The Mighty Taurus developed a little attention-getting trick a month or so ago. For no earthly reason, it would die at a stoplight. A bit of a fight, and it would start up, and the next several trips it would run fine, but then it would pull its stalling out routine again. We've already done the tranny thing - the last time it pulled this, there was a leak in the transmission - so we moved on to the next thing on the list, the fuel line. Last Tuesday, we had the fuel filter replaced, since we realized that in the decade or more we've owned the Taurus we haven't dealt with the fuel filter. It came home and ran better than it had for quite some time. It looked like we'd solved the mystery.
You know where I'm going with this, don't you?
Oh, yeah. Dead in the middle of the road at a stoplight, not even in the curb lane. No warning at all, not even the token shudder or RPM dip that so often heralded disaster in previous stallouts. And it would. Not. Start. Again. Period. The more I tried, the more tired the poor starter became. I could almost hear it crying.
At least it picked a beautiful day to die.
Fortunately, no testosterone-crazed, cell-phone-distracted SUVs came up behind me, and a cop helped push me off into a nearby parking lot (where I managed to slide the Taurus into the only shady slot available.) Also fortunately, I had brought the family cell phone. Yes, we have only one in the entire family - I know, hideously outdated and impractical and all that, but at least we have the one for just such emergencies. Also also fortunately, I'm a AAA member. Bare-bones basic, of course, but it's at least a number to call, and I was within ten miles of our usual shop so it was free towing.
So, anyway, the car got to the auto shop without mishap, and is now waiting there to be dealt with for the second time in a week. And I got a nice, long walk in getting to the freebie-around-town bus station, so I could swing by Mom's workplace and ask to borrow her car to get myself and my groceries home. Since I'm typing this up, obviously she let me borrow it.
Hopefully I'll move some of my new drum ornaments to help pay for this. (Already posted pics on the usual boards, and am too lazy to repeat now.)
On an unrelated note, we saw WALL*E the other day. Highly recommended movie, with a lot going on and several fun refs for sci-fi buffs. I'd have enjoyed it much more if not for a very loud kid whose parents wouldn't keep her out of the theater; they kept bringing her back in to annoy everyone at the top of her lungs. She officially ranks as the second most annoying child I've ever suffered through a movie with. (The first is still the kid from Pocahontas who literally ran up and down the aisle yelling at the top of her lungs for over half an hour; her mother looked on lovingly, apparently unable to hear the numerous complaints from other patrons.)
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3 comments:
You're kidding me - she ran up and down the aisle for a half an hour without an usher doing anything??! I mean, granted, her parents should've pulled her immediately but you'd think that if they didn't, the ushers would have escorted the entire family out!!
Bummer on the car. May it be an easier (and cheaper) fix than you expect!!
PPG - Around here, the theaters are so understaffed that there aren't usually ushers checking in on shows themselves, and it's a tossup if anyone would be available, let alone willing, to remove patrons for disrupting a show. And I've usually found parents to be the worse part of a disruptive family, and not just when they won't take out an irritating kid; one showing of a Star Trek movie was made annoying by the mother next to me constantly reassuring her ten-odd-year-old son that it was all make-believe (which he clearly knew, even if she evidently didn't), and I still remember the parents at a late showing of The Mummy with the absolutely-terrified-out-of-his-skull young boy... they helpfully covered his eyes every so often. Kept hoping the Nightmare Karma Police caught up with those guys...
And, right now, I'm waiting for word on the Taurus. They said they couldn't get to it until today - Thursday - and from the look of his book it wouldn't be until late Thursday, which it pretty much is (about 4 PM.) And if they try to pawn it off on a dead battery, it's going across town to Auto Tech for a second opinion. I know about bad alternators and dead batteries, and this ain't that.
BD - If you go to Lincoln Square Cinemas they have better behaved audiences, and ushers on the ready. It's a pain to drive to and park, but the seats are also more comfortable than the closer theater.
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