Julia's first car breakdown experience!

PostedDate

11/3/2005 1:26:00 PM

Body

My little grey car has been good to me so far, so I was surprised today when I suddenly heared a strange flapping sound in my car as I was driving down Highway 1. I pulled over. Deciding that I wasn't too far from the Sand City exit, I decided to try to turn back on my engine and try to crawl off the freeway at least. Buuut, when I actually turned on the engine- the flapping sound was louder and there was a very very scary smell. No no... that wouldn't work. I called my mom and was advised to get out and away from my car and call AAA.) I tried to call AAA but the loud cars passing by made it IMPOSSIBLE to hear the silent computerized operator. I called my mom back and asked her to call them for me. Soon after I hung up with my mom. A car pulled over to help me... it was someone I know! I actually wasn't surprised to see him because he, like me, is an MPC student who is taking the next level of Japanese at CSUMB and so I knew that he pretty much has the same route after Japanese class as I do. He looked under the hood at the engine. We're starting to learn car vocabulary in Japanese class, so we had just told eachother earlier that neither of us knows anything about cars. Nope, nothing exploded. Nothing that's OBVIOUSLY wrong here... He asked me to try turning on my engine again and he heard the sound. Also confused about it, he agreed that it probably IS best for me not to try to get off the freeway. He talked to me for a while (helped me calm down a little), made sure I was okay, gave me two little bags of Cheetos and his phone number, and drove off. About right then, AAA called me. The woman on the phone was obnoxious. I TOLD her where I was. I told her what exits I was between, but she was still listing off different exit names asking me if they are familiar (of course they're FAMILIAR, I drive this way EVERY DAY!) Finally, I told her that I had mentioned where I was WAAAAY earlier in the conversation and that should probably be enough. While I was still talking, another car pulled over to help me. This time it wasn't a person I know. Soo... I was a little worried. While I was talking to the woman on the phone (where exactly DOES Seaside begin, anyways?), I watched as the man lit a cigarette and stood a little too close for comfort to my open hood. The woman had me on hold for a while when the man held something from my car up for me to see. I had no clue what he was trying to show me and I wasn't crazy about strange people taking pieces out of my car. The woman wasn't saying to me (probably STILL trying to figure out my location...) so I got out of my car. I had noticed that this guy had on a jacket that said something about  "Aeronautics" earlier... so I supposed that this guy knows (or likes people to THINK he knows) a good lot of things about mechanics. I asked him and he said he IS a mechanic. Assuming he wasn't lying at that time, I would have concluded that I have extraordinary good luck... but I was still wary because I know how people can and DO lie. He told me that my spark plug became... ermm... unplugged and a few more things were loose (apparently, this was the fault of the last mechanic I had... NOT my car!) The did a few things and then asked me to try turning on my engine again... ...no flapping sound!!!!! I thanked the man, gave him the Cheetos as payment (which he laughed at and accepted), and I got his phone number. That situation could've been really horrible... I know that. I have a lot of luck, I suppose. ...not that believing that would make me any less wary in the future, of course (that would just be foolish.) And here ends the story of Julia's first car breakdown experience... ~Julia~