Judebert.com

New Car

Well, perhaps my karma isn't so bad, after all. My friend Richard -- the one with whom I've been carpooling, and who I stranded when Penny's water pump gave out -- needs help getting his two older cars working. He's been injured, and he needs an automatic, so we revived his old Mercedes today. It's been sitting for a year, but we just gave it a jump start. Two tries later it was moving. Those old diesels are tough: all it needed was a new battery.

Then we went to rescue his other car, an old Civic hatchback. After four months of sitting, it started up with a jump, too. He has no place to keep it, so I was happy to take it off his hands for a paltry sum.

So, I've been slacking off on getting the EV put back together. Now my commuter car has broken down. The water pump is broken, and it'll cost $450 to fix it.

Worse yet, I stranded the guy I was carpooling with, and inconvenienced a coworker who had to come get us.

The car is really in rough shape. One of the tie-rod ends is so bad that the car wobbles all the way to 60 MPH. One of the front tires is bald. It leaks in the rain. The paint, upholstery, and vinyl are shot.

Maybe it's time to let this one go. Perhaps the public radio station would like it as a donation.