Sportster - Hell Day

Today began like a tornado, my father-in-law was released from the hospital after a week and called first thing in the morning that he was coming to get his dog. I went out to tell the wife and she was on the other phone, dogs were barking, she was working and shortly after, one of my brothers calls and says: "Pop is calling 911 because Mom isn't acting right."
All this and I'd only been awake for thirty minutes or so.
After awhile with Mom on my mind I headed out to the garage to work on the bike. The seat I'm trying to make for it needed more work on the template. My little pea brain was swimming with everything going on but going ahead was what was needed. Getting the template done took little time and then it was transferred to a wood base. Time was spent trying to figure out what would be best for the mold setup which still is undecided as yet. As luck would have it, the wife comes out as I'm getting ready to cut the wood base out and takes it. She is a heck of a good scroll saw operator. She cut that baby out leaving very little sanding to be done on it. Saved me a bunch of time and aggravation with a coping saw and sandpaper.
Next up, seeing if the bike would start. She wouldn't of course. Using some starter fluid (Ether actually) she'd fire then quit, fire then quit. Then giving it a good shot got it to run half a minute before she backfired through the carb and flamed up at the throat. I took a rag and snuffed it out.
Dickering around with it got the best of me after an hour or so of cranking, run a few seconds then quitting. I had to come in and calm down. I hadn't really realised how much everything was overwhelming me. Thinking that working on the bike would get my mind off things while waiting for an update call about mom was wrong. Usually tinkering with something helps, but not this time.
I was fed up with the Sporty and ready to sell it or part it out. After posting my woes on the motorcycle forum, some of the people there gave me advice to step away a bit from the bike to clear my head. So that's what I did. Just could not do it long though as I was determined to get her to crank over. Going back out after thinking things through on what the problem could be, pulled the carb bowl drain to check the fuel. Nothing came out. Bingo! No fuel no run. Working the petcock back and forth got fuel flowing into the overflow bottle I'd set under the carb.
Put the drain plug back in and with no choke hit the make shift starter button and she wanted to start. Stood the bike upright off the kickstand but then I see gas coming outta the (More to that but keeping it short here) overflow. Turning off the fuel then hit the starter again. Bam! She fired right up just like that as if it'd been running all day although popping a little. Turned the fuel back on and ran it up to clear the carb and she went to a good idle.
Now if we can get good news back on mom that she's running fine.