You Can't Carry It With You

Now, Jim is never more.

Jim was addicted to yard sales.  He was always going to garage sales buying a nice combustion engine or something for a couple of dollars and show off all the expensive tools he bought that way.  Now, look where they are (above).

Jim was born in Marietta many years ago.  He and his two brothers grew up around Powder Springs and Reynolds Streets.  After his WWII time he moved to Miami and started a small engine repair business.

He married Louise, also from Marietta.  They never had any children.

After they retired they moved back to Marietta and bought the house next to us.

I admit that Jim, sometimes, was a pain the ass.  He just wanted to be helpful which sometimes messed up my yard plans, because of his aggressive suggestions.

But I still miss him. 

I had a Snapper Self-Propelled, a Snapper riding lawnmower, and a powered water pressure machine.  

Anytime one sputtered Jim came running with his tool kit and more often than not messed it up.  One time I had my sons help me load the riding mower into my pickup truck when they were over on a Sunday.  The starter would not work.  I had plans to take it to the Snapper shop the following morning.

That morning Jim's wife Louise called and said Jim saw my lawnmower on the back of my truck, I wasn't going to take it to pay somebody to fix it was I?  I admitted I was and he was over in just a couple of minutes.  He fixed it.  He fixed it that I could start it by bypassing the start button and line up a screw driver between the battery and live wire to start it.  I had several screw drivers to curl up while trying to start it.  Another time he tried to fix my water pressure machine and could not adjust the thing the piston or whatever, and it warped the shaft, or it was the shaft, whatever.

It got to the point that when either lawnmower or water pressure machine needed work done I would load it onto my truck at night in the dark and backed up into the carport.  I knew Jim normally woke up about 8:30am.  I would leave the house with the equipment  before 7am.

One time Jim saw a truck that looked like mine that one of the headlights wasn't working.  He came over with his equipment to take out the  bad headlight and either fix it or replace it.  I told him it was working fine.  He told me he saw it not working.  I told him there were two or three others trucks in the subdivision  that looked just like mine, and one of them was the one with the bad headlight.  He didn't believe and wanted to drill a hole through the body someplace to give it the so-called bad light additional electrical support.

One time Jim told me he had brake problems and to save money he paid Bob, the useless man across the street to fix it.  He chuckled and said he cheated Bob, he could have charged him much  more, but he only charged him $20.  A few weeks after that Jim had a heart attack.  Instead of paying an ambulance he drove to the hospital.   The cardiologists put in a pacemaker and he had to be the hospital a few days.   I volunteered to take his car home.  He reluctantly told me OK.

I did not know it until I had to use the brakes there were no brakes.   Luckily, I had a Volvo in the Navy that the brakes were shot and I learned to gear down....gear down easily.

I got the car home and the next time I saw Jim I kidded him about he didn't get the best of Bob, Bob got the best of him.... he just gave Bob $20 for no services rendered.

Jim died and a few years later, last year, his wife Louise died.

I thought Jim, the way he squeezed a dollar and did without a lot, they lived from social security check to social security check.   But apparently I was wrong, he had hundreds of thousands of dollars squirreled away, which distant relatives will probably fight over and all his prized collections are in the dumpster above.