Tuesday, June 14, 2011

WHAT OLD CAR?

Boy do I miss this little gardener!

Yesterday was my first day home alone now that the
man has gone back to work.
Boring!


A man rang the doorbell.
It took me some time to get there as I was on the patio out back.
By the time I got to the door, I could see he was
about to throw his leg over his bike to leave.
I called hello.
He was in his mid twenties,
riding a black bike that had seen better days.
Plain jeans, Duck tee shirt.
Clearly not selling anything and no one I knew.

He motioned in the direction of my back yard gate.
"Hi. I've seen that old car sitting there..."

Old car?
That's no old car!
"That's my clown car!"
(He looked surprised by that statement, but chose to ignore it.)
This was the second time this week that someone had assumed that my clown car was not running and unwanted.
Harumph!

"I'm looking for a car to fix up and buy, you know for a family car..."

I laughed.

"Actually, it runs and I use it."

"Really? Okay. Sorry to bother you."
He looked at it unsure if I was telling the truth.
"Thanks anyway."
He mounted his bike and waved as he pedaled off.

I walked out and looked at my car.
Honestly, I am puzzled.
Yes, it could use a bath.
Otherwise it's still green all over with relatively little damage beyond one scratch, a small dent and a cracked windshield.
What about it said unwanted and unused?


Maybe its the windshield thing.
Up where I used to live cracked windshields are common.
There is a great deal of ice and snow in the winters
in Dumb Potter's Hell.
Even once the snow is gone, the little rocks they use to make the roads safe remain.
Trucks fly past and toss them at your windshield.
The one time I replaced it... in August...
I was hit by a rock two days after I got X to install it!
That was the summer of 2009.
It took it a long time to go from nick to crack... and by then it had more nicks that aspired to be cracks.
My how those little nicks have grown!

I suppose I should have replaced it again.
(My insurance does not cover windshield nicks.)
But once I decided to move here,
we knew that we wanted to use it for a trade in.
The windshield was unlikely to be much of a money factor.

I peeked into its windows.
Yikes!
It does look rather abandoned when you do that.
There was my smock and lunch bag from my last day at work in January.
The seat cover on one side is half pulled off.
The blanket that I like to keep across the back seat
was bunched in a wad.
My "car book"... in case I'm stuck somewhere,
looked like it was crawling for cover under the driver's seat.
Lots of dust.
A vacuum would do wonders.


I guess it has been a while since I last drove it.
I think it time to give it a make-over.
I've got the tools...
Armor-All, Windex, shop-vac and the washing machine.
Maybe people will stop asking me if I want to sell it.


Poor clown car.
I owe it that much.
I bought it for a thousand bucks going on four years ago.
I've only had to replace the clutch and windshield.
The engine has just kept chugging.
Yep... the least I can do.
Besides, I don't want to have to wait and do it the
day before I start work again and
have a billion other things to get done before I get busy on it.

Its supposed to get warm today and the sun is supposed to shine.
I'm still waiting for that but its only 9:30.
That's my afternoon project.
Until then, its house work and job hunting.
I need to water plants.
Ho-hum.
Maybe I'll even wax it.




9 comments:

  1. haha! Aw! People see your car and assume you just forgot it was even there. That's kind of cute :-) I hope you enjoy your little project. Your clown car will thank you!

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  2. laura b.- Indeed it will! I'm on it... part way thru. :D

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  3. That's funny. I've always had an old car. I used to get pulled over by the cops all the time because of it. Ever since I bought my borther's newer Subaru station wagon, I never get pulled over.

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  4. player piano!

    hey mister, you're headlight's broken.

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  5. Hm. I just figured out something odd. If I uncheck "stay signed in," on my PC, blogger works again. Wotthehell?

    Anyways, you, my dear, are just a posting machine lately. And, re: cars, don't forget to start 'er up and move 'er every so often, if it's been months sice you drove.

    I once inherited an old, pretty immaculate Chevy Caprice from my Nana. With the MS and all, she had reached the point where she couldn't even get in and out of it, never mind drive it, and she didn't like the Mustang my sister had given me (which says something right there) I had been driving to her place in that, then we'd switch to the Caprice if she needed me to bring her somewhere. I think eventually she figured, why bother?

    So she gave me that car and I started driving it daily, (not monthly). One day soon after, I went out to the driveway... four flat tires! Oy. At first, I thought they had been slashed, though I couldn't think of any reason for that other than straight-up vandalism (a possibility in my neighborhood, but still unlikely) Nope. The tires had all gotten flat spots from staying parked in one spot for too long.

    Super-fortunately, I was not on my way to work and my Mom was around and not on her way to work. I borrowed her car, jacked up mine, took one tire to the tire place, got a new one.

    Lather, rinse, repeat, four times. Honestly, the way things worked out, I thought it was pretty damn funny, even then.

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  6. Churlita- Me too. When I was younger I got stopped fairly often, but now that I'm older, they figure I'm some sweet old grannie. :-)

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  7. billy pilgrim- Hee hee!

    A personal favorite quote of KV is
    "I can have oodles of charm when I want to."
    Breakfast of Champions

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  8. billy pilgrim- Or in my case oddles of funch!

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  9. Cricket- Ha! I guess never look a gift Caprice in the tires. Funny story.
    I am now back cruising in my little clown car again. Remarkably, it started right up! But I think I better check its oil. It doesn't seem to have the old drip. Yikes!

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