How to avert disaster.

I have been having some very interesting happenings with driving lately. I have a lovely little white, 98' Chevy Cavalier Station Wagon. I got it when I started working over 3 years ago. We all thought it wouldn't last longer than a year. It has a good motor in it but the body work is all patched and puttied. It has been a great car.

My car has a few interesting quirks about it that you should know. My hatch won't open as of a couple of weeks ago. The windshield wipers turn on at will for no apparent reason. There is no way to make them stop once they decide to go on their own. I can hear outside but can't quite pinpoint where it's coming from and it's not the floor boards. The defrost doesn't really work in the winter but man does it blow great in the summer! Lastly, sometimes, there is a small slow beeping that gradually increases in intensity and urgency. It sounds similar to like...a countdown to some grand event that could be the car blowing up.

Well this week, as you know, has been a back to work week for me and I haven't really been too impressed with all that working for a living stuff. But just to throw a little action into the mix, I ended up in the ditch coming home from work one day. It's always the worst when it's all happening slow-mo and there is nothing you can do to stop it. The long and the short of my ditch driving was that I was coming down the hill (by the penitentiary.... yikes!) and they had just cleared the roads so they had a nice sheen to them. Then we got a bit of snow and the icy wind chill we've had of minus a billion polished it up. Coming to the T in the road I could see I wasn't going to be able to stop and was headed directly for a ditch. So I thought I might try to try a General Lee maneuver and try to take the corner in a Dukes of Hazzard fashion. Well, lets just say I didn't make the corner....so I tried to get on to the snowmobile tracks down in the ditch a little in hopes of riding that baby outta' there. Well that didn't work either. And in hindsight, my husband says I was overreaching that one. haha... I'm a bit of a risk taker. I hitched a ride to town and called my hubby who said he'd take care of it. And he did. With his Buddy, who razzes me relentlessly about spending more time in the ditch than out. (he pulled me out last year too).

So the other night I had taken to the dark highways once again to drive 45 min to the city to get my books for university when half way there, my gas pedal froze in place. This is more common than I had first thought. I think because of our freezing cold climate and high wind chill factors (-37 C ish all the time lately) it's pretty common for it to happen to most of the people I've spoken to about once a winter. I don't know if this has ever happened to you but it is very scary when your going 110 km/h. So I tried to push the pedal in to jiggle it loose. Makes sense? Well, it stuck at the higher speed. Not nice. I don't know about you, but despite my love of riskiness I don't really like driving 160 or so around other vehicles, errrr...well really at all for that matter. So I got it in neutral and got over to the side of the road where I almost blew my motor. Should I get out? Will it catch fire? Do like pistons and the like shoot out when that happens? I think that needle being in the red zone is bad. What's the logical step? What's the protocol? It all runs through your mind when your trying to figure it out in the minute you have. I was praying like a fiend when all suddenly returned to normal. *sigh of relief and thanks to God!* So I continued on my way. It did happen again on the way home and I handled it better than the first time.

The car went in the shop today where they fixed it -AGAIN- and blew all the snow out from under the hood from my ditch driving expedition.

I asked Larry if it was fixed. He gave me a nervous laugh and said "I guess you'll find out." Yah, I guess I will.

I got a lesson on what to do if it happens again from my friend, the mechanic.

So girls, if you find your gas pedal frozen at an incredibly high speed in the near future....just turn your car off. Yep. That's it. Don't try to put it in neutral. Don't do anything...just turn it off and drive your driving little self over to the side of the road. It sounded so unnatural to me that I had him take me out in my car and show me it would work. Then I practised once. lol Driving lessons from my mechanic. Nice. And apparently it's much cheaper to do that than blow your motor. hahaha

So that's it. I know what to do when disaster strikes next time. Which I'll just have to wait and see if it does or not.....