Oct 30, 2018 3 min read

The day has finally arrived!

Monday was the day the car was scheduled to go to the body shop for the first round of sanding, painting and shining. My husband had been puttering with fenders and other bits of metal and fasteners and what-nots that he hoped to have installed to save time and effort (and money) by the body man.

Sunday afternoon, it came time to load the car onto the trailer. When my husband turned the ignition over, he discovered the starter had died. Of course, he had a second starter in the garage, so he and my daughter changed it. As he was finalizing the last few bolts, he noticed a stud on the replacement starter that had not been on the original starter. Of course, this prevented the replacement starter from fitting completely.

Instead, he and I jumped into my car and headed to town with the bad starter in hand to purchase a replacement. When we got home, my daughter again assisted with the changing of the part. Dejectedly, she came to the house a few minutes later and said the car still wouldn’t run.

“Dad thinks the solenoid is bad,” she said. “He’s heading back to town for another.”

Another hour passed, and he returned. That part installed, the car still would not fire. We used jumper cables to cross the solenoid to test it, and alas the brand-new part he had just purchased was faulty. Not inclined to make a third trip to town in the same day, he charged the battery while it was running and we decided to press forward with loading the car and deal with the bad part when the car comes back.

About seven minutes before we were ready to finally load, the sky opened up and the rain began to pour down. It was also pitch black outside by this point.

Doing our best to stay dry, we got the car onto the trailer. Unfortunately for all of us, the car trailer sits too low to the ground to be able to be back into our barn or hay building. And the angle of our driveway is too tight to be able to back the trailer into the garage. So instead, we used a large tarp and several ratchet straps to cover the car for the night, as the glass has not yet been set.

I held the flashlight and adjusted straps while my husband tightened them. No matter our best efforts, staying dry was not an option. Rain is one of those things that can find the crack in your armor and despite being bundled up, it quickly broke through. When we were finally finished, and made it to the house, we were both soaked to the bone.

After we showered, I persuaded my husband to cuddle on the couch and watch some television with me.

Hey, he rarely does that. Maybe this car isn’t such a bad idea after all.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.