Friday, April 07, 2006

A Driveway Moment

A few days ago, Jackie, my truck, decided to bite the dust. But only for a moment. The battery died and needed replacement. Luckily, the Q was up to the task of picking me up and taking me to the nearest Wal-"We-have-everything-including-dead-babies"-Mart to get a new one.

Upon installation of the new battery I discovered that something else was also amiss. The starter. It's been giving me hell the past month and today it decided that since the battery went on strike, so would it. Considering I had just used the girlfriend lifeline, I only had one option left: the best friend lifeline. Nick picked me up to get and even buy me a new starter. It was only on our return to the current resting place of Jackie that we observed our lack of proper tools. Fuck.

We decided to push-start the truck but before doing so I gave the ignition one last try and voila! The truck started! Odd. So I drove it home, walked to O'Reilley's and bought some tools. I then positioned myself beneath the belly of the beast and had a look at the problem. It took every ounce of energy I had to remove two of the three mounting bolts on the starter. The final bolt is held in position by an ancient Native American curse and I was thusly unable to remove it. The other part of the curse is what I woke up with the next morning. Pain and lots of it.

Currently my truck is sitting out in the parking lot with one bolt securely holding the starter in place. Surprisingly, that's all it requires as I was able to drive my truck to and from work last night. The plan is to replace the two bolts I managed to get off and then sell the damn thing as fast as I can. I'm done with trying to be a mechanic. The lucky receipient of Jackie will receive not only the truck, but a brand new starter, Chilton guide, and a full tank of gas! Wow!

Anyway, I got to listen to the cool new program on NPR this morning: Core Stories or something like that. Basically, every friday an interview with an older american is broadcast. They have really interesting stories about their past. Good stuff. Definitely "Driveway Moment" material.

I don't want the world to sing, I just want it to pose for me

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's "Story Corps" and they are traveling the country achiving stories that may otherwise be lost in our crazy culture, AND they'll be in Austin
Apr 6 - Apr 30, 2006

-Sam
sosuburban.org

sans_sanity said...

Ah. Thank you Sam. I thought that Story Core was a weird name. Turns out I'm an idiot after all.

Anonymous said...

How are you supposed to tell which homophone is being used just by hearing it said on the radio?

You are no idiot.

-The Q