Prize, Truckers & Random Stuff

First of all, I want to thank Sylvia Smiser for the wonderful little prize I won over at her blog during the Mad Hatter Party, an event which I regret not participating, but had no time this year. Anyway, I won this adorable little flower. Take a look.

You can take a look at more of Sylvia's work over at her blog, www.anaboocreationsbysylvia.blogspot.com.

I had quite an experience this past Sunday. I happen to be a proud owner of a '99 Intrepid. When my father went legally blind, he gave me this car in 2005 right after my college graduation. I then turned around and regrettably sold my '98 Taurus to my daughter. She was in need of a car since they were a one-car family and her Mustang was heading to "heapsville." My daughter is not one who cares for her vehicles, so I knew my wonderful little car, which I took so much care of, was not going into good hands, but again, I put my grandchildren ahead of everything else. Anyway, since then, I've cared for my father's car as best as I can. Since we have no garage or cover for our vehicles, it sits out in the severe heat during the summer and the mild winters. As for keeping the exterior clean, forget about it. When our sprinklers go on, my car is right on target for the driver's side, so that side and the front and rear windows are always dirty. But other than that, I make sure my little sweet car is cared for, making sure her innards are taken care of and repaired or replaced and serviced.

So what happened on Sunday!!? I was taking my son, Ian, back to his father who lives in far east El Paso. It's a good 30 min. to his house if the traffic isn't heavy, and on Sundays, it's usually light till you reach the the last stretch of I-10 before I reach my exit. That's when the damn truckers can drive on the left lane, slowing all the other traffic in both lanes. The powers that be, finally decided that within the city limits, the trucks must stay out of the left or passing lane. Around here, the left lane is used for everything but passing! Sooo, back to my experience...I realized that on my way to the eastside of town, my car was acting a bit peculiar, lurching or jack-rabbiting every so often. Certainly was cause for concern, especially when your going 60-65mph. I thought it was the rug, since that darn little thing sometimes crawls under the accelerator, but nope, wasn't the rug. So when I dropped my son off, I continued on to head out west again, when the "Check Engine" light went on. Now I know that little light means you better check things out or else you're in for some trouble in the near future, but how near, was the question and I'll tell you how near...about 5 mins. after the damn light went on...talking about no real warning!!! I've been driving now for 44 years, and never, and I mean NEVER have I had to stop and pull over on the road, Interstate, lane, street, boulevard, well, you get the meaning. As I began to accelerate as I was getting on the entrance ramp back onto I-10 west, my speedometer began to decrease, so the more gas I gave it, the slower I went. Decided it was time to pull over onto the shoulder. Thankfully, I had my cell phone on me so I called DH and he then told me he'd call a tow company...great! So I waited, and waited waited, all the while, looking at my side mirror and watching all these huge trucks storming down the road. Now it's a law, if you can, pull over to the left or right lanes if you see a vehicle, especially with the emergency lights on. Nah, no such courtesy in this town!! Only a few drivers, truckers included, did that. Now I realize sometimes you can't due to traffic to your left or right, but I could see many times, that wasn't the case...just rude bastards!! So each time a truck would zoom by, my poor little car quivered and shook. I then decided to move to the passenger's side of the car!

