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Monday, March 8, 2010

No brakes.

My car died. Well. It didn't just die. It died in the sense that the lights and brakes died as I was going down a steep downhill in the dark. Augh. I'm okay though. Obviously. Didn't crash. Downshifted and E-braked and found a safe spot and was also fucking lucky and didn't crash.

At a motel now, I'm okay, piggies are okay, will get the car fixed in the morning.

So fucking scary. I'm crying now that everything's okay even though I wasn't while it was going on. I'm not going to get hurt now but oh my god. I was totally in the dark and alone and no one could see me and I couldn't see anything and it was a steep hill and I couldn't stop.

I want to go home. I want my daddy. I want a hug.

It's okay. I'm okay. I'm just completely exhausted and emotional. Probably the lady hormones or something. I'll get the car fixed and I'll go to my new apartment tomorrow and it'll all be okay. But goddamn. This is, as I say, Suck City.

16 comments:

  1. You lost your brakes and lights, downhill with a trailer in the dark? And you managed it all?

    You're a better driver than most.

    Glad you're OK, and you're allowed to be a bit wobbly. A nice big glass of perspective and soda will help.

    Let us know what went wrong, lights and brakes are not normally related, or shouldn't be.

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  2. Hang on a bit. Downshifted? You're driving a stick? *Even more respect*

    (Here, everyone drives a stick. Found that's not so common in 'merka)

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  3. wrm - No, it's an automatic, you can respect me less now. But even automatics let you manual-override into 2nd and 1st gears.

    I think it's an electrical thing and only the power braking technically failed; with a downhill and the extra momentum of the trailer, this made the brakes not 100% gone but practically useless.

    (Actually, I know it's an electrical thing because I got off the highway by being jumped, and during the brief period before my car died again, it braked correctly.)

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  4. Hey, having the presence of mind to manually shift an auto keeps you way up there :-)

    Electrical failure should not kill the power brakes. It does kill the power steering on some cars, since they run that with a big-ass electric hydraulic pump to save fuel.

    But then again, what do I know of American cars...

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  5. Glad you're OK. Good piece of driving. You kept it together during the event, which is the important part. Getting shaky and emotional when coming down from an adrenaline dump is totally normal.

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  6. "Probably the lady hormones or something."

    No, I think it's cause that was pretty friggin' scary... I handle emergency situations pretty well and I'd still be a bit shaky after something like that...

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  7. What Jimbo said. Don't be all "must be because I'm a girl" over this. It's totally normal to freak out after something scary happens.

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  8. Holy shit! That must have been super terrifying. I'm so glad you didn't get hurt.

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  9. Glad you're okay. Have an electronic hug (not as good, but better than nothing, I hope.)

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  10. Wow...that is a very scary experience and I'm glad you are ok! Good thinking/dealing with the crisis in the moment. Aftershocks are to be expected and not a reflection on your gender or toughness...you rock!

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  11. Goddam... Very glad you're okay.

    And I'll repeat it: very well done. I doubt I would have handled it as well.

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  12. Holy balls!!

    As a professional driver, I must salute you. You kept things under control when just about everything possible went wrong. Damn few people can do that, especially after days of mind-numbing driving through winter wastelands.

    You rock.

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  13. People, people . . . I think we can safely conclude that she was kidding about that lady hormone bit. I was going to kid about it too, but now I'm thinking I'd better not.
    :p

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