So, with no phone, I used yahoo texting to arrange for a friend to help with trailer to take the car somewhere besides the freeway. I don't know how the staters are in other states, but the WA State Patrol is anal retentive about keeping the freeway clear of junk cars so we knew we needed to get it taken care of. You have 24 hours after they've tagged it until they impound it, or something.
With that arranged, I just had to wait for my husband to get home via Mom/Dad. When he came home, he started talking and I thought I wasn't going to go help get the car. Well, there were a few problems with that. The biggest one is there were things in the car, like the boys school boxes with the $#!+load of work they've don'e this year, minus the stuff that got thrown away. My husband hasn't grasped the concept that I need proof the boys have been taught something other than how to use an XBox 360 controller.
I mentioned in the last post the stress of walking with my kids by the freeway. It was another stress not having a phone. (due to money). I'd held up pretty well. Until my husband was saying I couldn't go. I started crying. Yes, I admit it. I started crying. I'd avoided it all day cuz I know how much it upsets the boys and just like that, I was leaking saltwater.
My 7yo came in to tell us not to fight and that he doesn't like it when we fight and we had to explain we weren't fighting that I was just stressed about the day. Gave him hugs and my husband and I went to get the car. Apparently, my husband has a weakness for tears I didn't know about before. Usually, he seems mad when I'm crying. I think it threw him for a loop. I don't cry about things like this. I'm an emergency person. I'm fine until the emergency's over. So to have me crying like that?
So, we get to the car. The day had been cold, windy, and trying to rain all day. If we'd been on the Seattle side, I'm sure it would have poured. My husband opens the trunk of the car the minute we get to it to get his coat that had been left there from the fair. If you've read the day part of this, you know what he found--nothing!
I looked at him and said, "Remember the coats I told you we had to wrap around Isaac? Yeah, that included yours." He looked sheepish and shut the trunk. He and the friend of ours who'd met us there, Virgil, checked out the engine, and then tried to turn it over. And there went the antifreeze, squirting all over the place.
Definitely not going to get it running. Virgil pulls a wench out of the truck and does all the connections etc, which he'd had ready, sets it up, and with my husband (Nathan) holding the casing, pulls the hook. Nothing but a few grunts. Not good. The electric wench didn't want to be released. After much grumbles and tries, they get out a power tester to check the wires, it lights up. Real purty too. But, when they press the button that would pull the car back up, there's not enough power to light the bulb much less pull a hook with a car attached to it!
More grumbles. Of course, we're having the man jokes floating through all of this. We've all been firefighters together out of the same station so we fell into a good rhythm of working together. (Remember the side of freeway hell I mentioned? Even they were hugging the vehicles cloes and trying to avoid being on that side. Experience is a harsh mistress.) We get a different cable that has the latch thing on it (I can't remember what it's called!) to hand crank it.
The guys decide they want to push it as far as they can first. They tell me to get in the car. I can't hear squat and there were a few misconstrued signals. One was when I was supposed to hit the brakes. They let it roll back down the tire ramps. And come explain to me how I'm supposed to hit the breaks so it won't roll back. Well, the whole damn trailer is tilted so how am I supposed to know they meant before the car was actually on it?? Really.
We take another run at it and when I feel the forward momentum stop I jam the breaks. Once in a while I'm turning the key so I get some power back in them. Nate (my husband) gets the hook on the hand wench and goes under the car looking for a good place to hook it. All of sudden he pops his head up and yells, "Don't let go of the brakes! If you do, I'll be killed!" I nodded to show him I understood but by that point, I'd misheard them like three times * I didn mention my hearing issue from allergy/winds right? * and he got this really worried look on is face.
He has life insurance.
He looked at Virgil then back at me and ducked his head under. I put both feet on the brake, worried about the power brakes failing while he was trying to latch the hook on. Then Virgil's head goes under to make sure they had it right. I'm sweating now, despite the cold. I have two men's lives under the hood dependent on brakes of a car that's off...
Virg goes over to the hand part that cranks it (it's going to drive me nuts that I can't remember what its called!) and Nate stay's under while they tighten the tension. When the tension is good he comes out from under it and had this joyful look on his face. Apparently, he's wondered if I thought I'd be better of with him dead (he's bipolar, not so unusual) and had proof I preferred him alive! Duh. Geez.
Anyway, this put him in a stellar mood, all things considered :D I guess you never know what the silver lining of a situation might be... :D
Operators of a good number of junk my car services are not concerned about condition of the vehicles that enter their premises. This is because; they know that no matter the sorry state of an automobile, there is still an item or two that can be salvaged. Therefore, if you have an automobile that is depreciated to a great extent, you can still dispose it to companies like Alpco Recycling and be able to earn something at the end of the day.
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