Summer of Car Trouble II

A couple of nights after my father's car broke down, I needed to borrow my mother's for the day. So, I dropped her off at work, ran my errands, and then went to pick her up at around three in the morning.

We were driving back home when I rounded a curve and three deer bounded out across the road.

I slammed on the brakes and swerved enough to miss one, while another ran off. I managed to get the car stopped.

...in the same place where the last deer stood staring at us. I knocked it about five or six feet away, and then it got up and ran off. I'm freaking out, and my mother-who is famous for being anxious to the point of needing medication when it comes to driving-was completely calm.

"It's fine. It sounds like you didn't hit hard enough to damage the engine, and that's the important thing."

However, when we got back to the house we realized the ENTIRE passenger side headlight had been knocked out. Not like "glass-covering-the-bulb-was-broken" knocked out, but "literally-everything-that-makes-the-light-work" knocked out. There was just this gaping hole where it used to be.

The Summer of Car Trouble I

My entire summer was marked by car trouble. I have enough anecdotes for one miles long post or a few smaller ones. I've chosen the second option. TIME FOR THE FIRST STORY:

I had been home from college for about a week. I was driving one of my local friends around in my father's Buick. On our way to a concert, we stopped at a red light and saw that smoke was coming from under the hood. We stop at a gas station, and the realization that my father hadn't driven his car in months bit me in the ass.

The only problem I could see that we could fix right on the spot was that there was absolutely no water/coolant in the engine. I put half a gallon of water in it, and the car started right up with no smoke. All was well. However, my friend thought it was a good idea to stop by my house since it was on the way to our destination and have my father look at the car. I was like,

"Okay. Worst case scenario, you get to have a surprise sleepover."

We made it about a third of the way up the road to my house before the car overheated and died. We walked the rest of the way to my house.

Almost a mile.

Uphill.

She got her surprise sleepover.