Sunday morning, wondering about getting dressed and spending the day sitting in meetings at church...
Yesterday we (the WHOLE family) went to Chace and Ruby-Lynne to help them out with their overgrown garden. They were both in the 'states for a month over the middle of our summer and everything had grown wild! We got there and looked at everything that needed to be done - all I can say is I wish we had taken some before and after pictures. We got rid of a couple of trailer loads of plants which had been cut back and down and it seemed that every one of the plants we needed to remove was full of poison carrying barbs waiting to hook into you and rake their claws across your flesh. (It does sound a little melodramatic but if you were there you would understand, all we heard the whole day was "ouch", "eina", "stop, stop, stop, stop!" - it would have been funny if it wasn't so sore!)
By the time we were done (Ruby and myself) and were ready to go, my comment was that it looked as though I had been attacked by a herd of kittens. We didn't even stay to the end because Ruby had to adjust a couple of pairs of pants for one of the sisters from church and wanted to get home before dark so she could still see the black thread on the black of the pants (our lighting in the room Ruby is using for sewing is not so good). We left at three thirty but then had a huge bank of dark clouds roll over and the rain then started. Poor Ruby was so stressed out about getting the pants ready before this sister left on her holiday and now she had no natural light to work in. But, Ruby being Ruby, the job was completed on time and done well.
While Ruby was sewing and after that preparing supper, I was trying to fix a tyre on her car which keeps going flat. I have spent a LOT of time in the last month or so trying to fix this thing but the tyre still goes flat every day or two. I was out there for ages. The process consists of pumping the tyre (going to the local garage to do so), jacking the car up, loosening the tyre studs / bolts, taking the tyre off, going to the hose and wetting the tyre down slowly and thoroughly while searching for bubbles escaping. Once this is done, I have to mark the location, get to the repair kit, push a "spike" with serrated shaft into the tyre to prepare it for the plug, prepare the plug for insertion and try get it in before the air all gets out of the tyre which will necessitate another trip to the garage for a refill. so to start this all off, I pumped the tyre at the garage and went home to fix the leak. After locating a leak, I proceeded to punch a hole with the repair tool and put a plug into it. Job done!
Or so I thought. I had started putting the tyre back onto the car and heard the tell tale sound of air bubbling through the layer of water on the tyre. I took the tyre off and started the search again, located the leak (another one), and proceeded to repair. Aidan had now come out and wanted to help me. I started the putting on of the tyre and heard.... you guessed it! Another leak was heard hissing away. Off with the wheel and start the whole thing again. My hand is shaking while trying to force a spike into the steel belt and Aidan asks "why is your hand shaking daddy?"
"Because daddy is tired and this is very hard to do my boy."
Aidan wanted to now stick the spike into the tyre (I am not sure having him watch me sticking things into the tyre of my wife's car is such a good thing, you would understand if you knew Aidan) but was dissuaded when I pulled it out and the rushing of escaping air scared him enough that he ran away. I know I shouldn't, but I do enjoy little moments like that. Does that make me a bad daddy?
Now I am not totally doff (an Afrikaans word meaning literally "blunt" but used as slang for "dim" or "stupid") so after having to to this process three times I figure I am going to locate the new leak, fix it and go back to look for another leak because I now know it is going to jump out to surprise me the moment I start putting the tyre back on Ruby's car. So I again locate a leak and run through the whole process of repairing it and repeat. Getting a little "tyred" of this process.... I find another leak, repeat previous process, I find another leak, repair and put the tyre back onto the car. Ignoring as only a real man can, (just ask Ruby, she will confirm my deafness on occasion - children needing help in the bathroom being a good example) the hissing of air slowly escaping from the tyre. This is the first time I have ever seen this! Literally the whole outside edge of the tyre has holes in it. I have had enough for the day!
We will be getting some new tyres this week....
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