Dotty Parker

car saga

BrilliantEditor and SirDougg were driving on Saturday to come home. They decided to take the pretty route through the Adirondacks. BE thought that SirDougg, being British, might enjoy a little American out-of-doors. (They have to stay inside in England.)

Well, the darlings got caught in some construction traffic and the engine started to idle much too high. BE knew that turning off the car and turning it back on again usually made the idle come back to normal. Guess what!

Not this time.

The car just wouldn’t start. He had lights come on, but, um, no one was home. A tow truck had to come and get them (they cuddled in the front seat on the way to the garage), but because they were in the middle of nowhere, it took an hour and a half for the cozy, towzy truck to get there.

The truck came from Utica and went back to Utica, but you can’t rent a car on Saturday afternoon around here. I had the little car (two seats) and therefore couldn’t bring them home. TheLion and LeTigress let me borrow their car.

So how did I find out that these two kids were stranded by a lovely lake in the Adirondacks? When there was no cell signal? I got a call from a woman with an accent from Tennessee maybe? She asked, “Is Dotty there?” Yep. “We have an insurance issue to deal with.”

I thought, “What the hell is this?” She said, “A ‘BrilliantEditor’ wanted me to call to tell you that he had car trouble and is stuck at a resort. Apparently they broke down in a construction site. Is he your boyfriend? Or your husband?”

An insurance issue? The car insurance has a AAA-like feature. This would, indeed, qualify as an insurance issue.

“Yes, he’s both boyfriend and husband.” She explained how things would work although I had no idea why they were in a construction site (she meant road work) and why they were at a resort (she meant a little resort town).

Things would work this way: they wait for the tow truck in a town called Inlet (now called Intel), the tow truck loads up the boys and the car; they drive an hour or two back to Utica (now called Cuticle), eat some steak at a scary, silly, Mafia-esque restaurant, and have a very charming person (me) pick them up and bring them home, another hour or two.

What an odd series of events. BE and SirDougg were very cute and sleepy. BE was doing his best to remain sitting upright while SirDougg was reclining as best he could given the restrictions of a car for a person over four feet tall. He seemed to slide in and out of wakefulness, sometimes sleeping, sometimes giggling at my and BE’s nonsense, sometimes giggling at his own, too.

We got home and have had a lovely, lovely time. Spring and Sprocket have entertained. We rented a car so we could all fit in one without stuffing one of us in the trunk. (Always volunteer to drive when this is a possibility. That’s a tip, kids.)

I got a call from the car people. There’s a bad starter. That’s all. We were budgeting a few thousand dollars and then budgeting a new car, but no! Hooray! Oh yes, indeed!

We’re getting our car back. Huzzah!

Posted by dotty at July 27, 2004 09:53 AM