all hail the BCAA

i have two big car-related anxieties.
the first is that my car will somehow stop working on one of the many bridges in the Greater Vancouver region. once you’re stopped on a bridge, you’ve nowhere to go until the tow truck comes and you’re the object of cranky drivers’ ire. the second is to walk out of my house, the mall, movie theatre, work, wherever and find my car gone from where i’ve left it.
i think i should put a third on my list: getting into my car late at night someplace semi-deserted and far from home only to turn the key in the igniton and be met with silence.
oh wait, that happened to me last night!
yeah, my battery crapped out sometime during class. ugh. it totally sucked to be sitting in the quickly emptying BCIT parking lot trying to figure out how i’d get home from the mechanic if i needed the car towed there, and how i’d get to work this morning if the same were true.
first, i phoned my daddy, because that’s what a girl is supposed to do when they’re in trouble, right? well, he wasn’t home. i left him a message telling him that i’d call him from the mechanic’s once i got there via tow truck. then i called BCAA (that’s the British Columbia Automobile Association, btw). the very nice lady on the phone told me that it was very busy in the Burnaby area so it would be about an hour until they could get to me. i must have made some disconcerted noise because she then asked me if i was alone, if i had a safe place to stay and she’d put a rush on it because i was alone in a parking lot all by myself. nice lady!
so, i walked back to SE12 and did what anyone else would when they’re bored and it’s too late to phone their friends because they have to get up and go to work the next day: i phoned my mommy. i woke her up, but that’s okay, she loves me and can sleep in in the morning. actually, we had a really good chat for fourty minutes or so until my cell phone rang to tell me the BCAA guy was in the vicinity.
now, let’s talk about the really nice BCAA guy. his name was bob. bob #92. i showed him the funky undimming of dash lights and the non-starting of the engine and he did a gravity test on the battery, gave me a jump and even washed some of the corrosion off the battery before he closed the hood. he was very nice, answered all my questions and even volunteered information about what he was doing (i didn’t ask about the gravity test, i’d seen it done before but couldn’t remember what it was called or what it tested). he got my car running enough for me to get it home (in the cold and silence because i was too paranoid to turn on the heat or the radio for fear of draining the battery. i couldn’t remember if all the power for that stuff comes from the alternator when the engine is running or not.). thank you, bob #92!
unsurprisingly, the car wouldn’t start this morning. dad had offered me a lift if that was the case, so i phoned him at 6:30 and he chauffered me to work and will be fetching me come 4 o’clock. when he gets me home i’ll call BCAA yet again and get their Battery Express service to come out, test stuff and sell me a new battery right there in my parking spot. these guys are so smart.
let this be a lesson to all of you with automobiles, or who ride in automobiles. you never know when you’ll need roadside assistance. pay the $60 a year. if you ever need it, it’ll be the best insurance policy you’ll ever have.
as i lay in bed, the clock glowing a red 12:02 and the alarm set for 5:28, i took a series of deep breaths and surrendered all my car-related worries, concerns and anxieties to the universe. i told the universe that it was time i retired my 13 year old first vehicle, that it was time i had a new, reliable, mechanically sound, not-too-big and not-too-ugly car. i let it all go and it will be okay. i hope.