Another day, another challenge

It started out as a perfectly ordinary Sunday morning. I got up, dressed for church, grabbed a cold beverage on the way out the door, and headed on down the road.

I got to the end of the road, turned onto the main drag, got less than a hundred yards when, as I was shifting into third gear, there was an ominous "clunk" from my drivetrain and my engine died. Wouldn't let me pop the clutch to restart it, no--it died. The engine stalled, the power steering died with it, and I just barely managed to wrestle it halfway across the nearest driveway before it quit altogether. And wouldn't restart.

Oh, it's trying to start: I'm getting noises that tells me the battery is trying to crank it. There's half a tank of gas; that isn't the problem. I'm guessing something in the drivetrain has gone poof, based on how it conked out, and two other facts: My car has upwards of a quarter of a million miles on it, and two, my extensive (and expensive!) experience with imported cars.

On the whole, I've found my Honda and my previous Subaru to be reliable in the extreme, but they tend to be somewhat over-engineered. One, they overrode things so that you *can't* start it up and limp home with it, and two, it's *never* just a part that needs to be replaced, no, it's a unit. Like, instead of a $20 speedometer cable, it needs a a $200 "sensor bundle". Still, considering I've had this beast for something like ten years now, and it's a 1990---I've had remarkably few problems.

It remains to be seen if this is going to be the killer. If it's going to cost more than a couple hundred dollars to fix it, I may end up looking for a replacement vehicle. And either way, it's going to be a few more weeks before I can do anything, even get it diagnosed.

I got J to come and get me and use her AAA to tow the beast to my house (less than a mile). Of course, she was at church with her phone off, so I spent two hours sitting there awaiting a call back. It was okay, though. It wasn't horribly warm, I had the aforementioned chilled beverage with me (diet Sunkist orange, yummy!) and a steno pad, so I whiled away the time scribbling.

I'm surprising my self with how calmly I've taken this development. If it had happened three months ago, I would've had a total meltdown and walked into oncoming traffic. Since I have a job---a work from home job!---I'm not massively screwed. Yes, it's an inconvenience; I'm going to have to figure out the fine points of the local public transportation to get to my meetings at the library this week---and to do any shopping until I can get back on the road---but I don't feel like the sky is falling. And that's huge.

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What was that poem?!

I saw a poem a couple years ago, and I would've sworn I saved it, but can't find it now. The title was something along the lines of, "Prayer On a Day My Car Won't Start", and the narrator is praying for help with his car trouble, and says something like just send him one mechanically-inclined angel with a little grease on his wings (or maybe it was his feathers?), that's all he needs. I seem to remember from the comments on the post that the writer was a teacher by profession. It's rather appropriate for my current situation....

Anybody recognize this one? My Googleful is drawing a blank. I know I snagged it from somebody on my f'list, but that's a pretty broad catagory. I've posted this to whatwasthatone, but I'll take all the help I can get.



Found! among cbtreks' "poetry" tags:

Prayer on a Morning My Car Wouldn't Start

I sit behind the wheel
And finger the keys like a rosary.
Surely there is some prayer
That can move pistons.
If spirits slaughter germs,
Or bring about a sudden burst
Of hope or courage, even love,
Why not something simple, something
Closer to expedience? Why not dispatch
One lonely angel to caress my carburetor,
Fix my fanbelt, or unclog my fuel line,
Just one greasy-winged mechanic,
Inept at saving souls, but damned
Good at getting me on my way.

(by Jack Ridl)

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