Car Talk

b and I used to listen to these guys all the time. That was when we were living up North and spent a lot more time in the car. Now we rarely hear them. We did catch part of the show while we were driving around the beach vacationland past weekend.

Cars have been much on our minds of late. Angel's car was due for an inspection and the last time it was in the shop the mechanic told us it would need a new clutch soon. So there was much planning done to get his car into and out of the shop during his visit last week. All went well except the mechanic couldn't get the clutch to slip and so no new clutch was installed. While you would think this would be good news, it just caused anxiety for Angel, who is worried it will go out on him one day.

A day after getting Angel's car back with the good/bad clutch news, our car's clutch starts acting strangely. According to b it has gone "soft" and doesn't want to downshift. This occurs the morning we are supposed to be driving 4 hours to our vacation destination. There are a few attempts to get someone to look at it, but since this is the weekend, it doesn't happen. We leave for our vacation in the rain with a tempermental clutch.

The drive was long and a little anxiety producing but we get there in one piece. By the next morning the sun is out and we are beginning to relax. We listen to a bit of Car Talk as we ride into town for breakfast. Fast forward to later that day when I get a call from Angel. He got into a car accident on his way back to school. Luckily he hadn't gotten more than a few blocks from our house but he did manage to lock himself out of the car. I give him the AAA number and the car is towed to our mechanic--but its Sunday so that really does no one any good.

The next day he discovers our mechanic can't do anything because they don't do bodywork. There seems to be a leak in the radiator but the bodywork needs to be done before they can look at it. This involved several phone calls between Angel, myself, b and the mechanic. Finally b gets the mechanic to at least see if the car is drivable (it is) and Angel heads back to school.

Now he has to find someone there and b needs to deal with the insurance. When we arrived home from vacationland, just 2 days after the accident, there were 6 pieces of mail in our box addressed to Angel: 3 advertisements for lawyers and 3 for chiropractors.

And the problem with our clutch? Seems to have disappeared...at least for now.