Jesus, Take the Wheel

This is my car, Audrey, on the day she and I became partners in conquering the road:

We've been best friends for 5 years.  Except for finicky shoes (read: tires), she and I have never had any fights.  We just get along splendidly.  She's been worth every penny I paid for her.

This is the story of how she made my Wednesday morning insane.

I noticed on Tuesday during my commute that my engine was running slightly louder than normal. It was weird, but everything else was fine, so I decided to see how it ran today and if it was still doing that, I’d take it in to get checked out. I got in the car Wednesday morning and it was fine, so I was happy about that and went on my merry way to work. So like 5 minutes into my commute, I notice that my XM radio is going in and out. Sometimes that happens like if I’m underground in a parking garage or a tunnel or something, but not usually when I’m driving down a regular road. Plus I take this road every day and I always listen to XM (LOVING THE NEW PEARL JAM STATION!!  Channel 39 if you have XM) and it’s never done that before. I thought maybe it was just acting up today b/c it was super rainy the night before and early Wednesday morning, though, so I decided to see if the regular radio would work. FM was fading in and out, too, so I knew something was up. I turned the radio off and kept driving and made a note to call the dealership as soon as I got to work.

Remember how I just said it had rained the night before?  Consequently I also was trying to use my wipers every so often to clear the windshield b/c of water that was getting splashed on them from the road.  The wipers were acting weird- super noisy (not normal) and SLLLOOOOOWWW. Anyway, like a minute after I turned off the radio, all these bad indicator lights started lighting up on my dashboard, so I started to kind of freak out a little b/c I was only about halfway to work, I was pretty far from the dealership, and L is out of town for work this week so he wasn’t exactly available to come rescue me and provide manly advice. I ever-so-wisely decided to keep driving at a slower pace in hopes that I could just make it to work so that I could park in an uncovered spot and have a tow truck meet me there. I kept driving (you better believe I was absolutely white-knuckling the steering wheel the whole time) and suddenly amidst all the bad indicator lights, the dials on the dashboard (like RPMs, speed, gas, etc) suddenly ALL went down to 0, like what it looks like when the car is totally turned off, but the car was still on and the lights on the dashboard were still on. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present to you exhibit A:

See those red and orange lights on the right side of the MPH dial?  THOSE ARE THE BAD ONES.  Also note that the dials are all pointing down and that the blue circle shows NOTHING in it.  That's not good.  The car was in drive when I took this, although I was at a stop light.  Also, for the record, I took this as pictoral proof of what was going on so I could show it to the dealership when I took Audrey in to get a physical.

Anyway, when the bad lights started I KNEW without a doubt that something was really, really wrong and was praying I’d get to my building before the car blew up or something. Side note: my office is in the middle of an area that is notorious for having HORRIBLE traffic b/c lots and lots of people and constant construction- 2 major highways and the inner loop all intersect around the area and they in the midst of building a Metro rail and station (for example, you can start out in the center lane and suddenly you’re in the far right lane, then after another light you’re instantly in the far left lane… basically someday there’ll be like 6 lanes in each direction or something but right now there’s only 3 at most at any given time and the lanes that are open change from time to time- the outside ones are all blocked off in various areas b/c of construction, hence the inconsistency). I’ve driven past people before that were stalled out and thought, “That sucks and I hope it’s never me!” because it’s just a disaster for everyone else when that happens. Anyway, to get to the point, I didn’t make it to work. I was waiting at a red light and the lights on my dashboard started going in and out, and just as it turned green and I started to go, my Audrey decided she wasn't having any more of the whole "driving" bit and she shut down. And would. not. re. start. Not even a little bit.  In case you are wondering, that results in panic, specifically, to me.  I was totally being that idiot car who was MAJORLY blocking traffic- I was right at a point where the toll road merges onto the road I was on so there’s a dedicated lane for them and then 2 other lanes… I was in the left lane but not quite to the turn lane for the light I was at. So I turned on my hazards but after about a minute the left side quit working (thanks to my dying by the second battery) so it just looked like I was trying to change lanes. GREAT!  What's a panicked girl to do in this situation?  Call her husband (obvi- b/c L can totally help from 5 states away).  Then I realized I should wave to the car behind me to go around me (she figured it out somehow) since she would clearly not get to her destination by staying behind me. L didn’t answer on the first try, so then I called my boss to tell her what happened and that I’d be late. Then I called my insurance company to see if they would cover a tow truck (they’ll reimburse a portion of the fee I was actually charged- which was an excessive amount that L referred to as a racket this evening and that my dad yelled about when I told him about it tonight) and while I was on the phone with them, the nicest man ever stopped and offered to help me, but then we couldn’t get the car into neutral (because of the lack of any kind of power) to be able to push it into the turn lane and out of the way. Right about that time the best cop I’ve ever met pulled up (cops regularly patrol the area because it’s so ridiculous) and after we told him what was going on, he pulled up in front of me, turned around, and tried to jump me. That got the battery to work a little but the car still wouldn’t turn over, so we threw it in neutral and they pushed my car out of the way. Then the cop called a tow truck for me (lesson of the day: tow trucks respond to cop calls faster than if it’s just a civilian calling) and was nice enough to wait with me until the tow truck arrived. The car got towed to the dealership and I got a loaner from them.  I finally got work only about 2 hours late, which wasn't too bad considering how far away the dealership is from where I work. 

If you're wondering what is wrong with Audrey, doctor/dealership informed me that I will most likely be the proud new owner of a new alternator (which, by the way, is not common apparently this is uncommon in girls like Audrey- usually they don't need new ones), a new battery, and new battery connectors (they over heated when the battery got fried, and it got fried because the alternator was bad.  Don't you just love a good contageon or domino effect??). My heart skipped a beat when my service guy told me what it's going to cost, but I guess that's part of being an adult and owning a car. As I said earlier, I've never had any problems with Audrey before this. Everything else has been general maintenance/normal wear and tear. I also know Audrey and I will continue to be BFFs for many years to come (I love not having a car payment!), so we'll gladly pay for some new hardware for her to keep her around.

Honestly the whole thing could have been a lot worse. It wasn’t raining anymore when my car decided to stop cooperating. Mike (the nice man) could’ve just done what I’ve always done and thought, “That sucks!” as he drove by (going in the other direction) instead of stopping. The cop could have been a jerk or just not waited with me for the tow truck (which came amazingly fast AND he got my car loaded faster than I've ever seen a tow truck load up a car), and the dealership could have run out of loaners, so all in all, for having car issues, it worked out well. Like to the point where I want to write thank you notes to everyone that helped me. I wish I’d gotten Mike’s last name or maybe his license plate number or something to find out where he lives! Oh well. I’ll just have to pay it forward.
 
And in completely unrelated news, one of my dearest, oldest friends got engaged earlier tonight!  Congrats K&D!!  I am so excited for you both and I can't wait to celebrate your big day with you!  Hooray for an awesome end of a crazy day!