Automobile blues

Our car IS quite remarkable. I do a lot of complaining about it: the lack of power steering, the absence of air conditioning, heating, defogging- though a fan will blow to no great effect for all three of these- the useless windshield wipers (less of a problem during drought), the way you have to roll down the driver's side window to see out the side, the lack of power steering, no radio, no clock, no tape player, no power steering... Yet, it is now 20 years old and is currently chugging along quite nicely. For the last year it has gotten us everywhere we've wanted to go. Even when it was hemorrhaging oil, we made it to Sydney! All in all a bargain at $100.

This is as far as I got on Friday. I wanted to send a grateful message to the universe for the automobile that gets me to work, to the grocery, to the movies daily. I was going to try to then slide into a discussion of whether and what to sing in a car without a radio. Light and happy.

This morning, however, Kevin sketched a pentagram on the driveway with his three point turn. A steady stream of oil pours- not drips- from the passenger side of the engine. He thinks it is a new problem and not the one Rob fixed in Sydney. We've debated flying Rob up from Sydney to help- but I think the current plan is I'll fill it up with oil then (fingers crossed) drop it off at Aspley Automotive on Monday on the way to the train station. Kevin would say that "life tends to greater irony".