Starting the Weekend Right

Saturday of last weekend we went to my parents house for a barbecue and swimming. See that??? My younger son can walk on water!!!



My dad was with his car club at the Great Labor Day Cruise at the Orange County Fairgrounds, so he wasn't there for most of the day, but he showed up in the afternoon.



The younger of my sisters was there, and her boyfriend, with all of her kids over. I don't think I've made much mention of her situation, but she's only the custodial parent of her youngest. The older two visit my parents every other weekend. This information will come in handy later in the story. Also in attendance was her friend, a former roommate of hers from a long time ago. She has a daughter around the age of my oldest, and was planning on bringing her, but she couldn't arrange visitation.



It was a great day, a lot of fun, good food. My mom was disappointed in the meager quantity of food we consumed. Later on in the late afternoon I was doing a little wrenching on the Benz, remember her??? I haven't been able to get a proper vacuum valve for it yet, no place has them, not the dealer, not even in Germany. I came up with the idea that I could buy a needle valve from my work, equip it with a couple of hose barbs for the vacuum lines, and weld one of the linkage arms to a shaft collar to simulate the action on the ungettable valve. Of course, I'll need to fabricate a mount for it, too. So far, my theory seems to be valid, although it tends to bleed off the vacuum quicker than I would like. I could make a compound linkage to slow it, perhaps. All that said, I've been looking for a replacement for the Storm, but if I'd be able to get the transmission on the Mercedes to work right, that would be considerably less of a priority.



As I'm doing this, my sister's friend (actually, she's really a whole family friend, she's truly awesome) comes out and tells me that my mom has had a couple of instances of numbness on her left side, just small areas. We all think the same thing, not good, sounds like a stroke. She takes her to the emergency room, while my dad takes my nephew home. My sister and her youngest and her boyfriend all had to go home a little later. This leaves me and my family, as well as my niece. They had asked if we could stay with her overnight if need be if it took a long time at the ER, or they admit her for further observation or treatment. Of course, I accepted. After my dad had taken my nephew home, he went on to the emergency room. Everything turned out to be OK with the tests they ran on her, but she was to follow up with her neurologist. It was just a little after midnight when they made it home.

So, that's how my weekend started...