Letters to you

For some reason I got a tug to call and check how Smurf is doing (the 19-year-old Chevy Cavalier that I sold to a coworker a while ago). Maybe it was because my mom owned that car before me and because it was so old when I sold it that it had developed a little personality of its own.

I talked to the new owner just now, and he said that three days ago Smurf got stolen. STOLEN??!? After 20 years of service and three owners, this car gets hot-wired and joy-ridden around town. I totally couldn't believe it. Smurf had an adventure!

The owner never expected to find it again, but after three days, the cops located it and it wasn't damaged. On the even brighter side, the owner's new job has worked out (he had been fired from my company about 2 days after I sold Smurf to him and before I had cashed the check - so I never cashed it). So... because the job has worked out he is once again solvent with money to spare, and he can write me a new check for Smurf which should get to me by Friday or Monday (yay extra money, since I just bought Stuff).

I didn't really call to collect from Smurf's owner though. That was just an excuse to call and see how Smurf was, heh.

Wellp, I've sold Smurf. It was very quick, and quite unexpected. Last week, a person at work told me that he had a 2-hour commute every morning from Baltimore using Amtrak and Metro and Ride-ons. I felt sorry for him since winter is coming up. Not that I thought this was a great solution, but I mentioned that I had a 19-year-old Chevy that was dormant, and which would decay and die if someone didn't start driving it soon. To my total surprise, he expressed interest. I guess any car is better than no car at all. I proceeded to try to dissuade him by telling him everything that had gone wrong with Smurf since its last visit to the vet's office auto shop, namely:

1. Something is wrong with the distributor (or some other unknown part) that causes it to stall out all the time when stopping/starting.
   
2. The steering wheel mechanism that locks it into different positions for individual driving comfort is broken. Thus, the steering wheel is permanently in the lowest possible position, and is not locked in place. The actual steering is steady as long as you don't lift up on the wheel, so it's driveable but would fail inspection.
   
3. Brake lights need to be checked - I didn't see them turn on.
   
4. One of the springs in the driver's seat is broken, and it has eaten one of my pairs of pants and about 5 of rialian's. (I guess it likes his better...)
   
5. The paint job was shot and it was rusted in many places. I removed the rust, partially sanded it, and rialian spray painted it with bright blue Rust-Oleum (hence the name Smurf) to retard the rust. This stop-gap procedure seems to have worked, but it sorely needs a real paint job.
   
6. It needs a little bodywork - there are two serious dents and a few lesser ones.
   
7. It needs a new A/C. The current A/C doesn't hold a charge and all the hoses have been changed. Furthermore, it takes the old kind of freon that they don't use anymore. So... New A/C.
   
8. It probably needs all the fluids flushed and changed, since it was sitting around for months. I was happily surprised that it started at all. I thought I remembered trying it and it was dead. Apparently not...
   
9. It needs all its belts and hoses checked and possibly replaced.
   
10. Needs to be thoroughly checked to make sure it's not a structural hazard.
    
11. Anything else I don't know about that cars get from sitting around with nobody driving them.

He listened to all of the above, and then said that he still wanted it, and would like to try to restore it. He offered $300, and I agreed.

Sold. Smurf gets a new lease on life. Somehow. Not sure how. This morning the guy metroed out from Baltimore and met me at my place, whereupon I signed over the title to him, and he drove Smurf to a place in Poolesville where he and a friend are going to work on it today. Hopefully they'll be able to get it in good enough shape for him to actually get tags for it and start driving it on Monday, but if not, then a week or so max. I followed him up to the lot in Lyra. At the lot we removed the tags and I said goodbye. Dude must have thought it was a little odd, as there I was, talking away to this car - "Good bye old buddy. This isn't good bye, this is fare thee well. This is going to be great for you." Dude chimed in at that point and said, "He's just going to the doctor's!" I ended by saying that if he ever intended to junk it, to let me know. He said he wasn't going to junk it. He was going to restore it.

So... I haven't driven that car (except to the shop) since I bought Lyra, but it's always been out front, waiting patiently. A couple of times we used it when cars were in the shop, but eventually we stopped that in favor of just carpooling on those days - no A/C is kind of rough in August... aekiy had used it for about a year but then he bought a newer car too and Smurf lay rusting. Still, it was hard to let it go.

Good luck to you, Smurf-Ra the Immortal. May this be the beginning of a long and prosperous journey for you...

Lyra needed an oil change and checkup/servicing before Road Trip, but I had planned to take it in next week after I got paid. However, on the way to work the usually whisper-quiet sound of Lyra gliding along suddenly became an ominous whirring sound. At first I thought there might be something wrong with the engine, but soon realized that no, I had a flat. I immediately turned off into a sidestreet where there was a conveniently located church parking lot. I don't remember the denomination, but do remember the feeling of "ah, sanctuary while I change my tire". After hauling myriad objects out of the trunk and sorting out the various jack parts to see if I owned at least one complete, functional jack, I popped off the hubcap and began relearning how to use the jack and where to position it so the car was stable (it had been quite a while since I last had a flat but it all came back)... Finally about 45 minutes and a lot of black smudges later, I got the donut on. Of course, at that moment a nice lady arrived at the parking lot and asked if I needed any help... A few minutes later I drove Lyra to the even more conveniently located repair shop a block away from where I work to get a new tire and get the oil changed. They tested the tire, and there was a small nick on the side of it which was not repairable, and the tire has to be replaced. I remember scraping against a curb a month or so ago - Maybe it got nicked then, and the stress on the tire finally tore it through. Or maybe Lyra didn't want this to happen when I was on Road Trip...

Notes to self:

Do not pile 8 tarps, a pile of East Coast maps, a road atlas, 5 plastic thermal blankets, two toolboxes, a box of drinks, two rolls of toilet paper, an outdated catalog, a can of paint, two window scrapers, a pair of snow treads, 5 rain ponchos, and assorted jacks and jack parts on top of the spare tire.

Do take all the extra huge truck jack parts out of the trunk and put them in the van. The nice little jack that Lyra came with is more than adequate for the job, is easy to use, and is lightweight.

Him (after she spent a day sanding Car down to primer, and he spent two days primering and painting it a deep, sparkling metallic blue): Well, how's it look??

Her (contemplating the unevenness of the paint due to the fact that we attempted to do this with cheapo spray cans): Uh, it's a *beautiful* color... but it's really uneven. It definitely looks like, um, a Handjob!

Him: Well, it's nice to know your car is into auto-erotica...

So, does anyone know the best way to inexpensively paint a car? I will have to go over it again using an alternate method.

As I was driving about 5mph through the main strip of a parking lot, a very young, fresh-off-the-boat, confused Asian guy in a nice, shiny, black car came out of the side strip without stopping and coasted slowly into Car. Confused, I got out of the car to assess the damage - another little dent in yet another fender. I noticed the small impact had somewhat shattered the rust in the area and it was coming off in large flakes. He walked over to me looking sheepish and confused. I laughed and said, "Why'd you hit me?" That seemed to confuse him even more and he kind of smiled a very sheepish smile and said, "Ung". I told him not to worry about it (worrying about such a small dent on Car is like worrying about a little sand on the beach). I'll tap it out and touch it up later tonight. We walked over to his car - his nice shiny paint was all scratched up on the bumper that hit Car. I told him he could paint that with gloss car paint pretty easily. Then I asked again, "But... why'd you *hit* me??" and laughed to make it less threatening. He laughed sheepishly, and went "ung." Satisfied that I'd received the only correct answer to my question, I drove on to work.