STOP!

I'm tired. I've been on the go all day. The granddaughter hauled herself out of bed before 1400 hrs which is most unusual for her. She was here before noon and those brakes on the front of her car was our goal today. I've been trying to get this done for months now but that pesky sleep schedule the granddaughter insists on adhering to has derailed my plans on more then one weekend.

We pulled one wheel off the front and unhooked everything. Carrie stayed close by wanting to help. For a while she hung on my back with her arms wrapped tightly around my neck. Moving around with her attached was impossible and as much as I hated to, I had to reject all this attention from her. She wanted to help so I put her in charge of the lug nuts. She watched closely the steps we took in taking apart the brakes and calipers. Soon we were all covered in black brake dust. Our fingers and then our faces were smudged black. We loaded up into the other car and headed for the parts house.

The job would have been a bit faster if I had done this in the past 15 yrs. but I hung up my wrenches years ago and it has been that long since I did brakes. I had to take them down again and change the direction of the anti rattle clips and connect everything again. Done. Lisie, the granddaughter and the driver of this car assisted and learned. She is in charge of the next brake job this car will need someday.

We still have the back brakes to do. They will be another lesson for her as they are drum brakes. I watched as she loosened the lug nuts a little, jacked the car up and then finished removing the lug nuts. She won't have any trouble changing a flat tire should she need to some day.

We finished up and wiped off some of the black dust and had lunch. Soon they were headed home and I still had to clean up the mess Carrie had made of the living room, load the dishwasher and get a shower. I'm tired but I'm grateful for what we got done today. It might be months before I can get the granddaughter out of bed early again to do those rear brakes and I refuse to work on her car alone.

I'm not really into doing this anymore so if I have to, someone else must suffer along with me. Plus, since I've had my metal knee, it's more difficult to pop up and down to chase tools, jacks and parts and having her to do that for me saved a lot of extra running for me.

Not an interesting day, but a productive one and it will be an early bedtime for me.