Herby died! Wait, that's a bit too dramatic... more precisely he has had internal organ failure. He was throwing up all over the place. It was a traumatic afternoon.

Chill, all of you who don't know the inside jokes. Herby is my car (so named because when we were at the car sales store checking out cars he literally followed us around the parking lot, so we decided he is the Suzuki version of Herby the bug)... so although it was pretty traumatic when he stopped moving this afternoon (and forced me to walk the entire mile home from school), I don't think it was fatal and it was "just" a car.

The story: Jaclyn had the day off of school, so she gave Herb a looooong overdue bath and and an almost as overdue oil change (actually some guys at a car shop helped us out with that one, J didn't do it herself). When she went to go get me after school (crappy weather so I didn't bike this morning), he wouldn't budge. First, he was going forwards and not backwards (she needed to back out of our drive), but then he stopped moving forwards too. That was when she noticed he was leaking from below. Once I made it to our block I noticed splotches and splashes all the way down the street and followed them directly back to poor Herby. It wasn't water, but I wasn't entirely sure it was oil, either. However- it was TOO much of a coincidence that something was drastically wrong with our car the exact same afternoon it had been in for new oil. So I called the garage back and they promised to come immediately. I told them to just follow the trail....

Jaclyn and I made ourselves comfy in the back door/floor of Herb and waited, staring towards the street, for a tow truck and some apologies. After long enough to make me start doubting my directions... a tiny spearamint car swung around the corner and up our drive. Out jumped two identically jumpsuited "Auto-R" men with matching caps, tools in hand and serious looks on their faces. They saw the trail right away and followed it to Herby. After minimal introductions, they set to work. The leader soon enough popped the trunk and Jaclyn and I both heard a distinct "WA....?!" when he got his first look. Not a good sign at all... He signaled to us (I was a bit scared to look) and after peeking around the side of the car, we saw that the Herby's entire innards were shiney wet.... completely soaked. The guy ran his white gloved finger (yep... for a mechanic?? come on!!) along the top of the battery and showed us that his finger was pink. This is not oil, he asserted. Sure enough, he checked the oil and it was still full. Nope, this is probably due to a hole in the gear fluid hose.... which we had nothing to do with. "So this just happened to break the same day you worked on it???" I asked with a perfect (I must say myself) mix of sarcasm and respect. "Yes, that's right". Just to assure us that it was the gear fluid, he got into the car, turned it on (Jaclyn and I taking a few steps back after seeing the other garage guy do the same...) and pink/red juice came spurting out Herby's front end. It was a terrible sight!! Fortunately, he turned the car off quickly and showed us where the hole was. Since there was nothing I could do, I apologized for asking them to come out and sent them home. I still am not ready to believe they didn't somehow create that hole, but I wasn't going to pitch a fit. Its just too small a neighborhood and I depend on my neighbors too much for that.

So, then I called the store where we bought the car. They were incredibly apologetic, which always throws me off. Car sales men here seem to be of a completely different breed than those back home. From my experience (or perhaps from the movies, since the only real cars salesman I've ever known is my father... sorry Dad), selling and buying cars back home takes a lot of skill and is more a game... revealing and uncovering the least and the most information as possible depending on your position and your tactics. Here, we were told absolutly everything about the car right off the bat, including the fact that the last owner was a smoker and the roof fabric was therefore really bad (though we didn't notice it at all on our own). While we were in the process of purchasing the car, they drove all the way out to my school (from a different city) to have me sign paperwork, then when we actually bought it, they delivered it to my house and we handed money over in my kitchen (cash, too... that was quite something).

So back to today. After hanging up with a promise that they'd be out to check it out ASAP, they called back a second time and asked if we had another car. Uh.. no. Well, they didn't currently have a car to loan us.. would we be all right? Besides the fact that we didn't have a choice since it was painfully obvious Herby wasn't going to be particularly helpful until he got some serious medical attention... it was quite a treat that they were so considerate. I assured him that we both had bikes and we would be able to figure something out.

So he and another older gentleman (not in matching jumpsuits this time) pulled up in a large jeep with some chains after about twenty minutes. I told them the story and they agreed Herby would need to be taken to the garage. In order to get the car hooked up to their jeep though, they needed it pointed in the other direction. I was quite thankful that I own such a small car as I helped them push Herb back and forth until he was turned in the other direction. And off they went.... So now we are carless again. It was a rather exciting afternoon. I hope everything turns out all right, and I really hope it doesn't cost us a fortune. Its just a hose... right?

ps. shhh... don't say it too loudly but its actually supposed to be nice all weekend!!!