My Favorite Four-Wheeled Friend

Living with a geriatric Jeep can sometimes be stressful, but in the long run, it’s worth it… because I love my Jeep. He’s my favorite four-wheeled friend.

I bought the Jeep in 2004 against my dad’s wishes. Craig (that’s my dad) wanted me to get another Subaru. My first Subaru, a Legacy named “The Putt-Putt,” was a great little vehicle, but ultimately, I fell in love with the Jeep Liberty and its round headlights. They all looked so happy as they drove down the road! They still do! I think my Jeep Liberty is probably the happiest of all!

Sneakily, my mom and I got the Jeep one day when my dad wasn’t around. And do you know what? It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Sure, it’s had a few issues over the years (the gizmo that makes the automatic windows go up and down has needed to be replaced on more than one occasion, and a year or two ago the fuel pump went bad), but it’s overall been a wonderful investment and I love it to Neptune* and back again.

But let’s get back to today’s tale, eh?

My bosom friend Wes gave me a ride to work this morning because the ol’ Jeep was in the shop having his AC compressor replaced (as per the recommendation of Denny, my regular mechanic) and I wasn’t able to borrow my mom’s car because she needed it today. After school, that same bosom friend Wes drove me to the mechanic and dropped me off. “Give me a thumbs up if all’s good,” he told me. All was good. Wes left and I paid. The bill was super reasonable! Way less than I was expecting! Like… four hundred dollars less than I was expecting!

I got in my Jeep, drove to the grocery store, and realized the check-engine light was on. “Uh-oh,” I said to myself. “Maybe it will go off when I turn it back on.”

Side note: At school, my students have had a lot of technical difficulties with their computers. Each time they ask me to send them to the official tech department, I say, “Have you first turned it off and then turned it back on?” We turn off their laptops together, then wait for them to reboot. Sometimes we merely close an application and open it again. It works every time. If this teaching gig doesn’t work out, and if I can’t get a book published, I might go into the technology field.

Back to the story.

I will not be going into auto repair because turning off the Jeep and turning it back on did nothing to eliminate the check-engine light. So then I got some gas and realized not only was the check-engine light on, but the Jeep was driving funny! It was driving the same way it was driving right before it needed a new fuel pump! So I took it back to the mechanic.

The mechanic (I think his name is Todd but I wouldn’t swear to it) was completely perplexed by the Jeep’s odd behavior. He got under the hood with a flashlight and two other mechanical brains and this trio of engine wizards puzzled over the odd revving of the motor for several minutes. And then Maybe Todd determined that the problem was an important doohickey with an unknown function that had melted to another doohickey that needed to be replaced!

Separating the melted doohickeys was quite the production. I checked Instagram and created a new post about the Jeep while the engine wizards worked. Then I looked at the time. It was almost five o’clock! I had an open house at the high school at five-thirty and I was going to need to walk home. I told Maybe Todd that I needed to go and he was like, “Alright. I’ll have this done before I leave tonight. It’ll run good as new. You can pick it up first thing tomorrow.”

I said, “What time do you get here?”

Maybe Todd answered, “Around ten of eight.”

I said, “I’ll be in homeroom. I’ll pick it up after school.” And then I started walking.

As I walked, I called my mom, and I was in the process of telling her that I was walking to her house (it’s a mile away, but I have a long stride) when my savior, also known as my concert husband Phillip, pulled up, put down his window, and asked, “Is everything okay?”

He gave me a ride to my parents’ house.

From there, I got my mom’s key and took her Kia back to my house… where I called my boss and essentially said, “Beth it’s Hannah and I know I need to be at school by five-thirty for open house but I’m having a terrible-horrible time with transportation and I thought I was getting my Jeep back but then the check-engine light was on so I waited as long as I could but I eventually had to start walking and fortunately my friend Phil picked me up and gave me a ride to my mom’s and now I have her car but it’s five-ten and I’m just getting home and I’m going to feed the dogs before I turn right around and come back. That’s what I’m calling and not texting because I need to keep moving!” (Usually I speak with proper punctuation, but I spoke to Beth without commas, periods, or exclamation points.)

Beth said, “That’s perfect, Hannah.”

I fed the dogs, fed the cats, took a quick selfie with Sid because he’s my geriatric cat (Sid’s almost eighteen years old! He’s practically the same age as the Jeep!) and I thought I might want to use the photo in this blog, and climbed back into the Kia in order to book it to school.

I made it by five-thirty-five. Phew!

*Neptune is farther than the moon, fyi.