Yes, I'm that guy... A Manly Man

Piggy backing off the quote from the t-shirt above, that's exactly how I was feeling on Friday, October 14, 2011 as I took matters into my own hands to get my car back on the road. After mentioning my car problems to a few 'manly men'. They thought as I thought... that it was my thermostat that needed to be replaced. Laughing my butt off at myself, Okay I didn't have a clue for why my car was overheating after about 5 minutes. The temperature gauge would hop, skip, No! Shoot straight up to HOT and if the needle of the temperature gauge was on a centerpiece it would have done a three-sixty spin from how fast it got hot. 

Well, I didn't immediately do a thing about it. I parked it and borrowed the second vehicle of a friend until I found a place that wouldn't charge me an arm and leg to check for the issue and fix it for cheap. About a week and half later, after an awesome night on the rink floor at my favorite rink 'THE SKATING PLACE' <~ if you're in Raleigh, you need to come out and support a place that do it's part to see that all who walk through the doors have a good time. Okay, back to my story! After the skate session, a couple of my friends (DJ Kdigga and Fluid aka Junior Bounce) <~ two of my skate family brothers noticed I hadn't driven my car in awhile so they asked what was the problem. I did my best to describe what was going wrong, I think I did a better job of describing the car issue than those numerous occasions I'd hit both of them up on facebook about a song I heard in the rink the night(s) before so I can look it up and download it to my music collection. In other words, I'm terrible about describing beats and/ or the few lyrics I could remember. 

Looking under the hood of a car, I'm CLUELESS beyond the basics.

Kdigga and Fluid were almost in unison in saying what might be the problem. I thought about it, and the following day I looked under the hood.. CLUELESS! I didn't see what I needed so I dropped the hood and kept driving the loaner. Yep, just that quick I gave up on it and didn't do what I was suppose to be doing, finding someone who would look at and fix the problem for a reasonable (cheap) price.

A few days passed and I ran into another good friend of mine, Chris 'the man knows his Jumps' Coleman, a college track and field coaching peer, and he too noticed I wasn't driving my car and asked the question... I go on to tell him my issue and he immediately hopped, stepped and Jumped straight to.. "it's your thermostat", and I replied, "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing" ~> "Dude! Be honest with yourself and tell Chris you're clueless!"... "Yo Chris, a couple of my skate buddies said the same thing, I don't have the first clue, where to find the thermostat in my car." Chris replies, "It should be easy to replace, go online and find out where it's located in your car, get a price, purchase it and I'll help you put it on." <~ Why didn't I think to do that??? Go online and look it up!

Well, I do just that, I look up my car model online, found where it goes, checked Advance Auto online site and found the piece I needed and sent the link to Chris so he could get a look at it. He replied to my note that it would be EASY! to put in. Now why did he go and say that in a tone, "Oh, that's easy!" <~ yes, I read a tone in his email reply that CHALLENGED the 'I'm a man, a manly man' in me to say to self, "self, we're going to the store tomorrow and buying the piece needed and we're getting it done!"

I'm equipped with more than enough tools to get the "I'm a man' job done.

It's Friday, I make my way over to Advance Auto and I walked up to the counter and gave the knowledge-filled manly man behind the counter my car make/ model/ year and what I needed. He looked it up, saw what I needed. He goes to get the piece and comes back, pulls it out the box to confirm all is there and HE TOO! Made the comment, "Oh man, they made this easy for you.. all you got to do is disconnect the hoses, unscrew the housing for your old thermostat and simply slide the hoses onto the new one and BAM! you're in business." The whole time he's talking, I'm standing in my manly man stance and nodding my head like I KNOW THIS, ring me up so I can go knock it out before the sun sets. Yeah right! I'm thinking to myself I might need to wait on Chris, who am I fooling?! 

After purchasing the thermostat, I make it home and I go find my 'manly man' t-shirt to get some manly man's work done. That's right, I'm feeling the manly man in me, so we're going to do this! Why? Just as Chris said, the manly man behind the Advance Auto counter said.. it was a piece of cake too! The toughest part of my job came when I had to use a wire clothes hanger to fish out the battery terminal screw that fell off the connector in a area near the radiator out of arm/ hand reach. Shaking my head! That smile you see in the picture of 'a job well done came before I finished putting the battery back in it's place. I had to go fishing for a battery screw and it was a challenge! I successfully maneuvered the hanger to hook and pop the screw out and was finally able to reconnect the battery. That's right, I got too happy too early, I forgot I had to remove battery from it's housing to get to the screws in the thermostat housing. 

The new housing/thermostat is in place

The old housing/thermostat.
Look at that manly man hand

Finally! I can test drive my car with it's new thermostat THAT I, TERRY REESE JR., a manly man installed all by himself! Beats chest and yells "YES!" I turn the car on and let it run for a few minutes.. Sounding good, looking good as I look over at the temperature gauge. I take off for a drive and after about 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 minutes.. BLAST OFF!!! (Temperature gauge is trying to do another three-sixty). The car is running hot... Darn it! I was so ready to write my 'I'm a man, a manly man doing manly things' blog post. But I had to pump the brakes because in my narrow minded, tunnel vision focus on replacing the one piece... I TOTALLY FORGOT to refill the water tank with coolant and water. STOP LAUGHING SO HARD!!! I immediately parked it and didn't drive it again until Monday to do just that... get more coolant and try to see if that be the problem, but first! I got to get my run on, so I stopped by the track to do a workout.

Christopher Coleman

After I completed my workout, once again, it was WHO!?! Christopher Coleman to the rescue, he saw me at the track with the hood up on my car. I was about to put water/ coolant in the tank but I had more water than coolant which is why I needed to go buy more. At this time, I'm still not 100% in my thinking until he came over and asked when I was planning on putting in the new thermostat. I told him I did and it didn't do the job. Chris proceeded to look up under the hood as he verbally did a check list of possible issues, then stopped and asked, "did you refill your tank with coolant and water?" I reluctantly replied, "Nope!".. "That's what it is dude!" Chris replied. And yes, I heard him chuckling under his breath when I told him I didn't put coolant in the tank. HEY! I was too consumed with my one accomplishment people!

I can't make this stuff up if I wanted to. I'm dying laughing at myself. I want to Shout out a true manly man, Christopher Coleman for once again helping your brother from another mother out. And when you showed up, I didn't want you to know that I had already replaced the thermostat and it wasn't working. Why? Because I didn't refill the coolant/ water tank. I felt that was the issue but I wasn't sure but you came along and confirmed it. And yes, I had to let you know I screwed up... ~holds head down~ no water/ coolant in the tank might be a problem.... that was a bit embarrassing to have to tell you I forgot something that simple. Still laughing at myself.

Well, my car is back on the road and I drove all over Raleigh(wood) and Cary with no issues. The chest is out! 

Feeling rather 'manly' the job is done!

"I'm a man, a manly man doing manly things."

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S/O (shout out) to my skate fam brothers, 'Fluid' aka Junior Bounce 

and DJ K digga for being right about my car issue too! 

DJ Kdigga

Fluid