the old-school guestbook archives
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car nightmare #342 ~ May 3, 2002 - 1:07 p.m. been lagging on the updates lately. there's been a fair amount of chaos. and I still don't have clean socks. I drove my bus down into santa cruz on wednesday night to go to the laundromat. took my laptop along so that I could hopefully get some work done while I was there. no such luck. the bus broke down at the intersection of river street and highway one. about a mile from the laundromat. some nice kids who helped me push it out of the intersection with their car pointed out that there was "something leaking". oh, lord. they pushed me onto a side street, where I sat for a while. sometimes, when you let the bus rest for a half hour or forty-five minutes, it'll start right up. and I knew it was possible that the oil leak they'd pointed out was the same oil leak it's ever had, just looking a bit more ferocious under the circumstances. so I waited, and read a bit of the trashy novel I found in the garbage last week. I use it to give my brain a vacation once in a while. tried it again when the engine had cooled down. nothing. and I was exhausted. so I crawled into the back and took a nap. I mean, what the hell. it's such a gut-wrenching feeling when your vehicle suddenly falls out from under you. and you have to expect it from time to time, with a '71 volkswagen bus. so I napped for maybe an hour. and then I got up and realized that I should probably start with the simplest explanations-- oil and gas. so I took the gas can down to the gas station five blocks away, came back and put a gallon in the tank. checked the oil. and it started right up. so I took it to the gas station, filled the tank, and headed back up the mountain. and it was running just fine (with the gas and all), but still doing that thing where it would stall out whenever I put the clutch in. since I'd still be rolling, I always managed to pop start it. until I got to the stop sign. there's a stop sign at the top of the mountain, right when you hit the home stretch, a few miles down the road from the yoga center. that's where it died and wouldn't start again. I tried popstarting it in reverse a bunch of times (down a dark, winding mountain road in the middle of the night), but no luck. I let it sit for a half hour, forty-five minutes, tried again and again. no luck. and no signal on my cell phone, either. so finally I got out, wrapped up in a blanket (cold that night), and walked. really, I thought I would find a cell signal and call a tow truck, but I walked all the way back to the center before I got a signal. it was four a.m. by this time. did I mention that I usually get up at 6? so I called a bunch of tow places, and they all wanted something like two hundred bucks. to tow it something like three miles. that's what happens when you break down on top of a mountain in the middle of the night. so I got on my motorcycle and rode back to it, pulled out my laptop, tried to start it one last time, and rode back. figured I'd sleep some, and decide what to do when I got up. it was after 5 by this time. so I crawled into bed, waking up my roommate, who then wanted the whole story. so I filled her in and then crashed. slept through yoga, through most of breakfast. tatiana agreed to take my morning shift so that I could sleep. by the time I got up, at 12:30, my car had been impounded. lots of back and forth and phone calls and freaking out and bursting into tears in the dining hall after finding out it would cost me almost $300 to get it out. and I'd still have to get it towed. it all came together, in bits and pieces. ametab took my afternoon tea shift. my friend garfield drove me down to the impound garage, where I gave them most of the money I've made so far at my job. good thing I just got a raise. he doubled my pay, in fact, admitting to me that he was paying everyone else more. so, anyway. I had to keep reminding myself that it's just money. garfield used his triple A to get the bus towed to the garage I'd found, which specializes in german cars. the mechanic there seems very cool. I told him I couldn't afford much after the impound charge. he didn't think the repairs would be too bad. he said he'd call me before he did anything. and he apologized for the fact that he probably wouldn't be able to get the work done before monday or tuesday. that's okay, I told him, I don't get paid until monday. and then after we'd dropped the car off, ozone called, responding to the panicked voicemail I'd left him earlier. so we talked for a bit. first time I've talked to him, really, since I've been up here. not counting that weird night at keri and ian's. and it was fine, really. he was being lucid and reasonable, the way he's capable of being sometimes. really, it's like multiple personalities. one of him makes sense, and the rest do not. so we talked for a bit, and I laid it out for him that until he gets into therapy, I'm not going to be able to feel safe with him. but still, it brought up so much for me. and after that night and day. I cried some, I took a bath, I watched survivor, I read some trashy novel. and I went to bed. without doing any of the work that I really need to be doing for the startup, since our site launches on sunday and I've got a ton to do by then. but I needed to sleep. more than anything. so tonight's going to be a long work night, and saturday too. good thing he just doubled my pay. I just wish I had clean socks. and triple A.
(((rings))) |