Purr once again.

For twenty-four hours, I thought she was dead. I’ve simply never had problems with the van before. I was reminded of when I ran out of gas. I’d be pressing down on the gas.. and nothing would happen! But, even with an empty tank, the van didn’t stall.

Last night, it did.

I was pulling into one of the condo parking spots when I noticed pressing down on the gas pedal did nothing. I was able to get one or two more lunges before she died. I noticed the Check Gages light on, alerting me to her stalled state. Evil light, I tell you. I rolled into the spot, parked, and stole my sister’s car.

First order of business was to buy a gas can. I then bought 77 cents of gas. Yes. 77 cents. I had only a two dollar bill, a ten, and some twenties. And I had three quarters in my pocket. The gas attendant overshot the mark by two cents, so I gave him the last two pennies out of my pocket. I put the gas in the van and scratched my head as the van struggled and struggled but refused to turn over and start.

So I walked to work this morning. At 5 AM. I’ve been told I’m nuts, what can I say? Melissa was nice enough to give me a ride home. She wants me. I mean, it was awfully considerate of her to wait for me to finish my shift. *smiles* I’ll take any chance I can get to kiss her.

I had imagined life without automotive transporation. Maybe start riding a bike everywhere.

I eventually started laughing at the thought.

Thinking over the symptoms, I knew it had nothing to do with the fuel. Nor was it the battery. (I tried jumping, for good measure, to no avail.) It wasn’t the starter, I could hear it trying. It couldn’t be the fuel line. Well, it could. But, why so suddenly?

Among shit I could do myself, my dad and I agreed to change the spark plugs. Neither of us had any idea the last time it had been done. So off to Straco we went to get some spark plugs and some plug wires.

After some difficulty with actually getting the spark plugs out, I changed all the spark plugs. Goddamn, those spark plugs looked like they had changed into a different element. Regardless of whether it was the cause, the spark plugs DID need to be changed.

The moment of truth approached as I slid the key into the ignition. I didn’t think it was actually going to work.

She purred once more. Faster than normal, I dare say.

That’s when dad and I made the mistake of fixing what wasn’t broke. We figured we’d switch out the wires while we were at it. That resulted in hearing the Van struggle like I’ve never heard her struggle before.

Let me back up a second. There’s a reason the spark plugs were a logical choice to change. I overfilled the oil when I changed the oil filter last month. Hey, how am I supposed to know exactly what overfilling will do? So, I lead the struggling Mama Cherry onto the ramp so I could drain some of the oil.

Content I had drained enough, I ripped out all of the “new” wires, and put all the old ones back in. I turned the key, and she purred again. Taking a moment to remember that I’m intelligent, I figured out why the new wires said no. The end that fits onto the spark plug is slightly longer, creating a gap. It’s a miracle of locomotion that the van ran at all. Spark plugs, I agreed, but why my dad thought we should change the wires, I’ll never figure out.

While we’re thinking about things wrong with the van, we’re going to take her in tomorrow to take care of some lingering problems. There’s the gear indicator, which is stuck in park. (Transmission is fine.) There’s the gas gauge, and the low fuel light, which are both out of alignment. There’s also the AC, but I’m content to never get that fixed. AC costs extra gas! *laughs* I’m such a cheapskate.

But all those things are secondary to that gas leak. I figure if Dave can figure that out, all the other fuel-related problems will be fixed along with it. One of those cascade effect things. Maybe. I’ve let the gas leak go because I’ve learned how to avoid it. It leaks if you go over a half tank or so. So I just don’t do that. Ten dollars of regular please.

Though. Most gas stations hate the van. They never pump on the first try. Ever. They’ll put the pump in, thinking they can walk away. Then Mama Cherry will say NO and the pump will stop. Then they have to walk back over and reset it. *smirks* In other words, gas stations overfill by default? Maybe!

I don’t know. The first time I noticed the gas leak was in Indiana, of all places. …I think. If it was before that, it didn’t catch my attention.

Whatever. I like french kisses.