When you play sax in a band and have a low-paying Joe job, sometimes the question comes up: do I spend the five bucks on a reed or on motor oil? I think you know what I chose.
Because it'll go another hundred miles on this oil, no problem. Won't it?
Well, if you ever have the choice, borrow five bucks from anybody and get that oil. Aaron and I were driving back from jam in Bloomington in 1999, and we got to 35W, just under the Diamond Lake Rd. overpass when -- hey...what? No power?
No power, indeed. We coasted to a stop in the median (always vear right on the freeway) and realized that we were stuck. Cars whizzed by at incredible (65 mph.) speeds.
Eventually, what we had prayed for happened: Dylan drove by, also on his way back from jam. He rescued us.
I never got the car going again. The Honda Civic Wagon has an interference engine, and that means that when your timing belt breaks (which is what happened), your pistons hit the valves and bend them. So you have to take the whole head off and replace the valves. That takes a lot of time and money.
But the funny thing about our freeway stop was that someone actually did stop before Dylan. It was an older woman who pulled up behind us. When I walked to her car, she rolled down her window and casually asked me if she was going in the right direction in order to get to 94 west. I tried to tell her she shouldn't just stop on a freeway unless it was an emergency, but I'm not sure she got it. At any rate, she never offered to help us out, she just sped off. If you're reading this, lady, I hope your car broke down on 94 west.
