Squirrels, Squirrels, Squirrels - - - - A Dad, a squirrel, and the son's car.

Squirrels, Squirrels, Squirrels

My son Mitchell just turned 16 and I promised him I'd get him a small economical car to drive if his grades were good. Good??? I never did that great in school compared to this kid. Straight A's for this kid. I'm really proud of the little guy. He's on the debating team, the Quiz bowl team and several others. He even played tournament chess for a couple of summers and did really well. In fact made it to 3^rd in the state for his division until he… well, as he put it… retired. Now he's into some sort of tournament card game that I have no idea what it's all about. (Smart kid to say the least.)

One thing he's never taken an interest in is cars or anything mechanical. I've been tinkering on engines and anything that rolled, slid, or moved for as long as I remember. But, not this kid. He's more into computer programming and science stuff. I'd like him to learn a little bit about what his father does for a living, however, when the subject comes up he's more than likely to avoid anything to do with anything mechanical. But, I might find a way he can't avoid. I'll just have to wait until it's absolutely necessary for him to take a look under the hood.

His little car is a 06 Ford Focus, with 5 speed manual transmission with no power locks or windows. A perfect first time car and an added bonus… he'll have to learn how to drive a stick shift. The first step in learning to drive was of course how to work the clutch. I found along flat stretch of a road that was perfect for teaching the basic fundamentals of operating a stick shift car. He picked up on it in no time. Even his mom was impressed with his driving. (Makes a dad proud when mom is impressed.)

A few months went by and with all the other activities going on the car was left to sit in the driveway for about a month. As the time grew closer to taking his actual driving test he was eager to get back to practicing his driving skills. I got a text from mom that the car wouldn't start. She assumed it was just a dead battery from leaving it sit so long. Mom sent me a text that the car wouldn't start. She assumed it was just a dead battery from leaving it sit so long. I came home from the shop in time to see them both sitting patiently waiting on the front steps for me to show up. I hopped into the driver's seat of the boy's car and turned the key. (Oh yea, it was dead alright… dead to the point that I couldn't even get the slightest of response from the electrical system.) When I popped the hood I was in for a big surprise. Sitting on top of the engine was a huge mound of insulation, various nuts from the trees around the house, and pieces of the wiring harness. It's a (&X!$) squirrel… this long tailed rat has made a nest out of the boys engine compartment.

I just got home from a long day of diagnosing cars, wiring up damaged vehicles and changing parts only to come home and stare at the very same thing I do everyday. You can imagine my response. It wasn't shock, it wasn't surprise… it was more of the ticked off dad that knew exactly who's going to be working late…ME!

As I started to gather the necessary tools and drag out an airline to the car both the wife and the boy had already grabbed their cell phones and were busy snapping pictures. The two of them had big smiles on their faces as if the whole thing was some comical natural sculpture under the hood. Comical??? I'm a little jacked up over the whole thing. The first repeatable sentence I said that didn't have some sort of derogatory remark about a squirrel or the occasional triple X word in it was, "Son, you're going to be helping on this, so put down that cell phone and go get those tools I laid out on the work bench." After removing all the debris from the engine bay (Boy's job) I could see I had quite a few wires to repair. Some were chewed clean down to the connectors as well as completely missing. This was a perfect time to show the boy just what his dad does every day at the shop. I'll have to admit he did seem somewhat interested, but I don't think it was the actual methods of separating the terminals from the connector, or howto properly splice the wires back together. It was more of that typical teenager mentality. He asked me several times, "Dad, are you going to be able to fix this, or will we have to find a repair shop to do it?" Honestly, for such a smart kid he still doesn't understand what his dad does every day.

I had to remember how it was when I got my first car and how anxious I was to get out on the road by myself. So I kept my thoughts to finishing the job, because I knew the most important thing to him wasn't the father son bonding… but, how quickly can I have my car back.

A few hours later and a little help from my internet subscription to the wiring diagrams I had the whole thing finished.

"Mitch hop in there and start it up," I told him.

The car came to life and ran just as it did. I told him to check the dash for any service lights or warnings that were on. He didn't see anything on the dash so we let it sit there to warm up. After the engine got up to temperature we took it around the block a few times to check the rest of the car out. Everything was back to normal.

I think he learned a few things about cars during the conversations we had while repairing all the wiring. Maybe not enough to think about going into the business, but enough to know that old dad does know his stuff about what makes these mechanical beasts run down the road.

He's still driving the same car, and still holding those straight A's in school. I guess I have to change my opinion about that squirrel though. He may have caused me a bunch of extra work, but he also gave me a great opportunity to spend some quality time with my son.

"Hey, squirrel... thank you... but that doesn't mean you're welcomed under the hood of the car again. But thanks for the father/son bonding ... that was well worth the time. Time...it's that one thing you can't get back."

(More photos on my website.)