Bad Car Karma

I believe in karma. Primarily because karma is always biting me in the ass. You would think I would learn, but I think I have a memory problem. Either that or I am just a dumbass.

My fiance drives a diesel VW Jetta. He brags about the mpg he gets with this little beast of a car. I guess that's what guys do - talk about gas mileage? I don't know. The problem with a diesel car in WNY is that when it's cold, the damn thing doesn't like to start. That's a problem since it gets quite cold for about 2-3 months. Last weekend, he had trouble starting his car and I laughed at him. He has been trying to convince me to make a diesel car part of my next purchase. I have no interest in doing so. I told him that much.

Cut to Wednesday on my way to work. My car (Honda CRV) starts shaking as I am driving down the street (luckily only about a mile from my house). Then I smell this horrible burning rubber smell. My diagnosis - something expensive is wrong.

I call my fiance and tell him that I will never pick on his diesel Jetta again and he laughs at me. Bad car karma.

Cut to Thursday. I am going to drive the Jetta and my fiance is going to drive his truck. His truck won't start (See how badly karma bites me in the ass?). Now I have to either drive him to work, drive to SBU, and pick him up from work (adding 2 hours to my 3 hour trip - not something I want to do) or call my mommy.

So I am a 38-year old independent woman calling her mother to borrow her mother's vehicle so that I can get to work. It's slightly embarrassing.

There are a couple of problems with my mother's vehicle.

The first - it is automatic transmission. Every car I have ever owned - present vehicle included - is manual transmission. One would think this wouldn't be such a difficult transition, but I must point this out, when you are used to shifting and using a clutch, not doing that is comical:
-The first half hour of my trip is spent either slamming on the brakes trying to push in the clutch (in my defense the brake is kinda where the clutch would be on my truck) and trying to shift gears. Thank God no one is behind me when I do this and thank God the gears won't shift without pushing in a little button or I would have gone from Drive to Neutral or Reverse and likely killed myself.
-If I didn't slam on the brakes, I did the 'foot hover' whereby my left foot was suspended over the brake ready to 'shift.' I got the hang of it by the time I got to work only to start all over when I left several hours later.

Old habits die hard.

I would take her vehicle on the sunniest day of the year. I managed to remember to take my hang tag from my vehicle as well as my IPod. I didn't want a parking ticket from SBU security nor could I make the trip listening to country music or some other crap.

What I didn't grab - my sunglasses.

Oh my mother has sunglasses, all right, from her cataract surgery. These bad boys aren't letting any light in! Put them on and suddenly the 38-year old borrowing her mother's vehicle becomes a 65-year old cranky lady trying to operate an automatic vehicle. Their lovely wraparound design and goggle-like facade only make the trip more interesting.

What's pathetic, I later learn, is that I did have my sunglasses with me. They were buried in my purse.

I don't know what kind of karma that is......