Lost in transmission
Tuesday February 19th 2013, 11:23 pm
Filed under: Family,Friends,Life

“The oil light flickered on in your car, Mom, just as it was stalling out.”

And so Richard drove an extra almost two hour commute time today to take her to work and then to his own office and later back while I took my car in. I haven’t driven it in a long time, and it felt very sluggish going those few blocks to the mechanic. I walked home and waited to hear.

The engine is fine.

The transmission is toast, and so is one axle. The car is an ’00 with 116k miles.

Stitches West is this weekend, the one time a year I need a minivan and the only reason we still have it: so that I can set up the ramp for the electric scooter.

You put a hundred fifty vendors of balls of yarn and thousands of people in one convention center with someone who had the connections between the balance and visual centers of the brain severed by a speeder, and you have the neurologist who looked at that five-day brain EEG and warned me, “You’re not epileptic yet–but you’re real. close.”

My balance is tactile and visual and when the visuals are on extreme overload and I’m trying to walk through it my brain feels like water droplets skittering across a smoking pan. Scooter. Period. Not worth the risk.

You can take the machine apart and put the pieces in the trunk of a car but the heaviest part still weighs 60 pounds; I wrote on Facebook, I can’t ask anyone to do that.

Jasmin says that Sam offered. I wrote back that I already had the manufacturing cream bought to make a chocolate torte in thanks.

And I’m quietly marveling over that: with no plans in mind, and certainly not with any idea of what was about to happen with the car, I had splurged and bought some at Milk Pail on Saturday. Because it just felt like I needed to be able to make chocolate tortes right now. It wouldn’t be anywhere near what I owe in thanks, given how much going to Stitches means to me and what his generosity does, too, but it’s a start.


11 Comments so far
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Friends are a great blessing. They are a reinforcing cycle! You give, they give, and it goes round and round. And it balances. Because sometimes what you do to one person is gifted to another, which adds them to the cycle and life is blessed.

Comment by Mary 02.20.13 @ 5:14 am

Oh, how I wish I could go to Stitches and meet up with you! Have a good time.

Comment by Chery 02.20.13 @ 5:25 am

Oh that Sam. He is awesome. It must run in the family. 🙂 I’m so glad you’re going to be able to make it!

Comment by (formerly) no-blog-rachel 02.20.13 @ 6:36 am

When I read about your plight on FB I wished I lived close enough to help you out but I also knew someone would come to your aid soon. Besides, I don’t own a mini van! LOL! Have fun at Stitches!

Comment by Jody 02.20.13 @ 6:36 am

no minivan, 3000 miles away. But I would be there if I could!

Comment by Afton 02.20.13 @ 7:07 am

Wish you were here. No, I mean I wish I was there, to take you.

Comment by sherry in idaho 02.20.13 @ 8:23 am

Yay! and super Yay! for friends. Add my thanks to Sam and Jasmin…I’m so glad you will be able to go! When I saw your post on FB, well, I’ve never been so sad to be on the other side of the country…

Comment by Pam 02.20.13 @ 8:58 am

Hooray for friends, for knitting, for Stitches. And special thanks to Sam and Jasmin.

Comment by RobinM 02.20.13 @ 9:38 am

Thank Heaven you get to go. I was trying to figure out how to let you use my scooter, with Cliff as driver.

Comment by Don Meyer 02.20.13 @ 10:09 am

Enjoy Stitches! Hooray for good people helping other good people.

(And I love the image of the raptor claw gussets…)

Comment by Channon 02.20.13 @ 12:06 pm

Hooray for Sam & Jasmin! I was getting ready to figure out a way to come get you and your scooter, but I could only help Saturday. So happy your generosity is bouncing back at you.

Comment by DebbieR 02.20.13 @ 11:25 pm



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