Violet is ill.

My car is broken.

Dan and I drove to St. Louis yesterday to pick up my sister from the airport. There and back, there was no trouble. The day before I had taken it to get the oil changed and my guys looked it over for me. "Seems good!"

Ciara and I left C-dale this morning, headed to see more family up in Champaign. 15 miles before we reach our brother's house, I lose the ability to accelerate, and I see some smoke coming from the car. After stopping and popping the hood, I see there is some major fluid splatter in the right front, lower quadrant of the engine compartment and both green and red fluid, (coolant and radiator fluid) are dripping madly from the undercarriage. Awesome.

A tow from a dude named Justin and a ride from the bro later, I'm now waiting for 7am on Monday morning for the shop to open and diagnose the problem. I hope something is disconnected and they can put it all together with out much problem. What will probably happen is they discover the head gasket needs to be replaced, the water pump blew, and I have a cracked radiator.

All this means I cancelled the other events that were supposed to take place this weekend in BloNo, mainly collecting the keys from my renters and cleaning my condo. Now I'm piecing together the logistics of getting my sister back to St. Louis for her return flight.

I'm trying to stay positive and remember that this could be epically worse; I could have been in the middle of nowhere; I could have not had family that I can stay with for free while I wait for the shop to open; I could be required to be at work on Monday instead of having time off until Thursday; I could be dirt broke. When I see how bad it could be, I'm pretty happy about the situation.

And then I realize how much I rely on having mobility, and the idea of my car being broke beyond repair makes me want to cry. And so, I put out a call to the Universe:

Dear Universe,

I need my car to work. Please let the mechanic have time to diagnose the problem quickly and let that problem be small and inexpensive.

Super thanks for my awesome family.

Sincerely,
Ariel, Road Warrior

P.S. If you sent me renters soon, that would also be a gigantic relief.

Really, if the worst stuff ends up happening, I have wonderful people that will help make it right. But as Ciara and I were waiting for the tow truck to arrive, I realized (again) how much I hate needing help. I hate being an inconvenience. I, somehow, should have seen this coming and took steps to prevent it. All those times I said I was going to learn more about engines I should have actually done it instead of saying it, and maybe then I would understand what I could do to prevent things like this.

And then I think that I can't do everything by myself. That this is a perfect reminder that even with the many precautions I take to be independent and self sufficient, the world has a way of making people need other people.