The fierce commotion is forgotten in a swirl of nostalgia as tinker bell colors the world sepia. The new music video of Leavin' playing on high, with the cartoons on mute simply for the movement and flashing light. The moon is bleeding, but we can't see her anyway, so it's ok for us. A sideways comment, a tilted head, and the titillation is never-ending. Two finger typing from the sides of the keys, instant words appear three feet away. Every comment followed by a grin.
Life works.
So a little while ago my car stalled, and wouldn't start back up... C**** and I were stuck at the bottom of Western, on the side of Hwy 1. Her friend Boomer, who is a tow truck driver, saw us, and stopped to help. He looked around a bit, but we couldn't find what was wrong. My dad was on his way, and we had already called for another truck, so we thanked him and let him go...
Tonight I was moving my car from the west lot to the east lot so I could put stuff in it to take out of my apartment, and at the corner of McLaughlin and Heller, at the stop sign on the 30 degree incline, it decided to stall again. For a little ways before it had been acting weird, in fact, since about the 8/porter stop sign the clutch pedal had been giving me a lot of play... too much play... I was trying to putz along in 2nd, hoping I could get to somewhere I could pull off and find out what was wrong, but there was a bus in front of me, that of course had to stop, so I had to slow way down, and with my car in second, I'm surprised I made it past the stop sign by the core parking structure, but the second stop sign I had to completely stop at, and of course it died.
I tried to start it, and it lurched forward, but wouldn't even crank. Tried that a couple of times, all with the same result. I called my dad, and put on my flashers, and was jumping back and forth between the clutch pedal and the cable under the hood with a cop directing traffic around me, but no matter what I did, it just wasn't working. I eventually got it started by replacing the cable into the fixture that connects to the pedal (the one that pulls the cable so it disengages the gears), but after it started (with the cable on the other side of the firewall loosened as much as it would go, so as not to give it any slack whatsoever) the cable still found itself enough slack to remove itself from the pedal. Son of a Beezy.
Dad said it was probably loose at the transmission (on the other end of the cable), so the policewoman called a tow truck, and guess who showed up? Boomer! I told him what was going on, and he towed me to the east lot, front end first. He gave me a break on pricing, and didn't even charge me for the dolly he put under my back wheels so as not to scrape my pipes on the ground. Then at the east lot he lifted the front end, and we got underneath and saw the cable was pulled from the transmission. He said he thought he could fix it right there without even needing a new cable, so we opened the housing, but it turns out the cable was frayed, so there was nothing he could do.
He drove me back to Stevenson, though, and didn't charge me anything for the diagnostic banter. And he gave me a pen with the tow company's number on it, so next time I can just call him directly... Having all the locals be good friends of C****'s has come in handy, but I think this particular guy must be a guardian of mine or something...
AND I have to be moved out by four tomorrow, AND I have to be at work in Morgan Hill on thursday... so as of tomorrow, I'll be really low, with no apartment, no car, and no way to get to work...
but at least i'm done with finals, and therefore school until the 23rd...
