Tue 6 Oct 2009
Here Comes The Gamera Chuck Wagon
Posted by laup under Discussion, Meditations, Outbreak, Random Encounters
[3] Comments
My trans-dimensional transport device, commonly referred to as an automobile in this space-time dimensional manifestation, is not doing so well. Micro-blue, as I call him, has been falling apart in little ways over the last year. Parking near the haunted house must have been the last straw, I think.
Passenger side door permanently locked. Driver side window getting harder to roll up and down. And now the gaskets for the pistons seem to be going bad. Micro-blue starts to blast smoke out his exhaust in huge thick clouds after the temperature of the engine reaches nominal operation.
I don’t have trouble with tailgate behavior anymore. The other day a mindless primitive in his SUV length-extender screamed at me to “fix my effin’ car” as he drove by.
Oh, but Micro is so dear to my heart. It’s amazing the amount of moving he did for the gang over here at the honeycomb hideout. We evacuated the haunted house in record time thanks to his magical ability to hold three times his volume in dimensional storage proecedures. He’s been a trooper of a car when we needed him.
K picked up a new reading in the loch walkabout patrol coordinates. Hey, a 1996 Gamera Station Wagon in good condition for sale! We do some investigation and after numerous escapades in the bargaining arena, the new transport is aquired from its kindly former owner.
Just like that, Micro is headed for the Craigslist circuit or the junkyard protein bank. Its a little strange to think that the drive back from the subway station after the U2 concert might be the last late night bonding I’ll have with Micro-blue. Even stranger that a gigantic silver turtle monster of a car has arrived, opening up new adventure areas as if this were a dramatically appropriate episode in the story.
1990 Toyota Tercel hatchbacks are truly saints in the pantheon of loyal transport mechanisms. Thank you Micro-blue, for all you’ve done. You are another name for fidelity and friendship!
This got me all nostalgic about our old truck, Blanco — short for Blanco Bronco. In her last days, she was much like your Micro. Actually, no, she was just a 65-mph-deathtrap. But I loved that old beater truck.
The driver-side door would only open from the outside, and these were not power windows, so you had to crank the window down then reach outside to get out of the car. Parts of her innards were literally held together with duct tape and a prayer. The knob on the gear shift would come out in your hand if you weren’t too careful (and I’m never too careful, so I’d often wind up with the gear-shift knob in my hand after a particularly careless downshift). At one point, she would start wheezing and gasping and chugging if you tried to push her over 50 mph. That went on for about a week, then just as suddenly as it started, it stopped and she was able to cruise the highways again without so much as a cough.
Those SUV-idiots are the worse — when Blanco refused to go over 5o-mph some jerk tailgated me for a good ten miles. We were the only ones on the road, there was no reason in the world he couldn’t pass me, but he decided to tailgate me and honk at me for ten miles because my poor Blanco physically could not go over 50 mph. That’s given me a whole new sympathetic eye toward people on the highway who are driving ‘too slow.’
The really funny thing about Blanco? We had to finally sell her over five years ago but just recently while I was getting ready to exit our newer truck, I rolled down the window and reached outside to open the door from the outside. The inside door handle works perfectly fine, I guess part of me just still misses Blanco. 🙂
That’s a really nice story Kim-a-roo. We get so invested in our four-tire friends that a part of them lives on in us, just as I’m sure a part of us leaves a mark on them. Objects delight in being used and appreciated, they require it you might say. Thanks for sharing about Blanco, it’s good to know that others are out there with their own auto-pals.
my white 96 toyota corolla, saraswati, salutes hek-auto-pal micro-blue.
may all beings benefit from the loyal gratitude you hold for this excellent vehicle!
and a starry all-hail to the chuck wagon!
drive on, muthafuckas! we drive on!