Love/Hate Relationship

So, my 1989 RX-7 convertible....I love it, I hate it. Ever since I had an opinion about cars I thought convertibles were the coolest things ever and I wanted one. Back in the day I could only afford a Suzuki Samarai, which is like a Jeep wannabe, and that was as close to a convert as I could get. Fast forward twenty years: I married a "car guy" who loved RX-7s. He had two hardtops when we married and then his dad bought this convertible and just held onto it for us until we sold one of ours and bought it from him.

I was in heaven....finally a convertible, sporty and fun, but not too fast and it's been reliable until the last six months. Back in the fall I had to call AAA for a jump. I was an hour from home and the jump was the best option, but that was a nerve-wracking drive home because I knew if I stalled it I would be stranded again because it wasn't going to start without another jump. The Hubs worked on it and we were going strong for another six months or so.

Then two weeks ago, the same thing happened and I called AAA, got towed home this time because it wouldn't jump. The Hubs worked on it again and thought it was fixed. So, I decided to drive it to my mom's last night for dinner. The sun was low in the sky and the breeze was cool and I was looking forward to the drive home at dusk.

As I left mom's I said, "hope my car starts". I get in, turn the key, NOTHING! I just burst out laughing. Seriously, it is like I have a jinx on me or something because batteries seem to drain in my presence (but that is another story). I tried all the things I knew to try and nothing worked. I called the hubs and he told me to turn the key on and then jiggle the battery cables and voila' I got power. I started it and drove off enjoying the evening drive.

About three miles from home I made a turn and felt the power steering go, I coasted to the side of the road just shaking my head. Of course, it wasn't so very funny now since it was almost dark and I was stranded on the side of a very dark, back road in shorts, a tank, and flip flops. This is like a horror movie set up right?

I figured I would just repeat what I had just done at Mom's, but that didn't work. So, I call her first to get a ride to the house for the truck then call the hubs for instructions on how to tow the stupid thing myself, because I wasn't calling AAA again. No one quite got why I didn't want to call AAA again. I will admit that it would have been easier and maybe faster, maybe, but I had two reasons why I didn't want to call AAA. Firstly, since I've been married I've become a fuckin' wuss....seriously. So, I really just wanted to be self-sufficient and take care of it myself. Towing a car is not beyond my skills. Secondly, it was getting dark and I did not want some skanky-ass tow truck driver taking me and my dead car home to a dark house in the middle of the boondocks and leaving with the knowledge that there was a woman alone way out in the country with a dead car and no husband in sight. Again, with the horror movie scenario, or maybe I just read too many scary books, but have you ever seen a tow truck driver?

So, we get the truck and the tow strap and a flashlight, get it hooked up and by now it is full dark. We are three miles from home and we travel at about three miles an hour, but we got home without incident. I can't help but laugh when I think of the sight of us crawling along at 3 mph, with me waving a mag light flashlight out my open top because I didn't have any lights. I had visions of that "you might be a redneck if" email that goes around periodically with the photo of the truck with a flashlight duct taped where the headlight should be....jeez, I'm not too far from that redneck designation as evidenced by the waving flashlight and the use of the lawnmower to weight the tarp down once we got it home. If the thing stays DOA in the driveway, canted at the funny angle, with the tarp/lawnmower arrangement for too long my redneck status will be cemented.

Suffice it to say I have no intentions of driving anywhere until the Hubs comes home and I can drive the reliable car....or the car I haven't killed yet.