good times, great oldies

"What the heck were you doing holding a muffler?"
-Well, I have been hesitant to share this with all because it may seem a bit ridiculous that I threw down about $1,000 for a Manual 1986 Volkswagon Cabriolet Convertible. Yeah, that precious lil' maroon mufflerless thing, is my new ride. I am taking a break from the bus and enjoying my cheap, crappy car until it breaks.

So anyway, Kristina came to town last weekend and as I was touring her around the town, impressing her with the multiple stoplights, more than single-laned roads, and scary, homeless crack-heads, I decided to drive her to Ikea. -You might say BIG woop, but that place is amazingly huge. It is like a furniture theme park. The whole place is kind of a maze. With a "Start" and "Finish" and short-cuts along the way. Anyway, after spending at least an hour strolling through, we exited and spent another fifteen minutes circling the building (yeah, its that big) to find it. We finally found it and pulled out, happily resting our feet. We stopped at a stoplight and I put it in neutral (yeah, I am learning to remember; stalling sucks). The light turned green, I put it in gear, and the engine became louder. Kristina and I looked at each other, but continued.
After about a minute of listening close, I said, "Hmm... The engine sounds really loud."

Kristina nodded and said, "Yeah it does."

I listened a little more, "Well, its a pretty old car. It has always been loud, but... Hmm... It kinda sounds like we are dragging something."

Kristina smirked and said, "Yeah, like your muffler?" and she laughed.

I laughed too. -I mean really, like we were dragging my muffler? Naw...

A few blocks later our exchanged glances were becoming increasingly worried.

"Hmm... maybe I should pull over..." And I swerved for the nearest place.

A beauty shop.

I got out of the car only to see a chunk of metal barely hanging from the rear of my car. Yeah, my muffler. I pulled it off, and Kristina and I bust a gut. We threw it in the back of my car and sped off, loudly.

The little car has already provided me with some great (quite arguable after hearing these stories) experiences.

Today, for example:

A couple of my friends needed a ride and I agreed since only so long ago I was unhappily relying on the Seattle busses. Anyway, they did their business, and then pulled out. -I put it in reverse, backed out, and put it back into first ge-.

Well, I attempted to put it in first gear, but it didn't allow me to. I tried again. Nope. It insisted on remeaning in reverse. Hmm. That is strange. I was with Zak at the time, who is very skilled in cars (former mechanic), so I asked him to look at it. He tried many things, but lacked expertise in Volkswagons and was toolless. So, we recruited the help of a guy at a neighboring store, and asked our friend (who has never driven a car) to steer it into a parking space while we pushed.

Since it was her first time driving a car, we carefully instructed her that all she had to do was steer the car into the space, and press the brake. We explained that the brake was the middle pedal, and the others were useless. We told her that if she panicked, she could even pull the emergency brake. So yeah, she had never driven, but all she had to do was steer/brake. Simple.

So Zak, the guy from the store, and I began pushing the car, it picked up a bit of speed and began rolling into the space. -And it would have, had she steered two feet to the left... And then if she had hit the breaks! Crunch! She panicked, and forgot about the brake. We pushed the car back from the one it had just bumped into, and pulled it into the space beside. Luckily, we were going so slow, it merely scratched the other car, and the owner shrugged. Talk about amateur driving, MARTA. Haha.

Oh well, no real harm done. And when Zak got in the car to grab the keys and lock the doors so we could leave, it went into gear! So, my sweet ride is STILL functional!