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Car Trouble
Posted by leema on Friday, May 5th, 2006
under Action-Adventure
Latitude: 37.8083716 / Longitude: -122.2631425
Latitude: 37.8083716 / Longitude: -122.2631425
Years ago, my man and I were returning around midnight from one more attempt at supporting local little theater in Oakland. This had not been a success, with a group’s advertised avant garde effort being ptui garde instead.
My guy had left the headlights on in our Very Old Sidekick, so we were already past Grumpy Argument#1 when the battery died! Right beside Lake Merritt on the semi-blind curve to Grand Ave. On go the flashers and as soon as several honking, speeding maniacs whiz by, we push the lil’ car to the curb.
There’s no place open - only closed office buildings. Separating to have one stay with the car & the other roam downtown - 5 blocks away- doesn’t seem like a terrific idea. We did have enough trash in the car for a smoke signal, but AAA doesn’t operate on that basis. It’s getting Very Cold.
Suddenly, roaring around the bend comes a motorcycle gang from Central Casting. They’ve got massive Harleys, flaming skull jackets, those teeny tiny helmets (that symbolize screw you DMV) and full body tattoos. They squeal to a halt all around us. Ho boy.
One cyclist volunteers “Ah, shit foreign car.” General laughter with even more profane agreements. We smile. One of them waves his hand. ” I’ll take care of this, guys.” he says. The rest vroom off, swerving and hooting.
He whips out a small hand device. “Cell phone.” he says. “You got AAA?” We did.
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Comments on "Car Trouble"
Comment from Fantasist
Sunday, May 7th, 2006
Sunday, May 7th, 2006
Leema,
Nicely done little vignette.
Technically, though, a question?
If your battery died, how did the flashers have the current to operate. Those are high wattage bulbs and with at least four of them going, they will take a battery down flat very quickly in the best of times, even if fully charged.
For that reason, especially with new cars that have power going to their various electronics, the flashing lights are a real current drain.
It is still and emergency signal to lift open the hood and/or trunk lid to indicate an emergency. If at night, then the parking lights will suffice. Better is a set of at least a pair of reflective triangles set at fifty and one hundred-fifty feet behind the vehicle into oncoming traffic. Three at two hundred, one-fifty and fifty, respectively.
A vehicle traveling at sixty miles per hour will cover a hundred feet in a little over a second. Given a sober reaction time of at nearly a second, that leaves little time for an oncoming vehicle to recognize a hazard.
As to the cautions against using flashers: at night, a drunk driving a vehicle will home in on those flashing lights like a moth to a candle flame. Be aware of this and if in doubt, ask your local constabulary for confirmation. The California Highway Patrol is really on this hazard.
I’m glad no one was injured.
Fantasist
Comment from erma
Monday, May 8th, 2006
Monday, May 8th, 2006
I love the sense of synchronicity in your stories. Events of surprising coincidence form some of my strongest memories—probably because they answered (at least briefly) my needs for connection and meaning. It makes sense that these types of events would also help form some of the strongest narratives.
