Today started out like any other day.
Then alarms started blaring and a mechanical voice was telling me that an emergency had been reported in my building and to get the hell out.
Back in the olden days, I would never leave the building. It was just too much trouble and I decided to go down the ship as it were.
But then the Junior Fire Deputies, who are important only when the alarm goes off, ORDER everyone out. That's right, they ORDER everyone to leave. As I may have mentioned before, I'm nothing if not a rule follower, especially when someone who wants to be important is ORDERING me to leave.
Anyway, there was a "fire emergency" this afternoon, which means that someone bumped the fire alarm, and the building was evacuated. For me, that meant that I had to hobble my crippled ass out of the building and across the street where I had to stand until the emergency was no longer an emergency (which took longer than you might think).
I was back at my desk for only a few minutes when I got a call from Luke. My Mazda was sitting by the side of Highway 99, having given up the ghost. Luke needed me to come get him. I needed to get the hell out of Hell so everyone was a winner. Except for my Mazda.
My Mazda belonged to my wonderful step-mother and when she was in her last illness and couldn't drive any longer, I decided to buy the car. It spent its entire life with my folks in a garage and being driven very kindly.
Now, 12 years later, it has 190,000 miles on it and has more than its share of rust. I suppose I should have driven around all those puddles instead of through them. But what fun would that have been?
Unfortunately for Luke, he has not had great luck while driving cars belonging to other people. He was driving CB's golf cart and it shot craps. He was driving the Sable and it broke down. He was driving CB's Pontiac and the transmission went out. Now this.
The way I look at it is that if Luke had not been driving, I would have been. Better him than me.
We had the car towed to a shop and I am afraid that the cost to fix it will be more than the car is worth. Which is about $47.19.
