::alio!::

Surprising interlude

So yesterday there were three parties. One was Cara's crazy birthday bash in Montreal, which I could not attend, unfortunately. One was Jon's homecoming party, which I could attend part of, because it was starting at two, and then the other was Sam's bachelorette, for which I was ultimately prepared.

But it all came to nothing.

On my way to Jon's yesterday afternoon, I stopped at Carlingwood to get some cash for the night out with the girls. When I left, I noticed that my car's headlights were really dim, which is a surprise, seeing as we'd just replaced them. And the interior lights were pretty dim, too.

I drove on. Halfway down Woodroffe, my rear speakers went fuzzy and blew out. My front speakers followed, although the radio was still functional. As I turned on to Tallwood, all the interior lights went out, including my signal indicator. The indicator itself was apparently running, but with a weird rhythm. I pulled into the left turn lane onto Centrepointe and waited for the light.

And that's when the car died entirely. There was no sound of the engine sort of winding down. It just stopped dead. The interior electrical system was still working, somehow, because the heat fan was on, and when I opened the driver's side door, it beeped at me to close it. But the car wouldn't turn on. The engine wouldn't even turn over. There wasn't even a clicking sound as I turned the key.

So I got out and started directing traffic around me, because none of my exterior lights were working. I called Jon's dad to come and rescue me, because I was literally three blocks from his house. Then I called my brother. Then Minda showed up to keep me company while I called CAA. I swear the girl on the line was retarded. She kept me on the phone for 20 minutes in the freezing cold.

Anyway, Jon's dad got the car going, with a boost from a truck, and took it towards his house. I went along with Minda in her car.

When we arrived, my car was parked in Jon's driveway, but Jon's dad informed us that it had actually stopped working within a block and a half, and he'd managed to coast it that far and into the driveway.

So I was stuck at Jon's for a while, which was fine, because there was a party going on.

When the towtruck finally came, I was going to go along for the ride and walk home from the garage, because it's only like 15 minutes from my house. But the driver, who had his wife in the car, said not to bother, to stay at the party, and he would take it and leave it there, as the shop would be closed anyway. So I stayed. At this point, everyone was drunk, so I couldn't have left if I'd wanted to. I had to wait for several hours, until Minda wanted to go home and she thankfully dropped me off, but it was fine. It was actually the best worst day of my life.

In any case, now I have no car. My parents are away, in their car, so there's no car period - which means that getting home from school at 900 on Thursday night is going to be an adventure. But we shall see what happens.

People seem to think it's the alternator on my car. My pretty but ancient car, a 1988 Mazda 626.

It looks like this, only it's baby blue. And my hubcaps are nicer. I know it's not much, but I love it. And if it's the alternator, then we might not bother to fix it. Which is very unfortunate, because in my family we really need two cars.

So that's going to be sad.

And, of course, my parents are in Florida, so I don't know what to tell the mechanic - should he fix it or scrap it? It's a good question.

Posted by Ally at January 28, 2007 10:09 AM