The $20 Fix

The passenger side seatbelt thingy in Bob & Lola's car was broken (had been for quite some time.) It's one of those funky motorized seatbelts attached to the door - seatbelt opens when the door opens and wraps itself around you when the door closes. Before they left Baker, Bob took the car to the Ford dealership to find out how much it would cost to get it fixed. He was told $700 to start - and that was just for the parts! Bob figured the car wasn't even worth $700 (a lovely 1988 Ford Tempo) so he told him to forget it. Good call, Bob! The kid did give him advice on how to wrap the seatbelt behind the seat (apparently his own vehicle had the same problem.) Robert got lucky and found a 1988 Ford Tempo in the second junk yard he visited. They charged him $20 for the part. After 3 hours, 2 trips to Napa Auto Parts (the second one because Rj bought the wrong size tool the first time), a bunch of joking ("we'll fix it so it'll wrap itself around your wife's neck and strangle her . . . then you'll have nothing to worry about") and a lot of sweat . . . Wah-Lah !! . . . AND, most important . . . it works!! For now.

Lola came outside to watch the progress and ended up in the shed looking for things she said Rj was "hiding" from her when they moved in.

Next on the To-Do list was the refrigerator Lola said was making a lot of noise. (Better not be . . . it's brand new.) We figured it was the ice maker lever (which was being held down by food items.) Once that was lifted, all was well. Bob then told us to go home . . . so they could "think of something else" for Rj to come fix! He thought he was pretty funny. All Bob could do was laugh hysterically when Rj said "You're beginning to be a pain in my ass!" Bob knows the joke is on Rj!