破车故事

这一整周折腾俺那破车, 整个过程峰回路转,
一波三折, 搞得俺焦头烂额, 精疲力尽.

俺的车是个1991年的Mazda 626, 圣诞之前买
的. 上周五下午本来跟一个朋友约好了要去
考车, 结果那朋友来了以后, 却发现俺那破
车起动不了了. 俺赶紧跑去学校的Parking
Office找人来jump. 这个Parking Office就
在校园警署边上, 从停车场跑过去只要一两
分钟吧. 柜台上的几位黑妞挺有礼貌, 其中
一个打了一通内线和步话机, 然后告诉俺耐
心等待, 半小时内会有人来jump俺的车. 

半个小时? 俺觉得那也太久了点, 可也没有
办法, 便跑回停车场告诉了那位朋友, 然后
还是回到Parking Office等着. 等了十几分
钟吧, 里头踱出一位小个子黑人, 无所事事
在柜台前晃了一会, 看到俺也是一副无所事
事的样子, 便问俺怎么回事. 刚才打电话的
那位胖姑娘抢着把俺的事跟他说了一下, 他
听完冲俺一招手: "跟我来, 我为你jump".

俺自然千恩万谢地跟着他从后门出去, 上了
他的工具车, 但心里也同时纳闷, 这明明有
人, 有车available, 为啥胖姑娘给俺安排
半个小时?

车到停车场, 他瞄了一下俺那车停的位置, 
是面朝墙停的, 左右两边都有其他车, 就
说jump cable不够长, 让俺把车推出来. 
俺一下就傻了眼(参见1753号文章), 因为
俺那车的一大臭脾气就是没电就换不了档, 
根本推不动. 俺还以为这个专业为人jump
的工具车应该有够长的cable呢.

俺大致说明了一下这破车的臭毛病, 好老
黑, 偏不信邪, 哼了一声钻进了俺那破车,
捣鼓了半天, 只好摇着头出来, 承认俺这
破车不好侍候. 

然后他说cable说不定够长, 可以试试看.
他把他辆车转过来, 开到叉开半辆车的宽
度, 车头紧贴着俺车屁股的位置, 然后取
出jump cable, 俺才发现这车前头的bumper
上专有两个插座是给jump cable用的. 这
插座的位置也就比他车上的电池靠前二三
十公分吧. 就是这二三十公分起了作用, 
jump cable接到俺的车上的电池, 正好够
长! 如果是要从他的电池接出来, 那就不
够长了. 

车子起动, 把他送走以后, 俺那朋友却说
现在已经很晚, 去考车已经来不及了, 改
天吧.

得, 那就改天吧. 

这只是个引子.

这周一俺的车估计是因为Double Parking
被拖走了. 俺费了九牛二虎之力才把车弄
回来. 下面是俺给一个朋友的email里描述
这件事的段落, 其实略去了很多小的曲折
和细节, 不过俺也懒得用中文再讲一遍了,
大伙将就着看吧, 呵呵.

To put it simply, this Monday my car was towed. I went
through a whole lot of troubles to get it back. 

I went to the Parking Office so many times this week that
they have by now known me well. :) Especially Sergent
Morgan. He now calls me "that young man with bad luck". 

I almost spent the whole Tuesday in the Parking Office
because they were not able to find the paperwork of my car.
At last Sergent Morgan decided to release my car without
charge. OK, so I was let into the impounded lot, but only
found out that I was not able to start the car. To find
someone to jump start my car takes time, and I had class in
10 mins, so I had to left it there that day.

On Wednesday I went to Parking Office again after class. I
waited a long time and at last they found an old guy to jump
start my car. That old gentleman was nice, but after he
connected our batteries, my car still wouldn't start. I
guess he might have inversed the jump cables, I'm not sure.
He suggested to check the fuses. OK, we opened the fuse box
and found out that, indeed, the highest(80amp) fuse was
burnt. Well, I had no choice but go out to buy such a fuse.

I returned to my dorm and asked my roommate Scott to help.
He was not happy, but still drove me to the hardware shops.
Guess what, we didn't find this type of fuse until the
fourth shop! 

We were both tired after returning. But he still had to go
to class. I took a snap and then went to Parking Office
again. This time that old guy was still there, so we tried
to replace the burnt fuse with the new one.

But the old fuse wouldn't come out!

There are a row of fuses in the box, all the others can be
yanked easily, only the bad one wouldn't come out. No matter
what we did, it sticked there without moving. We even broke
the upper plastic shell of the burnt fuse. But the rest of
it just wouldn't move.

