Car Related Tragedies; or Growing Up A Little - Illustrated by Me
When we last left our tale of the Heroine and her Vehicle From 1998 That Was Slowly Dying a Slow, Expensive Death, there was pretty solid evidence that the car was leaking something. And you know with a car, that something is never a good thing. It’s not like it happened to be leaking dollar bills onto the pavement and driving was getting SUPER hazardous because all these people in my neighborhood kept DIVING after my car trying to snatch up free money.
Yeah, no.
It was leaking coolant.
I came to this conclusion because the liquid was a bright color and also because the CHECK COOLANT light kept flashing on the dashboard. I know! I’m a freaking car maniac. Pretty good for a girl, AM I RIGHT?
I initially took the old gal to Pep Boys and after about four hours of watching terrible television, they told me the coolant tank was leaking and to get a new one and no, they couldn’t help with that because the car is so old, they don’t make that part anymore, have fun at the junkyard KBYEEEEEEEE.
And this was my face:
I decided that going to a junkyard sucked. I also couldn’t find the part I needed on the internet. (WHAT? THE INTERNET HAS EVERYTHING!!!!) My mom suggested that her mechanic might be able to find the part for me and confirm the leakage problem, just in case Pep Boys made an incorrect diagnosis. This was, of course, ENTIRELY plausible considering last time I took my car there, they forgot to put the brakes back on correctly. SORRY ABOUT THAT.
I decided to take my mom up on her offer and dropped the car out on Long Island to get checked out.
Two days later, my dad called.
LAWRA, he screamed into the telephone. THE CAR IS DONE.
What!? How can the car be done!? They had to locate a random part, order it and install it. What the ??
NO NO, my dad yelled. THERE WAS NOTHIN’ WRONG WIT THE CAR.
Me: ????????????????????
Dad: ‘DEY KEPT IT FOR TWO DAYS. NO LEAKIN’. NO COOLANT LIGHT. NOTHIN’ WRONG. ‘DEY COULDN’T FIND DA LEAK.
Me: ?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I HALLUCINATED that part of my life?
Dad: YEAH. PROBABLY.
And this was my face:
So Pep Boys made up that whole thing about finding a leak and a finding a junkyard and I made up that part about finding coolant all over PCG’s garage and the coolant light on the dashboard.
WHAT THE ??
There is no happy ending to this story because something seemingly unrelated happened and it was way worse than JUST KIDDING ABOUT NEEDING YOUR CAR REPAIRED. I like to title this part of the story, THAT TIME YOU DID NEED YOUR CAR REPAIRED. (Wow! Talk about creative writing! I am ON IT today!)
I headed out the door on Saturday morning to go to pilates. My car had been sweetly parked on the street for a few days, amid some snow and ice. I put the key in the ignition and the car purred slightly but never fully started. I tried again. And again. And again, hoping for some magic.
I texted PCG who is in Austria.
DON’T TRY STARTING IT TOO MANY TIMES. YOU’LL FLOOD THE ENGINE, he typed.
No worries, I texted back. I would never do that!
Confession: I had already done that.
But no big deal, the damage was done. And it had nothing to do with flooding the engine. (Or maybe it did?)
I thanked the good sweet Lord that my father is anal retentive and insistent about me having a AAA membership. (THANK YOU CRAZY DAD!) I dialed the number and some sweet Jamaican woman assured me that someone would be by to tow it immediately.
“Do you want it towed somewhere specific?” she asked me. “Or should we choose a AAA certified mechanic?”
Hmmm. Pep Boys “We Forgot To Put Your Brakes Back On/We Found An Imaginary Leak” vs. AAA Certified Mechanic.
OH GOSH! THAT DECISION WAS SO HARD TO MAKE.
The good news was that the AAA Mechanic kicked ass and came to tow the car within an hour. The other good news was that he called me a few hours after that to give me the prognosis. And of course, that’s the bad news.
There was a short in the wiring that caused the starter to burn out. AND THAT IS NOT ALL. It also caused the battery to die. So I needed that short repaired, needed a new starter and a new battery. Plus the cost of labor. The mechanic felt so bad charging me $75/hour for labor they gave me a flat fee of $145 and told me not to worry about it.
