And don't call me Ishmael, either
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And don't call me Ishmael, either |
| As I said, the Whale and I relocated to Atlanta in August '92. I had a 4 mile drive to work, and
luckily in the opposite direction of typical rush our traffic. There still seemed to be idiots that just
had to make my short trip a venture through hell, however. With the power of that newly rebuilt V-8 my
typical response was to accelerate and go around...and this usually worked. The minor maintenance
continued. I even ventured to replace the power steering pump. Did a little preservative body work on
the hatch lid. I even got rid of the chrome Mags and restored a set of Rally Wheels you see on the car.
I grew to hate driving in Atlanta, however. Every day, some new stupid human trick. Then, the Whale started acting up. I think it was something in the carburator. I never did find it. When ever I would slow to take a turn and then accelerate out of the turn, the damn thing would stutter and fart and sometimes stall, sometimes recover. I chased that problem for 3 years. Then, between the frustrations of work, and the frustration of not being able to fix my car I started just flooring it whenever this problem would occur. One cold morning in Feb of 99, the damn thing caught, and caught good! Waaaaay too many revs...and then there was a knocking. A light knocking, but I knew that sound! Oh shit! So, I started "babying" the car, but kept on driving. Didn't go many places unless they were on the way home from work. Crappy thing is.. I should have looked into taking the bus back and forth. And then one day and one idiot too many, I went to accelerate and go around..and the Whale dropped down into passing gear...and way too many revs later the knock is worse and theres a rattle now, too. I decided just to drive it until it gave up at this point. April 15, 1999 - I had just sent in the Insurance check. I'm on my way to work, just topped a hill and let of the gas when there was a quick loud rattle.....then silence. Fortunately, I was in the right lane. Fortunately I was going down hill. Fortunately, no one decided to stop in front of me. Fortunately, there was a huge Walmart with a huge parking lot just ahead on the right. I coasted into the lot and into a parking space as far away from the Walmart as I could and stopped for a deep breath. Then I tried the key. I got a disappointing moan from the starter and that was about it. Walked home, called work and caleed a car rental place. That following Saturday, I stopped at the car parts place to turn in some oil I had changed out and asked idly if anyone knew anyone that wanted to buy a Nova for parts. One week later, back at the Walmart I saw the last of the Whale. *boo hoo*. |
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| Now that intervening week and half wasn't just waiting around to get rid of the Whale. Hell, I was in a rental car. I gave myself until Monday to find something or find out about the bus. They were not happy times at the Ranch. One of the reasons I hadn't bought another car was that I didn't think I could afford it. But late Sunday afternoon, I found the new(er) car. A 1995 white Chevy Lumina. And the financing. If you look closely at the picture above, you can just see the front corner of it on the left. Having Win95 on the PC at home and having heard hundreds of Win95 jokes, and it being a 1995 car: It was dubbed Whale.95 for lack of any other reason. |
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| It's got air conditioning. It's got power windows. It's got power mirrors! It even has
a cup holder! I've found out that it's supposed to have two cup holders...but there aren't usually
two people in the car, so why worry? But it's damn sure gonna be more difficult to work on than the
old Whale. It's got one of those side-ways V-6 engines. But hey, it is a V-6 and not some no power
straight 4! And I found out on a recent road trip that the radio and speaker package in it Rocks!
Oh, I did mention the road trip. Mid - May I drove up to Raleigh to see one of my best friends get married. I just drove and drove and kept watching the gas needle. All the way to Raleigh and then some. 420 miles on one tank of gas! Woooo hooo! That'd have been at least 3 fill-ups in the old Whale. And the new Whale was well recieved by my attorneys. Well, thanks for reading along this far. Now maybe I can finally make that trip up to Lynchburg, TN and visit the Jack Daniel's distillery after all. |
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