Reminiscing

We found out several weeks ago that my dad is really sick. As I was going through my list of friends that might have known my father from growing up, one in particular came to mind. He popped up because of a story that occurred involving both of them. When I told Steve what was going on with my dad, I also told him that one of my favorite 'Steve moments' involved dad. We talked a little bit more about it (via text) and I asked Steve if he would mind writing about the incident as I felt it would be better coming directly from the source instead of me butchering the story with inaccuracies. Below is what I received from him.

As I looked down the side street I was passing I caught sight of what I was afraid of. Before I explain what happened next let me give you a little background information. I was still in high school and had purchased a Mustang like my best friend had, just a different color. I drove it like the way it was meant to be driven, just not as such on open roads with other drivers. I was on my way to my best friend’s house when the event above took place and as I’m sure you deduced, what I saw was a police car. I glanced down to see I was doing well over the speed limit and made the not so bright decision to take what little lead I had and see what I could do with it. “If I can just get to my friend’s house and get out of the car before they see who is driving”, I thought to myself. These are the kind of irrational thoughts high school kids driving Mustangs have. 

I dropped it into third and punched it rounding the corner into the subdivision my friend lived in as I saw the police car pulling out of the side street and heading in my direction. I took two more turns, looking back each time to see if I could catch sight of my pursuer. As I screeched to a halt in front of my friend’s house and jumped out, the police car turned the corner. I was half way up the front yard when the policeman pulled up behind my car, rolled his window down, and ordered me over. 

What came next was the rundown of offences. As he was rattling them off I was doing the math in my head of how many points this would amount to on my license and it wasn’t good. “You were speeding, you went left of center to turn into the subdivision, you sped through a residential area, and you failed to use your turn signal.” 

About this time, Mr. Gronek, my best friend’s dad, made his way out of the house and walked toward the police car. “Is there a problem?” he asked. The officer asked him if he was my father to which he responded, “no, but I will still kick his butt”. The policeman made the suggestion that might not be such a bad idea and drove off. 

I will always remember that day and be grateful to my best friend’s dad for saving a young and dumb kid from his ignorant ways. 

Thanks Tom (if I may call you that sir)

Life Lessons From Mr. Lincoln

I was reminded of a couple of life lessons I've learned over the years in the past month or so.

Mr. Lincoln is  my wife's SUV. He's a white 2005 Lincoln Navigator. I bought him used last summer (it's kind of hard justifying the price tag on a new one of those). He's a really nice truck, as Lincoln's should be. Heated and cooled seats, great sound system, power everything and automatic everything. He is the most sure footed thing I've ever driven in snow, even though we hardly had anything this past winter to really test him - we did have one evening of shear crap on the road and folks were slip-sliding everywhere, but not us!

About two months ago we started having problems where the battery was dying on us. I took it over to an auto parts store and had them hook it up to their battery/alternator tester and it came back indicating the draw from the alternator was weak. So I bought an alternator and had my nephew install it. After that didn't work we bought a new battery since the old one was no longer holding a charge. That still didn't fix the problem and it was suggested to me to check all of the wiring between the alternator and the battery. We did that and found the plug into the alternator had the retention clip broken. $35 dollars later a new harness was installed. That didn't fix the problem so we tried replacing the battery terminals as the positive terminal appeared loose. All of our attempts proved futile and the battery continued to drain. Finally crying 'uncle' as my nephew and I had run out of ideas to try I scheduled an appointment with a Lincoln dealership to have them perform a battery drain test.

