Gratefulvibes Day 31 A Friend Indeed

Ervin with Brutus, the Shepard Chow cross, and Fergie the great Dane
photo is mine.

Gratefulvibes – A friend Indeed

Today I am grateful for our good friend Ervin. He is a jack of all trades and is ever the eager beaver to help out when he can. He is a fountain of information and is a pretty good all round handyman. He is only ever a call away to come to our aid. And all he ever asks for payment is a good home cooked meal and perhaps some fruit or veggies from the garden.

My son and I were on our way into town with our Jeep (most SUV’s are called a Jeep) when we started smelling gas gasoline fumes. Strong gasoline fumes. We pulled into the gas station as the indicator needle was rapidly descending towards the bg old “E”.

The attendant got rather excited and said “You're leaking gas! Park the car over there” and pointed us off to the side, a long way from the pumps. Latinos can be so excitable...

As luck would happen our friend Ervin was at the station getting his car washed. Perhaps this was going to one day when Mr. Murphy didn’t win.

Ervin scooted under the Jeep before I could say a word. Asked if I had my tool kit in the vehicle. Of course! What a silly question. I live on a homestead miles away from help, so yes I carry a pretty extensive tool and spare parts kit.

He rifled around in the tool box, found what he was looking for, opened the rear doors, flipped the seats down and pulled up a small piece of carpeting. There he found a small square metal plate with four screws.

It was mere seconds before he had the plate off exposing the top of the gas tank and a spaghetti mess of wires and tubes.

Erwin reach for the flashlight and nut driver. He began pulling out pieces of very worn and fragile looking black silicone. You know the auto mechanics crazy glue. You take a car in for repairs here and invariably the will ask you to go and pick up a tube of either red or black silicone. Never white. Never transparent.

“Here’s the problem” and he twisted the nut driver a few times. Then up he came looking as pleased as punch. “Problem’s fixed.”

Apparently the last guy that worked on the car didn’t tighten bolt on a clamp that held the feeder tube to the engine. He was either lazy, or didn’t have the correct tools (a likely scenario here). He probably noticed the leak and slathered a tube of the black silicone over the leak until it wasn’t noticeable any longer.

Total cost of the fix? Just breakfast out at his favourite restaurant...McDonald’s. Yes, we have those here too.

So you can see why I am grateful to our friend, Ervin.

Thanks to @paradise-found for introducing this awesome journey.