At last we gave up. I asked him what I should do then, he
said he's going off work right away, and suggested me to
call some towing company to tow my car.

I went back to the front desk, but the lady there said I had
to pay for the towing fee myself. Fortunately I remembered
that I had registered for AAA two weeks before. I called
AAA, they checked and told me my info was not input into the
database yet. So I had to give them all info over the phone
for them to input. After that they granted my request and
said the towing truck would be coming in an hour.

OK, so I returned to CoC to wait for them. Then I realised
that the parking office was closing in fifteen minutes,
there's no way we would be able to tow the car when the
truck arrived. So I called AAA again to cancel the request.

I didn't go to Parking Office on Thursday because I was busy
with classes and exams. Then Friday after class, I made a
call to AAA again. They told me there's towing truck nearby
and was arriving in a few mins. Hehe, you can imagine how I
rushed from CoC to parking office. But the truck still
arrived before I did. :) 

Sergent Morgan told the other guy to open the impounded lot
for me. But then we found out this truck wouldn't work for
my car. It required the car to be pushed onto the back of
it. But my car has this big problem, without power, the gear
cannot be shifted. If the gear cannot be shifted to Neutral,
then you won't be able to push the car. The truck driver
spent 10 mins studying and fumbling the gear of my car, and 
at last gave up. 

Then he called the AAA headquarter asking for another kind
of truck. 20 mins later the other truck arrived. This one
didn't require pushing my car, so we finally got out of the
impounded area with my car.

We went to the Goodyear on Howell Mill Road. About 3 miles 
from the Parking Office. It took about 2 hours to fix my 
car. Then I drove it back by myself...hehe, without dirver's 
license. 


事情最后还有个尾声. 昨天俺从宿舍开车来系里, 
晚上一点多和另一位也是去年刚来的朋友一起回
去, 他当然就搭俺的车了. 其实从系里回宿舍走
路也就十几分钟, 开车要绕大圈, 到了宿舍停车
场还要兜来兜去找停车位, 未必省时间, 俺也就
是为了去考车前多练练而已.

不想就那么点路, 路上还被警察盯上了. 俺车其
实开得挺慢, 从后视镜里看到后面那辆警车警灯
闪闪地跟了俺好几十米, 俺心下嘀咕, 也不知是
不是在盯着俺. 忽听那警车警笛大作, 吓得俺一
哆嗦, 原来真是冲着俺来的, 赶紧开到路边停下,
可是紧张之下竟然有一半车身到Curb上去了. 

俺心说这下死定了, 俺只有Learner's Permit,
搭俺车的朋友连Learner's Permit都没有, 被逮
个正着, 那还不脱层皮.

俺那朋友忙下车想过去警车那儿看个究竟, 不想
那边大叫:
	"Back in the car!" 
叫了好几遍, 俺才反应过来他叫的是什么, 忙把
那朋友拉回车里.

然后那位警察踱着方步走过来, 用手电筒往俺车
里一晃, 伸手往俺车灯开关上一拨, 道:
	"You forgot to turn on the head lights."
俺心里大叫"Shit",口中忙不迭地道:
	"I'm sorry, I just got the car back..."

他不等俺说完, 伸手道:
	"Your driver's license and insurance."
俺翻出Learner's Permit和保险卡给了他, 他又问道:
	"How long have you been driving?"
俺支吾了一会儿, 答道:
	"About...one month?"

然后他拿着俺那两样东西回到警车. 俺自怨自艾, 忐
忑不安地等着, 也不知过了多久, 他又回来了, 把那
两样东西还了给俺, 说道:
	"Next time remember to turn on the lights.
	You can go now."

俺大出意外, 赶忙一通"OK", "Thank you", 他已经转
身往回走了, 也不知听到没有. 

后来俺把车开回去停好后, 一直在巡思警察为啥放了
俺一马. 照说校园里的警察都是比较nice的, 可是俺
无证驾驶, 又违了例(当然, 学校里到处路灯亮堂堂,
也怪不得俺忘了开车灯, 呵呵), 该是比较严重的才对. 

然后想到他明知俺那证是Learner's Permit, 却根本
就没有向俺那朋友要Driver's License, 显然已经认
定了俺是在他的陪同下学车, 犯点错也是可以原谅的,
呵呵...

俺还有一点没什么把握, 就是这事情是不是就这么完
了. 如果警察要把俺记录在案, 应该会给俺一个白纸
黑字的收据的, 对吗?