Like static on the dial, a look comes back in style. Mr Perkins he just lost it for a while.
Quite a while.
When Franky came back (which is not the lyric from yet another song), it was quarter to lunchtime so our hopes of a long relaxing meal on a shady square in a little back corner of town were dashed. He figured that it would only be fifteen minutes or so and he’d be on his way, but it wasn’t terribly long before in the great country and western tradition, the tears once again began to flow.
The brand new filter housing fitted like a glove, but the fittings didn’t match the old odd Perkins ones, as we worked along the fuel line, every thing we touched needed modification or repair before it could be reassembled. While Franky went off to have some hydraulic lines made, one of us sat quietly honing the faces of all the brass fittings. At ten minutes to tea time, he came after all that kicking and screaming, into the world once more.
There he sat, purring like a kitten, running as close to Swiss watch-like as any Perkins ever has, with shiny new bits and polished old bits and with a little luck that’s the way he will remain for some time to come.
Strange though it may seem, it took something to break to finally make the repairs we’d been trying to arrange for years. The problem seems to have been that in the absence of a breakdown, everyone we spoke with has a sense of foreboding about “touching anything that’s not broken”. We’ve been warned for ever about opening cans of worms, and have always been disappointed in our ability to arrange suitable pre-emptive repair.
It’s not that we have anything but affection for our dear old MrP, heaven knows, we’ve given him enough attention, but if we may finish on the song we began this post with:-
If he takes us back to where it started, we will melt his heart of steel!
2 comments
Sounds like mr P might awaken the dragon in you????
That was Pat
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