Droplets from the Inkwell

Blog Prompt: On cars and holidays

From "Blogging Circle of Friends " :

Write about a holiday in which things just did not go as planned.

I almost skipped today's prompt. Most of my holidays have gone as planned. Even the Christmases that didn't seem like Christmas because Mom had to work at the hospital that day went as planned. Then, I remembered Christmas Eve 2003 and realized that it was the perfect response to this blog prompt.

It was the afternoon on Wednesday, 24 December 2003. I was off work thanks to my company's Christmas shutdown. I had decided to run out to the store to pick up a few things and was on my way back to my parents' and my home. I was on the last bit of divided highway when my car quit running. The engine block had cracked. I pulled myself off onto the curb and verified that indeed, my car wasn't going anywhere under its own power at that point. I sighed, thankful that I was still a few miles from the point where I would have been between the two mountains that make my parents' home and surrounding area a cell phone free zone. This meant that I could still call back to the house.

On the afternoon of that Christmas Eve, my father and I ended up using a chain to tow my car back to someplace safe -- a local gas station owner was gracious enough to let us leave the car in his parking lot rather than forcing us to tow it all the way back to the house. Then we went home and had a pleasant Christmas holiday with my mother. Christmas itself went well, though I constantly had the knowledge that I'd have to arrange to tow the car back to the Saturn dealership -- the closest one was over an hour away -- and then arrange to get the engine replaced.

I will say that while I liked that Saturn, my experience with it that Christmas and for the next ten months (I got rid of it in October 2004) has convinced me to never get another one (which is fine, considering Saturn went out of business). To give a rundown:

1. Despite checking with three different junk yards, the dealer could not find a used engine. I ended up getting a refurbished engine from the factory.
2. Said refurbished engine was put together incorrectly and cannibalized itself in late January when a bearing broke loose. Fortunately, the second fix/replacement was on their tab.
3. They gave me a free loaner to use while they fixed my engine a second time. The second night I had said loaner, I proceeded to "take it deer hunting."
4. After I stopped at the mall to calm my nerves, I got back on the road a couple hours later. A police officer pulled me over because I had a headlight out. (It was also about four inches further back than it was supposed to be, thanks to Mr. Deer.) As I told the officer my whole tale of woe, he was kind enough to decide to forego a ticket. Me, I was just amazed that he didn't take me in for a drug test, as I had reached a point where I found the whole adventure hysterically surreal.
5. I got the car back in early February and drove it until October, when the transmission decided to give way. That's when I decided enough was enough.

JarredH

Give me pen and paper and I shall create entire worlds and fill them with adventures.