The adventures of a habitual traffic offender - Part 4

This is part 4 of hopefully only a 5 part story. I try to keep each post about 4 pages as determined in Microsoft Word. This story was a lot more involved than I thought it would be. Here is part 1, 2, and 3 for a recap. Part 3 was the most action packed of this story.

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Due to rain, I couldn’t for on the car for the next few days. The first clear day, however, we were out there taking care of business. Lee also had some things he wanted work on with is car. He had picked up some tires from a junkyard and was replacing his worn ones. Jesse was out there… supervising, I guess. The battery of my parts car was dead and most of the electrical system was stripped out. The windows were electrical and the passenger side window was rolled down – somehow I had to get it up and out. I tried splicing in a 12-volt lead from my good car, but either it wasn’t the right wires or the motor was dead. Supervisor Jesse came over and pointed out the two rivets that held the glass to the bar that raised or lowered the window. Thanks Jesse, take a break, pal, you’ve earned it! With a standard screwdriver (you know, the flathead), I broke away the rivet. With each pull of the glass, I couldn’t figure out how to angle it without the glass shattering! I couldn’t risk breakage anymore so from my toolbox I retrieved my hacksaw and proceeded to remove the top of the door. 2 blades and 20 minutes later the top was removed and the window easily came out. I laid it in the back seat of my good car. With the primary goal of the mission accomplished, it was time for the secondary objectives; search and rescue of any survivors. The car still had its computer and dashboard, yank! In my car the dashboard would turn off every once and a while. I had hoped this would fix it, but after the swap out – no change, it would still intermittently short out. Must have been some other electrical problem, probably the wiring. I also swapped the relays of both cars, also no change. Unfortunately, the motor was picked clean. The power steering pump and supply lines were removed. The tires of the parts care were in great shape and mounted on the factory aluminum rims – SCORE! My car had some beefy used snow tires my father gave me but the were on the steel rims, so the factory rims would be a nice upgrade. Plus I could leave a donut spare on the parts car and keep a steel rimmed tire for a full-size spare! As I was finishing the swap of the final tire and Lee was finishing up to his project by topping off his oil, our neighbors in blue came over to ask for a cup of sugar. Two cruisers pulled in, each blocking an exit and three officers came over to greet us. “What’s going on guys?” One officer inquired. “Just working on our car, Office.” Lee said, dropping his hood closed. “We had a report of some cars being vandalized and possibly stripped.” Great, the plan was no undue attention! “Well, sir, I don’t know anything about that. We’ve been rotating our tires and I’m trying to fix my passenger side window.” I said. Where did Jesse get to? “These cars yours?” “Yeah, these two Toronadoes are.” “Registered?” With no hesitation I answered, “Yes, sir. One is. I just picked up this one.” I really hoped they wouldn’t call me on it. Luckily, I didn’t recognize any of the officers as being the ones who’d previously had my car towed. “You have a title for this car?” “I have…” I reached into the parts car and produced an envelope. “I have both the bill of sale and the title.” He reached out for the envelope and I handed it to him. He withdrew the papers, compared the VIN number to the one of the car and handed the papers back. “We take these complaints seriously and have to check them out. As you were, gentlemen.” As an after thought, I think, the Officer added, “I don’t want to see any car parts trashing this place up. Pick up after yourself. Have a good day.” “No worries Officer! We’re almost done.” He was already in his cruiser and backing out. The parts car had already been picked clean and there were no other part of any use to me. The incident with the police sucked up a lot of time and daylight was fading fast. Before I went inside for the night, I scribbled out a quick note.

VEHICLE TO BE TOWED FOR JUNK REMOVAL KEY/PAPERWORK IN GLOVEBOX

When I awoke the next morning I scanned the phone book for free removal of junk cars. I called a couple places before I got a taker. I setup a tow for the afternoon – SUCKERS! Then I drove up to Brattleboro to solicit help to install the window from my father. In under 10 minutes, he had the window installed and in perfect working order. Thanks Dad! On the way back home I had to pick up an air freshener. With the widows now up, it got musty and rank due to exposure to the rain. The temp agency called and offered me a data entry position. Good time, rent for November would be due in a couple of weeks. After hearing what the position consisted of, I eagerly accepted. The position was for a pickle shop in South Deerfield. They were in the process of converting systems and wanted to digitize all of their printed recipes and operating procedures. The digitized information would then me entered into a database. There were a few dozen binders that needed to be imported and the position was slated to last for a couple of months. I eagerly accepted the position because the shift was 4pm to 12am! My dream shift! There’d be no change to my routine, I usually stayed up until 1:30 am anyhow – now I’d have the morning and early afternoon open! My first day I was late, but only by 10 minutes – give or take a few. Am I the master of first impressions or what? In my defense, I did have trouble finding the place. The directions given to me by the agency weren’t the best. After going through the customary, “Hi, my name is Mike. I will be your temp today” greeting, I jumped right into the project. The rest of the day went smoothly. The second day, not so much. I arrived on time and the job it self was fine. I went out to my car for break so I could listen to Eminem or They Might Be Giants. I must have turned the parking lights on when I turned the dome light on and not have turned them off when I turned to dome light off. When my shift was over I came out find my car had a dead battery. I phone the apartment and an irritated Lee showed up with his other cousin Levi and jumped me. The next week on my way home I ran out of gas. Thanks to the help of a Good Samaritan, I was given some gas and able to make it home. I had run out of gas twice before in that car and was in constant fear of doing so again. With the dashboard being digital and periodically shorting out, I never really knew how much gas I had. Even when the dash was working I don’t feel the gauge was accurate. Unfortunately, running out of gas would not be my biggest worry. One night I was coming home from work and a car got really close to me, then backed off. Again, got close and backed off. I couldn’t tell if it was a cap, or a punk kid. We drove under a streetlight and I saw the light bar. Crap! I let off the gas a little, my mind was racing. I had to get out of there and fast, but where? Down the road a bit I saw my escape, a side street - yes! I had no idea where the road lead but I had to give it a try! Just before the street I put my blinker on and took the turn hard - little too hard as I fishtailed. A few houses down was a van. I pulled into it’s driveway and killed the lights. I pulled the e-brake and took my foot off the brakes. Maybe it wasn’t a cop. Just relax and breathe. As I exhaled, a cruiser came charging down the road and blew past me. He was out of sight within seconds. I put it in neutral and let off the e-brake – the backup and break lights would have given me away, again but I had learned my lesson. I stopped with the e-brake and threw it in drive. I drove with no lights until I was back out on the main road. I hauled ass back to the apartment where my roommates and I had a good laugh about it. “You idiot, don’t take a back road at night!” “Yeah, yeah.” From then on, that is exactly what I did – highway only. There were no incidents again, totally uneventful while I worked through the end of the pickle shop assignment. The assignment ended early I wasn’t thrilled about that, neither was Lee. The life style I was living was fun and free, but it was wearing thin. Lee was getting tired of it too. I got a real job at a local grocery store in the deli department. Too little, too late - Lee and I had a little falling out. I moved out in early December and in with another buddy of mine names Jay. I was there for a few weeks. We actually both got jobs at the grocery store at the same time, he got the meat department and I got the deli department. When I moved in with him I started seeing a girl name Jillian. There was something special about that girl. We dated for a couple weeks and were pretty hot ‘n heavy. I moved in with her just before Christmas. New job, new girlfriend. Happy ending? Not just yet, true believers! Check out the conclusion coming soon!