Hello, Old Friend!

Because of the deterioration of the minivan (even though they brought it in to replace the muffler), my parents finally took my old car out from under the tarp and from behind the side gate.  The battery had been removed when it went into storage (which I want to say was almost two years ago), and it was old anyway.  The hood did not shut by the time I put the tarp over it.  And who knows what else had happened to the car as it's been lying dormant next to our house all these months.  But my folks, with the help of some guy, put in a new battery, fixed the hood, cleaned out the inside (My Father bitched about the melted candy in the inbetween panel) and the trunk (saw a bunch of stuff thrown in the recycling bin; decided to not fight it nor look through it), and took it out for a ride.  It is now usable again -- far from the sleek ass-kicker it was when I first drove it in 1994, but it runs.

My Father recommended I take the old car when I went exercising (for real this time!) last night.  That was a good idea.  I wanted to see how, and if, the car was working.  And I've got to be honest: Even though I was scared as hell of how the car was going to respond to driving, when I went in there for the first time in, I'd say, 20 months, it took me back.  The leather, now faded and un-stitched.  The radio, which I was reminded doesn't work when I turned the broken dial back and forth.  And the shifter, as sticky as the last time I drove it from the driveway in past the gate.

But the engine turned over like it should have.  And it didn't overheat on the way to the gym, or Dairy Queen (where I stopped by for a Blizzard) or home, which was one of my worst fears.  It didn't accelerate as smoothly as it did the first years I drove it, but hey, what do you expect with a car a quarter-century old?  The big "problem" I can detect is that there is a huge gurgling or grinding sound whenever I accelerate.  The transmission shifts just fine, but where could that sound come from?

Otherwise, it worked just fine.  I don't know if it'd survive a cross-country road trip.  But to the gym?  It'll work.  Could it take a day around town?  I didn't think it would initially, but now, I don't know.

I'm just (and don't tell my folks) so happy that it's working.  My Father did yeoman's work; he reclaimed something from the scrapheap of the past because he thought it would still work, and with some care and, more importantly, a little luck he was totally right.  And I can feel like I'm 18 years old again.