Last year before we drove to Iowa I had my car completely checked out by the mechanic. My car had been rather noisy lately but the mechanic said that it was more of a nuisance thing and if I could live with the occasional noise it didn't need to be fixed. The noise came and went so it wasn't really much of a big deal until recently. The last month or two the car has been making the noise a lot more often so a few weeks ago, in one of my conversations with our contractor at the office, I mentioned I needed to find a new mechanic since the Saturn dealership had closed. Cyril said that his brother was a mechanic and that his shop was not far from the office. Since I still thought it was only a nuisance thing - and I've been so insanely busy - I haven't had a chance to drop it off yet. Well, I guess I should have.
It has been raining like crazy the last few days. We've gotten a total of about 12 inches of rain in March and 5-6 of those inches have fallen in the last two days. This morning when I was driving to work I drove through an average sized puddle - not too big of one - and right afterwards my "check battery" light came on. I didn't really think too much of it because my battery is less than a year old and I figured it had just gotten wet or something and was a false alarm.
Later in the day Cyril stopped by to check in on how things were wrapping up and I told him I was going to need the name and number of his brother soon because I really needed to get my car into the shop. He gave me grief about not getting it checked out yet and told me one of these days I'd be stranded with a dead car on the side of the road.
Well guess what.....
Tonight when I left the office I was heading to a parent information evening at Hannah's school that was supposed to start at 7 p.m. I called Lincoln to tell him there was a good chance that I wouldn't make the meeting and would be home earlier than expected because traffic getting to the Mass Pike was really bad. With all the flooding lately there are a number of closed roads and reduced lanes. Just as I was finally getting through the stop light, while I was still talking to Lincoln, my ABS (the brake light) came on. That concerned me since the battery light was still on as well. Then the "service" light came on showing a picture of a little wrench before the "check engine soon" light came on. Of course I'm narrating all of this for Lincoln since I was still on the phone with him and I told him I was going to pull into the parking lot of the ice rink up ahead. Before I got to the parking lot my dashboard lights went out and my radio turned off. As I finally turned into the parking lot I realized that my power steering was gone and my windshield wipers were moving very slowly. I managed to pull into a parking spot before the car died completely.
The good news is that I was only about a mile or two from where Cyril told me his brother had his garage so I told Lincoln I was going to call Cyril, have my car towed to his brother's shop, and then Lincoln would have to drive into the city with the kids to pick me up. I called Cyril for the name and address of his brother's shop and it turns out that he and his wife live right around the corner from where my car died. He said they'd be right now and that I could borrow his wife Cristin's car. I couldn't believe it. What a generous offer!
The two of them came down and Cyril took a look at my car. He managed to get it started again and we thought about attempting to drive it to the shop down the street instead of having it towed but we could barely drive it more than 30 seconds in the parking lot before it started shutting down again so I called AAA.
This whole situation amazes me. Cyril is the general contractor on the office project and while he and I have certainly become friends over the past few weeks (and he's my new little brother since Kegan is gone) he and his wife certainly didn't have to do this for me. I couldn't believe it. I really like this kid. He's a keeper.
7 months ago
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