A Sign of The Times

So, I've had quite a week! I took the time to go looking for a car this last week and found one I ended up buying for 1500. 1996 Ford Contour. Not a bad price that day.

Samantha and Jes came back from their extended east coast road trip Wednesday evening just before the show. I was extremely happy to have the house full of people again! I missed Sambo. That night we weould hang out and have fun. However, on the way home, my car broke down.

The next day my car had trouble starting and it died on the road on the way back from the show. The next day it was towed to a local mechanic before all of us went to fabulous Silver Dollar City. Once we got to SDC, I got a call from the mechanic and the prognisis was pretty good; it ran out of gas! My gas gauge was simply a little off the mark and it ran out of gas, so I could pick it up when I had free time. That was a relief...at the time.

Today Sam and I got up, said our goodbyes to Jes and Brian (who got here once I was in Pan) and went to the mechanic to pick up the car. We would bring Sam's car and later would take my new car for sushi once we recovered it; that was the plan anyway!

So, I got the car and start towards a gas station so I don't repeat the fun of yesterday. I had to drive about a mile to get gas. About thirty yards before I get there, my windsheild wiper turned on randomly, stopped, my dash lights went on and my engine stopped cold. Fortunately I was able to coast all the way into that gas station. Not so fortunate was I when I came to a full stop.

Black, thick smoke started to come out from under the hood and I knew this couldn't be good. I flipped the hood release as fast as I could and lifted up the hood. I was expecting my radiator to be spewing onto my engine or something like that. I didn't expect flames.

Flames! Flames! In my engine!

Some people freak out when calamity occurs, but I just enter the Matrix ad get super-focused. Everything slows down. I've avoided many wrecks and gotten help to people very quickly thanks to this weird and very handy brain thing I do.

So when this happened, the flames lasted about four seconds. In that time I whipped around to the gas pump and grabbed the liquid reservoir used for those little squeegees when folks get bugs on their windshields. I ripped that thing right out. I made like a boyscout and put out that fire! I was outside myself, amazed that my car was on fire and that I was doing so well. My engine smelt like burnt plastic.

One of those Ride The Ducks vehicles drove by. I smiled and waved. How silly it all was. I called Sam and we, yet again, had my car towed to the mechanic.

Fortunately I still have my trusty (and old) Maxima, so I'm not stranded in Branson. I'm not happy with my "new" car so far. But let's all throw good karma at my burnt wires and hope for the best and cheapest repairs, shall we? As long as I'm not starving and I've got a house I'm not in too bad of a situation. I'm just not the kind to get too flustered by fate. Something good will happen from this.

There were only thirty reservations for today's 3p.m. Pan but a nicely sized audience in the hundreds came in by the time our show started. I'm surprised anyone even showed up on a holiday and yet the crowd was very happy and enjoyed our program. After all of that, Sam and I had a lovely picnic by Tanycomo. It was very relaxing and I'm all charged up for another show that's happening...very soon!

In other news, I've got really grrrrreat news! Sambo is getting me the cooooolest present in the world. Tickets to France! Incredible!

Comments

lannachi said…
Tickets to France!! Awesome!!

Car news however, no es bueno. I'm thinking it was an electrical fire for the burnt plastic smell. My mom's Neon once had a fire in the steering column because a switch in the column went bad. It caused perma-brights and smoke out of the steering wheel. Hopefully it's a bad controller and once they fix it all will be well.