The Mazda Lives!

Now I have a car story to tell you. The car I have driven to work for the past many years is a gold Mazda Protege, a 1998 LX edition, with a great stereo, power windows, and a sunroof. It was that car that I noodled around in to do many of my fun little photo shoots that got me all these blip pictures. I'd try to allow an extra 15 or 20 minutes for a tiny adventure here or there, and the Mazda would take me there!

Oh, it's had plenty of issues over the last few years, as it has gotten older. It started to have some serious suspension problems, which in fact, caused me to purchase a new car in 2017. Much to our surprise, our mechanic at the time was able to get the Mazda fixed up and back in business!

Since then, it's had a repair to the brake line. I drove out of my work parking lot one afternoon, and they had unexpectedly started paving it without providing notice first. Step one was apparently to remove all of the pavement but only from certain areas. As a result, the pavement was uneven. I hit a bump and there went the brakes! I made it home that day on a wing and a prayer.

Well, you've missed an episode or two since then. I've only needed to drive sporadically in the past year because I worked at home from March 2020 on, and then retired at the end of December 2020. A couple of times a month, I'd get my Mazda out and run it in to town: to the office, campus, or my favorite stop of all, the Arboretum. And every evening while he was still alive, our Tabbycat Dexter and I would sit in the car together quite happily, watching the local birds and yard creatures! So yes, this was Dexter's car too!

The Mazda developed a leak in the power steering hose in late fall, and my husband taped up the leaks. This helped a little bit, for a while, but the leak got worse. In fact, when I drove it in to town in mid-January, it dumped all of the power steering fluid out in the parking lot. I added the fluid I had with  me, and it ran out as fast as I poured it in! Once again, I drove home on a wing and a prayer: point the car in a straight direction, don't turn the wheel, and put the pedal to the metal!

The car, alas, has sat in the driveway since then. For one, it snowed ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME for a while there, and nobody was going anywhere. All we did was stay home and shovel! For another, we weren't really sure what to do about the problem. In February, my husband added more power steering fluid, started the car up, and the fluid poured out all over our driveway. Rats. How could we even get it to a mechanic?

The weather finally stopped snowing every night, and my husband got the bright idea to buy some of that magic repair tape they sell at auto places, that's supposed to get you home if you have a car problem on the road. The roll of special tape sells for around $10 to $15. My husband crawled under the car, removed the old tape, dried it all off, and replaced the old cheap tape with the magic stuff. All of this happened last week.

Well, our car appointment with the mechanic was finally set for 3 pm on this day. We were both a bundle of nerves. Would the car even START, after sitting that long? Would the fluid stay in it? Would my husband even make it to the mechanic? Inquiring minds both wanted to know and were sorta terrified to find out!

Around 2:15 in the afternoon, he put the key in it and the engine started right up! Purred like a kitten, in fact. (GOOD Mazda!) We topped off the power steering fluid, closed things up, and off he went, on a wing and a prayer!

Believe you me, I was on tenterhooks while he was gone. I went for a walk to distract myself but it didn't help. How would things turn out? Would my car even be fixable? Well, in not very much time at all, my husband was back, and the Mazda pulled into the driveway. I could hardly breathe!

My husband hopped out and I asked him how it went. His answer was sort of stodgy: "I'm glad I took as much money as I did," he said. "How MUCH money did it cost?" I asked him. And a big sunshiny grin broke across his face: "Twenty bucks!"

"You're giving me a heart attack here!" I said. He replied: "Honey, why don't you hop in, and I'll take you for a spin!" Yes, we know the car is rather old. But we don't give up easily around here. The car is fixed, and road-worthy again, after a repair that took less than a half-hour! WHEW!!!!

So the happy news is that I have my wheels back again! Yay! And believe you me, I'm celebrating! Here is a song for this car, which has truly taken me there . . . and back again: Asia, with Sole Survivor.

Prior blips featuring the Mazda, the cat, and me:
Back Seat Boy 4/16/13
My Wheels! 11/23/14
Runaway American Dream: Where the Zoom-Zoom Lives 1/9/16
Self-Portrait of the Photographer as Grease Monkey 10/21/16
In Which I Do Body Work on My Mazda 12/4/16
The Homecoming 7/4/17
The Traffic Stop! 7/26/17
The Flower That Blooms in Adversity, Redux 7/27/17
With Dexter as My Co-Pilot 3/27/18
Spring View from the Alumni Gardens 5/16/18
Just Chillin' in the Car With Dexter 7/13/18
Dexter in the Car: He's Got Bette Davis Eyes! 10/13/18
The Vortex Is Over! Get Back in the Car! 2/2/19
Dexter Demonstrates Social Distancing 3/15/20
Dexter in the Back Seat of the Car 8/15/20