Bull

A couple of years ago I was headed to the Port Alberni Toy Run and blew the motor in my antique trike (aka the Pickle) in Nanaimo…the friend that was riding with me later told me that she’d never heard anyone use the “f” word that many times in one sentence…

To say that I was less than impressed with the kid that worked at the gas station by my home because I’d asked him to check the oil and he’d told me that he had and that it was fine…would be an understatement…Bull later told me that almost the only way to blow a hole in a VW motor the way I had was to have no oil in it...but I digress...

I arrived at the Toy Run in a van and it kinda cramped my style for the event…(quiet, demure and subtle woman that I am….)

My buddy 3Wheel (Bryan) suggested that I contact Bull as he “worked on VW’s in the past”….I did so and Bull kinda laughed and then suggested that he could get me a used motor out of a VW dune buggy…

I had the Pickle dragged there from 3Wheel’s place and Bull began the Pickle reparations.

Working on an antique trike does have a few foibles...for instance…you have to take the whole body off to get at the motor…

As it was winter and I’m whiny about riding in the rain I wasn’t in a great rush to have the Pickle back…and as Bull wasn’t charging me for the work I’d just call every now and then and get an update from the great hulking giggler.

Spring was just around the corner when Bull suggested I come up and pick up the Pickle…I did so…and was tickled to death to see her sitting in the driveway…we talked a while…Bull gave me the gears about “checking the oil regularly” and she started up first try…I waved goodbye made it about 3 feet down the driveway when she started to smoke!

Bull came running up and pulled a bunch of wires out to get it to stop…

Nothing stinks worse than old burnt wires…except maybe hair…and I think Bull lost some that day…

Next visit to Bull and Jenn’s house was to see my trike hanging from the roof in the garage…and Bull’s great hulking body crammed underneath it on his office chair….laughing, giggling and pulling wires….there may have been a little Fireball involved…but that may also have been my imagination….

I eventually got my trike back with new wiring too…and Bull made a small presentation to me of an oil rag in a zip lock bag “just in case”…and he bobbed a bit as he laughed…and then waved me down the road…I got as far as the turn off to the highway before we realized that the screws in the new fender were rubbing on the tire and creating that burnt rubber stink again…Bull pulled up in the van and whipped the fender off till I could get better bolts….

That was Bull…always up for a rescue, always up for a laugh, always up for helping his friends…He developed an wonderful connection with Kaylee his step daughter…and that in itself was enough to make me respect he man…He was a good man, with a great big heart and a laugh I could pick out of a crowd…he was a good friend to me and many more.

Here’s what I think…Bull wouldn’t want us to be sad…he wouldn’t want us to cry and he wouldn’t want us to mourn…He’d want us to put on the brightest ugliest shirts we could find…and to laugh about what a great fashion maven he was.

That would have been Bull…takin life by the horns…and laughing at me for making my own face leak yet again!

R.I.P.

"Bull"

James Francis Jones

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