In my youth, I wasn't much for TV or the news during the weekends when I was home from school. Ignorance can be bliss, but it can also put you into some surprising situations. One fall Saturday afternoon in 1985, my friend calls me up to lend a hand in changing out the tranny in his '68 GTO. Since it was his daily driver, he had to have it fixed for work on Monday. It was cloudy with a little wind, but otherwise a decent day. He had a carport over concrete, so I didn't see any reason not to give it a go. Besides, it'd only take a few hours, right? "Heck, we should be finished for the Sat. night cruise." I thought. Well...Murphy's law was in high gear. Bolts were frozen, nuts rounded off, things stuck or broke and as always that "special" tool was always missing. Day turned into night and the wind started to pick up and with it came rain, then torrential downpour. Since his carport had no sides, rain poured in and washed down the driveway under the car, where we lay on our back's for the most part. We were getting soaked, but persevered. The power went out during the course of the night, so we're working with a flashlight when his mother comes home from working at the hospital about midnight. She was quite amused to see two sets of legs sticking out from under the car in what had become a flowing stream. I fully understood her disbelief in us when she asked what in the world we were doing working on the car during tropical storm Isabel! I've since learned to check the weather forecast before getting too deep into anything I have to do outside!
