Wife checked out (2)

[2ltl2lt]

Another installment of my weird life , not in any particular order:

As I mentioned, I had a natural knack for anything mechanical. This was my senior year of high school and I took Ag Mechanics as an elective. There was a contest at a one of the biggest events in our city in February where they intentionally "bug" tractors and time the students on how long it takes them to fix. There was also a written test and an individual components test. Our school had just started participating in this that year and we were very underprepared. Another competing school had participated since the contest started. They won almost every time.

The written part and the individual components test were judged on an individual basis and the debugging of the tractor was judged on a team basis. Our team started working on the tractor and I immediately found three of the seven bugs they had put in place. The goal was to get the thing running and drive it around the arena. We got it going enough to do that but didn't find everything so were deducted points for that.

By the time it was all said and done, our team effort was fourth place but my individual effort was first place. My prize was a brand new full sized professional toolbox full of $10,000 worth of tools. Something I could have never been able to afford at the time. This event actually got me started in my profession and I still have those tools to this day. I built my entire life, my job , my home, my family with those tools. Countless days repairing the family car and countless days earning a paycheck for my family.

To this day, my W couldn't find me a 9/16 box end wrench to save her life. After all those tools have done for us!