today my car caught on fire.
had an amazing last night in greenville... we had a lowcountry boil at cam's and tyner came and it was fantastic. got shagging lessons in the middle of cam's living room, sat on the back porch surrounded by tiki lights and far-too-good company, got to see my lovely sister :)... it was a perfect last night of my upstate summer
today started off wonderfully... had an amazing final sunday supper at cory's with the fam, went to the pottery barn outlet to get some absolutely gorgeous bedding for the apartment, then said my goodbyes and headed back to charleston.
i promised myself i wouldn't stop the car until 5 to get dinner... just so i would stay on the road as long as possible. so i got off right after columbia (which was 101 and STEAMY) and went to an atlanta bread company, ordered my food, when i heard some woman asking if anyone had a white car outside.
"i do. is everything okay?"
-- "well, it looks like there might be some smoke coming out of the hood."
so i think the car is overheating. but then the white smoke turns to black smoke (flashbacks to pope elections haha) and the smoke starts to billow rather than flow and someone says something about calling the fire department and next thing i know people are running around moving cars and asking me if there's anything in the car that i absolutely couldn't live without...
.... at which point i just think to myself two things. one, this car is my grandfather's baby.. his pride and joy. and two, i've been living out of my car. so the stuff in it is the stuff that when push comes to shove, i really do use daily.
and i watched the flames start to drip out of the bottom of the front and out of the sides of the hood and then there was a loud noise when a tire blew out from the heat and then i saw flames crawling into the inside through the floor part and my rosary melted on my rearview mirror and... yeah...
my car caught on fire.
so apparently there was a freak chemical leak that some how caught a spark... probably had something to do with how freakin' hot it was outside. the scary thing is that the fire was bad with the engine off.. but if i had gotten out / turned on the car at a different time, the power steering could have gone out or the breaks or something funky... and who-knows-what could have followed. or i could have been on the interstate. or in the car. or my family could have still been in lake tahoe.
so those were some fun conversations..
"hey, birdy.. whats up?"
- "um... i think the car just caught on fire."
"are you okay?" (sounding as if maybe i skinned my knee..)
- "yeah, i'm fine. but the car is on fire."
"eh, this sort of thing happens all the time."
- "no, dad. i really don't think so."
"i'll be there in an hour or so."
(p.s. my dad is the calmest person ever.)
so next i called cory, who i had just woken up from a nap five minutes earlier and had just fallen back asleep.
"what's up?"
- "my car's on fire."
"what?"
- "on fire."
"i'll be there in an hour or so."
and he showed up, handed me a bag of twizzlers, and let out a "holy cow."
so the next 3 hours was filled with insurance claims and firemen and cory had called cam's roommate kyle who lives in columbia and he came to stay with me until the other guys got there and then cory and dad came and we got everything out of my car that was salvagable... some of the clothes in the trunk are fine, but the stuff in the main compartment is either ruined or really, really smokey. including the new bedding i got, the clothes i've been living off this summer, throw pillows, luggage...
"well, dad. i really did think this car was indestructible."
- "but then you got your hands on it."
see, funny thing... i've never been in a wreck. the only two cars i've ever driven have been hit by a bridge and freakishly caught on fire and totaled. so i don't quite know what to make of it.
so the morals of this quaint little story:
1) i no longer get stressed over things like i used to. i think i owe that to camp... but i found myself just laughing as the car went up.. maybe it was from shock, who knows. but people would walk by and stare and i'd smile and wave and say some comment about it being a hot day outside and my car needing a washing anyway.. they probably thought i was nuts.
and insurance people crack me up.
"could you describe the damage?"
- "my tire blew out? the windows are cracked? there's nothing recognizable under the hood? my car has melted into the pavement? there is a rubber duck floating in the water at the bottom of the interior? my car caught on fire?"
2) my guardian angel works overtime.. and God has blessed me far too much with my amazing friends. knowing that dad was driving from one end of the state and cory from the other and cam from the middle.. just to help me for 2 hours get everything towed and squared away.. i felt so overwhelmingly loved.
and nothing that couldnt be replaced was ruined... i had brought my journals into abc to read while i ate, and my camera was miraculously completely dry, even though it was in the one bag that got soaked completely through... the tridelt references are even kind of okay.
so that was my evening.. i got home, took a shower, said a little prayer, started a lovely glass of wine.. and i'm about to do one of my favorite things EVER and play with the pictures i took of the last few weeks of camp. aside from my car catching on fire, it's been a nice day.
guardian angel, my guardian dear
to whom God's love has trusted me here
ever this day, be at my side
to light, to love, to rule, to guide
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