I Hate My Car at the Moment

It just wouldn't co-operate earlier this evening. I've decided to go the co-op route and let Allan use the car to go to work so Cheryl can have the van to drive the kids around.

The car had been sitting for days, and I had a hard time starting it. I was frustrated -- after all, I'd just dropped a chunk of maintenance money on it, and it should be grateful! I was parked on an incline, and I had to make sure it was warmed up properly, otherwise I would roll back into the T-intersection, a rather busy one with pedestrians, cyclists, and cars accelerating to make it up the hill. As I was sitting in the car, trying to keep it from stalling, an attractive guy with a couple of bags of groceries was strolling up the sidewalk. He turned around and saw me in the car and gave me a big smile, while I tried to hunker down and pretend I was doing something, all the while I felt like crawling under the dashboard as my car sputtered and coughed and protestedly loudly. He stopped for a moment, tried to get my attention, then started walking backwards up the hill, sticking out his thumb -- like he was hitch hiking -- and making funny faces and smiling...

Argh! Why does this have to happen NOW??? I was thinking of how I could pass this off as a joke: wave him in, then say, "Hey guy, I hope you're not in a hurry..."

But what did I do??? I just smiled back and then pretended I was reading something!! I couldn't even look up anymore, I thought maybe he'd walk backwards up out of sight, which he did, but am I a dufus or what? If the car was running fine, would I have responded? I think I would've! But I didn't... argh!

Damned car. It's pissed off at me because I leave it for a week at a time, then expect it -- in its old age -- to just go. It doesn't even make sense for me to own a car -- I live in the city, work from home, and have a U-PASS. The best thing for it is to be driven every day, otherwise when it's colder and it just sits, it's a pain in the arse to start. It's being ornery, so my solution is to let Allan drive it, and I'll join the co-op. Done deal.