… I’d been thinking about selling the Subaru and using the old Fords for regular transportation. Part of me was thinking it would be kinda retro cool to be driving a 70’s vehicle all the time. On the other hand, I figured I probably would end up having to go into debt to buy something like the Subaru in a few years, so why not just keep it.
… Now, most of you who know me are thinking: yeah, with his history, he’s bound to sell the Subaru and end up going into debt to get something else in a couple years.
… True, true. Whenever financial frugality come into conflict with automotive decisions, cars have always won. Until this time (probably).
… I got up this morning planning on driving Old Blue into work. Went out to the garage, cranked it over, turned on the swamp cooler and closed the garage door*. I got out of the car to go get the stuff I needed for school and by the time I got back the car had stalled. And wouldn’t start again. I tried for about 5 minutes and gave up. I knew I had flooded it, but needed to get to work, so I couldn’t wait for it to settle. (I got it started right away when I got home).
… This is when I realized I needed to keep the Subaru. It’s frustrating enough trying to get an old carbureted car running when it’s freezing out, but the added bonus of needing it to get to work would have been too much. Thanks God for the Subaru. I just got everything out of the car, brought it over to the porch and then went back to get the keys out of the car.
… This is where things got really-really fun. Because the house was locked, the garage doors were closed and I forgot the side door of the garage was locked when I shut it. No keys, no phone, locked out of the house in the cold and already 15 minutes behind schedule for work. Not happy.
… I ended up having to kick in the back door to the house to get to the garage door opener there. It was shockingly easy to kick in the door, took only 3 good kicks and the door jamb just shattered. At least I had built that back porch with the lockable storm door in it. So I spent this evening replacing the door knob and the door jamb on my back door.
… The good thing is that I did get to feel like Joe FBI for a few minutes this morning, kicking in the perp’s back door.
.
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*I do this because when it’s cold the car needs to idle a few minutes and I don’t want the noise to drive the neighbors crazy at 6 am. The swamp cooler pumps fresh air in so I don’t end up committing suicide.
2 comments:
Well, I assume you strengthened your back door, then? Far better to find out this way then to come home to a robbed house.
As for cars that don't start in the cold, hey, my "66 Beetle would start in the cold -- as long as it was on a hill or someone would push me -- but in REAL heat, like over 100, that little thing would just poop out and die until it cooled down -- because, well, that's what air-cooled engines do.
I also remember scraping the INSIDE of the windshield a lot in cold weather when I had a passenger. If not, then I'd often have to ride with the window down in freezing wind so that my breath didn't condense and freeze on the windshield.
Oh, the fun.
sigh.
Yeah, the back door now has a big metal door jamb that bolts about 3 feet into the wall. (ok, just 5"). And the Subaru has a secure place in my stable. All is well again in Rossitown.
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