I figured a starter couldn’t cost that much money. RIGHT? And a battery? HELL. I pay a few bucks for some double AA’s for my remote control at Duane Reade. HOW BAD COULD THIS BE YOU GUYS?!
I’ll tell you.
Well, no.
My cartoon self will tell you because if I have to mention it myself, I’ll probably keel over and die.
Um. Yeah.
The interesting thing about this is experience is what I observed about myself and my reaction. Originally, the repair was going to cost $500 and then quickly, once the mechanic noticed the battery was gone too, it became $700. I was ice skating with the twins when I got the phone call. My stomach sank when I heard the news and yet there was no need for some hyper crazy emotional reaction. I mean, obviously my CARTOON SELF was a different story. But my real self? Disappointed. Frustrated. But not crazily so.
I have always been a sensitive person. Hand in hand with this has been my penchant for the dramatic. (Who’s surprised? Answer: Nobody.)
This might sound crazy but I don’t think that my dramatics were always a demand for attention. Rarely ever, actually, even considering my chosen career path. I believe that my sensitivity, my ability to feel EVERYTHING so damn deeply, even when it had NOTHING to do with me caused me to get overwhelmed very easily. Couple this with a bit of anxiety, particularly as a hormonal teenager/young adult and things quickly escalated from ‘an unexpected car bill’ to THE END. OF. THE WORLD.
I used to think that my sensitivity/dramatics were ALWAYS necessary. After all, I was an extremely empathetic person and I was extremely in touch with my precious feeeeeelings and emotions. After some philosophy work though, I’ve come to the conclusion that more often than not, the histrionics cause me a ton of stress that is unnecessary and not useful in the slightest.
I couldn’t help but applaud myself a little bit as I realized how I was evolving as an emotional, reactional person.
OLD LAURA
NEW LAURA
There you have it, folks. I’m recognizing that being able to control my emotions is helping me conserve that energy for other more useful pursuits. I’m trying to retain my capability for empathy, sensitivity and compassion while working to reign in the unnecessary hysterical screaming that often accompanies really ridiculous things that do not matter in the slightest.
$700 is $700.
It is not filing for bankruptcy.
It sucks the freaking big one because I’m in the middle of buying some furniture/saving for a trip to Europe this summer/paying down my credit card debt.
But hey! I have a car! And now it’s all fixed! And even though I want to punch it for being a JERKFACE, I’m smart enough to know that that would HURT and in a fist fight, a car always wins. Duh.
OKAY?
OKAY.
This post had me rolling. I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s a little bit crazy!!
My car failed emissions and was “totalled” because it would cost more to fix than it was worth. I therefore got a new car.
Glad you didn’t have to go that route
I found your blog a while ago through Gisele, but this is my first comment because I’m a creepy, creepy lurker. Hi! I like your blog!
I’m de-lurking because I know how you feel. My car spent months breaking down like every time I drove it, and then behaving perfectly every time a mechanic did. They kept telling me there was nothing wrong with it, and I kept replying IF THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH IT, SHOULDN’T IT GO? and fun was had by everyone. Several different mechanics almost got punched in the face for implying that maybe it was just that I couldn’t drive (it wasn’t). YAY OLD CARS!
It kind of makes me feel better that it happens to other people, too…
I’m still concerned that it has a leak. The $700 didn’t include fixing a leak (that I noticed). A short wouldn’t result in something leaking (even ONCE), would it? So, what caused the “something” under your car in PCG’s garage? Is it possible that a cat or something crawled under your car and peed neon?
OldNovice - YOU’RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO’S CONCERNED. The leak has not been repaired and I’m completely flabbergasted that my mom’s mechanic was all “Leak? What leak?” when it seems quite obvious to me that SOMETHING WAS LEAKING. I might have to go haul it back into the AAA guy. I should’ve asked him to check it out while it was there but…I spaced. And was too busy crying over the bill.
Katie - Holler! UGH. Old cars = BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. I just don’t have any incentive/money to buy a new one. Unlike Abbie’s, mine is still passing inspection every year. HA HA I DON’T KNOW HOW THAT’S POSSIBLE.
