[elhigh]

Son #1 isn't mechanically inclined; he knows what the pedals and levers do and he understands traffic laws. His main interests are biology and his girlfriend; the car doesn't intersect that Venn diagram so it remains in the ethereal plane of I Don't Know and I Don't Care.

Son #2, however, is indeed a techy, mechanically inclined sort. He's building, for the heck of it, a crossbow using a truck leaf spring for the bow. Strictly speaking, this device might be better described as a ballista; when it's finished he'll have to mount it on a trailer to move it around. The guy at the junkyard gave him the spring for free so long as #2 promised to bring the finished product around so he, the junkyard owner, could "shoot it through some car doors."

And #2 is perfectly happy to tinker with the cars. I bought a new starter for the truck, he installed it. I didn't ask him to, he just did it. He hates how expensive gas is, so wringing every inch from every drop is pretty big with him. He was the prime motivating force behind shifting my ecomodding efforts from the truck to the Volvo.

Getting on the horn with the insurance today. We'll see what shakes out.