Thursday, October 31, 2013

Sing With Me Now

I've been watching the odometer creep into the "need an oil change" territory. I've got the potential for a job in the city so I decided to wait for that to materialize or not and then schedule an appointment to have the oil change done and the Jeep winterized. There should be a phone call today or tomorrow about the job so I would be able to schedule this soon.

In the meantime, I headed out into the field on an unrelated job and, well, let's just say things took a turn for the bizarre.


Yes, I am getting a tow.

I was parked on an incline. I set the parking brake and turned the wheels. I did what I needed to do and came back to the car. When I went to take off the parking brake, I had to push the brake pedal almost all the way to the floor. It wasn't like that when I stopped the car. Thinking something was odd, I drove up and over the rise to the flat and started pumping the brakes. Each time, I could stop but I had to depress the pedal almost to the floor. This worried me. Then, the brake light came on. Double worry.

I headed to the next stop and set up the next machine. As I was walking back to the Jeep, I noticed a very fast drip from under the car. I'm thinking fluid dripping is not normal. It wasn't oil, but there was a distinct petroleum smell. I had just filled the Jeep with gas but it was not gas. I know both smells of leaking oil and leaking gas. Could it be brake fluid?

I headed to the next stop and set up another machine. The drip was still going. I could stop, if I knew that I had to and could plan for that stop. But, if I was, say, cut off in traffic, there was no way I would be able to stop the Jeep. Worry set in. I called my boss and he came immediately to help with the job I was doing. I called my mechanic who said it sounded like a brake line had failed. So, I spent Wednesday afternoon waiting on a tow to my mechanic and then renting a car.

There are so many, many ways this could be worse. This could have happened on vacation. My mechanic gave the Jeep a complete check before I left on vacation. He looked over his report from early August and, at that time, everything was fine. But it's been 2.5 months since then and, given the age of the Jeep, stuff will fail. It was rainy but warm. It could have been a blizzard or sleet or 100 degrees in the shade with no breeze. They will get to the Jeep today and I'll only have the rental for one day. I have towing and, possibly, rental car allowance on my car insurance so I'll pay for everything and then, hopefully, get reimbursed. And it's the end of the month, payday, so this won't break the bank.

In years past, this probably would have depressed me for the whole of November. I'm in a much better place now so all I could think of, as I waiting for the tow truck, was this ditty, sung to the tune of "Bringing in the Sheaves".

Waiting for a tow.
Waiting for a tow.
We shall all be Facebooking,
Waiting for a tow.

Beverage:  Yorkshire Gold Tea

Deb

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