So I am innocently on my way home from work today, when I see smoke coming out of my hood. I instantly pull over and call my dad. Thank you Cell Phone. My dad instructs me to lift the hood, which I do only to discover that what I thought was maybe the radiator was spattering green liquid all over my engine. It turns out it was the fill bottle for coolant, my bad. So I poured water in there and went to turn on my car, and nothing. Luckily some nice guy had turned around to help me (mind you I was almost over the last big hill). He was about to drive off when I discovered the car would not turn on. He got back out and another guy stopped to help (he also had been going to other direction). When I turned the key the car would tick, but not start and soon the car didn't even make that noise. We found that one of the connectors on the battery was off, and we could not push it back on. We jumped my car, but I had to keep my foot on the gas or it would die. One of the gentlemen who had stopped offered to follow me to Brigham City (to make sure I got there). As we were about to try, my car died. One of the guys realized he actually had his tools, and was able to reconnect the battery. We tried to jump my car again, but I still had to have my foot on the gas. It sounded bad, and we decided to not try to get to Brigham City. I again called my Dad, who agreed to come and tow me home. I then called the insurance company to see if I could still take advantage of the $25 a day car rental they offered after my accident (in this same canyon 10 days earlier). They made the arrangements.
So my dad finally got there about an hour and forty-five minuets later and the real fun began. Now remember, I was in a car accident 10 days ago, and I am still very sore and need to take muscle relaxants daily (luckily I have a lower dose to use during the day now, so I feel more like me). So my dad determines that it was better for him to push me over the top and then let me coast down, and repeat this until we reached Brigham City, and then use a strap to connect my car to his van to tow me then rest of the way on flatter ground. He said it was really dangerous to the tow down hill. So I went along with this, he is my dad. I felt nervous about this. So he started pushing me up the hill and we went up and over. On the way down I really started to get nervous. So all my muscles tightened, as if they didn't already hurt. I kept my foot on the brake. But as my car is all electronic, I had to push really hard. My foot was very sore by the time and I got to Brigham. i felt very uncomfortable coasting down the many bends of the canyon road (did I mention I had NO power steering either?). Yeah, that was fun. My dad told me not to go over 45, as we were still on the shoulder of the road for all of this, I tried to stay around 40, as then I felt more in control. Just past Mantua, my odometer and low fuel light started to blink at me, very quickly. I tried to use my hazards, but oh yeah, no power. About this time I found that with my foot on the brake I could no longer tell what speed I was going. If I lifted my foot off the brake it would jump back up and show my speed. As we entered Brigham City, I lost full ability to be able to tell what speed I was going. Maybe that was for the best, but it sure made me nervous not knowing the speed (not that I had any control over the speed once the cars were tied together (other then to stop as appropriate). My dad assured me I was doing fine, I was just glad to FINALLY be out of that evil canyon (for many reasons)
So my dad connects our cars and gives me the responsibility to keep the line tight (as if I wanted to hit his van. I had enough of that 10 days ago. So I again enjoyed the struggle of steering and braking my powerless car. My poor muscles ache even more now. I found that both in canyon and on the freeway, I had to keep reminding my muscles to not tighten up (Thank you Christmas music, particularly Josh Groban's album; and my Ipod for helping me to relax). I really felt all my neck and chest muscles stressing, at least I didn't have whiplash before all of this, oh WAIT, I did. As we got along further down the road, I started to feel spasms all over my right foot as I made sure I didn't get too close to my dad's van. As I adjusted the position of my foot to help control the spasms; I felt a strain moving up my right calf. So instead of relief I found, NEW pain. Lucky me!!!!! My dad called the rental place and they agreed to wait until we got there, as it would be a little after 6 pm before we got there and they close at 6 pm. So I got a rental car, which is a Ford, but it's only a rental. So I will suffer with a Ford car for either 2 weeks, or until we can fix my silver car. Sorry to those of you that like Fords, I am not, never have been, nor will I ever be a fan of Ford cars! So once the paper work is signed and the keys are in my possession (and my equipment moved), my dad asks me to help him tow my car to his school where he will have the auto shop teacher take a look at it (no it is not free to do it this way, just cheaper and my dad really trusts him- I am all for cheaper and I trust my dad). Once the car was safely in the fenced area of school, Dad took my back to pick up the rental. I hope that I never have to help tow a car again. I know I have done it before, it just seemed more intense this time (I am sure my recent accident and achy muscles are mostly responsible for this). My dad asked my what I thought about the whole towing incident. I told him, it was clearly a test of the amount of faith and trust we had in each other. We had to have complete faith and trust in each other to do what we each needed to do in order to accomplish the task at hand, knowing that any minor mistake, could be very costly (in many ways). So it was a nice bonding experience, though I think that next time I will settle for a nice little game or dinner or something less dangerous. It was really quite the experience. I debated picking up lunch before I left Logan, but I decided I hadn't had lunch yet, what is another 45 minuets when I would be back in Ogden and filling my tank where it was at least 12 cents cheaper per gallon! I was foolish, but dinner tasted really good (even though I burned the pizza). Just for those that are interested in the time. I left for work at 6:30 am, we finished (in Smithfield) around 2:30 pm. We got to the rental place just after 6 pm and I got home around 7:30 pm. What a fun day!
I am not sure what the reason is behind my sudden bad luck with cars. After all I own 2 cars, I shouldn't need a rental car. Nor do I know why both cars met their current state of sadness in Sardine Canyon less then 5 miles apart. I do know that if I didn't absolutely LOVE being a photographer, I might be reconsidering my job. After in the 2 months I have worked there, I have smashed my finger (which is NOT broken, hairline or otherwise), crashed one car, and had a 2nd car die for reasons we don't understand (I mean, why was the battery not properly connected, I don't understand that). Yet despite all the hazards I have encountered in such a short time, I am still excited to go to work tomorrow!!!! I have found my career of choice! Now to break this negative string of events!!! I have no more cars to put in the shop.
Oh the most ironic thing about today, I got the first call on car. Finally someone wants to buy my car, and it dies. Not fair!!!!!! I still need to sell it, eventually (if it is worth fixing). I hope everyone else had a very good day!!!
So as it turns out, after towing my car to my dads school on 10/7/08, the autoshop teacher took a gander at it on 10/8/08. The AC belt we had replaced a few weeks prior, broke. That is why it did not stop squealing after we fixed it and why it stranded me in the canyon. We replaced the belt once more, and the car has never worked better. Best of all, no squeal! Now if only I could sell the car, as I do not need (nor want) two cars.
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