1/4/13
I was driving my car today and started to smell gas coming through the vent. I wasn’t certain where the smell was coming from until I got home and looked under the car and saw gas dripping from the engine. I wasn’t sure what to do except take it immediately to my mechanic. He’s kept me driving safely for many years but this problem caught him off guard and he told me I was “grounded”, and couldn’t drive the car until he fixed it.
The car is being looked at now as I’m writing this and hopefully will be fixed today, but what a damned inconvenience. The ironic thing about this story is that if I hadn’t quit smoking a month ago, I might have blown myself up today, before the gas odor had become noticable or something else might have started a motor fire. You never expect these things to happen but they do.
I remember over 20 years ago I tried to help a guy who had a motor fire. We didn’t have a fire extinquisher and tried to smother the fire with a blanket he got from the trunk of his car. That didn’t help. The blanket caught fire and we had to stomp on it on the ground to put the fire out. As the engine flames got hotter and higher we made the mistake of shutting the hood. Then the fire got hotter and began to burn the hood metal. These were the days before cell phones. Someone in one of the houses on the street called the Fire Department. Once the firemen arrived the car was engulfed in flames. The owner and I could do nothing but watch it burn, as we stood across the street for fear it might blow up. Fortunately the firemen put out the fire.
I’m thankful a fire didn’t happen to me today but it could have, I’m just grateful I could get to the repair garage without blowing myself up. Now I’m hoping it doesn’t cost me a fortune to fix it. Sometimes the repair bill for an older car can be worth more than the car. Misfortune like this seem to happen when we can least afford them and least expect them. This is a really bad way to start the new year, but I’m counting my blessings it could have been worse, I could have blown up.
L.A. Steel
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