You remember Job? You know, the guy in the Bible. Yeah, the one who suffered everything in a matter of weeks. Today I totally got him. And it sucked. Big time.
It all started with my good intention to drive down to the LA fashion district to work at the sample sale that's going on every friday this month. I wanted to get down there, pick up a package, change the lights that are burnt out and sell some samples. I got up early after getting 4 1/2 hours of sleep, took a shower and went on my merry way.
As I was leaving I had this feeling that maybe, just maybe I should check the oil. Stupid, I thought, you just had your oil changed around 1500 miles ago. There's no need to check it. Still, the urge peaked up one more time. Check the oil, it prompted. No, I thought flatly, I'm already 20 minutes later than I wanted to be, there is no reason to check the oil.
About 35 miles from home, and 20 miles from the showroom I noticed that my car turned off and battery died. No, it didn't matter that I was driving 75 mph on a busy L.A. freeway, my wheel decided to lock up, the engine turn off, and the speed, you know, just dropped. If I had been anywhere else I would have been royally screwed but for some reason there was mad traffic in front of me and behind me, but not next to me. Thankfully, I was also approaching an off ramp. Talk about lucky. I pulled over (using tremendous force since my wheel was almost totally locked), turned off my car which was technically in the stalled position and then restarted it. It started and at first I thought, maybe the just battery died somehow.
And then I heard it, the wheezing, clunking, belt thudding sound of an engine that said, "Yeah, remember how I totally covered for you that summer when you let your water pump explode and rode around all summer with your windows down because you thought your air conditioning wasn't working? And remember how I overheated and you filled me with water and said that the radiator leaked but it was because I desperately needed to be fixed? Most cars would have just died, but I soldiered on. Well not this time chump, we're through." And then it turned off again.
And my heart broke. I love this car. I felt like a bad mother. What happened? What caused my car to die?
When the AAA guy came to tow me he looked at my car and the puddle of fluids under my car that I pointed out and knew it wasn't good. It was the man at the auto shop that called the time of death. "You're engine's shot." He said.
"What?" I asked, "How did that happen?"
"There's no oil in it." He responded, "When was your last oil check?"
"About 2 months ago, I haven't even driven it 2000 miles."
"Well, there is no oil in it and your engine burned out."
Come to find out, it costs 1500 dollars to fix a car with an oil-less engine. And my car is worth 550 bucks (in working condition- WHICH IT'S NOT) on the blue book.
So after thinking about it all day, and crying about it, and getting angry, and then crying some more, and the getting bitter because we can't afford to buy a new car, and then remembering all the fond moments of driving my car- all the road trips, the "you wanna race" engine reving at the leather bedecked handlebar mustached harley riding guys next to me to get them to smile, the frequent ice cream cone runs, and more frequent diet coke raids, the times Jarom leaned me against the cool metal frame of my car and kissed me good and hard before I drove home while we were dating, the singing along to my static-y radio and the many rides I shared with friends as we talked about what the future possibly held, and then crying even some more, I accepted the 200 dollars he paid me to scrap my car and all the wonderful memories I had with it, and this was after I cried and asked for more money because he offered me 100 bucks.
I don't know what it is about that car. It was bright green, and the paint was peeling, the windshield wipers worked sporadically at best, one of the locks didn't work, the windows purred and protested when I rolled them up and the radio got 5 channels (if I ever actually listened to it). But it got great gas mileage, the inside was clean, I took a certain pride in driving around a beat up car, it was zippy and I could always find it in a parking lot. But mostly I loved the memories.
So, not the greatest day. Not only did I not get to work, or get to do some things I really wanted to get done, but I'm also out one car, my independence and possibly a few thousand dollars we don't actually have.
There were a few other very crappy things that happened today that made it all the worse, but I don't feel like talking about it. Jarom has been surprisingly zen about what went down today, but that's not surprising. He's almost always able to deal with these kinds of things better.
Does anyone have 15,000 bucks for a new car?
