Reunions

T-Hoe is home! Hick picked him up around 1:30 on Friday. He got a new alternator, sway bar links, tax & labor, for the not-so-low cost of $435.79. Sadly, no oil change and no shocks. Hick said he could only get done what he could get done. I translate that as it's all Hick wanted to wait on, so as to spend his Friday afternoon shooting the bull with his cronies. Still, I have my T-Hoe back.

We had plenty of time for our reunion, in line at the bank. There was only one other car at the drive-thru, and it pulled in right after me. Still, I waited 30 minutes after putting my business in the canister and shooting it inside. At least I was in the outside lane, where the radio still works. I had to restart it twice, since it goes off after 10 minutes when you turn off T-Hoe. Val is not one for idling at the bank.

Sadly, I had to reset many things on T-Hoe, including the radio to show the artist rather than the station, the air conditioning back to 69 degrees instead of the 74 it had jumped to. Hick had moved the seat and put it on a station I never listen to. But the most traumatic discovery was the CLOCK! I was at the bank around 3:15, but the clock said it was 6:47. Oh, I know how to reset the clock. It's simple. But this was disheartening, because other than changing the hour for daylight savings time twice a year, T-Hoe had been on the same time since I retired! Can't blame all of this on Hick. Things reset when the battery is off for an alternator change.

I had T-Hoe's clock set five minutes ahead, because that's how the clocks were set at school. Five minutes ahead of real time at the high school. It had something to do with the buses running, since they started there and then picked up students from the elementary and middle school. Over the years, T-Hoe's clock gradually gained a couple minutes. I let it go. I knew exactly how many minutes ahead, so I could judge our progress on the way there. At the time I retired in 2016, T-Hoe was 23 minutes ahead. Sure, I could reset it like that. But it wouldn't be the same.

Friday evening, Hick got a phone call. I heard him telling somebody, "Sure. We can get you up. Don't worry about it." Of course I was nosy. I didn't know if it had something to do with The Veteran, who will be having some back surgery. Or if one of his buddies needed a wakeup call. You never know what's going on in Hick's busy schedule, other than it's NOT preventative maintenance on T-Hoe.

Turns out it was Hick's buddy who's been in the hospital. The one of the 90-degree sewer pipe. The one worried about paying back Hick for something. He was out of the hospital (again) and wanted to come to the storage lockers on Saturday to visit with everybody.

"I have them two steps, but there's not a railing. Me and my buddy can help him up."

"Do you have a chair for him?"

"Yeah. I got a chair."

"It will be good for him to get out and see everybody."

"Yeah. He's looking forward to it, but was worried he couldn't get inside."

I hope they all have a good (safe) visit.