Crash Course in Car Breakdown

When something goes wrong, it must take place at the worst possible time.

After leaving Kevin's place at 12.30am. I gave Junyong a lift home and started making my way home.

Within 2 miles of my place, something happened. I was heading uphill when my RPM started increasing, but I seem to be losing power and slowing down. Pressing the accelerator more didn't seem to get any power. Feeling something was wrong, I slowed down and pulled to the side of the road.

When I tried to move off from the side of the road, I only went backwards because I was on a slope. Seems like the car was not getting out of neutral gear. Tried shifting into drive, 1st gear and 2nd gear didn't have any effect. Was still stuck at neutral.

This was a bad bad time to break down. With lots of reasons.

• What a horrible time to have a breakdown. It's saturday nite. It's 1am in the morning!! 1 thing about the weekend is that most of the repair shops are close on Sunday. So the the car wonn't even get to be looked at until monday. Furthermore, its 1am in the morning. Who to call?
• What a horrible place to have a breakdown. I'm stuck on a uphill slope, so the only way to go is down. The only street lamp is on the top of the uphill slope. So the place I'm parked at is quite dark. I'm on a 1 lane street, so there's only a little space at the side of the road. The car is parked near a bend, so its not that easy for a car to see me. The last thing that scared me was that the cars were speeding pass me. Scary!!
• Unsure of what to do, and no numbers to call, I ended up calling Kevin. Unlucky for him, he picked up the phone. He drove down to help together with his wife... at 1.30 in the morning!! He took a look at the car, but was also unsure what was wrong. But he had a AAA membership, and he has 3 free tows a year. He gave a call to them, but seems like they were very busy tonight. They will need 2 hours to reach. We tried to push the car, but the uphill was too difficult. No muscleman around.

So we decided to go my place to rest for awhile. After only an hour, the tow guy came and gave a call. So off we go to tow the little red car away.


After everything, was done, it was already 4am. What a long nite... But it was not over. I stayed over at Kevin's place that night, so that we could go get a rental car in the morning.

Waking up at 10am. Several problems appeared.

• Firstly, when I tried to get a rental car, the smallest size I could find was a full size sedan at Bellevue. And it was going to cost me almost $35 a day.
• Secondly, all the service center and insurance companies were close. So there was no way I could comfirm whether I would be able to get a rembuistment for the rental car.
• Thirdly, if I get a rental car on my own, I'll have difficulty returning the rental car and then making my way to the service center.
• Lastly, without a car, it was going to be hard to get back home. Because, my temp housing is located at a very out-of-way place.

With all the problems, the solution was to stay over at Kevin's place another night. Tomorrow, he'll give me a lift to work and I can settle the car in the morning.

Problem solved. Time to enjoy the day.