I had purchased the battery/alternator harness wiring from Bob Boyd Lincoln off of Sawmill Road. While there I struck up a conversation with the Service Department manager and we talked about various things I was experiencing with Mr. Lincoln, what I might expect over the next few years and other odds and ends. Rick was a pleasant gentleman who wasn't afraid to candy coat issues that I have been experiencing or may in the future. I felt good about what I had experienced with that brief encounter at BBL and decided to take Mr. Lincoln there for the diagnostic review. The service department advised me it may take a few days to look everything over and to find the source of the problem. I told them that was fine and was on my way. After the weekend was over and Tuesday had come I was back in touch with the service department and they had advised me the problem with Mr. Lincoln was an improperly installed battery terminal and that I could pick him up that afternoon. My wife and I drove over to pick him up. I paid less than I had expected for the diagnosis and repair and was waiting for the service department to pull up with my vehicle. After waiting a few minutes the driver came back into the service department without my truck. It wouldn't start! Rick was there and handled the whole situation. He asked us a few additional questions about Mr. Lincoln, decided that the fix they tried obviously wasn't the problem and based on the fact that our rear wiper wasn't working or only working intermittently he was going to focus his review there. In the meantime, for our inconvenience, he gave us a loaner car (a 2011 MKZ) to drive until they were sure of the problem and solution. Keep in mind, I didn't buy Mr. Lincoln from BBL. The next day I received a call from Rick informing me that the wiper was in fact the culprit and it had been fixed at no additional cost to me.

During these frustrating few weeks for my wife and I one of my wife's coworkers was asking her why we were putting up with all of these problems with Mr. Lincoln and why we hadn't just sold him.

Here comes lesson #1 - You don't give up on a relationship at the first sign of trouble. You have to try to work through things and see how they turn out before you throw in the towel on something or someone.

Now for lesson #2 - Sometimes you can't fix everything yourself. On occasion you must put your faith in the professionals to help tackle the bigger issues.

And lesson #3 - you can find good people in places you'd least expect.

As an afterthought - that MKZ was a sweet little car. It was the base model MKZ and had plenty of features that would make me a happy owner. The Sync system is impressive and easy to set up to my iPhone. I was able to stream my music wirelessly, make and receive phone calls. I didn't have much time to try out the other Sync features. If you've never had cooled seats in your car give them a try. Or better yet, don't. Once you have you'll want them in everything you drive. The sound system was really good. It was a V6 and had plenty of power and the ride was silky smooth. All in all a really nice little ride, just what you'd expect in a luxury car - even a base model one.

Dream Whisperer

Do you talk in your sleep? You probably don't know unless the person you have chosen to sleep beside tells you. I do. But when I do it, I know I'm doing it. I know this because when I do it I whisper.
I woke up the other morning and my wife asked me if I was having a bad dream. I was still half asleep when she asked so I just reflexively told her no, rolled over and fell back asleep. Later on that morning when I had my faculties about me I brought it up. I asked her if she had asked me before about a bad dream that morning. She said, yes I asked you that. I told her yes I was having a bad dream. I asked her what I said. She replied with it was just mumbling, I couldn't really make out anything you said.

I had asked her about this because a) I vaguely remember her asking me earlier that morning and b) I remember the dream in question. I was talking to an old school friend. I was telling her how upset I was that my baby was leaving me and I might never see her again. (In reality my oldest daughter is graduating this summer and is thinking about maybe, possibly going to Florida for a short while). I remember in this dream that when I tried to talk to my friend all I could do is whisper. When she asked why I couldn't speak out loud I told her it was part of the side effects from my coma. It all seemed natural.

I've had other dreams where I remember trying to talk and all that happens is a whisper. Only once have I been able to actually talk out loud and that was during a true nightmare. My brain seems to know exactly what scares me and when I have a nightmare it usually focuses on that weakness/insecurity/fear. In this particular nightmare I was in the shower. Suddenly I felt a presence behind me and something started to block the flow of water. I saw an outline of a body from the water and feet on the floor. I screamed out for someone to help me. When I screamed I could hear myself both in the dream and not in the dream (I'm sorry I don't have better words to describe the difference). The next thing I know my wife and daughter are both in the bedroom waking me up and asking me what had happened. It scared both of them and really shook me up.

The whispering in my dreams has been happening now for a while. I'm wondering when my mind will overcome the whisper and finally let me start speaking out loud. Oh, the stories I'm sure my wife will be happy to tell me when that happens! So, now you know that I talk in my sleep. Useful for just about nothing, but I thought maybe an interesting tale.