We’ve all had misfortune.
But sometimes misfortune can be one of those times when you slap yourself in the head and say … what a dolt.
For this story, I need to go back to when I was in college. So we’re talking the 1999-2000ish range when this happened. I was home for, I believe, a long weekend. I went over to the next town over to have a few cordials with friends.
I remember it was winter.
Two of us were there and we left probably in the 11-12 range.
Something sounded odd, that’s for sure. But off we went.
I attended college in central Pennsylvania, so any time I came home for a weekend it was a bunch of miles. Keep all that in mind.
Again, this is sometime in the winter. So probably December? Maybe late November? Maybe even January? Can’t remember, to be honest. It all gets foggy.
Anyway, we’re not far from where we started and something seemed odd. Then my car turned off. As I was driving.
Mind you, it was an automatic, so it’s not like I stalled it.
So we pulled over. I turned the key off, then tried to start.
Nothing.
We let it rest a little before we tried again. Nothing.
Then it was a call to the tow company, which brought us back to my town and dropped us off. A couple of days later, the shop I used at the time came and grabbed the car.
Turns out it was a seized engine.
I’m still not sure what happened. I was pretty good with oil changes. I kept an eye on things. No engine lights etc.
Could it have been the miles? Possibly. It was getting up in those.
Years later, I blew another engine. That time it was totally the oil change thing. I even had signs that I basically had ignored.
But that first one?
Pure misfortune. Especially because I was a poor college kid at the time. Oh well… live and learn, right?
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It was my friends 18th birthday and we decided to go out and celebrate. So we went to a strip club. It was November of 2001, because well, I can do math. Fast forward to the time we’re coming home, 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning and well, the car stops. What happened? We don’t know. Luckily I had Triple A. So we call it, while waiting for the tow truck to come, we’re pissing off the side of the highway, mind you we’re on 787 and it’s mostly all bridges, and we’re pissing at 2 o’clock in the morning or so. A State Trooper pulls up, asks if we’re okay, we explain what happened and they drive away. it was another friends car, but we ended up bringing it back to my house, about 20 minutes away from where it died. About a mile or so from my house, the tow truck driver asks “Do you have a emergency fuel shut off?” And well, it was that, because he had slammed into a pot hole so much, it shut off the fuel to the engine.. I guess that nights misfortune lead to a comment on your post about misfortune
Hach recently posted..Steve Harvey Just Announced I’m The New Misfortune
Haha … “So we went to a strip club.”
When does a story like that not end with something a bit out of the ordinary or with misfortune?
My auto misfortune story stems from mistakes made by a mechanic who worked on my car, which led to a dead engine. Something about antifreeze in the oil among other things. The car was 12 years old and in otherwise great condition. So sad.
Linda recently posted..Jenna’s Misfortune
See that seems pretty crazy. If the car was fine and the mechanic essentially broke it .. I hope they made it right somehow with you?
Nope, car died, and no ownership of responsibility on their part. I don’t remember all the details of exactly what we took it to them for in the first place. Needless to say, they don’t work on our cars now.
Linda recently posted..Jenna’s Misfortune
Closest I’ve come to an auto misfortune was when, while driving back to school in a driving rainstorm, we started to hydroplane. My roommate overcorrected and we ended up doing a 360 across four lanes of traffic, two going in the opposite direction that we were.
We were actually very fortunate that day, but it could have been much much worse.
Paul recently posted..Misfortune
Hydroplaning can be so scary. I’ve done it a few times and it’s such a helpless feeling. Glad that it worked out safely in the end for you.
Reading your post and all the comments about seized engines, etc., makes me realize we’ve been pretty fortunate with our vehicles over the decades. I do remember one time driving along in our Volvo when all the electrical died. No radio, no signal lights, nothing. I was in the passenger seat and called the dealership. They said to bring it right in because if we shut it off it wouldn’t start again…some kind of known fault. I think the repair was under warranty, so we got off lucky. Glad everyone else who shared their own story was safe, but too bad about all those cars that had to go to the junk yard.
Denise – Out and About with the GeoKs recently posted..Snowshoeing Banff NP – Lake Minnewanka and Stewart Canyon
Just like anything else, it seems, that sometimes things just don’t work or break. It’s unfortunate. Glad when it happened to you that it worked out well.
I had one time I stopped after work to get gas. When I got back in, my ignition was locked up. Had to call a tow truck. Can’t remember what it was, but talk about feeling helpless. I think that was under warranty at the time, too.