Clunker-mobiles

I have to say, as annoying as my car is, I'm pretty convinced that it saved me from a fairly large pain in the butt yesterday morning.

Some background: my sweet ride is an 89 olds cutlas that has more issues than I can count - the biggest one being the quirky and tempermental transmission. You see, if the car has been parked for 2-3 hours or more, it doesn't like to go into drive right away. And I'm not talking a little 2-3 second delay. After it's been parked overnight is especially bad. The longest I've waited for it was 17 minutes. SEVENTEEN MINUTES!!! And could I just leave it in neutral to warm up for those 17 mins while I go do something else? Nooooo! The car has to be in drive, preferably with my foot on the brake, so it doesn't all of a sudden start moving.

But you see, I've found a way the get around this delay to some extent. With my foot on the brake, I give the engine 4 or 5 good revs, and then it usually goes into gear. By "goes" I mean slams in with a big, lurching ka-CHUNK It's like my very own playland ride every morning. I should feel so priveldged. (and remember, this is only ONE of it's issues!) When I took it to the mechanic to get soemthing minor looked at (he tells me it's not worth fixing the tranny, it'd be too expensive for what the car's worth. "It always goes into gear eventually?" - yes - "And it never falls out of gear?" - no - "Aw, then don't worry about it.") I of course had to tell him the newest way to get it in gear. He jsut laughed at me! And laughed. And laughed. And laughed. And... well, you get the idea.

SOOO.... as annoying as this is, I have decided that my car has "character" and have decided to embrace the quirkiness of it all. (It's either that or go stark raving mad! :p ) Those of you know know me - hush! ;)

So what does all this have to do with yesterday morning, you ask? Well, when I went out to my car to go to work, my door was ajar. Upon further inspection, I saw that it had been broken into - papers oin the floor, glove box open, ashtray pulled out. Thankfully the only thing I keep in my car is a quarter for a grocery cart! But then, I discovered that teh panel for the fuse box was on the floor of the passener side. Hmm.... I'm pretty convinced that they hotwired my car and tried to steal it.

*TRIED*

Picture it: The car's going, the thug pops it into drive... and waits... and waits... and waits... and waits...

I have to say, I've got myself a pretty good anti-theft device! hahahahahaha!

Hip hip hooray for clunker-mobiles!