One of my car's shock absorber got busted. Instead of a taking it to the shop I'm planning to fix it myself. I pulled out that busted shock absorber early one day and bought a replacement during a lunch break. Because of this I suddenly remembered a friend from the old days.
During my college days, when I had already learned to drive I usually was in charge of fixing our family's cars (just two actually). Chiefly because I was one of the youngest and my older siblings were happy that they could pass on that chore to me already.
We had a 15 year old clunker for one of our cars and the thing with old cars is that it breaks down often. So most of the time I was at the auto repair shop watching the mechanic fix the cars. Our family had a family mechanic that we would usually go to when our car needed fixing. Mr. Freddy was what we called him. He was an old hand and he knew how to fix up cars. And if he didn't, he would be honest enough to tell you that he couldn't fix the newer cars, like the ones with electronic fuel injection.
I always believed that in life you need a good doctor, a good lawyer and a good and honest mechanic. The other two may not necessarily be good in their profession if they were honest *snicker*, but when it comes to cars you need an honest mechanic to tell you what the problem of your car really is. I've heard of horror stories where they tell you that you need this and that changed when in reality the $400 fix they are selling you can be easily fixed by a $1 part.
Mr. Freddy was quite a character, always amiable and vivacious, loud actually. But Mr. Freddy wasn't selfish with his knowledge, like some mechanics are, some don't want you to learn for fear of losing a car repair task from you. Mr. Freddy would teach me about car maintenance and I watched and learned as he fixed our cars. One of the stuff I learned from him was how to replace a busted shock absorber.
I often wonder where he is now? Considering that its been about 14 years since I last saw him. I wonder if he is still working or if he is retired already? It would be hard for me to get in touch with him because we live in different cities already. Either way I hope he is doing fine.
Hope I don't put you to shame Mr. Freddy as I try to tackle this problem of replacing a busted shock absorber.
