Great story Pat! Both you & the guy in the pickup.  However, IMNTK,
how did the pickup guy go from a Vanagon to a "huge black pickup"?

YMMV,

Mr. BZ-should go back

On Jun 29, 2010, at 1:28 PM, Pat Sloan wrote:

> To truly appreciate, you all need to know that I'm a 65-yr-old woman
> with a
> serious 'Auto Mechanics for Women' course (circa 1975) under my belt.
>
> So I'm out in Mission, about 50 miles from home in Vancouver with
> 'Otter',
> my 1982 Westy van with an 87 Jetta engine. 'Bob the Diligent' (my
> cheap and
> wonderfully patient mechanic) has just spent several days correcting
> massively bad wiring which has been draining the battery and
> creating major
> starting problems. Now I'm at the gas station just before the freeway,
> filling up before I drive home. But when I start her up again she
> doesn't.
> Nothing. No sound to give me a clue. I call Bob, but he's gone home
> for the
> day. Can't call BCAA because I've used up all my calls for the year
> (see
> draining battery, above).
>
> Fret and pace briefly. Then decide to call BCAA anyway. They'll
> charge me,
> but at least I know they're reputable. Now I can't read the
> emergency # on
> the card. Don't have my reading glasses with me. Aargh!!
>
> At the pumps behind me a huge black pickup has just pulled up. The
> kind I
> need a ladder to climb into. Forty-something guy gets out to pump
> gas and I
> ask if he can read the phone # off my card so I can call BCAA. This is
> probably the 1st moment that he's registered my existence, and when
> he lifts
> his eyes from my card to check what I'm driving, he lights up like
> the dawn
> coming over the mountains!
>
> "Hey, I used to drive all over the country in one of those!"
>
> "What year? Yeah, mine was an '82, too!"
>
> "Can I have a look at the Jetta engine? Wow! Cool! Jeez, I miss mine."
>
> "Hey, let me have a look back by the starter and see what's
> happening."
>
> I find a pair of pyjamas he can wrap around his arm, (engine is
> hot!) and he
> kind of disappears into the engine compartment like the vet in 'All
> Creatures Great and Small' helping out a cow who's having some
> problems
> delivering her calf.
>
> I strategically fall back to the passenger side of the Darth Vader
> pickup to
> make nice with the very young, very made-up blonde passenger who is
> rolling
> her eyes at this insanity. Not sure if she's a girlfriend or a
> daughter -
> could be either. But in any case, clearly it's majorly to my
> advantage to
> keep her as happy as possible.
>
> It only takes a minute or 2. He finds the wire he clearly knows
> about and is
> looking for. Seems it was connected but not crimped and has fallen
> off. So
> he's pushed it back on. Enough for me to drive carefully back to Bob's
> garage, where I can leave it until Monday so he can fix. Refuses any
> payment. Leaves with a smile and a wave and my hearty thanks!
>
> Wow! Vanagonuts . . .
>
> They're everywhere;
>
> they're obsessed
>
> and they are very, very kind.
>
> Pat in Vancouver - '82 Vanjetta - 'Otter'