My car, My writing.

I'm going to put off my author feature one more day as I have two authors whom I'm waiting on. I will do the two I have tomorrow even if I don't get the other's stuff.

In the meantime, I'll do tomorrow's post today :) See how flexible I am?? Now someone besides my husband knows. Er, TMI? Anyways...

We have bad luck with cars. Maybe it's because we're poor and can't do everything the minute it needs done. Maybe it's my karma. IDK, but it's bad. How bad? Well, back when I had a good job, I had a newish mustang. Good condition, convertible, 6 years old. Green awesomeness. I loved that car. My sister in law saw it and asked if she could borrow it to go to Seattle (We live on east side. Anywhere in that area is "going to Seattle" and sometimes even literally.) She said her car wasn't working so hot, but it was fine locally.

I looked at her quizzically. May even have tilted my head. I said, "You're car has something odd happening. Something you can't get checked out right now and you want ME to drive your car?"

Her eyes widened and she looked at her coworker and said, "Oh. No, nevermind. We'll find something else."

That's how notorious it is. I'm not a mechanic, but I can get in a car and tell if something's wrong. I just don't have the words to express it correctly.

Well, on Saturday night, I drove home from inlaws where we went to console me on not seeing my family or being there for funeral. Hot tubs are very good for consoling. As I'm going down the road I said something was wrong with the car.

A mile later I said to my buzzed/drunk husband, "Did you feel that?" Turns out it had been doing it for week and he'd bought transmission fluid and oil but couldn't get to it without tools. Sunday was crazy and Monday I had an appointment with the baby.

On the way to the appointment, the car does the hesitation thing worst.

I try to get it taken care of in town but first the damn hood wouldn't pop open. I go to McDonald's and get my 2 yo fries to placate him while I'm working on the sucker. Finally, I get the hood thingy to work again. I put my hand in but can't get any torque on the lid. It's place under the manifold and air filter. How stupid can you be. And usually, when it's that hard to get, there's like a dipstick check. No. Nothing. I finally curse and slam the hood back down.

My kids screaming and I'm freezing. I think it was colder in the day yesterday, than it was at 530 this morning. I decide to try to go the ten miles back home and work on it there where the kiddo can at least go in the house.

I didn't make it a mile. I get on the highway and it's very bad. I pull over and work on it somewhere, this time burning myself to heck and gone. After multiple burns, only one bad, I remember my husband has heat resistant gloves he left in the car. I get them on and try to turn it. I still can't. I'm getting nervouse because the semitrucks are passing me like I'm a plague they're running from.

I move the car, using the emergency shoulder the short distance to the next road and pull off. I start making phone calls and texting. I need strong hands and a long funnel. And pliers. Or something. LOL I put a quart of oil in while I'm waiting cuz I see it's also low on oil.

I finally get help and they are able to turn the damn thing. And they had tools, so we took of the airfilter. It worked for a bit. But it's still doing it a little bit. Especially in one particular gear. Suck suck suck.

This long story does have a writing moral to it. What could it possibly be???

Well, it's this:

How many times do you have a great idea for a story? Or a great idea on how to fix something in your book but don't have time to write it down? Or maybe you think you'll remember it? Or maybe you don't have the tools ready--no pen, paper, computer, handy cassette recorder, nothing that you need. And you look. You try. Maybe you even write it on your arm, but it's not quite enough.

For whatever reason, it's lost. Or when you do get around to applying it, it's not quite as good as it was. Or there's something not quite right.

Two things, my friends. One, try to have all your tools handy. If, when you get those tools together, or apply your brilliant idea, things still aren't quite right, you need a friend. A friend can help a) say yep, there's no dipstick handy. How odd? Thus confirming you do have to do things the hard way, even if you don't want to. And b) they can help you get those brilliant ideas working so you can bring your book on home :)

So have your tools handy, and keep a friend along for the ride. You never know what you might need.