RIP ... Patmobile.... but hopefully you will rise again

Today the Patmobile died. In the middle of nowhere. Well, not quite. At a truckstop along the highway. The battery light came on. And wouldn't reset. It did keep driving, but I was concerned the car would die quite literally in the middle of nowhere, along the side of the highway. I called my dad and he suggested I pull over. I kept on driving a little, then saw a truck stop, all while talking with him (on speaker phone, of course). At the truck stop, he instructed me to look at a few things, but I was too short to really see what was going on. Plus, I didn't have a proper flashlight. Only a little bike light flashlight. That'll teach me. :) Anyway, I called CAA, or AMA, whatever you prefer, and requested a tow, upon the advice of my dad. Good thing I listened. When the tow truck guy got there and tried to back up my car to line it up with the tow truck, it died. He tried again, but it didn't start again. So he put it into neutral and pushed it.

I got a ride back to Calgary with the tow truck driver. It was a monster truck with a boom at the back. It felt kind of neat sitting so high. Not the easiest to get into. He borrowed some wood from the truck stop so I could get in. Haha. That was kind of funny. He was nice enough. Pretty young. I think this was his first job as a tow truck driver, but he assured me he had lots of experience driving equipment. I had some fears of getting into a truck with a stranger ... probably seen too many scary movies. He went above the rules and gave me a ride home too. Apparently they are either to tow to the home or to a shop, but not to both. If the person needs a ride home, they have to wait with them until they get a cab at night. So, I appreciated his kindness in taking me home too.

But, alas, poor Patmobile is sitting in the lot at the garage, hoping to get fixed. I really hope she can get fixed at a relatively low cost ... and quickly. But she has served me well so far. 10 years, and very few big repair bills. Sure, I've replaced the battery a few times. A MB winter will do that. And, I've replaced the brakes a few times - it needs to be done again. I'm guessing hand controls and much city use wears the brakes faster. I've also replaced the serp belt, cruise control (yeah, I guess that was costly), and the power mechanism for the seat (also somewhat costly, but thanks to a wondeffully talented father, it was much cheaper than to get it repaired at a shop). But, overall, Patmobile has been serving me well. And I really hope she continues to do so. So, I do hope and pray she will be revived! Once I have an income, though, I may need to start budgeting for purchasing a new car.

And why Patmobile as a name? Well, I was going to say, 'check out the batmobile cars online', and even post pics, but I'm actually not sure what my friends were thinking when they named my car Patmobile. They figured the wavy lines along the side of the car, and the aerodynamic look resembled the Batmobile, and since my name is Patti ... well, naturally, it was christened as the Patmobile. That's better than the name for my old car ... the Paddywagon. Yeah. True story. And, again, I did NOT name that car .... the name somehow stuck. Go figure.