how i spent my first new year day outside...

I've been sick with the flu, and it's remnants for over 16 days now. Today was the first time I felt good enough to go outside in all the time. So I get into my trusty, reliant 1994 Saab and cruise a mile across town to get some blank DVDs at Office Depot. On the way home I was feeling peckish and decided to stop in for a drive thru dinner at In-N-Out.

Sat in the car and ate, listening to evening rock on 107.7 The Bone, then start the car up for the gentle drive home. I put the car into reverse, no problem and pull out of my space. But then... right then, I move the gear out of reverse to go into first but the entire gear stick goes all floppy. And cannot find any gear at all. It just flops around like a limp, dead fish. In my hand. I released the clutch and found that I had actually slipped into some forward moving gear, it felt like third and the car lurched forward enough to swing around and pull into another parking space on the opposite side.

Well, I called Triple-A. What else could I do. Luckily the tow home was less than a mile away. Every once in awhile you get a saavy tow driver too. This guy was not your "hello how are you where do you want to go" type driver. He was a "well let me have a look at it maybe i can fix it" kinda driver. He spent about 20 minutes poking around to determine exactly what was wrong and even came to a point in the examination when he said, "hmmm maybe with some duct tape you could drive this home yourself!" it didn't work though. i didn't mind. it was just cool to watch him having fun, even though it was cold and i didn't feel the best.

anyway, looks like the last work that was done on my car was related to this breakdown so maybe it'll be under warranty still. i was going to stop at Safeway to get some oj. have to figure that out later...

oh, and this photo was taken with my G1. added Ambrotype filter via Picnik.