The Caboose Got Loose April 26, 2008

So.

space

With a title like that how can I go wrong you ask? Well, by not adding a picture of the Bill Peet book about the caboose who got loose.

space

Since I have done that, there is nothing left to fear. I suppose just the story itself.

space

Four days ago Rene and I were driving home on the freeway when the car started making hideous noises for the second time in a week. I pulled over and the car shut right off. (Which is lucky timing because we were just about to cross the bridge – now that would have been bad) So we called a tow truck and sat in the car waiting for the truck to come get us.

space

When it arrived Rene tried to get out and the door stuck. I began tugging the door from the outside and he was pushing from the inside and as the tow truck man came over we just broke down laughing. At which point the door banged open.  There was no more whining about our pretty blue 4Runner named Tracy, there was no bemoaning that we had just bought the car a month before (for $4200). Nope. We couldn’t stop laughing – which I think scared the tow truck driver a bit.

space

When we got the door open and went over to him to find out what he needed us to do, Rene in typical Rene fashion, started making jokes and asking him if this wasn’t the prettiest car he had ever had to tow. He just looked at us and re-adjusted his baseball cap a few times.

space

Well we all hopped into the tow truck together like one big mis-matched-slightly-hysterical-but-mostly-sane-family-that-took-up-by-the-road-together-in-true-clover-towing-family-fashion.
Frank- yes we got his name – was not very talkative, until the tow truck died trying to pull our Tracy car up and underneath the freeway (there was a little service road). At that point he got a bit more lively. But not by  much really. (By lively I mean he started speaking into his intercom thing, which was sadly all the excitement we would see out of him).

space

So then we waited for another tow truck to come get us, meanwhile the Brits showed up to drive us so that we didn’t have to sit with the next tow truck man. (he wasn’t our frank and we were not going to go and get attached all over again for nothing). We waited for another tow truck who came and towed off the original tow truck (confusing?). Finally a third tow truck came and took our Tracy car and we went with Britton and Brittany (yes those are really their names, they just started dating and are immeasurably cute together, plus we can call them the Brits).

space

The car was towed to the nearest Toyota Dealership (or probably more accurately the only one we knew of). The third tow truck was home to two silly guys one of whom had an anger fit and kept throwing the calculator about inside the truck. It was all worth it thought because even though he called me doll (which I despised vehemently) he did give us a discount which we sorely needed as we didn’t plan on our Tracy car dying on us after a month.

space

So we spent the next two days setting up what we were going to do, we found out our car was basically worthless and that we would need to sell it for parts. We then decided to buy a zippy little 2008 Toyota Yaris Hatchback which was so fuel efficient it glowed. Or we glowed. Well anyhow one of us was glowing. Rene seems to think that it was the metallic paint, but I hold that it was due to the fuel efficiency.
Well we drove that little bastard around and around and around and let our hair blow in the wind like people who were free and wild. Leaving the parking lot was even more fun.

space

On the way home, on that dreaded freeway again, in the HOV Lane, we were driving along talking about how it all felt like a dream, and that none of this felt real, when raccoon jumped in front of the car and we hit it head on.

space

We felt a MASSIVE bump and scrape and then the car started making weird noises like we were dragging the raccoon though we were definitely not. (We saw it roll behind us.) Rene pulled over at the side of the freeway for the second time in three days, and turned off the car. I got out and was horrified at what I thought was raccoon blood, but turned out to be radiator fluid. (it was dark okay!) So for the second time in three days we found ourselves at the side of the road, with a car that would not drive, waiting for a tow truck. This time it was covered because we got extra coverage on our insurance. (Rene will want me to say here that he was the one who wanted this, not me, in fact I argued against it blah blah blah. Who hit the raccoon I ask you? ) (no okay that was a low blow, because that thing just came out of nowhere. I didn’t even see it till we hit it.)

space

We are now waiting for it to be towed to an ICBC approved dealership and to be looked at. If it is written off we get a new car, but they will probably fix it, even though we could easily see that the frame was dented, which kind of scares me that the frame can be dented that easily. that’s not good. anyhow. we are now out of a car again and I am very depressed. (and by that i mean i spend long periods of time staring off into space or sighing sadly or laughing loudly and sporadically, an octave higher than normal, at inopportune  moments (ie. your boss asking you how your week was).

space

So that is the story of the loose caboose. I think we have learned some valuable lessons here, which I will recap for those who are slow learners or who don’t really take the time to read my posts:

1.) never buy a tow truck

2.) always chain smoke when you are stuck at the side of the road

3.) don’t name raccoons that you have just killed with your newly purchased car.

space

I think I covered everything.  Was there any valuable lessons that I missed?