It was lovely Saturday night when I left work. I started my Subaru and made my customary phone call home. Since we live a ways from town, I always call before I come home to see if we need anything from the market. Tom had reached his limit on the kitchen sink and had ripped it out. He asked if I could stop at
Freddie's and pick up a few parts. We also needed milk.
I drove the few miles from the airport to the market, everything seemed fine. I did notice a little steam coming from the grill, but it had rained earlier. When I got to the parking lot and turned to get into my spot, the car acted funny. It made loud, metallic clunking sounds and it seemed like I was driving over big river rocks, like a hesitation and then a go. I went in and did my shopping.
When I got back, there was some fluid on the ground. Hmmmmm.... I fired her up, tried to back out and the sounds and feelings from before were there and bigger. I pulled back into the spot. The car parked in front of me was leaving, too. I let her back out then I tried to pull through, thinking maybe it was limited to backing. No doing. I did not feel safe driving home. Thank heavens for cell phones. I called Tom and waited about twenty minutes for him to arrive. I was very grateful to have a little knitting tucked in my work bag.
Tom and I walked around the car. We found a big puddle of transmission fluid, cherry red and slick. Yuck. He jumped in, made it halfway around the parking lot without incident. I was thinking "Oh, great, it will only act funny for me, with no witnesses. Grand!" Finally, it started clunking for him, too. We took anything of value out of her and left the Subaru for the night.
We knew we were going to get a new (or new to us) vehicle this year, we just were hoping to do it on our terms. The Subaru was on it's second engine. This second engine had leaked oil from the get go, one cylinder was down to half compression. However, we had never had any transmission issues at all.
Sunday we went back to the scene of the crime. Tom drove the Subaru to the shop. They are hopefully going to buy it. They told us when last we were in that they would like to purchase it. That will give us a bit of a down on the next one. There we pulled everything out of it. Of course, I had a load to go to the ASPCA thrift store. Zoey and I talked about all her memories from the Zoom-a-room. We got that car when she was two and for a long time that is what she called it, her Zoom-a-room. She also had great fantasies about it being a lander/explorer like on
Lost in Space.
Vivi cried, she is not as good with change as Zoey. She had all her stickers on her window. She was rather upset.
To bribe Vivi we drove along Turnagain Arm, looked for belugas, had burgers and IPA at Chair Five in Girdwood. Sigh...
Now we are down to one car, waiting for the first paycheck of the school year, limping by. If I promised to mail anything to anyone, or do some favor or chore, it may be a little while longer. Sorry!
I am just really grateful that the Zoom-a-room had the grace to kick the bucket in a parking lot in the fall with no children. It could have been much more awkward with stressed out children, loads of snow, below zero temperatures. Thanks for the timing, Zoom-a-room.
