My First Car

I finally got my car today! It was quite the experience.

My Grandpa bought a car for me recently from a friend of his. It's a white 1987 Acura Integra. Made when I was born =). So I spent a day a month or so ago taking the tires off with him and seeing how the brakes work, and looking at the engine, checking oil etc. That was lots of fun and I got my first introduction to the innards of cars.

So this past Saturday I went to Grandpa's again and we dealt with the paperwork for transferring the vehicle and getting license plates, insurance, and BCAA membership etc. That was another big experience in itself hehe. We brought the plates back, stuck them on, reassembled the interior (Grandpa had taken it apart to air out and check for leaks, which he fixed.) I then gave the car a very good wash while Grandpa went inside and got ready to go.

We then hit the highway, and I got to drive it for the very first time, let alone use my new N license (see previous post) for the very first time. When we were halfway to school though, there was this weird smell and, all of a sudden, smoke started pouring out of the front. "Quick, pull over!" Grandpa yelled, "Slow down! Slow down!". So I obeyed and brought the car to a quick stop. "Open the hood!" he instructed as he jumped out of the car. He took a look but saw nothing wrong, when we realize the smoke was coming from the driver side front wheel.

And sure enough, when we touched the wheel, it was really hot. We sat around for a while trying to figure out what to do. In the end we called the BCAA and had a tow truck take us to an open mechanic (being a Saturday, those were scarce) where we could have it checked out. Of course, I'd never had my car towed before, so that was quite an experience.

It turned out the car's rotors had warped, and so the pads had been damaged too. Most likely due to the calipers seizing up. So we had those replaced and the brakes flushed as well. HOWEVER....

When they were flushing the brakes, there was sludge in the master cylinder which clogged up their flushing machine. So they said we needed a new master cylinder too. Grrr. Grandpa wasn't really happy, that's for sure, especially because they called him right after he'd had a nap.

So we had that all done and I finally got to pick up the car today. Whew. I was so happy, I pulled Tamara out of bed (she was napping) and took her for a ride! Now I just have to worry about insurance, parking, gas, etc etc etc. Ah the joys of cars. I don't care though. I'm just happy I'm mobile now. And when you're in Canada, you NEED a car to get anywhere in a REASONABLE amount of time.


If anything good came out of this, one thing is for sure. My Grandpa says I've pretty much had a lifetime's worth of experience with my car already. Feels like just about =).

Ok finally to entertain you all, I'm going to let you listen to my composition I referred to in a previous post. This song was written for the purpose of using all the music theory rules of Mozart/Beethoven/Bach era I've learned. The idea was to take a text, preferably from the Bible, and put it to music. I used Judges 19:29. My song ended up with a Monty Python feel to it, but (or thus) it was a hit in my class.

Here it is: Unsung Tale