Darn Car!

The Story So Far:

• Thursday, April 12th: my 1994 Eagle Vision, which heretofore had no problems at all in the two years I've owned it, stalled out at several red lights and didn't want to start again. Eventually someone pushed it into a gas station, and I had it towed to my mechanic. The tow truck guy noticed a leak under my car, which I mentioned to the mechanic.
  
• Friday, April 13th: I got the car back a little after 5 PM. $585.64 bought me new battery terminals, fuel filter, fuel pump and tow.
• Sunday, April 22nd: the car started doing the same darn thing again. A cop pushed the stalled car into a (different) gas station. When evening came, we tried to drive it to the garage, but their lot was blocked off for a fresh surfacing with tar.
• Monday, April 23rd: I dropped off the car in the cool of the morning, and took the bus to work.
• Tuesday, April 24th: got the car back. It had been overheating, in part because a regulator had failed on one of the engine's fans so that it wasn't turning on. They plugged one coolant leak and filled it up, but warned me that more leaks would follow, and they didn't like all that "play" on the steering wheel. The bill this time: another $135. I had Worldwide Travel (my former employer) rent me a car for my drive to Phoenix on Monday the 30th.
• Friday, April 27th: the car did not stall out, but it was on the edge of overheating in the stop and go traffic on Speedway as I drove back from making John's car payment. I changed the car reservation from an airport pickup and one day rental to an in-town pickup and a two-day rental. The engine later got hot even on a brief drive to Safeway after dark.
• Sunday, April 29th: the car overheated yet again, but did not stall out, as I drove back from church. I pulled into Hanson's for gas, opened the hood, and saw lots of green fluid pooling on the engine block and the ground below.

Now, here's my plan:

• I'm scheduled to work until noon and then take the rest of the day off for my trip to Phoenix (technically, Scottsdale). So I'll drive to work and hope the car makes it. Or maybe I'll just drop the car off and take the bus. I'll have to see whether the car is willing to go the three milees to work!
• When I leave work I'll go directly to the garage and drop off the car, unless I've done that already. Then I'll eat lunch, and go to Enterprise and get the rental.
• Once I have the rental I'll go home, check my email, goof off for a bit, and drive to Scottsdale. On the way I'll probably dig up an In-N-Out Burger, because
  
• 
  
• ...my next stop is the Poisoned Pen Bookstore, where John Scalzi is doing a reading and a signing.
  
• To my mild shame, I haven't actually read any of his novels yet, just a short story, some Ficlets and lots and lots of his online non-fiction, some of it in book form. But the way my schedule for Monday is set up, I'll probably put a dent in Old Man's War while I'm waiting. Military sf really isn't my subgenre, but I sampled the first page of The Android's Dream once, and that appealed to me even less. I know from his other work that he's a darn good writer, though, so perhaps it's time to give his novels a chance.
  

I guess my Doctor Who musings will have to wait for another night. I got a nice long nap today on the couch while John tore out more of the moldy bathroom - but I still need to go the heck to bed!


Karen