06-21-11 - Summer Song

06-21-11
Some say that all good things must end someday
Autumn winds must blow
But don’t you know that it would hurt me so to say good by to you
Wish I didn’t have to go -oh, no, no, no!
4 Miles
Summer started in rain and a flood warning. I’m camped by the Sauk River.
It’s close to the bank. Maybe 15 feet away. The river rushes by very swiftly. Up river a spillway is releasing a copious amount of water continuously.
Yesterday, people were on either side of it, fishing.
Not this morning.
This morning the only people outside in the rain are Mischa and I. We’re walking up to the place the AAA driver left my car last night.
I’m dreading the exchange. I have about $80 left. And my car is in the shop (or will be when I give them the keys.)
A few moments later to my astonishment, the mechanic drives my car into the bay. DRIVES it in! maybe this won’t be as bad as I imagined. Maybe they found to problem already and fixed it and are just teaking the connection. (I knew it was just a cable or pin coming loose!)
Later a mechanic tells me that it’s going to be difficult, they have to remove the middle console to get to the gear shifter…something has broken inside the shift mechanism. It will be expensive.
We go out to look at the car. He’s showing a flashlight at it and I tell him it was working and then just came loose in my hand…like a wire disconnected.
Scott is the main mechanic on this car. He sees and feels something he hadn’t before. He finds the cable. It’s supposed to have a snap on connection to a ball on the stick shift. That connection is apparently shattered.
He’s managed to get the center plastic console out of the way and it makes seeing the problem easier. But it’s either trying to find a Saturn part and getting it to Melrose (costly) or finding a way to drill in to the device and connect the cable so it won’t come loose again.
I’m sure either way, I’m down to my last dollars. This could be the end…of the Journey, of the adventure, of the dream. But I’m going to have a warm breakfast before that happens. I’m told a deli in a local market (Coborn’s) has breakfast specials. I’m able to leave Mischa in the basket area between the outside and inside sliding glass doors of the store. I make and pay for my order (getting a ham, egg and cheese croissant; a soda and some cookies) and then go back to Mischa (who hasn’t barked) to wait the breakfast order to be cooked. A couple of women said Mischa was being so good and patient waiting for me by the door while I was pouring my soda. I was proud of Mischa and angry at myself for taking so long to get back.
I walk back old timers are playing ongoing games of cards at a poker table in the waiting room. They seem to own the place. Not legally, just occupationally. I imagine this game goes on daily, nearly all day. And their connection to the store?! I have no idea.
The waiting area itself was something to see. There was, between the card game and the shop floor , four chair in a row, a two tiered coffee table and another seat making a “L shape for seating. There were magazines to look at on the table. There were magazines to look at on the seats…every one of them! If only one piece of literature, but every seat had something placed on it. “Don’t sit here” seemed to be the message.
Being an outside agitator, I collected every magazine and newpaper and flyer off every seat and set them roughshod on the table for readers to peruse at their will. But I was going to occupy a seat, two even, damn it!
I get called by Scott who says that if I wanted to, I could do the seat back swap that I’d mentioned I’d wanted to do earlier. I think about it and say, :Just button her up” I don’t want to test fate. I’ve learned to live with the seat the way it is, I can do it a little longer. (I know how to get the console out of the way, If I really want to try it, I can do it later in a better venue.
Everything is put back, there is a little drama with the cigarette lighter re-attachment. A Fuse blew and getting it set back to running took a little time, but the real moment of truth was about to hit. I only had $78 in my account, probably $70-71 after breakfast this morning. How bad was this going to hurt?!
Scott charges me one hour of service - $60. As someone told me before…I’m blessed.
I have $12, a quarter tank of gas, a campsite for the night…and hope.
Things could be a lot worse.
I get the wet and moldy clothes out of my car and tent (now that I’m mobile again) and head to the Laundromat.
That’s a day for me. It’s almost 3 pm, I’m going to get some charcoal ,cook dinner tonight (Probably tuna helper of some sort) and see what tomorrow’s tide sends me. Like my old tech theater teacher used to preach - “Not - To- Freak”
Words to live by.
And this just in - Tornado warning for The Twin Cities and western Wisconsin. I'm headed that direction tomorrow...just in time, huh?!