Pfft. I’ve crashed two cars in my life. Cars that I had paid for. Both times I only had liability insurance, so they were both just a total loss. Your $700.00 is nothing.
And both times my reaction was as if I’d misplaced a sock. Because I am one uber-wise and laid back dude.
But I am really glad that I sold my last car and don’t have to worry about cars at all anymore. Yay MTA.
Tim - Eek. I’m a little hesitant to play the ‘my pain is worse than your pain’ game because then it sort of evolves into “well at least you have a roof over your head!” and “at least you have two working legs!” I definitely understand having perspective. I too have crashed a car and totaled it (a few months after I bought it, in cash) so I get what you’re trying to say. So, $700 isn’t something to you. At this point in my life, it is something to me. And I was trying to point out that I understood it wasn’t the end of the world and how that is vastly different from how I used to feel.
The MTA, yeah. Before I started dating PCG, I never used my car. Now, sadly, I use it on the regular as his neighborhood is much more easily accessible by car than by subway. Go figure.
I apologize, Laura. I understand that the whole point of your post is that you’re now much more zen about things like this. I also understand that $700 is a significant chunk of cash. I shouldn’t have said that it’s nothing. That’s a bit of inappropriate hyperbole on my part. When I respond to your blog I often just type the first stuff that pops into my head, so your recent car troubles reminded me of my past car troubles. And the “misplaced sock” attitude certainly didn’t occur in the immediate aftermath of my crashes. As I recall, I think I felt like throwing up.
But I do tend to have the attitude of, “It’s only money. I’ll make more.” At the same time I’m a very frugal spender. Some would not hesitate to call me a penny pincher. Others would say that’s an understatement. I’ll walk to a different store to save a quarter on pasta, and yet at the same time I brush off losing thousands of dollars on a car. But I don’t think that’s really about having a bizarre perspective on money. I think it’s just about acknowledging the things that I have control over versus the things that I don’t have control over. I can control what I spend on pasta. But having a car is a necessity in Buffalo, so once a car is crashed, I simply have to accept the loss and buy a new one.
I also don’t really consider myself uber-wise or even particularly laid back. That was said tongue-in-cheek, but of course tone does not translate easily to the printed word. Please don’t ever feel like my posts are saying, “Oh my gosh, Laura, I’m so much better than you!” Because they never are. I just like your blog and I like to share whatever thoughts and feelings arise while reading it.
In other words, “Don’t mind me, tra la la!”
YOU are hilarious. No one else makes me laugh out loud like you do.
Some time ago, Laura’s mom (Hi Rita!) said something to the effect that Tim really was a nice guy…just stopped by to second that emotion. And he worries about saying it just the perfect way…sensitivity.
And as far as finding a more stable emotional state to try to live in..yeah, good idea, but somehow whatever is happening now dominates, if it’s good news, we get happy.
You can always wait a while and the rawness is gone, and that $700. over time is just boring, because today something else is happening to rake you over coals or lift you up or whatever.
I think that older people are “wiser” because they are just bored with rollercoasters that run on endorphins and dopamines and seratonins and all that. Or maybe they are running out of them…? someone go ask a neurologist, and I’ll quiet down now.
You sure are a corker, little lady. lots of fun..
Thanks for the kind words, Maggie.
Eeek! I never meant to imply that Tim wasn’t a good guy! I think he’s great! I have a few buttons at play here—money and people minimizing my pain because theirs is worse. This is obviously not to justify my TIM STOP IT but just to let you know where I was coming from. I do value everyone’s opinion, dissenting or not so bring it on, even if you disagree! And perspective always helps. A car is a car is a car. $700 - not that big a deal. I was just trying to express that in my post! THAT I KNEW THAT! FOR ONCE! OY VEY! I’m sorry if there were ruffled feathers or hurt feelings or some such.
Yeah, I don’t know why Laura hates me so much.
sigh
It’s a tough world we live in.
But, really, the “TIM STOP IT” was totally justified.
Anywho…
Laura, I haven’t seen you in almost a year! That’s poop!
sigh
Like I said, it’s a tough world we live in.