From 12-17-2010
So Becky has a work party tonight and is gallivanting around the city enjoying a night out with her work friends after their office party. At 5pm I am off to pick up Lila at day care and the usual 12 minute drive takes me an 1/2 hour as you'd have thought the roof of the Metrodome had opened up on Cherry Hill. (We really need to get better at handling these dustings, though it was getting slippery to be fair.)
Regardless I get to Lila on time. The way home was not so kind. The Jews wandering in the desert paled in comparison to the stretch of cars parked on Brace Road as we attempted to make our way. Lila was her happy self strapped in, but I was feeling a bit tired and stopped for a large coffee at the Dunkin Donut's drive-through for a boost of energy to run around with big baby when we got home. Back into traffic, let the fun begin!
Now, please keep in mind we have been nursing the transmission on the Civic for about a year now, waiting to for it die and hopefully repay us some of the moolah we have sunk into in the past two years. And to our fortune our trusty Civic has held up well. Meet Brace Road! As we inch along we make some head way. I almost make the left on Park Drive to go the back way, but keep moving forward as the trans feels like it might be slipping more frequently here and there. Lila was started to get a bit fussy as it is nearing 6:30pm which is getting late for dinner. I try and soothe and talk to her assuring Lila we will be home and eating in just a bit. We stop with traffic and seem to get stuck as the trans is not going into gear. Voila! Back into gear it goes and we make it a bit further as we approach the main intersection and the left hand turn lane at Kresson for the second-to-last stretch home.
I am not letting on, but am concerned for the car. I am wondering if I might be best, leaving it right were it is in the middle of the street at the beginning of the turn lane, but there are a lot of cars coming in all directions...Lila is starting to cry a bit and growing more upset. Two gas stations are just ahead with in several hundred feet, just in case. But I also have no food, no diapers, nothing, (nice position to be in and big girl is getting hungry, at least I think.) We make it to the front of the turn lane, ready to make that left and that's it..."Herbie" where are you when I need you? 1500 miles from 200K, Civic ain't going anywhere. Nothing! Then it just dies all together...idling will do that to a battery & a bad trany. And I just talked to my dealer friend about all this.
So now we are in the cross hairs of a busy intersection, traffic up the wazoo, sad, crying baby (poor thing!). It’s kind of dark, it’s cold, she’s hungry…I can’t believe I let it go this far! Mind you a Rite Aid is just next to us, so if all else fails I can get diapers and cream and nourishment for Lila and she can run aound the aisles.
So now what to do? AAA, it’ll take forever, call my sister who lives down the street from us and not to far from where we are now! But the traffic coming towards us is insane, it could be an hour! And Lila is getting more and more upset. But I have no choice, I call my sister’s house and my bro-in-law answers, he offers to pick us up, but he has no car seat and besides it’ll take forever in this and Lila’s in for a long night as am I, in this bad weather that really doesn’t exist.
“Where’s Deb?” I ask, “She’s on her way home, she picked up Benjamin, hurry and call.” Bingo! “Deb, where are you?” I urgently ask. ”I’m stuck on Brace road,” she says. Halleluyah! “I need you to get Lila and get her home and fed.” So I calmly and finally make it to the back seat and sit with her as her super tears well up in that Punim (face) of hers. “Your Aunt Debra is coming to get you. sweetheart…”
Time is ticking, I call again and she is only a few cars away she says, which really means 17…but alas they pull up next to us for the transfer and an attempt at a jump start as I have a theory the battery just died cause of all that idling. I walk her through the depths of the cold night and traffic and plop, into Deb’s minivan she goes. Benjamin asks me about his game as I strap her in. “You have anything to eat?” I ask. They had a COOKIE!! Nothing like a Fig Newton to cheer up a rightfully blubbering Lila. She’s all set and warm; I connect the cables for the jump start, Voila!
The car starts as people begin to honk and I make sure they take off to get home. I actually make it trough the left turn on Kresson as Herbie has come back to life! I tell Deb to take her to our place now as I am just a few minutes behind them. But the parking lot ahead will not bode well for this venture home. Understandably our 2001 Black Honda Civic finally decides to take its last drive and rest next to the Holy Eucharist Christian Church and here I always thought my girl was Jewish. You live you learn.
So I call Deb again, "Bring Lila to your house, I’m going no were fast, feed her, put her to bed…you guys are safe…I can brave it alone!” I didn’t really say or think that, but did I really have a choice? I wonder how many drinks Becky is up to? They trekked from D & B’s to some other bar at 33rd & Walnut, glad she’s warm. Can’t even call, cause one, she probably won’t answer, two, I really need to call AAA and my phone will probably die knowing me.
AAA is called and subsequently disconnects as soon as the operator goes trough. I’d expect nothing less. Call two, “I need a tow! And how many times do I need to verify my address for “Verification” purposes?! Really! They are on their way! Yahoo!! Up to a two hour wait and in this traffic. Remember the D & D stop for coffee? Now I have to go to the bathroom. Several texts of Becky later to assure her everything is in order, Wayne to our house for diapers, PJ’s and cream and Lila happily eating through her Aunt Debra’s house, I am settled in for the long hall. Thank the lord and Holy Eucharist that Herbie’s engine still runs! It’s kinda cozy shacked up all by my lonesome of the side of the road.
I consider the fact that I am ironically stuck next to the Church. Maybe there is a God and boy do I have to go to the bathroom. My sister calls me back; that D & D cup is looking large…of course the tree on the hill in front of my beloved Eucharist is calling out. So off I go to take care of business, it’s going to be a long night. Android Pop-a-shot record beware…better charge my phone.
The tease of large trucks passing me deflates my hope of an early tow, but only 43 minutes later my knight in shining amour has arrived…well really a bald guy, who hadn’t shaved with glasses, my hairline didn’t seem so bad all of a sudden. Voila! Herbie is on the truck and we are off…turns out to be a quick ride as we rumble along. This guy's been working the overnight shift since the night before and works the double three days a week and is only off on Sunday, might I suggest Holy Eucharist? We talk traffic, football, work and what will be of the Civic…we make it home rather easily. Wwe shake hands, and I slip him a nice tip on a cold night and home I am. Becky picks up Lila on her way home for an easy transfer to her crib and all is well. Off to bed soon, early shoot day tomorrow in North Jersey, boo-hoo our Black Stallion, we have had a lot of memories. Seems appropriate to end on such a dramatic run.
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