Sweet Ride? Sweet Glide? Or...

Maybe more like Not-So-Sweet Bump, Wobble-Wobble-Wobble, Flash, Wobble-Wobble, Flash, Wobble, Flash, Wobble, Flash, Flash, Wobble, Flash, Flash, Flash, Flash...

Yep, you guessed it, I'm talking about my very own F.O.R.D., Found On Road Dead, Driver Returns On Foot, or in this case Flat On Racing Day. What is going on with my F.O.R.D.? Let us go back to 7:45pm Saturday night on the 19th of November 2005...

I am sitting in my Mustang in a dark parking lot, with three people, unable to go anywhere.

How did I get here? Let us back up again, to Friday morning...

It all started on Friday morning when Jeremy parked the car in their front yard with a "For Sale" sign on it. He had just picked me up for a day of work at his house. Around lunch time I went out to move the car over so that it would be more visible to drivers coming from the west. I opened the door, and something didn't seem right. I got in anyway, inserted the key and... nothing. The lights were left on, and my battery was dead. Jeremy went and got his truck which we then used to try to jump my car. Immediately the hazard lights started flashing, which was very odd because everything was supposed to be off, and the keys weren't even in the car! Anyway, the car still wouldn't start, and the lights were not controllable (although they would stop and start every so often), so we disconnected the battery and went back to work.

Now fast-forward to Saturday morning when I am back working at Jeremy's house, and Sara calls to us to let us know that there is someone looking at my car! I ran around front and tried to explain to the two customers (who were already all over my car, checking the oil, etc...) that the thing wasn't starting, but it seemed to be a minor problem that I'd look into, and let them know when it was fixed. After about 10 minutes they left, and Jeremy and I started diagnosing the problem. Finally we found that if we bypassed the starter relay it fired up fine! Great (I think) a $13 repair and we're fixed. I called Mom who was on her way into Harvard, and asked her to pick up a relay for me (which she did).

Now let us fast-forward to 7:21pm Saturday night. Jeremy, Sara and Caroline were at our house eating dinner, when a lady called saying that she was about one block from the car and wanted to take it out for a drive! I told her to give us 10 minutes and we'd be over there to replace the relay so that she could take the car out for a drive. We got over to Jeremy's house and replaced the relay (with her husband and daughter watching) but we got no results. I might add that the flashing lights were still not fixed, so the marker lights (along with the headlights occasionally) were flashing sporadically throughout the entire repair. Being really bummed out about this, we bypassed the relay and started it up. I asked them if they wanted to take it out for a drive since it was really fun to drive and they had been waiting long enough. They said that they would, so I shut the hood... oops it didn't latch, so I shut it again. This time, when the hood came slamming down, the Ford emblem popped off the grill. Fortunately they were in a good mood, and had a good laugh about it while getting in the car. I went with them so that in case they killed the engine, I'd be there to pop the hood and start it up again. He put the car in reverse, and (partly due to the performance clutch) killed the engine. I popped the hood got it started up, and off we went.

Once we started going forward there was a soft scraping sound coming from the bottom of the car ( a shh, shh, shh sound). The wife mentioned that she thought the back passenger tire was low, but I said that I didn't think so, after all I would have noticed that. We were driving very slowly and I was trying to subtly encourage him to give the guts a test. Once we left Capron I was pushed back into my seat as we accelerated to 80MPH. This was great (I was thinking). The car handled beautifully as we glided along, but as he started slowing down, I was starting to notice quite a bit of wobble! The wife (who was in the back) said that she thought the tire was flat. I didn't think so, but he stopped, so I got out to check. Sure enough the tire was flat, and both he and I had forgotten our cell phones.

At this point, we pulled into a driving range and noticed that a pick-up was there. I ran over to the club house (or whatever they call it), and noticed that the lights in the new indoor range were on! I knocked on the window, and a couple puny dogs, and a grumpy guy came to the window and told me to go around to the front door. While I was standing at the front door, I realized that I probably didn't look to good, because I was wearing my black leather jacket, and the cable that we used to jump the car was still in my hands. :-/ He came to the door and I explained our situation by yelling through the glass. After a while he let me in to use the phone. I called Dad, and he came over to pick us all up.

Surprisingly the guy is still very interested in the car, and wants me to let him know when the car is out of the shop. I told him I'd let him know, but I really didn't think that God wanted him to buy the car. He insisted, so I took down his number and we'll see what happens.

Thus ends act three of the Fast and Faulty Ford episodes. Hopefully I'll reach the last act soon, but the way things are going...

Well, all I can do is trust God and know that He's in control and had this planned from the beginning of the universe. After all, if God didn't want this to happen, he wouldn't have made me get a Ford. :-)