All That Glitters: December 2024

For the past couple of weeks I have been driving Mrs. Billingsley's car. I prefer to drive my own car, but it needs the brakes repaired. The brakes on my car began to make loud noises when I put on the brakes. So far, they still work, but I thought I'd drive Mrs. Billingsley's car while I arranged for repair service.

I have always considered Mrs. Billingsley's car to be a good car, a reasonable answer to the necessity of travel. It's a 2003 Ford Taurus with about 140,000 miles. In my mind, this is low mileage. My car has almost 200,000. My car is in better shape in some ways. The hood opens and stays up when it's put up. The trunk opens when I push a button. My car has a few more features. It shows the temperature outside. The mirrors adjust from buttons on the driver's side. Her car's trunk is damaged and the lid won't remain open unless you prop it up with a stick, which is usually carried in the trunk. A few days ago the windows stopped working. The driver's side window stuck in the open position, which is more annoying as the weather gets cold. Plus, the heater isn't working. May I also say, the hood absolutely will not stay up. Another thing I like about my car is that the driver's seat has lumbar support. So just a few features I like.

But now? I was driving back from the next county. "Is this my imagination?" I thought. The car was not accelerating. I gave it more gas, and at first it was OK, but then slowed down again. Then it began to jerk and shudder and buck. Oh my. "Should I pull off the road?" I wondered. There wasn't a good place. I checked the RPM gauges. It was all over the place. I had never seen one of the gauges do that. More lurching and weird noise. I had the mistaken idea that I was going to avoid major damage by pulling over. Just as I thought that, the engine shuddered to a halt. I started just getting off the road anywhere since I was now in glide mode.

When I managed to pull over, I saw smoke billowing out from under the hood. Was the car on fire?? The smoke went on and on. I think it was steam however. The billowing steam continued for 20 or 30 minutes.

The thermostat showed it was as overheated as overheated could be. I wondered if I had neglected to keep water/coolant in the radiator. But if so, where did clouds of vapor come from.

I had road side assistance on my State Farm insurance. Would it surprise you to know that I got no roadside assistance? I was left on hold as the battery on my phone went down. I called David and asked him to visit Mrs. Billingsley and tell her I would be delayed due to car trouble. This was about 2:00 pm. David said he was not at home, but he would ask Cindy to go over. Cindy? Hmmm...

Then I called Rabbit Man. Rabbit Man can be a mixed blessing. His first thought was that the car had overheated and just give it about 45 minutes. I happened to have a case of bottled water, and if that's all it was it seemed like I could fix it. But, that's not what had happened. He told me to open the hood. I spoke to him this morning and he remarked that I didn't even know how to put up the hood. Well, not this hood. This was a weird hood. I left the phone on and attempted to put up the hood. Suddenly it came crashing down full force as if someone had slammed it. I just barely escaped with my hands and my head and started screaming my head off. Well, enough of that.

The phone died, and I just sat in the car wondering what I was going to do. As time went on, quite a bit of time, it looked like I might be out all night. The temperature would be below freezing. This made me sad. I was wearing short sleeves in cold weather. The driver's window was down and wouldn't go up. I wondered if killers would come in the night. I was on a rural highway in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't lock the door because of the window being open. Cheesh.

Just as the sun was setting, a police car went by and quickly came to my aid. They told me my brother had called them and told them I needed help. I gave the poor officer a piece of my mind, mostly because of being in panic mood. She took my license and went back to her car for about twenty minutes. She returned and said I needed a wrecker. Good idea. I asked if the wrecker could take me home. She thought one of my friends should come and get me. "No one is going to come and take me home."

As if got dark, the wrecker arrived and the driver invited me to sit in the cab. This was a huge vehicle, and there were two steps to get into the cab, each about two feet apart. Goodness. Well, I managed, but I'm pretty sure some people couldn't handle those steps. The car was loaded on the flatbed by marvels of technology, and the nice driver did take me home. He even walked me to the door.

Mrs. Billingsley was glad to see me. It was past 6:00 pm, and Cindy had finally come over to let her know I would be late just a couple of minutes before. Mrs. Billingsley is not able to answer either the phone or the door. I asked her if she had been worried about it when I failed to return from my appointment. "Yes, about three o'clock I knew you should have been back."

This morning the repair shop called. The engine had blown a head gasket. I needed a new engine. Well, really, sometimes repairs are too expensive to make sense, so the car is being sold for $125, plus free towing. Rabbit Man asked me how many miles the Taurus had when the engine blew. "140,000." He said that he had also had a Taurus, and the engine blew at 140,000 miles. I told him the car was going to car heaven.

The good news is I'm in the market now for a new car. I had begun to see the handwriting on the wall with my own car having 200,000 miles. I had already been considering buying a Toyota Camry, so I've located a preowned, aka used, Camry, 2023, 13,000 miles, $25,000. I told Mrs. Billingsley I felt she should buy it. She looked at me as if I had lost my mind. Well, I think we need a car. I guess I'll have to buy it myself. This is kind of a thrill though. I've often wished I had a Camry. Or a Honda Accord.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to have the brakes fixed on my car. I'm not planning to trade my car in. It's a really nice, brave car and I don't think I would get much for it. I plan to use it in case the Camry is having trouble sometime.