Car trouble...

My son, "Two", saved up his money and purchased a car back in October. It was a pretty good looking car, but shortly after he got it, we had to replace the transmission. After it was repaired, he paid for insurance, inspection, and PA registration. He spent hours with his mother, myself, and other family members practicing his driving. All of his hopes, money, practice and repair work went towards passing the driving test to get his license, which was scheduled yesterday. It was scheduled at 1:30PM, and I figured around 2:00PM, I would get a text message, a phone call, or I would otherwise hear the Earth move from his jubilation. When 4:30 came and went, I realized I hadn't heard anything, and I was surprised. I got out my cell phone and started typing out a message to him, and we had the following text message conversation:

Me: Where are you? Two: Here Me: Gee thanks. Where is 'here'? Two: Right where i'm sitting Me: Are you at my place or your mom's or some other location. Two: The second Me: How did the big test go? Two: She said I did great, except that I hit a cone while trying to parallel park Me: So is that a pass or not? Two: Not Me: Did you resched? Two: Yes Me: When is it scheduled? Two: Next Wednesday at three

He decided to skip his weekly scout meeting last night, and instead he went out driving with his aunt to practice parallel parking. When he was at the testing facility they told him he could practice on their course after hours. On his way back from his successful practice his car "died", and he couldn't get it started back up. By the time I got there the "Ex's" husband had arrived on the scene and had jumper cables hooked up to recharge his battery. We had a little gathering of people looking at his car: Two, his aunt, the Ex's husband, myself, the owner of the property were Two's car broke down, and the owner's 4 year old daughter. We decided that the problem seemed to be the alternator, and that when we got Two's battery charged up he would be able to drive it home. After a few minutes of battery charging, he turned the key and the engine started right up. A few minutes later, we are closing the hood of his Cavalier, and he leaves trying to get the car home before the battery dies again.

After he gets the car to his mother's house, he packs up his stuff, and slumps himself into my car, despondently. I tell him to not worry, and that replacing the alternator is a pretty easy task and we can do it ourselves without needing to take it to a mechanic. His spirits lift only slightly, and he tells me the day was one of his worst, but it wasn't all bad... He got a girl's phone number today.

My first thought was that he was kinda "pulling my leg" a little. I figured he must have gotten the number of the driving instructor on some result paper from his test... and he was just trying to lighten the mood with a joke. So I kinda dismissed him, and didn't really give him a chance to explain...

After a few minutes later, he then asked if I wanted to hear about this phone number he got. So I decided he needed to get the joke out, so I said to give me the story. To my surprise he wasn't joking, and to my relief it wasn't the driving test instructor. He had met a nice young lady from another school earlier in the day at a meeting.

Two is the "Rotary Club Student of the Month" for November at his high school, and he attends the weekly Rotary club meetings on Tuesdays during the day. This is where he met the "Student of the Month" at another local school, and they shared a "moment" making fun of the "old guys" at the Rotary club.

Two is growing up... He's almost driving on his own, and has enough courage to ask for a girl's number... I didn't learn how to do either until last week! (OK, Ok, I stretched the truth a little... I learned to drive much younger.)

Later Lou