cambridge: a good place for your car to break down
So. it's been a while hey. But I think yesterday warrants some ljing, so here it goes:
I went back home to fort/whitewater to party/meet up w/some friends last night & the plan was to meet in this morning & asess what I need to do about the leaky half-bald tires I have on my lovely car.
My dad decided that we would switch cars w/ me because he also discovered the alignment was off on my carbesides, it having 227 thousand-something miles on it & the numerous other things that are wrong w/ it. He purchased this other car (a Dodge Aries I think) a few months ago & didn't really use it more than a couple of time because he was trying to decide whether to resell it or what not. It was in good working order the last time he drove it, so it appeared to be a big improvement on the white 1986 olds that some of you have been so lucky to be a passenger of.
So I take off from my parents house for work to be there around12:30. I'm coming into Cambridge (a very very small town known for pottery, off of Hwy 12 if you areunfamiliar), I was running kinda low on gas, but my father said I would make it Madison fine. But, as my car slowly decellerated I was thinking that he was wrong. I came to a stop on Main & took the gas can out of my trunk & proceeded down main street towards the nearest station. I happened to see a truck w/ it's turn signal going in that direction so I flagged it down & luckily it was an older couple w/ not much to do. I found out the only reason they were even driving around was to go fill up their tank, so agreeing to drive me there & back wasn't out of their way at all. In fact they were so nice the man paid for the gallon & a half that I needed to fill my little plastic red baby. The grandmother related me to her
grandkids while she knitt her purple yarn together. Since they were doing a good deed, the same might happen to them if they run out of gas or have car trouble.
So, I get back to my car & take what it seemed to a good 5 minutes to empty that thing into my tank. I try to start my car and it won't turn over. So, I guess I didn't run out of gas after all, I did have a quarter tank as my gauge told me. My dad was still at the house in fort, so in the meantime I was communicating w/ him & he would be showing up shortly.
In the meantime I did get quite a few people stopping to see if I was allright, a man helped me check my oil, because this was the first time for me looking under this hood,things were a bit harder for me to find. Mind you, I really needed an oil change, there was plenty of oil. One of my brother's friends, a guy who I was in youth group guy with named James Connell stopped on the way back from work to see if I was allright & a guy on a Harley w/ a Smirnoff jacket stopped as well. He asked if I had someone coming & I said my father would be showing up soon, but he proceeded to hand me a wad of cash. He said people my age always need a little help, driving cars like this that break down frequently,etc(Examining it later it turned out to be 60 dollars!)
When my dad came around w/ his beat up white pick-up & a tow rope & we manuvered it into the Piggly Wiggly parking lot. (I was heavy on the brake the whole time of course because I didn't want to ram into the back of him coming down the hill, those things are a little scarey.) With my father behind the wheel of the pick-up I got to work about 2pm instead of 12:30. And as it seems having your car break down in Cambridge is actually a somewhat lucrative experience if you have a free towing service anyway. Seeing as I only get paid $8/hr & I was scheduled to work 5 hours, I only lost 12 bucks worth of working time & I made 5 times that being stuck on Main Street in Cambridge for about an hour. (And no, I did not give any sexual favors to the biker.)
I went back home to fort/whitewater to party/meet up w/some friends last night & the plan was to meet in this morning & asess what I need to do about the leaky half-bald tires I have on my lovely car.
My dad decided that we would switch cars w/ me because he also discovered the alignment was off on my carbesides, it having 227 thousand-something miles on it & the numerous other things that are wrong w/ it. He purchased this other car (a Dodge Aries I think) a few months ago & didn't really use it more than a couple of time because he was trying to decide whether to resell it or what not. It was in good working order the last time he drove it, so it appeared to be a big improvement on the white 1986 olds that some of you have been so lucky to be a passenger of.
So I take off from my parents house for work to be there around12:30. I'm coming into Cambridge (a very very small town known for pottery, off of Hwy 12 if you areunfamiliar), I was running kinda low on gas, but my father said I would make it Madison fine. But, as my car slowly decellerated I was thinking that he was wrong. I came to a stop on Main & took the gas can out of my trunk & proceeded down main street towards the nearest station. I happened to see a truck w/ it's turn signal going in that direction so I flagged it down & luckily it was an older couple w/ not much to do. I found out the only reason they were even driving around was to go fill up their tank, so agreeing to drive me there & back wasn't out of their way at all. In fact they were so nice the man paid for the gallon & a half that I needed to fill my little plastic red baby. The grandmother related me to her
grandkids while she knitt her purple yarn together. Since they were doing a good deed, the same might happen to them if they run out of gas or have car trouble.
So, I get back to my car & take what it seemed to a good 5 minutes to empty that thing into my tank. I try to start my car and it won't turn over. So, I guess I didn't run out of gas after all, I did have a quarter tank as my gauge told me. My dad was still at the house in fort, so in the meantime I was communicating w/ him & he would be showing up shortly.
In the meantime I did get quite a few people stopping to see if I was allright, a man helped me check my oil, because this was the first time for me looking under this hood,things were a bit harder for me to find. Mind you, I really needed an oil change, there was plenty of oil. One of my brother's friends, a guy who I was in youth group guy with named James Connell stopped on the way back from work to see if I was allright & a guy on a Harley w/ a Smirnoff jacket stopped as well. He asked if I had someone coming & I said my father would be showing up soon, but he proceeded to hand me a wad of cash. He said people my age always need a little help, driving cars like this that break down frequently,etc(Examining it later it turned out to be 60 dollars!)
When my dad came around w/ his beat up white pick-up & a tow rope & we manuvered it into the Piggly Wiggly parking lot. (I was heavy on the brake the whole time of course because I didn't want to ram into the back of him coming down the hill, those things are a little scarey.) With my father behind the wheel of the pick-up I got to work about 2pm instead of 12:30. And as it seems having your car break down in Cambridge is actually a somewhat lucrative experience if you have a free towing service anyway. Seeing as I only get paid $8/hr & I was scheduled to work 5 hours, I only lost 12 bucks worth of working time & I made 5 times that being stuck on Main Street in Cambridge for about an hour. (And no, I did not give any sexual favors to the biker.)