He also told me about how his Caprice had a rust problem on the hood latches, so when he flipped in during a routine driving incident, the latches broke and the hood came off. He found a Rubik's cube that would fit temporarily (and was part yellow, thus matching the original finish of the car), though he was afraid the driver wouldn't be able to see over the cube. Then he asked me for advice in solving a problem he had with the rear deck spoiler of his RX-7, and wondered if I could search around in New York for a few things, including a red and white striped trunk lid for a Dodge Viper and a coat of blue paint for his rusty old pickup truck.

"What kinds of car trouble do you have, [Uncle Hugh]?

I love your nephew.

Me too.

That dude is gonna invent the water-powered car someday.

Priceless

He sounds like a very cool kid.

You should compile all the nephew stories in a book. I'd buy it.

I'm seconding chewatadistance. dude this is absolutely what those mp3 voice-recording thingies are *made* for!!!

Ask him if he knows anything about motorcycles. My dad's GoldWing's been sitting for a few years and I ought to get around to getting it running one of these days.

In the first season of Saturday Night Live in 1974-5, there was a skit where Dan Aykroyd came home from his mechanic's job at the garage, and had to tell his girl a bedtime story, and all he could think of was car repair stuff, but he threw in a few Bambis and witches. He finishes and he's turning out the light, and the girl (Gilda), who must have been hearing garage stories every night, asks something like, "Daddy? When you do a complete wheel alignment, do you have to replace all the tie rods?" or some thing like that. Your story reminded me of that. Nice.

I love nephew stories.