Car Drama

I've always thought that it would be a good idea for me to take an auto mechanics class. These last couple of weeks I have been even more aware of my lack of car knowledge. It all began a couple of weeks again when I was on my way home from seeing the handsome suitor in Ohio. I came over a hillcrest in the dark and my headlights shone on a deer. I missed the first one but the second one landed with a BAM! on top of my hood and then crashed back in front of me on my windshield. The windshield broke into a million pieces but thankfully did not shatter. I was also grateful that I was within 30 minutes of home so my parents came to pick me up as I watched "Ashley" (my plum Saturn) being towed away, never to be driven again.

Since then I have been driving my brother Eric's car since he is a freshman in college and not allowed to have a vehicle on campus. His car was an ideal plan B while I leisurely shop for a good deal on a reliable, 5-speed, low-milage Honda/Toyota that I could cash off (oh! and dark blue or green are my favorite car colors). It was all going according to plan until last night when I went to meet some friends for dinner in South Bend. On the way home I drove over a nail and got a flat tire. I was close to a well-lit gas station and as divine intervention would have it, a woman filling up with gas offered to have her husband change my tire for me. These good Samaritans went above and beyond the call of duty- shivering in the bitter cold with me for close to an hour, making chit-chat, shining their headlights on the project when well-lit station closed down, offering well-meant safety precautions about driving on spare tires.... I drove the long way home at a snail's pace but hey, all's well that ends well.

Lest you think that is the end of the story, this morning I was going to the tire repair shop and I got a fourth mile down the road when there was again a jarring vibration. Yep, the spare tire was flat, "leaking at the seams" for some unknown reason. Finally my dad took the spare tire off; I take another vehicle (with the spare tire and the original tire in the trunk) to the repair shop only to find- alas, the repair shop closed at noon! With no fight left, I drove across the road to Wal-mart and waited two hours for some simple tire repairs/replacements.

The moral of this story: Sometimes life just doesn't work out quite like you planned. (Plus all you-all should appreciate your cars that are running well and getting you from place A to place B).