the bad sound

There are lots of sounds I don’t want to hear while I’m driving.  In the past week I’ve been able to experience most all of them ~ the woman in the car next to me telling me my brake light is out; the kids bickering; Lexy yelling over the roar of the wind (we paid 600 bucks last summer to fix the a/c I can’t live without and now if we run it the car stalls) "MOM!!!  WHAT’S BIRTH CONTROL PILLS???"  You know — BAD SOUNDS.  Today had extra bad sounds though.  Today was the sound of my heart pounding like mad as I realized that when I turned the corner, onto a downhill street, my car stalled, again.  That was followed by the sound of the brake pedal not working.  Then I oofed and cursed while trying to steer the heaviest car ever without power steering.  Then I realized that I was about to coast into oncoming traffic with my babies in the car.  It’s bad to use such language within earshot of the kids, so I redirected my energy into getting the car into neutral so I could restart it and get home, or at least to the curb.  Here’s where the really really bad sound comes in.  The sound of me not being able to see the gear selection light up thing on the dash (cause no power) and accidentally putting it first in reverse, then in park, WHILE STILL ROLLING before realizing that I should have shifted DOWN for neutral rather than up.  The bad bad sound was of the huge clunking and thunking kind.  The sound of what I think was the linkage breaking, the gear box incinerating and the transmission falling onto the pavement.  The transmission didn’t really fall out, though. 

Yeah.  So.  We are all safe.  I got it to the curb and got the ebrake set.  I didn’t even crash into the truck parked there like I was certain I would.  Luckily I have a new car to pick up on Monday.  We bought (my parents, I should say, loaned us the money to buy) a nissan minivan.  I’m eternally grateful to them for helping us out.  My sister was headed over to my place to babysit for me anyway, so I called her and she picked up the kids and took them home while I waited for the tow truck.  Anyone want a free van?  Needs a little work.

I have to go start figuring out what to wear to blogher.

6 thoughts on “the bad sound

  1. snakehairedgirl

    Aaaa!! That all sounds horrible–except the part about getting a new car and going to Bloger–which I would have seriously tried to attend if weren’t otherwise engaged. Oh well.
    There’s next year!!

    Reply
  2. Geoff

    Holy carp. Wow. What year is the Nissan? I’m glad everybody was ok. You SHOULD be in great shape with a Quest- never seen a bad review of them and I used to sell them and I loved them. I hope this one is everything you need it to be. Take care!

    Reply
  3. kayla

    holy crap. I was about to offer to come out there and steal your van during the night so that you could collect the insurance on it and be done with the damn thing, but then I saw you got a new one. I’m so glad!!

    Reply
  4. elayne

    heart.
    pounding.

    I ::heart:: your mom and dad. Give them a hug and kiss from me, and tell them thank you for the new van from a complete stranger whose heart rate should get back down to normal by around Tuesday.

    Reply

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