Car Toons

I used up all my pictures last week. I sat down to write this post having no idea of what to write about and no way to cheat. I knew it would have to be words.

So I've been thinking back on my week, and the week of others who've been in touch with me here at my cabin on an island. My week was calm, made of drizzle and gray skies, wood fires, homemade soup, puttering. I did have to go into the big city one day for shopping and appointments. It was a long day, what with getting up early and taking the ferry and driving hither and thither. I'd been going full tilt for ten hours or so when I got back to the island and stopped for a few groceries.

That's when I locked my keys in the car.

Damn. I just knew it when I reached into the key pocket of my purse at the checkout counter and they weren't there. I was hungry. And tired. And had one more minor errand to run. Also it was hot all of a sudden, and I'd left dressed for the mostly cool days we've had, so I was already feeling uncomfortable, and soon began feeling a mite cranky.

I went out to the car. There were the keys, right there on the center console where I'd left them in my efficient frenzy to fill a garbage bag with a few days' worth of car effluvia and dump it in the Safeway trash can. I put the groceries on the hood of the car and called AAA. I knew I was still a member as I'd just received my new card in the mail. After five minutes of phone folderol, the woman told me she'd send a truck out from Kitsap Towing and he'd be there within an hour.

An hour?? Cripes, I only wanted to sit down in my cabin and attack some of that fried chicken I'd just bought at the deli counter, which was hot and fresh out of the fryer and smelling scrumptious. Oh, well, okay, I'll have a smoke, I thought. Except my cigs were locked in the car. So I paced. I paced right around to the other side of the car where I discovered that I'd left the passenger window open about 3/4 of an inch. I stuck my fingers in to see how far they'd go. Not all the way. If only I had something to reach in there and lift the latch, I thought, Cherry being an old car which you can still trick like that. I turned around. And what did I see right directly across the parking lot from me and my car? A dry cleaner.

So I walked over and met a very sweet young woman who wasn't a bit surprised at my request and told me this happens all the time. I was already twisting the wire hanger into the perfect tool as I strode purposefully back to my car. I slipped it through the window, hook end first, snagged the latch and opened the car first try. Goody!

I phoned AAA and cancelled the visit.

I was luckier than Jeremy. Back down there in Old Mexico, he also had a car problem last week. Namely it broke down on the highway on the way into a fully scheduled day of bureaucracy, dentist appointments, shopping and miscellany. It had to do with a serpentine belt that was broken for a reason you don't want to know about, trust me. There were some scary moments for both Jeremy and Nicole, descending one of the steep curves on the highway without power steering, with sluggish brakes and a slow vehicle dead ahead. Not to mention an engine rapping like someone trying frantically to get out of a coffin.

Jeremy's fine and detailed story tells of the Federale who stopped and gave them a lift into Bucerias, where they flagged a taxi driven by 28-year-old Alberto. Alberto dropped Nicole off at the immigration office and proceeded to take Jeremy to get a new battery (which didn't do the trick once back at the car, seeing as how the serpentine belt was the culprit here, among others). So Alberto, after picking up Nicole and taking her to her dental appointment, took Jeremy to a backyard mechanic named Israel who promised to bring a new belt to the location of the car, an unmarked dirt turnout. 

Alberto returned Jeremy to the car and charged him a pittance for all that running around. Israel showed up with two belts, neither of which worked, and left to get another. Meanwhile, half the current population of San Pancho stopped to see if they could help out. So did the Mexican road-assistance truck. And the Federale from earlier. Eventually, Israel showed up with the correct belt--and an ice-cold Coke for Jeremy.

Jeremy didn't get his cavity filled, but he did pick up Nicole at the dentist. As they were heading home through Bucerias...here, I'll let him tell it:

As we drove back home, me filling her in on the details of the adventure, police lights, a siren, and a horn drive up along beside us. It is my friend the Federale (now this is the third meeting of the day) waving to us like a little kid, giving us the thumbs up. So on a day that may test one's nerves and pocketbook, I look back at this adventure with a smile and a bigger tattoo of the word "MEXICO" inked across my heart.

These are stories about cars, it's true. But both incidents punctuated a thought that's been flitting through my head lately. It's about change, I think, and the unexpected. About how profoundly good it is for us to have a wrench thrown in the lake now and then, as a language student of Travis's once put it. The changes don't have to be emergencies. They can be thought out, at least partly, leaving space for the serendipitous to bubble forth.

I'll have more to write about this in future posts because it seems to me that attitude is often what spells the difference between disaster and grace.

You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.    Dr. Seuss

I probably won't publish a post next week, as I'll be on the road for a few days, and, once back, in a place without reliable internet access. So have a fine 4th of July celebration. Shoot off some fireworks for me, would you?

Comments

[Sheri]

Im really missing Mexico right now. Thaks for sharing jJeremy's story.

We rented a Smart car in Sardinia...always wanted to drive in a Smart. It was a tight squeeze with Drew's gurtar. A belt broke during one of our drives and we spent an entire day dealing with towing and driving way out of our way to get a different rental car. We were so happy when we finally got to our final destination for that evening we had a new rental car and an amazing new village in Sardinia to explore the next morning, which made us enjoy the day even more.

Miss you!