Requiem for Ginny the Jeep

[pegkerr]

I was supposed to leave St. Joseph at 3:30 p.m.

I'm still here.

I made it one mile, to the bottom of the on-ramp to Highway 94. And then the clutch died. THANK HEAVENS I didn't get on the highway itself.

THANK HEAVENS when I called the Spirituality Center, Sister Dorothy was still there (if she had left for the day, I really would have been in quite a pickle).

I called AAA and then I called Rob. The verdict was clear: Ginny the Jeep has traveled her last mile. She simply isn't worth another oil change, much less the cost of a new clutch.

Sister Dorothy kindly came and took everything personal out of my car. After she left, my cell phone ran out of minutes as I was talking to Rob.

THANK HEAVENS a very nice young man stopped when he saw my hazard flashers, lent me his cell phone, and he just HAPPENED to be the mechanic at a local shop, and told me that I could have the car towed there, and then I could make arrangements with his boss to send him the title and have it junked from there. He even drove me to the Holiday store where I could buy more minutes for my phone and then dropped me back off at the Spirituality Center. Where I was EXACTLY on time for dinner.

So poor Rob has to go dig his car out of a foot and a half of snow and come to St. Joseph to fetch me. He asked (a little hopefully, I thought) whether I would rather be picked up tomorrow. But I have my crown surgery tomorrow morning, so I said, please could you pick me up tonight?

I owe him big time. I will have to do something wonderful for him as a thank you.

So...my car is dead and I need to buy another one. But really, where it died could have been so much worse, and on the whole, I'm quite grateful.