So after 20 mins., I called DH and he said he was still trying to get a hold of someone...seems the towing bidness in El Paso isn't a 24/7 kind of thing. I can imagine many decided to hunker down for the hot evening, enjoying their cerveza (beer) and cook-out. Now I can't blame them, but hey, if you're in this business and advertize you are on a 24/7 call, well, then what's that about?? Then about 25 mins. later, DH calls and told me he got a hold of one and that "Jesus" would be there in 30 mins. So I waited, still clenching my teeth every time my car quivered. Well, I'm not kidding, 30 mins. to the second and there was my angel, Jesus!! Now, I have a whole new appreciation for this kind of work. This guy had to gauge every move according to the traffic, especially the trucks. I was impressed and scared at the same time. He was very polite and asked me to please step into the truck while he got my car readied for our trip back to the garage on my side of town. I "climbed" in, try to imagine a 59 year old, slightly chubby, lady heaving herself up onto a tow truck!! As I sat there, I realized the music that was playing was of Christian genre. I had no idea such stations existed in a predominantly Catholic town, but it does. I'm not born-again (got over that after my experience as a Baptist...oey vey, a whole other story) nor do I consider myself religious, I'm what's called "spiritual," which means, non-committal!! LOL I do have my beliefs, using many Catholic tenets, but otherwise, I don't practice it unless I attend rosaries for a deceased friend or family member or Mass for the same reason or weddings, that's the extent of my attendance in church. I've also attended many Jewish ceremonies, but I doubt, I'd be considered Jewish even though I had a great-great grandmother who was. Anyway, the music was very nice and uplifting...I really enjoyed the serenity.

Ok, I digress, as always. Jesus got my Intrepid hooked up on the hydrolic lift thingy and we moved on down the road. Now, the weather people had stated the temps would be in the mid 90's....WRON-GO!!! It was over 100 and I waited in a car that was reading 105, however, thankfully, we had some kind of wind going on, so if I "sweated" I sure wouldn't have felt it!! I should add, that Jesus' truck was not equipped with air conditioning, so again, if I perspired, I sure wouldn't know!! Oh wait, yes I did, as soon as we got off at the garage...I could tell then!! So DH met us at the garage, he left a note with his bidness card on my parked car to let the proprietor know who's car it was and what was going on and he would take the keys over the next day, yesterday, and let him take a look. We said our goodbyes to my angel, Jesus, and we came home where I took a shower and tried to cool down the rest of the evening. WHAT A DAY I HAD!! Well, $504 later, my car is running like new. They also fixed my car door panel. When my daughter came to visit, she didn't know her strength and pulled the plastic interior panel away from the metal door. Now she claims it "just" happened and probably was going to happen, regardless, but according to this guy, she pulled so hard, the ribbits that held the door, along with some kind of industrial type glue, were yanked away, making it difficult to either open or close the door at times. Plus, he fixed my ignition switch, we think he just sprayed W-D 40 since he didn't charge us for that!! LOL Hey, I love W-D 40 and duct tape....they were life savers back when I was single!! Now we have one more problem. My mileage reads "94,145" miles. Now when I had my car safety inspected back in April, I had 60+K miles...yea, I don't get out much, and I noticed last week it was at 93+K....how can that be??? So, something with this damn module that we paid a small fortune to replace was already acting up, unbeknownst to me. Now what?? The mileage is way off!!

Ok, I've complained enough about that...it's upward and onward and perhaps a new car in my future!! LOL So something random. Yesterday, after I came home from driving Miss Daisy on her errands, I decided to just relax and read my book club book for a bit. It was wonderfully quiet, except for the occasional white tail dove cooing up in our Cherry Laurel outside, when I heard this deep roaring sound. I thought at first it was a low flying airplane, but it got closer and closer, so of course, that just sparked my curiosity and I had to look out the front door to check it out. I couldn't beleive what I was seeing. It was this guy on a tractor type mower, you know the kind that's used on large parcels of lawn, like plantations, driving up our street. It gets better....he was wearing a powder blue "leisure suit," (for those of you who were born in the 70's or later, look them up...oh Lord, that designer should have been shot), a WWI fighter pilot hat with goggles, very steampunk, but that suit!! Oh yes, and what we used to call back in the 60's, chuck-a boots. My husband arrived just in the nick of time to see this guy and had to even wait as the lawn mower slowly made it's way up the street so he could drive into our driveway. He got out of the truck, looked up the street as if making sure that's what he really saw then looked at me and said that was just too WT!! I about fell down from laughter right about then!!

Well, I think I've had my fill of excitement for the last couple of days. I'm going to get into the studio and get my mind off of old cars, speedometers, leisure suits and large lawn mowers and do something creative and a little laundry too...how normal is that?? Peace out.