn't impress anyone (except Mary) was the dirt and grime and oil and grease that gets all over your arms and clothes when working on engines. My kids never were into playing with mud pies.

We spent all day tearing apart the engine that was sitting in the car, using the extra one on the table as a guide for knowing how it goes together. Finally got the manifolds pulled away so we could see the side of the block, hoping to figure out why the silly thing was spraying radiator fluid when it was running, but didn't see anything obvious. Took the valve cover off and there were puddles of water mixed with oil all over the place. 'Bout that time, we decided to call it a day.

Next day, Sunday, we pulled the Toyota back out of the garage and put everything away ("A place for everything and everything in its place!") so we could get the other cars back in. It's been raining, you know. And I really don't like leaving my cars out in the rain when there's a perfectly good, dry garage to put them in.

Wish I had more time to work on it. I'd really like to see that Toyota running again. It was a great car.