Broken Jalopy

In my previous post, I had mentioned taking my car in for an oil change and the mechanic guy telling me I had a potential oil and coolant leak. I figured that I would go ahead and monitor the situation. I told my apartment manager to let me know if he saw any oil or coolant left in my parking stall when I wasn't there. Then I would know what was actually leaking and how bad it might be. Well, forget monitoring the situation because 5 days later, my car is freaking out on me and I'm wondering why. I'm driving, the car is bucking and I notice that the temperature gauge is almost at H(hot) and I had better get the car off the main road. Luckily, I was only 2 blocks from home and I got there in one piece. After my initial frantic thoughts of "What the heck am I going to do?" and "What am I going to do without a car?", I go inside the building to drop off the things I was carrying and change into comfortable shoes in lieu of the 3 inch wedge sandals I was currently wearing. I ran into the apartment manager and right when I was going to tell him what was wrong, he tells me I have a coolant leak. Ummm, yea. I think I figured out that much by that point.

He comes out with me and we look at the car and the coolant reservoir was bone dry...it had been full only 5 days prior. We fill it up with water and I say that I will take it to the mechanic which is only 5 blocks away from my place. By the time I had driven four blocks, the needle was back at H...I was praying the car would make it one more block so I could give the mechanic the key and get out of what felt like a deathtrap car. When I see the mechanic, I explain the problem and he says he can't look at it til Tuesday. Tuesday!?! Geez, what do I do? I opt to leave the car there and call a friend to come pick me up and take me to my parents so I can borrow one of their cars for the next 4 or more days. I should mention that all this happened at the beginning of my lunch hour and I was supposed to be at work. By the time I got back to work, driving my mom's car, it was three hours later.

I am thankful that the car issue came to light during the day and close to home since my plan was to head into the city after work. If this had happened on the freeway, I'd have blown a vein. That would have involved traffic, the motor club and a tow truck and would have stressed me out even more.

So now my car sits at the mechanic and I am driving my mom's car...hoping that this car repair isn't severe and cost me a fortune.