Vitauts Take 20: The Car… again

As the mercury has fallen, so has dad’s Mercury Grand Marquis. After getting into his accident a few weeks ago, and as we wait patiently for the State Farm insurance people to call, the car has fallen into a state of disuse and perhaps a slow death cycle.

As you may know from other posts, dad loves to drive. His independence is fueled by his daily trips to the drugstore for his scratch tickets and his “occasional” journeys “across the river” to the Council Bluffs casino. However, this week, after a lovely Thanksgiving dinner and a Husker game at his daughter Susan’s house, he tried to start his car, but it wouldn’t go.

I watched and waited as he spent twenty minutes or more trying to start the car. He even tried to get the hood open, but for some reason it is jammed. I have noticed more and more that once he gets an idea in his head, he has a very difficult time shaking it. You might call it an effect of his natural stubbornness combined with his ailing memory. He wants to do something, forgets why he can’t, so then he tries again.

After a few futile attempts at starting the car, he finally, humbly asked me for help. “Ja, maybe you can pull your car out of the garage and you know, I have jumper cables, and maybe you can try to start it.” Then he remembers that the hood is stuck shut. “But first we have to get the hood open. I don’t know what it is stuck on.”

I explain that it’s either ice or, more likely, a problem caused by the accident he was in a few weeks ago.

He went out and tried again, and then came back to ask me for help. I finally asked him, “Where do you need to go? What do you need? Can I give

you a ride somewhere?” At first he said no, but then later, after thinking about it, he said he could use a ride up to the drugstore for his scratch tickets. He said he could walk back.

Unfortunately, I had to take my daughter to the doctor, and run some other errands, so I didn’t have time to give him a ride. When I got home later, I tried to start the car myself. It turned over just fine, so it didn’t need a jump start, but it wouldn’t start at all. I have no idea what the problem is, and I don’t know how him opening the hood would help the situation, but he’s still convinced that if he could just get jumper cables in there, he could start the car.

Finally, I just gave him the keys to Maija’s pickup and let him drive to the store himself, praying that he wouldn’t hit anyone or anything on the way. He came back with a big smile on his face and said, “That little pickup has some power! A lot more power than my car, I mean.” It’s the little things in life.

We still don’t know what’s wrong with the car, but hopefully soon! (Like a good neighbor…)